Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
PIM's
crono:
Oh my God... PIMs... I searched for so long... but for me only Essential Pim (http://www.essentialpim.com) worked. EPim provides Contacts, Schedule, Todo and Notes. Version 2.0 is currently in Beta (see the EPim-Forum for access). It's simply, fast, leaves a relatively small Memory footprint. I used the free version for years and got an update to the pro version last year.
My personal ranking:
1) Essential Pim
2) Agenda at once
3) Outlook 2007
Some pro's and con's of the Tools I tried:
ToolProConMonoCalendar
* Nice Gui
* Opensource
* Buggy
* Calendar only NomadPim
* Opensource
* Slow
* Huge memoy footprint (Eclipse based) Rainlendar
* Small and focused
* I dont like the Desktop concept Haystack
* very very cool Project
* much more than a PIM
* Seems to be dead since 2004
* much more than a PIM ;) Calgoo
* Google Calendar based (automatically synced)
* Calendar only
* feels kinda slow Aethera
* Stable and full featured
* Its so ugly, in my opinion
* Dead since 8/2005 Outlook 2007
* Stable and full featured
* to Expensive Chandler
* Successor of the world famous PIM "Ecco"
* Got a nice book about its development ;)
* Opensource
* Looks really nice
* In early stage of development
Jimdoria:
Here's one that used to belong to Symantec I believe.
It's quite pricey-$200.00.
Probably the ultimate PIM.
http://www.act.com/
-cmpm (May 10, 2007, 10:48 AM)
--- End quote ---
Given that this forum is a bit skewed toward the freeware/shareware crowd, I don't know how seriously anyone would be looking into a $200 PIM. But if you are, you might want to keep looking.
ACT is in some ways a great PIM, especially for a small office that needs to share data. But the program has a troubled history and it frequently turns up in articles over at Ed Foster's Gripelog site. (http://www.gripe2ed.com). You might want to check out it out before shelling out the $$$. I know some people who use older versions of it, and I've always found it klunky and very counter-intuitive to use. At this point, probably the only people who should seriously consider ACT are the ones who have already bought into it as a platform.
An up-and-coming contender for best PIM might be the new Scrybe web application (that also runs when you aren't connected to the web!). They certainly have the best demo. http://www.iscrybe.com.
My vote for the "ultimate PIM that's too expensive" still goes to MicroLogic's InfoSelect, which costs a hefty $250 (Palm pilot version extra) but packs in so much functionality you might actually think it's worth it. Of course, I've never actually used Info Select. Too expensive. :-[
But I just now noticed that they offer a trial download, which for years they never did! Maybe I'll finally take it for a test run!
P.S. - Awesome summary table, crono!
Tekzel:
I'm going to have to throw my support behind EssentialPIM too. Its very self contained, even has a portable version. Small, fast, has most of the features I want in a PIM. I have never experienced database problems but I am also not a heavy duty user, I am just not that organized. My only complaint has always been the only contacts view being a grid view and I was told by Max that they are planning to add more contact views. Great program.
Darwin:
crono - thanks for your comments and the table. However, your table doesn't list your top two choices in the PIM arena: EssentialPIM and Agenda at Once. What is it about these two that place them at the top of your rankings? I actually have a licence for both Essential PIM Pro and Portable but never use either - use Outlook 2003 as it does all that I need it too - so I am curious...
patteo:
Has anyone considered Ultra Recall http://www.ultrarecall.com/ ?
It has a pretty active forum with is a good sign.
http://www.kinook.com/Forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=22
It has recently been released as Version 3 and in active development.
And it looks quite impressive and also very customizable - reminds me of Dopus customizability - so it probably can morph into almost any kind of PIM you will like it to me.
And it comes with a set of sample templates, synchronization with Outlook so you can use as a conduit to sync with your PocketPC for example.
You can add all kinds of attributes, forms, capture webpages and search as-you-type (which is probably why it is called Ultra Recall)
And it can import from a whole range of file formats :
Ultra Recall allows you to easily capture information from a variety of applications, using the Internet Explorer or Outlook toolbars, by dragging and dropping, copying and pasting, importing files, or manually entering formatted text. It can handle both local files and online documents, automatically storing and indexing the content of most popular file formats, including:
* ActionOutline
* AskSam
* Firefox/Netscape/Mozilla browsers (bookmarks, web pages, selected parts of web pages)
* InfoSelect
* Internet Explorer (favorites, web pages, selected parts of web pages)
* KeyNote
* ListPro
* Microsoft OneNote (MHT)
* Microsoft Outlook messages, appointments, contacts, and notes
* Microsoft Outlook Express messages
* Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
* Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
* Microsoft Word documents
* MindManager
* MyInfo
* OPML/OML
* Onfolio
* Other browsers (web pages)
* Other email programs (PocoMail, The Bat!, etc. via .eml files)
* PDF (Adobe Acrobat) documents
* Pictures and images
* Text and rich text (RTF) files and clipboard data
* Thunderbird/Netscape email
* TreePad
* Web pages (including MHT)
* Windows Explorer files and folders
* XML files
* ZIP files
* Zoot
Ultra Recall includes an integrated web browser, rich text editor, image viewer, email message viewer, and contact editor, and it provides the ability to easily open captured web pages and documents in their associated application or default browser."
http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/products.html
And it allows file exports too so your data is not trapped in there.
But it's not that cheap at US$99.
So like Dopus, if you are looking for power and customizability, this may be it for you.
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