ClearContext is an add-in for Outlook that does some interesting magic on your Inbox to help organize, color-code, and structure your incoming mail. A new release adds some excellent new capabilities to the tool and is available now. Here are the major additions:

• A File Thread button has been added that will file all messages in the inbox with the same subject.

• AutoAssign now allows multiple parameters in the rules (i.e. more than one sender).

• An AutoDetect function has been added to notify users when an updated executable is available.

• Additional fields are available to take advantage of native Outlook grouping functionality.

• Keyboard shortcuts to toolbar functions have been added.

• A topic overwrite flag has been added to AutoAssign.

What's really noteworthy about this release it that it responds directly to the feedback the developers received from users. Each new feature adds to the usability of the product. It's a virtuous cycle we espouse at my company and I'm always delighted when I see other companies work this way. Of course, not every request makes sense - but listening to your customers and understanding the problems they are trying to solve with your software is a guaranteed path to producing better software.

ClearContext also has a terrific blog that provides some insights into how the company works. There are a number of posts that provide feedback from the survey on e-mail usage I pointed to some time ago and tips about customizing the software to better meet your needs. The company recently offered early access to the new 1.1 release to its blog readers in advance of the public release on their main site. What I find most interesting is the response they've recently posted to a review of their software by Jason Clarke. Jason is a regular read for me and he gave ClearContext a thorough workout before ultimately deciding it wasn't the right tool for him.

The ClearContext bloggers replied, pointing out a fix using their customized views (a number of pre-built views can be downloaded from the company's web site). It's great to see this kind of immediate conversation develop between a blogger and a developer. Kudos to both.