You know what, guys? Next time I have a chance, I'm going to write a special article about SN (or InfoQube) on my website that will very specifically deal with the initial confusion people face when first trying out the program. I think if I put my mind to it, I can come up with something that can be very useful.
Looking forward to it. Maybe you can even do a screencast demo of a complicated task using IQ and how seamless it is to modify such things.
No offense to the explanations offered, but I'm going to try to do a really good one. I know Pierre likes to use the analogy of the box (or cube) and the different views into the box, etc., but I think even that might be a little confusing to some people.
Interesting you brought that up since I had a related fear that I didn't want to voice out because I really had no knowledge of the program yet but since you kinda criticized the box concept, I think I'll have a go at it too. Sorry if this comes off as insulting.
To be honest, i love the box concept. When I saw that image in the site, it was one of the most simple explanation of how IQ handles your data BUT I also think that in an age where people are used to the name/concept being associated to the product, I think from a business stand point it's a risky sell because it might lead users to the misconception that they are actually going to install an application that presents them with a visual cube. Of course, this is coming from some guy who have no business experience dealing with these kind of applications.
In my mind, I actually lumped the program in the same group as TaoNotes, a ridiculous notetaking program from a couple years back.
So that's why the program led to an error page. I saw that link in the Notetaking thread and I remember chancing by it in the past and ignoring it but then I saw the section that advised raising the taskbar a level to handle more windows so I thought I would actually try it but it was gone.
So Paul, unless you really need to do calculations right now, I wouldn't worry about it. When the time comes, learn it then.
Actually I do need it just as a safety net since Joe's Goals can go down alot nowadays. The developer has e-mailed me that he'll try to improve things in a few months but I'm usually more comfortable with having both a desktop and an online version of an application.
Currently I use App's AnotherOneDone but it's not as easy to go wild with it because it requires a certain number to be set and when the number changes it can't be modified without resetting the count. I still use it for static total number counts like motivating me to continue to read this forum topic but for things like habit tracking and getting a pattern of how much tabs I read along with how much is added, Joe's Goals is the only one I found so far that does this and all the other checkbox recorders only handles daily, weekly and other set amount of checks and they use recurring instances rather than an actual grid where you just click to check an entry.
I'm not sure if IQ is the one that can finally do this but I'm thinking it's time for me to learn some sort of calculating app so as not to be caught dead when I fail to find an application.
I just leave the items in one long list, with no parents or children, no indenting, etc. Most programs will force you to use one or the other, but not SN. There are pros and cons to both, so be thankful that you can use both.
Yes, that's partially why I'm still testing IQ even though it looks very tree based from the get go. I wouldn't really consider a long list, a departure from tree-based hierarchies because not only is a long list unmanageable IMO in the sense that if such organizations were alright to a user than they don't need an organizer because they can do this straight from a File Explorer but also because the list is just a reduction of the tree and not really a separate entity like how items are in IQ's grid. (paraphrasing from PPLandry's words)
My advice is this: don't try to understand everything about the program before using it. It does too much and to try to understand it beforehand is a waste of time. Just do specifically what task you are trying to use it for and learn the aspects of the program that apply only to your task.
This is definitely a problem since I didn't come to IQ with a certain goal in mind. I think if I recall what happened...I was still looking for a grid over grid program but then forgot to add Covey's four quadrant matrix in my newbie thread so I posted as an example and then I was pmed by tomos to try out this application and then that's how I got here and I read all the positive feedback that made me want to understand the application.
I did recently encountered a problem with The Form Letter Machine because I was using in a manner
it wasn't intended to be and was hoping I could eventually get IQ to do something like this but that program is way beyond checkboxes and if I could replicate such an application, I think I'd also have the knowledge to fork or create my own application but I barely know where to start programming or asking for advise since how exactly does one try to explain wanting a Form Letter Machine that's not intended to be a Form Letter Machine?
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