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Search-as-you-Type
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Posted by Geoffrey Miller
Aug 10, 2015 at 11:53 AM
I’ve used askSam for twenty years but the time has come to bail out (prompted by continual crashes when trying to export). I have Ultra Recall and MyInfo installed, but does anyone know of a modern alternative which offers a Search-as-you-Type facility?
Posted by Franz Grieser
Aug 10, 2015 at 12:40 PM
If you hadn’t written “modern alternative”, I would have suggested InfoSelect. For me, it’s the prototype of search-as-you-type PIM. But I can’t recommend buying the current edition (neither the one before).
Franz
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 10, 2015 at 02:53 PM
I would suggest you look at Zoot (http://www.zootsoftware.com). It has a search as you type capability, which, while not blazing fast is pretty good. You’ll also find similarities with AskSam. For instance, it is freeform, but you can add fields by typing the field name followed by a colon right in the content area. It has smart folders. Where it is less powerful than AS is in its reporting and printing capabilities.
The other caveat is that there is currently no good documentation, so it will take a lot of poking around in the user forum archives (Google Groups) to learn the basics. Though the forum is active and people are happy to offer advice.
Steve Z.
Posted by Geoffrey Miller
Aug 10, 2015 at 03:33 PM
Many thanks Franz and Steve,
I did try Zoot some years ago as it seemed to be the best program for another need (Outlook backup), but abandoned it in part because of the lack of documentation and also not wanting to depend overly on a one-person program as, at the time, development was glacial. But I’ll give it another try.
Thanks again,
Geoffrey
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 10, 2015 at 06:20 PM
Development of Zoot has been moving along just fine. It’s the development of the documentation that seems to be glacial. Tom Davis promises that it is in the works, but it has been a long time coming.
Steve Z.