Sender’s Time Zone for outlook: the perfect way to know when to reply
I’m sure we’ve all done it: opened up an e-mail received hours earlier in the day, dashed off a reply, then been frustrated when we realised that it’s three in the morning for our recipient. it can be annoying, especially if you’re expecting a rapid response. maybe it doesn’t bother you so much most of the time; if not, it’s still handy to know what the time is wherever the reader of your message happens to be, if only so you can greet them appropriately. Whenever mailing folk around the world, I feel it only polite to adapt to them, in currency, units of measurement and, of course, in time.
This said, I was recently made aware of a brilliant little Plugin for microsoft Outlook,, created by Add-In Express. it is called “Sender’s time zone for Outlook” and, if you scroll about halfway down their home page at time of writing, you’ll find a link to it. like many plugins for Outlook, installation is a very simple process.
The plugin works by adding a small panel to each open message in Outlook, showing you three things: The current time of your recipient, the difference in time between you and them, and how long ago the message was sent.
To show an example, let us pick a message from my inbox - a notification from this site that I have a comment awaiting moderation. if I open it up and hit alt+2, as standard, i hear JAWS tell me it was sent today, at 7:04 PM. technically, that’s true - it was sent at 7:04 PM my time. If this comment needed a reply and the person writing it were in the UK as I am, i’d know it was evening and if I had anything important to say I’d be out of office hours and so less likely to get a reply in a hurry.
if I glance over at the additional information from the plugin, though, I see: “Sender Time Zone Sender’s current time: 12:49 (you are 8 hours ahead) Sent: 1 hour, 45 minutes ago.” Now, I know that although it’s evening here, it’s almost 1:00 PM in whichever part of the world in which my commenter lives. Should he have left a phone number, it’d be quite safe to call.
I’m not simply writing this for the sake of plugging good software (although I would do that if I felt the need), but because as a JAWS user, using the JAWS cursor to read this information is a little cumbersome. To anyone sighted it’s quickly visible, so I decided to write a JAWS script to even the odds.
Now, from an open message, I tapp the grauv accent key: if I tap it once, I hear the current time of my sender (in our example I’d simply hear “12:49″). That’s the most important information, and so it’s displayed first by the plugin and spoken with a single press. A second tap of the key would tell me “you ar 8 hours ahead”, or similar - and a third and final press would tell me how long ago the message was sent, our example showing “1 hour, 45 minutes ago”.
It’s unfortunate that it’s not as easy to install a plugin or script for JAWS as it is for Outlook. I have provided instructions within the file for you to follow, of course - please keep in mind that you’re all guinea pigs as I’ve only used this on myself.
Please also note that I’ve only been able to test with Outlook 2003. The plugin works with later and earlier versions, but how the JAWS scripts will cope is as yet unknown. If you are careful no harm should occur: as ever, back-up before `you start.
My advice would be to try out the Plugin without the JAWS scripts first and, if you find it useful, get the scripts to make your use of it more expedient. I find myself forgetting it’s even installed until I come to reply to a message I know to be from someone overseas, and then it’s so easy to check their time that I wonder how I failed to miss this feature before.
Once again, the PlugIn is made by #Add-In Express, And it is called “Sender’s time zone for Outlook”. The JAWS scripts, which are quite complex to install for which I apologise, can be downloaded by clicking JAWS scripts for sender’s time zone for outlook (38)
Do feedback here as to how you find it, for although it’s not my plugin, it’s undeniably one of the most useful things imaginable..