1. What is FAD?
2. What will FAD Detect?
3. How do I customize what FAD will detect?
4. Why was FAD created?
5. What kind of data will FAD collect?
6. How will this data be collected?
7. If I have FAD installed on two machines and I make customizations on one machine will they follow me to the other machine?
8. Does FAD support languages other than English?
9. It's similar to X, is it an attempt to compete with X?
10. How can users give feedback?
1. What is FAD?
The Forgotten Attachment Detector (FAD) is an afterhours project by Bhavesh Chauhan.
FAD is a little add-in that checks your email before you send it to see if you've forgotten to “attach an attachment”. It uses a small set of customizable keywords to do its detection. If it detects that you may have forgotten to “attach an attachment” it pops up a dialog that lets you fix your mistake before the mail goes out.
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2. What will FAD detect?
Like other Forgotten Attachment Detectors, FAD uses the presence of certain keywords such as "have attached" and "find attached" to determine if a mail is likely to include an attachment. To improve its accuracy FAD also uses a set of secondary keyword pairs. These are words that have a lower likelihood of indicating a mail is likely to include an attachment except when they appear together. For example: Finding just the word "attached" in a mail isn't a reliable indicator that a mail is likely to include an attachment. You might just be talking about your "attached garage" (it's unlikely you're actually going to try to attach a garage to an email now isn't it?) However, if the word "attached" appears in the same sentence as the word "file" (as in "I've attached the related file"), then we think there is a pretty good likelihood that the mail could include an attachment.
Bottom line: Will FAD catch everything? No. Will FAD sometimes ask you if you are missing an attachment when you're not? Almost certainly. Can you trick FAD into getting something wrong? Definitely (and if that's fun for you, well, be our guest)
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3. How do I customize what FAD will detect?
Click the "FAD" button on the main Outlook toolbar to open the FAD dialog. The dialog allows you to add, edit, or delete the keywords which will trigger a notification from FAD..
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4. Why was FAD created?
The creator of FAD, Bhavesh Chauhan, describes the story this way:
I have always loved writing code, so I've always done development in my spare time. One evening last September, I decided I wanted to try out Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO). The month before, I had received several emails missing their attachments, so I decided to develop FAD using VSTO. That was a minimalistic version (1.0) which I published to Toolbox, our internal Microsoft tools sharing site. Quickly, several people downloaded it and forwarded it to their friends. This inspired me to develop the project further and test its usefulness with more users.
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5. What kind of data will FAD collect?
We are interested in the accuracy of FAD and how useful you find this tool.
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6. How will this data be collected?
When FAD thinks your mail is missing an attachment, it will ask you to confirm if you want to send the mail without an attachment. If you say "yes, send the mail," we will assume that FAD was wrong about your intention to attach something. If you say "no, don't send the mail," we will assume that FAD was correct in thinking that you intended to attach something. FAD reports back to Microsoft the number of correct and incorrect detections and which keyword(s) triggered the catch. After a lot of usage, we'll have a rough count of how accurate FAD is, which keywords trigger the most correct detections, and which keywords lead to the most incorrect detections. Over time, this will allow us to remove the keywords that generate too many "incorrect detections." We're also curious about the keywords you add, edit, or, delete. If we see a lot of people adding or removing a keyword, we may change our default list of keywords to better reflect what people find most useful. Lastly, we know numbers aren't everything. Perhaps FAD is so helpful when it does catch a missed attachment that you don't mind that it occasionally gets things wrong. This would be the case where FAD is inaccurate, but you still like it. To catch this we'll also be surveying people who use FAD. So, if you get a survey, please share your feedback with us.
Link to our: Privacy Statement
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7. If I have FAD installed on two machines and I make customizations on one machine will they follow me to the other machine?
Customization will roam to your other machine(s) if you are using Outlook with Exchange.
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8. Does FAD support languages other than English?
Sorry, not at this time.
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9. It's Similar to X, is it an attempt to compete with X?
The web is swimming with add-ins like FAD for almost every mail client available, including a free Outlook macro and a recent Gmail Labs feature. FAD isn't an attempt to compete with any of them. This side project attempts to collect data on how accurate and useful it is for users.
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10. How can users give feedback?
Use the prototype, fill out any surveys you receive, and post comments in the discussions forum. Paper airplanes and tomatoes aren't recommended.
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