Author Topic: Looking for a Decent Contacts Manager (Read 33235 times)

rjbull · « **Reply #25 on:** June 16, 2010, 03:17 PM »

I do use Outlook as a PIM and just forgo the email components (very heavy PIM, but effective).
-steeladept (June 16, 2010, 12:12 PM)

Vista Home Premium comes with Windows Calendar, that looks (from memory) much like the calendar component of Outlook, also Contacts.

J-Mac · « **Reply #26 on:** June 16, 2010, 09:00 PM »

superboy, Addza doesn’t tell or show you very much on the web site, do they? They describe their "Flexible Printing Options" as

Print your addresses with ease. Choose the fields you would like to print and just hit the print button. Unlike most other address book softwares, Addza has an inbuilt Print to PDF option that will let you print your addresses directly into a PDF file.

Also they don’t give any info regarding how many email addresses, phone numbers, custom fields, etc. they allow. If I am going to download and install an app just to give it a look I at least need to know something about the features. Addza just doesn’t give me enough to even want to try it.

Thank you.

Jim

superboyac · « **Reply #27 on:** June 16, 2010, 10:30 PM »

Well, ok. It's a legit program, you don't have to worry about that. i'll see how their printing options are...

J-Mac · « **Reply #28 on:** June 16, 2010, 11:35 PM »

Well, ok. It's a legit program, you don't have to worry about that. i'll see how their printing options are...
-superboyac (June 16, 2010, 10:30 PM)

Not saying they're not legit; they just don’t tell me enough about their program to make me want to try it.

Thanks!

Jim

mwfuss · « **Reply #29 on:** June 17, 2010, 05:29 AM »

Jim,

I will be purchasing the Business edition of Stat Trak because I do not like the limitations of the personal edition. I agree that it is a bit silly to feature limit the personal edition so much in comparison with the business edition, especially when the personal edition is not free.

The two main reasons that I am drawn to Stat Trak are the ability to add individuals to a family and include information about those individuals such as birthday, e-mail address and so forth. I looked at many of these programs that would not allow me to do that. If anyone knows of other programs with this feature, I would like to give them a try before I make my purchase of Stat Trak. The other feature I like about Stat Trak is that it is already set-up to allow printing in a format that will fit in my DayTimer binder. One thing I do not like about printing in Stat Trak, however, is that it does not allow me to create my own custom reports.

Mark

steeladept · « **Reply #30 on:** June 17, 2010, 10:04 AM »

If synch with handhelds is a must, how about ListPro?
-rjbull (June 16, 2010, 03:07 PM)

Maybe I just didn't see it, but this looks to be just a list manager rather than a PIM (contact manager & calendar are missing from what I see). Also, I don't see it syncing with blackberries or now the iPhone (not that I will get an iPhone, but still). Actually, ideally it would not even need to be a smartphone - but the phones that can sync with a computer decrease dramatically, mostly because the sync software isn't there.

Vista Home Premium comes with Windows Calendar, that looks (from memory) much like the calendar component of Outlook, also Contacts.
-rjbull (June 16, 2010, 03:17 PM)

Fortunately, I don't suffer from Vista. I am still on XP - though I am looking into upgrading to Win7. I will check that out on Win7 as well.

J-Mac · « **Reply #31 on:** June 17, 2010, 11:12 AM »

Hi Mark.

I just didn't really like the UI of Start Trak. Maybe it's just me being fussy but to start it shows a sample contact in the center of the screen like it is a pop-up, but I don’t think it is. Can't dismiss it, can't move it out of my way. It just sits there and does nothing no matter what action I take. It just looked odd enough to make me feel out of sorts when trying to work in it.

Oh - and it only allows like three or five contacts to be added to the trial version. That is a little too limiting for me to see how I like it. Can't even get a full page report with that. Handy Address Book has a similar limit but theirs is 30 added contacts. A little better but not great. What is with the unreasonable limits? If things are that tough then just add a lot more demo material on the website and skip the damn trial version!

Thank you.

Jim

mwfuss · « **Reply #32 on:** June 17, 2010, 12:44 PM »

Jim,

When I open Stat Trak I am greeted by the nag screen since I have not yet purchased the program. I do not keep the main window maximized; I make it small enough so that the Address Listings screen does not look like it is floating in a sea of nothingness. The screenshot below shows what I mean.

6-17-2010 1-37-16 PM.png

By doing so, I have found that I can live with the GUI. By the way, if you want to see a contacts manager/address book with a really ugly GUI take a look at this program, Address Book Plus.

Mark

J-Mac · « **Reply #33 on:** June 17, 2010, 01:32 PM »

Mark, mine opened maximized - or actually not maximized but the window as large as my 24" monitor. Twice I manually resized it to look like yours but upon system reboot it opened again too large. I just gave up trying to fix it. After all I could only add a few contacts and that was it. Not that much else to try with it. It is uninstalled now.

Thank you.

Jim

J-Mac · « **Reply #34 on:** June 29, 2010, 12:22 PM »

BTW, I never posted back as to which I ended up purchasing: That would be Handy Address Book. Not that it is that great or much better than the others mentioned here, but it had the least annoyances for me compared to the rest. If another progresses to the point where it has almost everything I want then I might just buy that too.

Thanks to all for your comments!

Jim

mwb1100 · « **Reply #35 on:** June 29, 2010, 01:19 PM »

it had the least annoyances for me compared to the rest
-J-Mac (June 29, 2010, 12:22 PM)

It's too bad that that has to be the deciding factor. This is how I ended up with my bank and the place I bought my car from as well.

steeladept · « **Reply #36 on:** June 29, 2010, 01:33 PM »

Yes, that is, unfortunately the way I end up choosing many things. I can understand completely, both the frustration and resignation that led to that. Perhaps the NANY2011 project in the same lines will yield a result you are more happy with. Be sure to keep in touch with Perry as he works on ContactFX

J-Mac · « **Reply #37 on:** June 29, 2010, 02:30 PM »

I am definitely keeping both eyes on Perry's project!

