TreeProjects 40% off

[rgdot]

I have become a regular user and fan of TreeProjects, lots of updates and features added.

Starting now, and throughout Christmas and New Year holidays, TreeProjects is offered for only $29. A perfect time to give TreeProjects as a gift – to yourself, a friend, or the loved one!

http://personaldatab...ring-winter-holidays

[superboyac]

man, yet another notetaking app.  How am I going to choose??  This one has some very cool features also.  Geez.  I was this close to purchasing rightnote, too.

[rjbull]

man, yet another notetaking app.  How am I going to choose??  [...]  I was this close to purchasing rightnote, too.

-superboyac (December 23, 2011, 05:19 PM)

You sure said it    So many of them that my memory was faulty - I was confusing TreeProjects with RightNote!    There just doesn't seem to be a definitive best program in this category.

[superboyac]

man, yet another notetaking app.  How am I going to choose??  [...]  I was this close to purchasing rightnote, too.

-superboyac (December 23, 2011, 05:19 PM)

You sure said it    So many of them that my memory was faulty - I was confusing TreeProjects with RightNote!    There just doesn't seem to be a definitive best program in this category.

-rjbull (December 24, 2011, 02:39 PM)

Well, I've been playing around with it a little, and I think RightNote is still the best as far as I'm concerned.  Rightnote has a freaking amazing featureset, rivaling Mybase from years ago in terms of flexibility and options.  It's also extremely customer friendly: lightweight, fast, portable.  It has just about every note type you could want.

This TreeProjects can't rival Rightnote's compelte-ness right now.  But it has a couple of extremely interesting features.  First, it's more of a legit database, with all that goes along with that (vs a bunch of files put together in a tree view).  It has a cool folder and file linking option, as well as a cool idea in capturing webpages (that doesn't work very well, Evernote and Surfulater are the best at that).  It has VERY cool revision history tool, where you can see how a note has changed over time.  I don't think any program I've seen offers that.

But rightnote has really impressed me the last few weeks.  I haven't been this impressed by a notetaking program in years.

[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Plus Rightnote simply looks good, it stands out from the crowd a bit.
http://www.bauerapps.com/RightNote.html

I put in a request at Bits, as the professional is a bit hefty $60.  And without any immediate compelling need, I am using some of the others (TreeDbNotes is always crisp, Keynote-NF is always functional, if a bit bland .. AllMyNotes Organizer and AmiPages and Treepad round out most of my standard note group, while considering the TreeProjects and InfoQube in a special categoty, as well as Evernote).  Even bought TreeNotes for simplicity stuff at Bits the other day for $10, partly because it comes from the Swift ToDo Dextronet folks.

However, it is better to really settle on one for the more complex note projects, like researching.  Looks like RightNote, but I am still holding out for a Bits, I think my 30 days perspired on one user, but is still active on another user on my puter (I think it goes by load days, not counting days .. maybe not, that may be ListPro, where the Bits is not such an issue since the program is $20 or so).

I will say that RightNote, Swift ToDo and ListPro have all been pleasant surprises, all recent, and Swift and ListPro have taken over their niches.  I look forward to playing with TreeProjects on an auxiliary level.

Steven

[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)

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...oftware-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://personaldatab...eenshots/search1.png

Excel spreadsheet
http://personaldatab...shots/edit_excel.png

Reminder and Calendar
http://personaldatab...nshots/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://personaldatab...n-rich-edit#more-470

Nice semi-tech stuff.

Steven

[Steven Avery]

Hi,

I am trying to see how TreeProjects has special use.  Clearly it handles the normal note functions fine, as you can see in its own help file. (As does RightNote and a number of others.) Then the reminder aspect is reasonable.  

Some other ideas have to do with stuff like URL referencing (for which I use Linkman, and it would be difficult to find a reason to duplicate that effort.)

