Re: InfoRecall XP 2005

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 3161

Posted by stephenz
2005-04-25 09:53:29

Admittedly, this upgrade of InfoRecall isn’t sweeping, but two of the modest improvements actually make a big difference in usability for me. The first is the tray icon, with the ability to paste text from the clipboard into a new item. This function is still fairly primitive in IR, especially compared with Zoot or ADM or UR, but the absence of this facility in some programs is fatal. The second improvement is the full editor view. Again, a seemingly simple change, but one that makes a big difference. MyInfo, for instance, doesn’t have this ability (that is, the ability to toggle the editor to the full screen), and that has proven an annoyance for me. Here’s one example of why: I build Excel spreadsheet reports… not overly large ones, but ones that need most of the screen to read. I like to clip these into my PIM for quick reference to the information without opening Excel. In MyInfo, I can’t view the entire report without dragging the screen to a larger size… then dragging it back when I’m done.

I guess the lesson from what I’m saying is that all these programs pretty much do the same thing. What sets them apart, what makes one more usable than the others, is how it facilitates accessing your data. Is it quick and easy, or is it a little more laborious? These small improvements to IR are beginning to tip the scale in its favor with me. I’m still concerned about hidden bugs… there does seem to be a certain carelessness with the way Phantech goes about developing IR… For example, there’s a dialog box that opens allowing you to change the tree icon scheme for any single item. The scheme has one icon for when the item is closed, one for when it is opened, and one for when it is deleted. Well, in this dialog, they have mislabled which icons are for closed and which for open… that is, it is the reverse. Also, there’s no “Okay” button to close this dialog after you’ve made the selection. You have to click the little “X” button in the top right-hand corner to close it. Small things like this do tend to damp one’s confidence in the developer. Still, I haven’t had any fatal error messages pop up, and that’s an improvement over previous versions.

Steve Z.

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