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superboyac:
Steven, how does Swift compare with mylife organized? The feature I'm looking for most in the todo list programs is printing. None of them can print in a way that actually looks good enough to present to, say, management. Mylife, as powerful as it is, has the most awful printouts. Same with most of the other ones I've tried. They all just stick in that standard IE-like print module sort of as an afterthought.
tranglos:
Steven, how does Swift compare with mylife organized? -superboyac (December 24, 2011, 05:19 PM)
--- End quote ---
Printing in Swift To-Do List is not quite optimal, either. Swift has a "Print / Export" command (two in one), with a dialog box to select branches you want to print and set a few options:
TreeProjects 40% off
The output is formatted as a table in a html document; preview is displayed in your default browser. (I'd rather not post personal contents on a forum, but if you'd like to see the actual output, I can send you a sample by email, some of it in Polish :-).
That said, I would suggest that your choice of MLO vs. Swift not be informed by printing only. The two are very different in how they structure your data. MLO gives you a hierarchical outline of tasks (some of which may be designated as "folders", but still retain all properties of a to-do item). In Swift you have a hierarchical outline of folders, and each single folder contains a flat list of to-do items. This produces a very distinct "feel" in each app.
Basically, in Swift you choose a folder to view its tasks. There is a useful option to show tasks in current folder and all sub-folders, but if you tend to spread your tasks over a number of sibling top-level folders, you'll have to visit each of them in sequence to see their tasks. That's what you get with a two-pane layout. MLO is single-pane, so the view is more "flexible" in that you can see all the tasks at once or focus on a specific area.
Other than that, there are some significant differences in feature sets. Swift is much better for adding notes to tasks (rich text, hyperlinks, attachments), while MLO has instant search, for example. Fwiw, Swift was re-written in .Net, and became much more sluggish than it used to be.
I use Swift for general ideas on stuff I would like to do some day (such as "here is a program I want to write, and here's a list of features and a list of problems to solve"), and use MLO as a bug- and feature-tracker for my existing apps (one app per file). Neither is optimal for these uses, still looking for something more suitable.
Steven Avery:
Hi,
Great summary. Printing is never quite the way you want with these programs. Even Linkman (which I use as a PIM) is limited in that respect and I usually end up using my print screen button.
Swift-To-Do has been satisfactory, all in all they have one of the better report writers, since it properly synches with your data in view and then gives you various options.
This is an area where we always have to ask the programmers a dozen times. I program on a mini-computer for a small business so I know how much folks want reports out with very specific flexibilities. And without having to remember how they do it, or repeat 10 groupings and decisions. Best on the PC is when your report parameters are savable with a name, and then modifiable at run-time. Plus lots of flexibilities on landscape/portrait, font size, column selection, suppressing multi-line (limited notes) etc. Finding this anywhere in PIM or ToDo land is rare. (On the mini I custom tailor prompt screens, and we can get many reports out of one or two prompts. In a pinch we add an "export to Excel" aspect, and the end-user has fun in the sun on their own.)
With the PC programs maybe there is an excel export. Alo, there could be a way to export the data to a Crystal Reports type of program, and let it handle the report function. However, you would have to be able to export the data properly (a big if) automate the procedure and find a program that works well, maybe from this list .
osalt.com - open source alternatives to crystal reports
http://www.osalt.com/crystal-reports
Open source/freeware reporting software package type
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/982815/open-source-freeware-reporting-software-package-type
There may be a bunch more for simple reports on mysql, .dbf or Excel files.
Swift - csv (Excel-compatible) and html export.
MLO - text tab delineated, various XML
ListPro - HTML and RSS/XML
I'm not sure any of this is normally worth the effort, but it is an interesting idea.
And I will add that for things like you mention with bug-tracking, programmer thinking, often project oriented, ToDoList from Abstract Spoon. is worthy of consideration too. Maybe Task Coach (3 pane) for some needs. However that is more a techie aspect, they do not seem to shine as the friendly, personal ToDo. And I never seem to have Tasks and Projects of this nature. If that changes (after all, I am a programmer) maybe I will use one of those. Both are freeware, open source, I think. If the choice for this type of stuff is MLO or Swift, probably MLO is better, since it is probably more capable in realms like times and relationships and levels of completion.
Where Swift shines is a type of overall general view summary. User friendly, colorful, with nice note capabilities integrated. With fairly good capabilities in user assignment of columns, especially the categories within columns (they are in the process of enhancing this area as well, first to letting you change the names of the columns, later, hopefully, to design and add columns). The competitors in this genre like Quick To-Do and Priorganizer have largely become dormant, so the Swift choice was easy at the recent Bits.
MLO is also in the genre. However, I like the 2-pane approach because there are groups of ToDo that I know I always want to keep separate from daily ToDo ,without opening and closing files. Say I am making lists of software bugs, and improvements, to apps I use. That does not need any interface with my daily ToDo. The Explorer interface is a place to compartmentalize in that way. Tabs would be nice too, Swift just has the Explorer style. MLO may have its own ways to handle this nicely, I have not tried it for some years. Maybe Tranglos will weigh in more on that question, as a user very well acquainted with both programs.
With Swift the independent folders-with-subfolders does work pretty nicely. Better than I expected. (Hmm.. Swift should have a "Global" view, all folders. Good point. ... Correction, already there.) btw, I avoid the whole GTD thing, which pushes a lot of the ToDo software.
btw, I have not noticed Swift as sluggish, however it does not compete with ListPro in a type of superflexible and fast - both data design (ListPro forte) and input. That is too bad if they took a step backward by moving to .Net. Usually that would be something a program would start with, it is hard to understand why they would move there if they were already functioning well with native Windows programming. However, I am not programming in those realms, so if anyone has any ideas, share away. Also if you are using a program, even a small loss of response time can be very irritating, even if not noticed by the newbie. Or a small pickup in response.
(When Linkman added turning off incremental search it was a huge plus to searching, that was a major plus. This is why you always want a responsive techie programmer.)
IBM did those studies years ago on sub-second response time, how important it was to user productivity. Once the user gets used to lags, their attention wanders and they add their own slowness of response to the system slowness. We notice that in the biz environment, which is one reason we like the iSeries, we know that throughput management is good and data rock-solid. Then, we consider ways of how to break out of green screen.
Steven
flamerz:
Im another fan of smereka treeprojects.
I have bought several outliners, like ultra recall, MLO, mybase, allMyNotes, BrainStorm, c-organizer, swift-to do, action outline, debrief... and so on.
Today im using swift-to-do and smereka... and I really forgot about another tools.
I was an ultra recall fan, but now smereka is improved and can handle/index pdf documents. This was a must for me.
The developer of smereka is always very communicative with users... I feel like at home with Smereka.
Highly recommended.
Steven Avery:
Hi,
Thanks, I got this a bit confused with TreeSheets, had never visited the site.
His screenshots are helpful, however they are buried a level down, one by one.
Here is an example screenshot page, showing search results.
http://personaldatabase.org/screenshots/search1.png
Excel spreadsheet
http://personaldatabase.org/screenshots/edit_excel.png
Reminder and Calendar
http://personaldatabase.org/screenshots/reminder1.png
All linked from this page.
http://personaldatabase.org/features
Impressive, may have some nice pluses even over Rightnote, or the Pro TreeDBNotes, and others at the genre top.
Note this discussion about using the RichEdit controls, versus taking a 3rd party add-on.
http://personaldatabase.org/working-with-hyperlinks-in-rich-edit#more-470
Nice semi-tech stuff.
Steven
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