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Zoot???
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Posted by Cassius
Jan 23, 2013 at 01:42 AM
Is anyone currently, ACTIVELY using Zoot XT 6?
I purchased Zoot 3 or 4 many years ago, but found it too limiting. I was going to purchase XT, but it seemed that it was going to take infinitely long to get out of beta and for a decent user manual to be created. I forgot about it until Steve Z mentioned it.
Of course, now that I am retired, a may have no real use for it and there is the question of whether it Works in Win 7 and Win 8. Currently I run XP (don’t want to give up apps that won’t run on later versions) but eventually I’ll have to get a new laptop/tablet/whatever and I can foresee Zoot XT7 (for Win 8…) taking longer to become viable than I will be.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jan 23, 2013 at 12:41 PM
Cassius,
I do use Zoot XT, not extensively as yet, but I have a lot of legacy data in the app, since it was my go to info manager for many years. It runs just fine on Windows 7, but I can’t comment about Windows 8. I’m sure a note dropped to Tom Davis would get an answer.
It’s hard to say whether development is slow or fast. I do know that Tom releases an update almost every week, if not more frequently. Consequently, there is still no help manual, but Tom has said he is working on it and anticipates getting it out soon—soon to Tom, however, isn’t necessarily the same as soon to us.
The lack of help manual is a problem, as there are new features and new ways of doing things that I have yet to figure out—hence my reluctance to make it my current go to info manager. Nevertheless, it is an improvement in most ways over previous versions in the following ways:
1. The limitation on note size is gone.
2. The limitation on folder number per database is gone.
3. Zoot now handles formatted text, although I find how this works somewhat awkward, whether due to the design or just my mis-understanding of how it works, I’m unsure.
4. Zoot now interacts with the “cloud.” I haven’t used this feature, so can’t comment.
5. Zoot now has an optional data pane similar to Ultra Recall—again, haven’t really used this feature.
6. You can view data fields in the note pane and not just in the grid.
7. Tom has given Zoot more focus on various types of notes. That is, when you create a new note, you are asked if it should be a contact, todo item, web page, journal page, or one of several other types of information. The new note will have different attributes depending on the type chosen. I’m not sure if this is an improvement or an impediment.
I’m sure there are a ton of other new features, but I haven’t explored them.
Zoot still has many of the advantages that made it a unique and useful application. These include the following:
- Quick access to multiple databases.
- Fast search of current database or all databases in current project (a project in Zoot is a collection of databases).
- Really easy meta-data field creation.
- Easy info capture (although I think Zoot has fallen behind apps like Evernote in this area).
- Stability. I don’t believe I’ve ever lost data in Zoot in a dozen years of use.
Hope that is helpful.
Steve Z.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jan 23, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Oh, yes, and Zoot also has its most famous feature: smart folders with actions. Can’t forget that!
SZ
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jan 23, 2013 at 02:03 PM
Coincidentally, Tom Davis just sent a note to the Zoot forum in response to a question about documentation addressing the issue:
[begin quote]
Sorry for the long wait. I’m just tying up loose ends and making some final interface changes before setting in full time on documentation. You may have noticed the numerous icon changes and other interface changes in recent versions. I need to finalize these interface elements before doing screenshots and videos.
I’m afraid I bit off more than I could chew with this XT version of Zoot. Most software of this scope would have a team of programmers behind it. I didn’t realize just how much work it would be. I’m glad to have it done, but it was pure hell getting here.
No one wants this done more than I do. I haven’t even been able to promote Zoot. I suspect there are a good many speech recognition users out there who would like a speech enabled PIM, but I haven’t mentioned it anywhere, as I wouldn’t want them to download the program without documentation and training tools.
We’re almost there!
[end quote]
Steve Z.
Posted by jimspoon
Jan 23, 2013 at 06:43 PM
Steve, thanks very much for this info about Zoot. Makes me want to try it out again. particularly intrigued by the cloud-enabling and incorporation of speech recognition - want to see how that works.