Forum Posts Feed
Email + PIM - Is There A Decent One Out There?
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Bob Mackreth
Dec 5, 2007 at 11:30 PM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>Bob,
>
>I most definitely suggest that you give Outlook a try, and this comes from
>someone who only uses Outlook as a calendar (The Bat! is my e-mail client of choice
>since development of my beloved Calypso/Courier stopped, leaving them unable to
>handle Unicode). The main reason is its virtually unlimited expandability.
Thanks Alex. I have to admit I’m biased against Outlook after so many years of hearing how bloated and vulnerable it is. I actually did use Outlook 97 for a few months, way back when, then switched back to Eudora. I recently purchased a copy of Outlook 2003 for a few buck on eBay, and have toyed with a little.
>There are many competent task managers that work with Outlook, such
>as Franklin-Covey’s Planner (that admittedly doesn’t come cheap) which should do
>what you want. Others have been mentioned in this forum in the past. I’m sure there are
>similar add-ons for notes.
The idea of looking for add-ons to expand Outlook’s usefulness sounds promising. The Franklin-Covey Planner looks very useful at first glimpse, and the price is not all that bad, considering how much use one gets out of this type of program.
However, the Amazon consumer reviews on the F-C Planner for Outlook are about as negative as I’ve ever seen- one horror story after another about bugs, crashes, and lousy tech support. they do offer a trial, and I’d be willing to give it a fair shot, but it’s been about 6 hours since I e-mailed in my request, and they still have not replied with the download link as promised.
Hmmmm….
Thanks again!
Posted by Hugh Pile
Dec 6, 2007 at 03:33 PM
I agree with the suggestion to use Outlook as a basis. Big and bloated though it is, Outlook successfully conceals a lot of function in the bloat. I also agree it’s biggest lack is a task outliner. (Did I read here that only two or three per cent of users actually use its task function, according to MS itself? Perhaps that’s because it remains so poor.) I’ve never used F-C, having noted the weak testimonials, but MyLife Organized (for a working-day filled with lots of short tasks), and Achieve Planner (for longer tasks) both integrate integrate with Outlook 2003 (don’t know about 2007) reasonably harmoniously.
Posted by Hugh Pile
Dec 6, 2007 at 05:22 PM
And for notes, you could always use PocketThinker Desktop (which again uses Outlook as a hub, but allows outlining of notes): http://www.pocketthinker.com/products.html
Or of course, with much more function but also more expense, MS OneNote.
Posted by Bob Mackreth
Dec 6, 2007 at 06:57 PM
Thanks, Hugh- good information!
Posted by Chris Thompson
Dec 6, 2007 at 07:07 PM
My beef with Outlook is that it forces you to classify data into a set of predefined schema (is it a note? is it a contact? is it an appointment?) and though recent versions make it easier to link data, there’s no way to add fields to predefined schema, even with add-ons. Ecco’s data model has always been substantially better.
One thing you might consider is using the unified data store in OS X Leopard. You can create notepads, insert todos in those notepads, attach todos or notes directly to emails (physically attaching them to emails, not just linking… a little bit from a torn-off legal pad gets added just above the email), etc. But what’s far cooler is that the underlying data store is shared between applications. So for instance, a todo I attach to an email in Mail shows up automatically in iCal (a different application) *and* my billable hours application (TimeLog 4) without having to “sync.” Even better, the underlying schema are extensible, so for instance you can use a personal database application like Bento to add fields to todos, appointments, or contacts. All this is shared across applications and can be stored on any CalDAV-compliant server. In many ways it’s like a systemwide implementation of Ecco.
—Chris