Apparently it is savvy with Excel files, as in the pic above .. anything else ?  I gather it can be a type of traffic cop for pointing to, and searching, diverse data ?  However, not for creating an ad hoc database ?  Maybe an Excel one ?

Somebody who is using TreeProjects that wants to share a bit of how they use the program practically .. share away.  It has a nice relaxed look and feel, and potential.  I could easily see it being the preferred general note program, but that would be a decision made in comparison to the programs above.

What I am interested is how any special features get used in a practical level.  Or the reasons you find it the best.  If you are using it in synch with Excel files, that counts, even though I do not do much in that realm.

I am looking for good reasons to justify the discount purchase .  Presumably it may hold through the holiday tomorrow.  The reasons do not have to be overwhelming, simply solid and practical and likely to be used in the months ahead. In the long run, I do not mind having a couple of such programs in professional, paid versions.

Shalom,
Steven

[rgdot]

My use is gathering and centralizing files and notes, I use the 'Enable special folder monitoring' and throw in pdf, txt and image files.
The 'manual' note taking part is the other part in which I either type in directly or use the clipboard capture (Ctrl+Alt+Ins or Ctrl+Alt+V).
I have several web pages saved too, it works well though it's not the fastest when you want to view the pages later and there is no editing after web page capture which I would like and seems to be on the roadmap.
The reminder feature can act as PIM alarm but it's not exactly a complete calendar app so I am not really using that feature.

[superboyac]

Steven, I'm feeling the same way you do.  I did purchase it because of the discount and also because I'm trying to support authors who sound like they are dedicated to customers.  (Even though I'm afraid that the future doesn't look too good for Windows shareware authors...we'll see with the new Windows market thing this year).

But yeah, it's a decent program.  I still think RightNote is king right now.  RightNote does everything really well, and feature-wise is far more mature than this new program.  Like you said, the special folder monitoring is a neat unique feature.  I like the version history for each note.  Other than that, I can't think of anything else that makes me prefer it over RightNote.

[superboyac]

Also...I seem to be developing a bit of a soft spot for these Russian/ex-Soviet software developers.  I don't know what it is...the Delphi programming, or what...but they usually make really snappy, feature-filled applications sort of against all odds.  Most American authors or other Western authors, in order to make a living, have had to ditch their software development ventures and give in to the "man" so the shareware/freeware world has really gone south for me in the last decade.  I'm telling you, I used to LOVE those little programs that would be all over the place years ago, but that era is coming to a close.  Again, I have high hopes for Windows 8 this year, please!!!  But then again, guys like mouser/skwire/all the other cats hanging around here are keeping the ship afloat.  I'm dead-convinced that these little freeware software have more skill/features/talent poured into it than MOST of the big and very expensive corporate software I have come across in the professional world.  I keep looking for the right opportunity to bring financial success for these small time developers and steal it away from the awful Oracles and mediocre Microsofts, etc. but I haven't figured out anything really great yet.  But it's there...there's something there.

[Steven Avery]

Hi,

And I agree that the Ruski and Ukraine contingent (some other Eastern European, too) when the developers are visible, have been very snappy, crisp .. and I consider that locale a plus, even though sometimes they sort of hide their locale.  The Chinese, on the other hand, while often technically competent, seem to be more adept at copying and marketing than any sort of software quality and innovation and design.  Thus Easeus has a decent reputation, a bit unusual, but basically just does the same thing as others. If I see a Bits or Giveaway from China, anonymous, I do a Moveaway.

Swift To-Do is a good example of the state-of the-art. Jiri Novotny is Czech (okay, a bit different culturally, and no cultural insult intended)  and clearly thinks out every aspect of design, much like our DonationCoder specialists. Incidentally, he mentioned that a Donation Coder discount is available, can that be handled ?   Yet Ilium Software (ListPro) is in A2 (Ann Arbor). Although the locale of a company is not always the developer.  BauerApps (RightNote) is South Africa, by the name likely an Afrikaans (Dutch origin) company.  I was curious on these quality smallish apps, so I just checked.

