The notes module in Outlook is, in my opinion, its weakest link. If you're a heavy note taker like me, you've probably adopted a better tool - like OneNote - because of the limitations in Outlook's notes. I've ben using a product called NoteLens recently that addresses the most glaring isssues I have with Outlook notes and it is a great solution for anyone who needs to be able to quickly capture a thought and, more importantly, find it again later.

NoteLens is a very focused application. It doesn't try to do too much. Rather, it focuses entirely on speed and accessibility. Creating a new note requires a single keystroke. Notes can be assigned one or more categories (which sync with Outlook) to make filtering a large collection of notes a one click proposition. And NoteLens offers blazing search speed.



You can synchronize your Notes with Outlook easily and NoteLens can also import your Outlook Contacts and even e-mail (although, if you have a massive Outlook store like me I do not recommend this). More useful is NoteLens's ability to add and index any text file on your system. You can make a note a "Favorite" with a press of the space bar and have a current notes view to which you can add and delete your active notes easily.

NoteLens is inexpensive ($20.00) and a perfect solution for those of you who need something better than what Outlook provides but don't want the complexity (and cost) of a separate application with a lot of bells and whistles. It does what it's been designed to do well.

A two week trial is available. NoteLens requires the .Net Framework.