The projects my team manages become more and more complex administration wise, but in most cases Excel seems to be the only tool available.

For my part I usually start with a mind map (usually MindView because its numerical tools are quite advanced) and export to Excel after the structure has been finalised.

Dominik mentioned Quantrix Modeler (http://www.quantrix.com/ and KNIME (http://www.knime.org/ here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/messages/viewm/10198 which got me interested. I was wondering what other similar tools might be available supporting planning, management and reporting, ideally in an integrated way.

I should add that structure is important, i.e. breaking down quantitative information from projects to tasks, linking separate entities between them (I don't want to say sheets, because a different paradigm may be used) etc.

I am sure you are aware of B-Liner, but I'll put it out there anyway, just for old time's sake:

http://www.bliner.com/

Steve Z.

InfoQube is particularly well suited to manage structured information with large quantities of numbers. Its many display modes (hierarchy, flat), VBScript user code and extended filtering ability make this easy. Plus it is natively multi-user.

Pierre
IQ Designer

Pierre, it's been a while :-)

I have a pre-license to InfoQube and for me it remains one of the strong hopes for the future, even though I never quite spent the time to put it into real use; I remember I had practically announced I would here, but day-to-day works makes it difficult to integrate new tools into my workflow --kind of a Catch 22 situation I guess.

My increased numerical needs provide a renewed incentive and I intend to try it further. I have one question: I've heard numerous times from IQ users that it's as stable as it gets, but I am still timid to use v0.x software in a professional environment. Can you say a couple of words about the upcoming development and expected official launch?

Thanks
Alexander

I own a beta license for IQ as well, but haven't trusted the software with any "real" work. I'm still waiting to see if it will ever handle attachments (Office docs, PDFs, image files) as a field type. Adding them into the HTML wysiwyg editor just doesn't work for me, especially after having worked with MyInfo, MyNotesKeeper, and UR. I'd love to see IQ have the option to provide both linked and embedded (compressed) attachments as a field type -- maybe then I'd consider it competitive to the aforementioned.

Just my thoughts,
Glen

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Pierre, it's been a while :-)

Yes, I try to restrain my presence to the IQ forum.

I have a pre-license to InfoQube and for me it remains
one of the strong hopes for the future, even though I never quite spent the time to put it
into real use; I remember I had practically announced I would here, but day-to-day
works makes it difficult to integrate new tools into my workflow --kind of a Catch 22
situation I guess.

You're not the only one in this situation !

My increased numerical needs provide a renewed incentive and I
intend to try it further. I have one question: I've heard numerous times from IQ users
that it's as stable as it gets, but I am still timid to use v0.x software in a
professional environment. Can you say a couple of words about the upcoming
development and expected official launch?

It really is as stable as it gets, at least as far as your data is concerned. Being JET based, every change is saved immediately, so even if the app does crash, occasionally, your data is safe. In the 4 years that IQ has been available on the Net (yup, that's a hell of a long time to be in beta, I know...), there has been 2 or 3 reports of data loss, and the causes have been fixed (all linked to advanced features, not normally used by users)

That said, the current effort is towards mobile device sync. We've got working prototype synching calendar, tasks and contacts with the corresponding Google services, as a bridge to your mobile devices.

There is still a lot of changes I'd like to do, but v1.0 release is likely once this sync effort is complete.

HTH !

Pierre
IQ Designer

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

We've got working prototype synching calendar, tasks
and contacts with the corresponding Google services, as a bridge to your mobile
devices.

You got my attention :-)

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

I am sure you are aware of B-Liner, but I'll put it out there anyway, just for old time's
sake:

B-liner was indeed the first tool I tried in this regard (and, in true CRIMP tradition, registered) several years ago. At its time it was great, and helped me plan and present some projects in significantly reduced time. Nowadays its features have been surpassed by some mindmapping programs. As far as I know, it hasn't been developed since quite a long time. The website makes no mention of Windows 7, only of Windows XP compatibility in the latest builds...

A few years ago I asked if B Liner was still being developed, and got no answer.

Again I have downloaded it - it looks like it was last revised about 6 or 7 years ago. Unfortunately, it gives me the kind of layout I want to graphically represent a specific project.

I wonder a) if anyone knows whether B Liner will develop further, or if it is an abandoned program,

and

b) which mind mapping or other program could most closely approximate the horizontal depiction of date B Liner provides.

Thanks.

Daly

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>I am sure you are aware of B-Liner, but I'll put it out there
anyway, just for old time's
>sake:

B-liner was indeed the first tool I tried in this
regard (and, in true CRIMP tradition, registered) several years ago. At its time it
was great, and helped me plan and present some projects in significantly reduced
time. Nowadays its features have been surpassed by some mindmapping programs. As far
as I know, it hasn't been developed since quite a long time. The website makes no
mention of Windows 7, only of Windows XP compatibility in the latest builds...

Daly de Gagne wrote:

b) which mind mapping or other program could
most closely approximate the horizontal depiction of date B Liner
provides.

Most modern mindmapping programs should be able to render the map in a similar fashion, but my first choice for this would be the humble, free but very powerful TreeSheets. Try Edit \ Layout Render Style \ Horizontal Layout with Line Style Rendering (Alt-6)

IMHO, the disadvantage of Treesheets in this regard is the way it expands/collapses the hierarchies. However, I find its use of screen real estate much more efficient than any mind mapper and always maintain my diagrams fully expanded.