And I am not as pessimistic as some of the notes above.  What I think you have more is a shaking out of the unserious companies, the shareware model still seems to be working to an extent for the quality apps.  Remember they work with a potential base of millions, so if a small quality software ends up with 10,000 paid users, that can be a spot of change.  They do not have to take over the market.  Granted, though, it is not easy.  I'm not too sure what you see as the impending change, I saw an interesting article in the Hacker 2600 magazine in Barnes and Noble about Google trying to push a cloud computing puter, and working with their sample.  Is Microsoft making it much tuffer ?  I stlil use XP, mostly.

Back to Tree Projects - "gathering and centralizing files and notes" seems to be strong there.  Right now, you throw various stuff on the disk and look for it with Total Commander or Everything. Or a drill down navigation system where you keep your "stuff".  Maybe TreeProjects is one of the best repositories for finding and jumping back and forth ?  (Linkman is possible too, but I have not used it much this way, and it would not be as strong with combining notes.)  Is Tree Projects significantly stronger than RightNote here ?  Is this helpful enough to fulcrumize the purchase ?

The Tree Projects discount is not "must-jump" and we can ask him for a similar DC special, even for a short period, I really would like to try it out a bit.  I think at times he modularized the data entry.. step by step .. a bit too much .. so you have to hit enter or click ok and go to the next step.  I find that a bit unusual.  That was my main kvetch in my light usage.

Steven

[rjbull]

I am using some of the others (TreeDbNotes is always crisp, Keynote-NF [...] AllMyNotes Organizer and AmiPages and Treepad round out most of my standard note group, while considering the TreeProjects and InfoQube in a special categoty, as well as Evernote)

-Steven Avery (December 24, 2011, 04:28 PM)

Isn't this a serious problem?  You end up with so many note-keepers  with only slightly different capabilities, you can never find the note you want because you can't remember which application it's in?  Which makes one wonder if keeping notes in plain text or RTF files and using something like BareGrep Pro or a desktop search engine like Archivarius might be the best way to keep information?

[rgdot]

If I see a Bits or Giveaway from China, anonymous, I do a Moveaway.

-Steven Avery (January 02, 2012, 10:56 AM)

 
Especially in the case of multimedia this and that, there are way too many convertors, etc.

Back to Tree Projects - "gathering and centralizing files and notes" seems to be strong there.  Right now, you throw various stuff on the disk and look for it with Total Commander or Everything. Or a drill down navigation system where you keep your "stuff".  Maybe TreeProjects is one of the best repositories for finding and jumping back and forth ?  (Linkman is possible too, but I have not used it much this way, and it would not be as strong with combining notes.)  Is Tree Projects significantly stronger than RightNote here ?  Is this helpful enough to fulcrumize the purchase ?

The Tree Projects discount is not "must-jump" and we can ask him for a similar DC special, even for a short period, I really would like to try it out a bit.  I think at times he modularized the date entry.. step by step .. a bit too much .. so you have to hit enter or click ok and go to the next step.  I find that a bit unusual.  That was my main kvetch in my light usage.

Steven

-Steven Avery (January 02, 2012, 10:56 AM)

As it grows it, hopefully, can index more file types than now so I think TreeProjects goes a long way to organize, tag...and search. I have very little of experience with Rightnote (based on DC recommendations that should change) but I can say that TreeProjects has lasted as my 'info app' longer than most. You make good points about clicks though.
I wouldn't be surprised if the developer (Yaroslav) is receptive to limited deals or discounts for DC, I can write and ask him. I have been in contact with him with questions.

@rjbull, you are right, at times I have thought about abandoning the continued search for PIMs and settling on one, never lasts though

[superboyac]

Boy, Steven and tranglos have got me thinking about all these todo programs...

