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Meeting minutes/action item software recommendations?

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superboyac:
Wow, I had no idea IQ was this powerful.

Armando, i will need to play with this a little before I can comment.  It looks pretty good.  I like the colors, I use a lot of colors myself, even if they don't match!

superboyac:
OK, Armando, this is pretty nice.  Thanks for all your help.

My thoughts so far are this:
I like to keep things as simple as possible, so one of my thoughts on the database is that I wouldn't really use a lot of those fields.  So I would like to hide the fields that I wouldn't use just to keep everything clean and simple.  Let me list the fields that I would use:
--i would use "Participants" but I wouldn't drill it down any more than that.  if you're there, you're there.  It doesn't matter if you were invited, forwarded, or just a guest.  So, I'd prefer to just list the people under participants and that's it.

--Similarly with the Agenda.  Each item under "agenda" would be an agenda item, and I wouldn't really drill it down any further than that.  I don't think I'd use "keypoints".  Although, now that i think about it, I like how you can put action items and notes under the agenda items.  And those action items would be automatically added to the action item list anyway, so that's good.  It's confusing that you say to add notes under the agenda, but you also have a separate notes column.  I'd probably just hide the notes column.

--I like the conditional formatting.  I don't know if it's possible, but it would be nice if the coloring could be such that you can tell what is a parent or child item based on the coloring.  For example, a child would be surrounded by the parent color, or the child is a lighter color than the parent.  Something like that.  So the group of items under a meeting are somehow colored so that you can see the "container" that the group is in.  I've attached something showing how I've done this in the past:
Meeting minutes/action item software recommendations?

--I can't quite seem to figure out how to add participants from the contact list.  I choose it from the contact list field box, but nothing shows up in the grid after I select it (I'm doing this int he Projects grid).

--I'd probably move the project ID field all the way to the right.  It's one of those fields that you only need to know once in a while for troubleshooting.

--I wouldn't use a lot of the fields in the addressbook.  The only thing I'd use it for is to keep a list of meeting participants.  I have other things I use for contact list management.

--I like the fields in the action item grid.  I initially was not thinking about those other fields, but after seeing them, I can see me using it.

--The meeting files is an interesting one.  I haven't used IQ's file linking capabilities yet, so I'll have to play with that.  Definitely useful.

Thanks for your work so far.  I know it's no small task, and I really really appreciate the effort.

Armando:
OK, Armando, this is pretty nice.  Thanks for all your help.
-superboyac (April 26, 2010, 10:02 AM)
--- End quote ---

You're welcome.

My thoughts so far are this:
I like to keep things as simple as possible, so one of my thoughts on the database is that I wouldn't really use a lot of those fields.  So I would like to hide the fields that I wouldn't use just to keep everything clean and simple.
-superboyac (April 26, 2010, 10:02 AM)
--- End quote ---

Sure.

What I basically did was to mimic all features in the MeetingSense app.

The grids are easy to modify. So you can right click on any column and hide them. Conversely, you can add any field you want in the grid.

In any case, I'll make a simplified version keeping these

--I like the conditional formatting.  I don't know if it's possible, but it would be nice if the coloring could be such that you can tell what is a parent or child item based on the coloring.  For example, a child would be surrounded by the parent color, or the child is a lighter color than the parent.  Something like that.  So the group of items under a meeting are somehow colored so that you can see the "container" that the group is in.  I've attached something showing how I've done this in the past:
-superboyac (April 26, 2010, 10:02 AM)
--- End quote ---

Yes, colors are useful.
This is certainly possible (within limits), but not with the conditional formatting option as it is now. I can script it though.
The thing is that the rows will be fully colored, not individual cells as it is now. In any case, I'll try something.


--I can't quite seem to figure out how to add participants from the contact list.  I choose it from the contact list field box, but nothing shows up in the grid after I select it (I'm doing this int he Projects grid).
-superboyac (April 26, 2010, 10:02 AM)
--- End quote ---

Normally it should appear in the item, and other fields (like phone # etc) should get filled too. Did you double click on one of the names from the "drop down" list (it's not exactly drop down, but I'm sure you get it... More of a dialog, I guess), or jut click OK once you selected a name ?

--I'd probably move the project ID field all the way to the right.  It's one of those fields that you only need to know once in a while for troubleshooting.
-superboyac (April 26, 2010, 10:02 AM)
--- End quote ---

PErfect.

--I wouldn't use a lot of the fields in the addressbook.  The only thing I'd use it for is to keep a list of meeting participants.  I have other things I use for contact list management.
-superboyac (April 26, 2010, 10:02 AM)
--- End quote ---

It's probably possible to import everything in IQ though -- not replace your current solutions, but it would probably be handy.


Note that I saw a couple bugs here and there... Like the fact that the template was actually the project appearing in the project grid. That shouldn't be and I already fixed it. Templates are "Locked" and the source bar in the project grids filters out locked items...

Anyway, I'll post another version soon.

In my DB, action items are treated as tasks (todos, with a complete project management solution), only with a different icons and "assigned to" details. You can use the gantt to manipulate dates etc.

My urgency calculations etc. are more sophisticated than what's there, but it'S probably not useful to get into that now.

Armando:
Here's the 2nd draft. (yes, please keep in mind that it's a DRAFT, part of a work in progress. Don't use for important stuff at this point.)

Hopefully it's going to work ok.
The last one was buggy. Sorry.


Biggest changes :

- colors : I tried to implement some of your suggestions. There are a few drawbacks (explained in the DB), but not too many... ;)
- Created a simplified template with less items (I think you confused fields with items in your comments, but I got what you meant) : got rid of keypoints and the different categories of participants, etc.
- Changed many other little things but they'll probably go un-noticed since they mostly happen in the background.


What didn't really change (AFAICT) :
-I left the project ID field where it is as it's a very important field... It can really help in all grids to know on which project you're working, without having to look at the whole outline. Plus, it's part of the grid source in many grids.
- I also left most fields in the grids. You can always get rig of those you don't want to see. BUT, some of them will be necessary if you want the individual cell coloring for keypoints, action items, etc. The grid component has this small bug that makes it necessary to have the fields there in the grid for the conditional format to function. I must say that this "bug" is actually quite useful sometimes -- when you don't want any colors in a grid, and some in another...!


Bug (?):
- I was able to reproduce the contact list problem, but it works most of the time -- I have no idea about what does it. Can you make it work sometimes ? Usually, it doesn't work only the first time I try it, and after there are any problems.


That's it... Time to get some sleep !

[Edited to clarify]

[4th draft in my latest post -- removed previous version here 2010 04 27 -- 12 42]

Armando:
There's something buggy with the contact list. I'll send it to Pierre. (I does work here, but it seems that there might be a slight problem with the grid component -- hypothesis only at this point.)

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