I wasn’t trying to disparage all the other contacts apps mentioned here. It's just that certain features that were important to me personally didn't exist together in any of them, unfortunately. Handy just happened to have the most included in one app. Other users may - and probably do - feel the same about others discussed here. Address books are a particularly personal software and it would be difficult for a developer to satisfy all wants in one program. Could be done, for sure. But the cost of putting all features in one app is probably too high and wouldn’t necessarily get a big enough return. I noticed a lot of these apps try to mimic Outlook in many ways as I guess they feel that Outlook's features are known/wanted by most users. (Not me, though!)

There are a couple apps above that I will also keep an eye on and if they add certain features I will quite possibly end up purchasing one of them down the line.

Thanks!

Jim

Sarkand · « **Reply #38 on:** July 14, 2010, 08:25 PM »

Take a look at Open Contacts Free, open source, simple and flexible. Reasonable printing by selection. Just basic and works great for me.

J-Mac · « **Reply #39 on:** July 14, 2010, 10:21 PM »

Take a look at Open Contacts Free, open source, simple and flexible. Reasonable printing by selection. Just basic and works great for me.
-Sarkand (July 14, 2010, 08:25 PM)

Sarkand, I did download that about a week and a half ago; haven't installed it yet though. Good to hear it works well on your end. I'll give it a try sometime in the next few weeks.

Thanks!

Jim

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #40 on:** July 14, 2010, 10:45 PM »

Take a look at Open Contacts Free, open source, simple and flexible. Reasonable printing by selection. Just basic and works great for me.
-Sarkand (July 14, 2010, 08:25 PM)

Well, I wouldn't have called OC basic per se: it does a lot of Addressbook related stuff. I've been a OC user for many years now, but like fenix last year, it just didn't seem to click with me in the long term. But it's an excellent programme... and will ensure that I write an OC to ContactsFX import option

I noticed a lot of these apps try to mimic Outlook in many ways as I guess they feel that Outlook's features are known/wanted by most users. (Not me, though!)
-J-Mac (June 29, 2010, 02:30 PM)

Glad to hear that

I only want an AddressBook, if I wanted Outlook I'd use Outlook

... at the moment I'm using OC.

J-Mac · « **Reply #41 on:** July 14, 2010, 11:55 PM »

Perry.

Come to think of it I downloaded Open Contacts right after reading that you were using it and possibly basing your upcoming app on its feature set. I did end up purchasing Handy Address Book but mainly as a stop-gap because I needed something now. However I am still watching for your new app as soon as you have anything available for testing.

Thanks!

Jim

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #42 on:** July 15, 2010, 01:34 AM »

However I am still watching for your new app as soon as you have anything available for testing.
-J-Mac (July 14, 2010, 11:55 PM)

I'm trying not to feel under pressure

but in terms of what you're wanting (and my hopes too infact):

Add contacts with ability to add details, like spouse, children, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)

I was going to have relationships that could be exported in xfn format. Birthdays and anniversaries are fields.

Able to add notes and if possible, links to associated files.
-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)

Notes are a field. Associated files: hadn't got to that, but that's a good idea and probably just extends the links area.

Ability to slice and dice the data in many ways.
-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)

Not sure what you're thinking of here, but I'm wondering if export to excel/access would work?

This one I have had difficulty finding: Ability to print the address book without having to print them as a series of separate cards.
-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)

There are three parts to this project: the application, a FARR plugin and HTML exports (I was thinking here that I'd put them on a password protected directory, or USB drive, etc). The HTML will be based on xml, so getting a print view would be pretty easy in fact...

Anyway, this is maybe a discussion that should be happening over in the NANY2011 thread

ppass · « **Reply #43 on:** July 15, 2010, 09:46 AM »

I looked for a good contact manager software to use in my job hunt. I wanted to track whom I had met, store notes of our meetings, track thank-you notes, emails, etc. I could not find a decent contact manager program, so I turned to CRM. I use vtiger (open source CRM uploaded to my server, so that I can access it from any PC, lots of other useful features like webmail integration). I am very pleased with it and hardly goes a day without my using it.

J-Mac · « **Reply #44 on:** July 15, 2010, 12:19 PM »

Perry,

Pressure? Please, don’t feel under pressure from me! I didn't mean it that way.

I'll have to look up "xfn format", but if you use it then it is probably just fine for me too.

Regarding linked files, I meant just that: files that are associated with a particular contact and just a logical link to them; not attach files or literally insert files into the contacts app.

By "slice and dice" I just mean the ability to filter and sort the contacts in any way desired. Some of the address book apps I looked at were severely limited in this respect. Many utilize "Categories" or "Groups" to accomplish this but I guess I am accustomed to using groups for mailing lists. BTW most were also using the same vehicle for their mailing lists. I figure that if the contacts are contained in a database then selecting and sorting should be very expansive. (Though limited knowledge might very well make me dead wrong in that assumption!?!) However most of the apps on the market don’t allow any access to the database itself. A lot of them rework the database structure to be - or at least appear to be - proprietary. Like using an Access-based DB but renaming the file format as *.abcdb (For an imaginary contacts software by the imaginary "ABC Addressbook" developer!

) instead of the native *.mdb. (I didn't see any using the more recent *.accdb Access format; all that used Access seemed to be using Access 2003 or earlier).

And as for having this conversation in your NANY 2011 thread, you're right, though I started this thread before I had seen that one. Sorry...

Thanks!

Jim