I had never tried ListPro before, I just tried it now.  What a strange application!  On one hand, it seems very plain.  On the other hand, there are some really cool features and itneresting interface ideas there.  it's definitely quirky and seems to be well thought out.  It's VERY fast.  Great outline navigation features, hard to describe, but got it just right.  Printing is awful as with all the other ones.

Seriously, what's the deal with printing?  Am I the only one who wants to print my lists and take it with me to meetings to show others?  Maybe nobody else works away from their computer, I don't know.  I think it must be fairly difficult to program a good printing featureset because nobody does it for any of these information managers.

I agree with tranglos, I sue MLO for mostly long-term, serious type of lists.  I don't make quickie lists in it.  Swift seems to be much better at that (although it seems to have some pretty hardcore database features also).

We'll see where I end up.  I'm being more organic in my approach to this PIM software now.  I'm not trying to find the best of the best anymore.  I let the software come to me as the need arises.  I seem to be using mostly these software right now for my information management: Treesheets for brainstorming (brilliant); MLO for serious task lists; RightNote for general note-taking; CHS for capturing all my clipboard content; infoqube for specialized database type of lists like, say, all the songs and albums of a particular artist I like.

[rgdot]

Coming soon, this time 61% off
61% OFF $18.95
RETAIL $49.00

http://www.bitsdujou...ftware/treeprojects/

[rjbull]

@rgdot: How do you rate it compared to RightNote?

[rgdot]

I prefer TreeProjects because it does keyboard captures, organization of nodes (keyboard shortcuts to add a child or new item for example) and search more simply in my opinion. I also like TreeProjects' 'reference' item (basically items are referenced or 'exist' in more than one place in a database)

RightNote is more feature-rich though (calendar, spreadsheet support, paragraph styles, bookmarking web pages with an automatic thumbnail...just to name a few) I think one place you see that is when you right click a node or tree item in RightNote but I believe TreeProjects is adding or planning some similar features -  there is or was a roadmap page for TreeProjects - so it depends if you really need or want them.

[rgdot]

sorry quoted instead of modify

[superboyac]

I prefer TreeProjects because it does keyboard captures, organization of nodes (keyboard shortcuts to add a child or new item for example) and search more simply in my opinion. I also like TreeProjects' 'reference' item (basically items are referenced or 'exist' in more than one place in a database)

RightNote is more feature-rich though (calendar, spreadsheet support, paragraph styles, bookmarking web pages with an automatic thumbnail...just to name a few) I think one place you see that is when you right click a node or tree item in RightNote but I believe TreeProjects is adding or planning some similar features -  there is or was a roadmap page for TreeProjects - so it depends if you really need or want them.

-rgdot (February 15, 2012, 04:01 PM)

I got em both!!
But I'm using RightNote currently.

[J-Mac]

TreeProjects available again today at Bits:  $19.60 for the version that's normally $49.00.

Sorry for resurrecting such an old thread, but it's the only one with any info about TreeProjects that I found here.

Is there any more info from users of it since this thread died previously?

Thanks!

Jim

[rgdot]

Started this thread way back and was/is a fan, it didn't receive updates for a long time and now it has become free.

The world of software was quite different back then in 2011, when I released the first versions of TreeProjects (and much more so in 2009, when I started working on it). And it is a very good thing! The age of desktop domination has ended; ubiquitous cloud storage and synchronization emerged, and it is the norm for software solutions to be cross-platform and cross-device. This is something I myself expect when considering a piece of software or a service.

TreeProjects did not evolve to become such a server-based, cross-platform solution – it remains an old school Windows desktop program. And it is unlikely that it will ever change. TreeProjects is still an essential tool for me – I have been using it since the very first release. I know for a fact that it has been as useful to the people who have become customers, and whom I deeply thank. The program wouldn’t have become what it is without their support.

However, in these days of rightfully increased expectations, and in hopes that this will make the world better, I have made TreeProjects available free of charge. An option to purchase a license is still available for those who’d like to buy me a lunch!

http://personaldatab...projects-is-now-free