Maybe twice a year, I take another look at WhizFolders Organizer pro. While Ultra Recall and Idea! would be my top choices for a professional pim, they aren't optimal writing/reorganizing environments.Multiple floating windows AND tabbed windows seem one key feature for writing, and only two tree-based pims provide them: InfoRecall and WhizFolders. InfoRecall does it best, with its managed workspace, but InfoRecall lacks another feature that seems even more basic than windows: the ability to reorder notes arbitrarily.

Of the tree-based pims, WhizFolders seems to have given the most serious thought to the requirements for writing. The full use of editing commands, for example, is available in the text editor, such as triple click and double click drag. WhizFolders, though, lacks any undo functionality in its tree, which I consider a fairly significant failing, even though I'm aware of only a single tree based pim that has it, Ultra Recall. (Also Microsoft OneNote, if you expand the definition a bit.)

So I thought I would ask the developer of WhizFolders about the absence. The exchange was informative concerning what deters developers from providing this functionality. In essence, it's just hard to do:

>2. It seems to me that in a notetaking program, where your work is
>tentative, there's a particular need for the undo/redo command. >
But it seems there is no undo that applies to the tree; undo is >
found only in the main editor. Even in the editor, there's no redo.
>Do you plan to expand the scope of 'undo,' or can you justify the
>limitations?

Editor's Redo was removed for some technical reasons. It will be
put in after some testing. Undo on the tree is very difficult to
implement because the application has to keep track of the note
names as well as the note data which can be very huge.

Well, at least he's forthright. Maybe undo in the tree is more than one can reasonably expect of a pim at this intermediate price. At least he doesn't play games, like the ADM developer who said he agreed with me completely a year ago when I said that unlimited undo in the tree was essential and foundational and would be implemented as soon as possible, giving no indication that this was a _difficult_ programming task, and that, because of the difficulty, it would probably never see light in ADM.

However there's also good news in the undo department. A single question about the status of undo prompted the developer to issue a new beta which includes multiple undo AND redo in the tree. The editor previously had multiple undo, but no redo, and it now has both too. At least someone isn't shying away from the harder programming tasks. Ndx cards now has a quite competent outliner, with multiple selection of topics, its own variant of cloning.

Stephen R. Diamond

However there's also good news in the undo department. A single question about the status of undo prompted the developer to issue a new beta which includes multiple undo AND redo in the tree.

Are you still refering to WhizFolders?

Perhaps the actual technical difficulties are less than initially estimated, for other tree-based PIMs as well.

alx

First comment: Stephen, aren't you the one who judges a program by its name? Is there a worse name than Whizfolders? ;)

Second comment: I wish I could warm up to this program. It is genuinely unique, and, as you point out, provides what should be an effective writing environment for the reasons you state. My problem with Whizfolders is that it always feels combersome to use. You can't edit a document unless you click one of two buttons, each of which executes in a different way. Windows open all over the place, and keeping them in line is distracting. The toolbar buttons for closing windows are not visually descriptive of what they do, and it is easy to click the one that exits the program altogether.

In short, Whizfolders interface is too distracting to be the writing environment I'd hope for. As with many programs, I am sure that continued use over some period would help me feel more comfortable, but I haven't been moved to do so. Stephen, what's your opinion of this (or anyone else with experience with Whizfolders)?

Steve Z.