I have tried a lot of information managers over the last year, but none of them seemed to do what I want, and I essentially gave up, going back to use flat text files. Now I discovered Ultra Recall, and after playing with it for a while, it seems to be really great. However, after reading the archives of this forum for a bit, I wonder if maybe there is another program that would suit my needs as well, that I have dismissed too early.

Here are the things I like a lot about Ultra Recall:
- Hierarchical data with possibility of multiple parents
- Being able to link and embed external documents (Word, PDF) that are indexed, and thus searchable like my own notes.
- Item Attributes with type, so that I can search for all camera's with a price below $300
- Extensive search capabilities, so that I can search for all camera's that have either a price below $300 or (more than 5 megapixel and at least 3x digital zoom)
- Templates for all subitems

Here are a couple of things I would like to see:
- PDA synchronization. Not for everything, of course, but I would at least like to synchronize contacts and tasks.
- Better handling of files that are renamed or moved on disk (no idea how, but I saw this mentioned in the UR forum, and thought it made sense)
- Better export capabilities. I do not want to be locked in to a proprietary database format. The current export is useful, but too limited. I asked a question about this on the forum, since if Kinook is not planning to improve this, I will stop using the program.
- Better outlining capabilities. I do not need anything fancy, just bulletted/numbered lists etc.

If any of you power users sees my needs and thinks of a program that would suit me as much as or even better than Ultra Recall, I would appreciate hearing it.

Regards, Lena.

Lena,

I'm not a power user, but I'll venture an opinion. I think UR is probably your best choice based upon what you've described are your needs. We are all looking for the perfect info manager, and I don't think anyone has found it yet. A couple of choices to look at if you haven't:

MyInfo 3.0 (www.milenix.com) - has more text formatting options, including bulleting and numbering; does a nice job with meta-date; doesn't have the indexed searching that UR has.

InfoSelect (www.miclog.com) - has PDA version you can sync to; has crude outlining within notes; has snappy indexed searches; requires a $50 a year subscription. (Note: I'm transfering my information from IS to UR because I don't like the company's policies, and it is a quirky program in many ways. But it does have many loyal users and the company has been around for a long time.)

I'm sure others on this list will offer other suggestions. But ultimately, I think UR is your best choice.

Steve Z.

Lena,

Just a few remarks on the additional features you are looking for:

[PDA synchronization. Not for everything, of course, but I would at least like to synchronize contacts and tasks]

Another option would be exporting info to a format viewable in your PDA; HTML would be the ideal and MyInfo can do it; also MyBase and others. Your data would be read-only in your PDA and you'd have to edit it on your PC, which is not necessarily a bad thing. That's the logic also behind Word and Excel viewers for PDAs.

[Better handling of files that are renamed or moved on disk]

I have only seen Document Management Systems do this; but, they enforce you to do all file operations --i.e. moving, renaming, deleting- through them, which can be a nuisance.

[Better export capabilities. I do not want to be locked in to a proprietary database format. The current export is useful, but too limited]

I think most information managers suffer in this area, as each developer holds their own views about what constitutes "information" itself. Most will export only the text data as separate RTF files. The fact that UltraRecall also exports attributes (metadata - data about your data/information) is actually rather unique.

In addition, UR's export capability is recursive, i.e. it can automatically export item children which can be a great time saver. Mybase also does something similar. Again, MyInfo 3, which reportedly has an open export architecture, could be another good choice.

alx

Thanks for your replies!
I took the plunge, and bought Ultra Recall. I really like it so far. I appreciate your comments, I would have hated it if I had bought the program only to find out a little later that something else would have been better for me.

I also like the idea of using a HTML export on my PDA, that is workable enough indeed. I hope the developers will add something like that soon.

Best regards, Lena.