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XLNotes EXCEL Add-in
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Posted by basilides
Apr 11, 2012 at 11:58 AM
I use MS EXCEL for a variety of purposes, even outlining, so I was pleased to hear that recently the XLNotes MS EXCEL add-in has been upgraded (to 8.0). The website is: http://xlnotes.com/. The add-in works quite well (the notes open in MS Word), and it’s free for personal use. I would be interested in hearing from anyone else on this forum who has downloaded and tested this program.
Posted by Slartibartfarst
Apr 12, 2012 at 11:10 PM
I am skeptical of this.
The downloaded ZIP file contains an .msi file of version 8.0 XLnotes (an Excel add-in). It does not install. It abends with the consistently repeatable error:
________________________
XLnotes 8.0
Error 1001. The type initializer for
Microsolt.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Runtime.Security.UserlnclusionList? threw an exception.—> Could not load file or assembly
?Microsoft.VisualStudio.ToolsApplications.Hosting.v9.0, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral…
________________________
Given the ambiguosity in that:
* If XLnotes was as good as the website claims, it could have the potential to transform the PIM market, yet nowhere can I find a pukka review of XLnotes, though it has apparently been going since 2009, at least.
* the .msi install fails (necessitating that you contact the authors by email if you want to get it “fixed”). Installs do not normally fail by chance, as they would have been tested as being stable under most common OS configurations, prior to release.
* Earlier versions of this “free” add-on were apparently a trial version and only allowed a max of 15 notes to be created/inserted in Excel.
* The website at http://xlnotes.com/ is in Russia.
* The website at http://xlnotes.com/ says:
** If you use XLnotes at home, you can use the free and unrestricted unregistered version.
** If you use XLnotes in an organization, you should purchase user licenses within the evaluation period of 30 days.
** To register your copy of XLnotes, please purchase a license key. XLnotes user licenses are $44.95 or less depending on volume discounts - and offers credit card purchase.
- then I would recommend caution - e.g., hold onto your credit card details (risk of potential ID scam).
Posted by Slartibartfarst
Apr 13, 2012 at 12:10 AM
(Apologies for the spelling errors in my earlier post.)
FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
I have also posted about XLnotes and CRIMP here (and asked if any of the forum members have any ideas on XLnotes):
“PIMs and CRIMP (Compulsive Reactive Information Manager Purchasing)”
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30646.msg285190#msg285190
Posted by Jack Crawford
Apr 13, 2012 at 07:50 AM
I have used XLnotes 7 quite extensively but will not be upgrading to the latest version.
[The positives]
- The concept seems very strong. So many people use Excel for non-numerical use that I am surpirised that there are not more add-ons like this around.
- The UI and feature set is appealing (at least to me). A glance at the website shows lots of beautiful looking potential uses for the software.
[The negative}
- It is not stable (at least the version I used). I was using XLnotes in a very large spreadsheet database (8000 rows). I found to my horror that earlier notes I had created based on particular templates were randomly disappearing or were being replaced by later notes. It doesn’t matter to me whether this was caused by database corruption issues, programming glitches or user error. I lost a lot of work and dropped XLnotes like a hot potato.
For apps like this to be useful they must be 100% reliable.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Apr 13, 2012 at 03:27 PM
Jack Crawford wrote:
>For apps like this to be useful they must be 100%
>reliable.
Couldn’t agree more.