After a little while spent with You Perform, You Software's substantially repackaging of the Sperry Software Outlook add-in collection, it's become apparent that there's a lot of typing ahead. There's also a lot of goodness waiting for you.

Because there's a lot in this package, let me sum it up for you before we dive into the details. There are three key elements you need to know:

• There are fifteen powerful Outlook add-ins included in the product;
• A new, comprehensive user interface has been built to manage them all, and
• The whole package is $49.95, which is way less expensive than what it would have cost to buy the collection originally.

Normally, I wrap up a review with the subjective analysis, but this time I'm going to start there. For $49.95, this package is a no-brainer. It's got a ton of resources for a very low price. As I recall, Sperry originally packaged each add-in for about the same price, so you're getting something like $300 worth of tools for the less than $50 price. [We originally published this article stating the price as $39.95, 'cause we weren't paying enough attention. The actual price is $49.95 and still very worth it. -- DG]

The next part of the subjective analysis is that the tools all work nicely. Although I haven't run them over a period of months, I've had no problems with installation and operation. That's nice to know.

And, finally, the revised user interface (UI) is very "purty." This is probably due to You Software's Macintosh heritage. You Perform is their first PC product. Although I'm very much a PC guy (I did the "switch" from Macs about six years ago), one thing you can't deny is that Mac developers build much cleaner and internally consistent user interfaces, compared to many of the PC developers. In this application, it shows.

So far, it doesn't look like the Mac influence has extended terribly far beyond the UI. There've been no inspections to see if I'm wearing all the latest fashions, nor has there been any noticeable requirement that all my computing gear turn white. And, amazingly, for a company coming from the Mac world, no one has expressed the normal Mac-centric look down the nose we PC folks are so used to getting from the loyal opposition.

These guys may have come from the Mac world, but they seem to genuinely want to embrace our grittier PC ways. Where better to learn PC-gritty than Outlook and Exchange, eh?