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New Product Alert: Debrief
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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
May 7, 2007 at 06:24 PM
Hello,
I just came across PIM software that I had never heard of before. It is called Debrief and it looks very promising. It comes in three flavors: Basic (free), Standard, and Pro. I’m going to be writing about the Pro version. On the surface it looks much like any three-pane outliner, with a few more buttons. It’s got a folder pane, an item pane and a note pane. Debrief provides several methods for cataloging your information:
By folders (or subject)
By type (contact, note, todo, followup, reference)
By keyword (Debrief builds an index of keywords)
By flag (various flags are available, but I don’t believe you can create your own)
So far, this is powerful, but not unique. Two additional features help make the program special:
One type of information item is the outline, so you can have a note document that features a hierarchical list. This outlining function is certainly not as sophisticated as the better independent outliners, but it is fairly powerful. Each individual item in the outline can have its own note, with its own subject and flag. That is, what you’re doing here is creating independent notes that are associated with items in your outline.
The other feature that seems special and interesting to me is that you can create what they call a card deck. That is, you can select cards from your existing list and organize them how you like, while viewing the results in a new pane which shows the material in a concatenated view.
There are other nice features, too. For example, the program automatically creates a new daily note each new day you start it. You can keep all your notes this way in diary form… view them with the calendar view. Or you can take your notes in the daily note, then organize them (Debrief them, in the program’s parlance) at the end of the day with a handy feature that allows you to create new notes from any material that is highlighted.
I’ve only just downloaded and installed the program, but I’m very impressed so far. There are a few shortcomings, such as no special features for capturing material from other sources other than copy and paste—even drag and drop does not appear to work.
The price is very reasonable. The Pro version is only $40 US. If you want to check it out, here’s the URL
http://debriefnotes.com/products.htm
Steve Z.
Posted by Derek Cornish
May 7, 2007 at 08:47 PM
Steve,
Looks very interesting. Unfortunately the screenshots display very poorly on my notebook, so it’s difficult to get a feel for the program without downloading it (saved from a CRIMP attack :-)).
I often wonder why so many software designers pay so little attention to their screenshots. It seems such a trivial issue. Presumably they are all using ultra-high-definition 22” screens, unlike their potential customers.
Derek
Posted by Tom S.
May 8, 2007 at 12:03 PM
Derek Cornish wrote:
>I often wonder why so many software
>designers pay so little attention to their screenshots. It seems such a trivial
>issue. Presumably they are all using ultra-high-definition 22” screens, unlike
>their potential customers.
I vasilate between thinking that its inattention to detail and thinking that its because they want to force you to download it.
In either case I think its a mistake. If I had to rate the things that influence my decision to download a product and try it, the screenshots come up pretty high on the list. If there are no screenshots to give me an idea of what’s unique about a program or at least to give me a feel for how it operates and how thoughtfully the interface was put together, its very unlikely I will download it.
Tom S.
Posted by Graham Rhind
May 8, 2007 at 12:43 PM
I’m afraid this one didn’t last long on my PC. Apart from numerous spelling errors within the program, and equally numerous error messages, it only showed dates in American format. Very annoying ....
Graham
Posted by Franz Grieser
May 8, 2007 at 12:51 PM
Hi.
>The other feature that seems special and interesting to
>me is that you can create what they call a card deck. That is, you can select cards from
>your existing list and organize them how you like, while viewing the results in a new
>pane which shows the material in a concatenated view.
In particular, the card deck view made me curious.
However, there was no screenshot on the website displaying that feature. Moreover, the screenshots are absolutely useless.
So, I downloaded the tool and tried to install it. That failed. Tried again, failed again.
Downloaded the tool again - same result.
Then I tried my notebook on which I run an English version of Windows XP (on my working machine I have the German version) - here, everything went right.
Nevertheless, I uninstalled Defrief after a quick look: The interface is much too busy. Too many buttons. I wouldn’t want to spend part of my day in such a software.
Franz