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.

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.

Oh, yes, and Zoot also has its most famous feature: smart folders with actions. Can't forget that!

SZ

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.

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.

I've been an on and off Zoot user for more than a decade who's been using the latest version intensively for about a month. I love Zoot for the ease you can dump info into it and slosh it around. No other information tool is as flexible, in my experience.

Here's my take on a few issues raised by Steve:

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.

If your're editing an html or a web archive page you have to switch to an edit mode, which is awkward but not surprising. Editing rich text, at least for simple things like bold or highlighting, is no different than any other editor. You don't have to switch to edit mode if it's just rtf.

Zoot now interacts with the “cloud.” I haven’t used this feature, so can’t comment.

You can send info from Zoot to Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, Google Docs, Readability, Instapaper, etc. I don't use this a lot but it generally works fine though in a few instances paragraph formatting is lost or there are other bugs (which Tom always fixes immediately if brought to his attention). I'm also using it as an RSS reader and it's working well so far.

Zoot now has an optional data pane similar to Ultra Recall—again, haven’t really used this feature.

I like that you can now attach a comment to an item rather than your notes having to be part of the item itself.

Easy info capture (although I think Zoot has fallen behind apps like Evernote in this area).

You can dump info into Zoot with a single keystroke or mouse click. I don't know how it could be any easier. Or you can choose to edit, tag or categorize the info first. I don't generally like to capture whole Web pages, though it does that with good fidelity. I don't know how it compares with similar programs.

You can now link directly to a Zoot item with a URL or shortcut, which makes it handier to use it with other programs like OneNote.

- Stability. I don’t believe I’ve ever lost data in Zoot in a dozen years of use.

Nor have I, though there are little annoying bugs that crop up frequently still. Tom has fixed the ones that bothered me so it's working well for my needs now. It's much more solid than it was a few years ago and I think he's improved the look and feel (I don't like the default dark theme but you can choose your own theme and customize it further; I prefer "Frost")

Does anyone know which, if any, PIM file types can be directly imported into Zoot (with only a click or two)?

You can import text files, image files, html files, Word/rtf docs, CSV files or you can specify your own delimiter on import. You can also import bookmarks.

I am glad Zoot XT came up again, because I am very close to converting to it from Ultra Recall. It appears to be extremely powerful and customizable, albeit with a learning curve. My needs include sorting and cross-referencing many items from work and personal (ie. email, documents/PDFs, code, scans, journal entries, contacts, webpages), and to have this be useful as a searchable information repository and task based project management center. I haven't found any item type that doesn't need to be linked to another, although I could have separate work and personal databases if needed.

The main reason for me to switch from UR and Outlook is that email is not practical to sync and categorize in UR in large volumes. It can be done, but there is always sync time (which grows as your email folders grow, to unusable times), and a bit of extra work to clone email to other areas. In short, it is not as streamlined as I would like.

I have always thought that a "complete" solution such as Zoot XT or InfoQube should be considered, but the learning curve would add time - and I have already spend considerable time and effort with UR. I also considered MyInfo, Mybase, TreeProjects, Rightnote, among others.

While Zoot XT has no calendar, syncing to Outlook allows it to be visualized, and the excellent Vueminder calendar is also an option.

There are too many features of Zoot XT to praise, but the main trump card is having an integrated mail client. Being able to tag mail with category, context, etc. and process it immediately is quite important. I haven't adapted my daily methods to Zoot yet, but plan to set aside a day or two to make a full conversion.

Lastly, is seems that Tom Davis (the author) is now devoted full time to making a full help file and video tutorials, so users can expect more information about how to use some of its more esoteric features soon!

Best, /Pavi

Pavi wrote:

There are too many features of Zoot XT to praise, but the main trump
card is having an integrated mail client. Being able to tag mail with
category, context, etc. and process it immediately is quite important. I
haven't adapted my daily methods to Zoot yet, but plan to set aside a
day or two to make a full conversion.

I for one would be very interested in hearing more about the results of your efforts. I am not happy with any of the IMAP clients I have tried with Google Apps (the premium version of Google Mail), and with about 12 Gigs of mail I need to find a solution sooner rather than later.

With that much e-mail, Alexander, you really ought to download and use MailStore to archive your GMail (the free 'Home' version is very powerful, and has sensational search abilities). That way, if Google suddenly decide to nuke GoogleMail - or start charging for it - you'll have all 12GB offline on your own system. I should add that MailStore allows you to export archived e-mails in standard .eml format if you wish - there's no lock-in.

Thanks, I will check it out!