Author Topic: ITSD Organizer keeps your notes at hand (Read 34186 times)

zridling · « **on:** August 29, 2005, 07:10 PM »

ITSD Organizer, also known as Is There Something to Do? strikes the right balance between sticky notes, personal organizer, and reminder programs. ITSD has plenty of keyboard shortcuts to aid navigation, but unlike so many other apps in this category, it includes an expanding monthly calendar view. For example, if you enlarge the program screen size, more monthly calendars open up along the right pane. You can also choose to turn the calendar off. All of ITSD's features are within reach of your mouse using the toolbar or view panes or with a keyboard shortcut, making the program both fast and easy to quickly add a note before you forget your thought. Each note includes a notes section for further annotation.

Above is its Tree view, where the user can define categories and subcategories as nested folders. The program provides an option to open and hide the program to the system tray using the Scroll Lock key. Even better, you can not only customize a few of its hotkeys, e.g., for adding a note, but ITSD includes a neat "Quick Notes" feature with a hotkey activation that you choose. Just select any text from any program, hit F11, and ITSD copies the text to the notes section of a new note.

That's keen design borne of consideration of what makes a good notes application.

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** August 29, 2005, 07:14 PM »

looks very nice!

zridling · « **Reply #2 on:** August 29, 2005, 08:00 PM »

I'm not in love with the name, but what do you name these apps — NoteTaker 3000? I still think the best name is one that starts with "Super Happy" — jeez, that makes me laugh every time and want to speak Japanese.

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** August 29, 2005, 08:01 PM »

this site was almost called: Super Happy Software $:-\$

zridling · « **Reply #4 on:** August 29, 2005, 10:58 PM »

In a past life, were you a Samurai perchance? I also keep thinking of the Simpsons' trip to Japan and the quiz show they were on.

Sentinel · « **Reply #5 on:** August 30, 2005, 01:04 AM »

I've been looking for the ideal note taking app since forever (I need sleek and simple but I'm picky about how simple), so I think I'll check this out.

One of the big downsides I tend to have with these combined todo manager/calendar/note databases is that they never seem to integrate very well with anything else. I can either not use the calendar/todo stuff at all which seems a waste of my money and RAM, or not integrate it with my Palm or PPC which means I'll start missing stuff one way or another.

As for names I think I'd call my organiser 'Virtual Nagging Wife' or WTF? (What's in The Future?). I don't think there is another type of software with such stupid naming potential.

Oh Mouser, I'm sure there is still plenty of time to change DC's name to something of such universally high quality comedic value.

zridling · « **Reply #6 on:** August 30, 2005, 01:13 AM »

You can set popup reminders with or without sound if you assign a date/time to your notes. One of the things I like best is that Scroll Lock hotkey for hiding and opening it to the system tray. It takes about 9-10M of memory on my system, but that's nothing considering I've got plenty, so judge for yourself. I liked the $20 price tag, too. Given shareware pricing trends, I was expecting it to cost $35, which would have ended the sale.

As for names, there's always the old "Hey Now!" for an organizer.

rjbull · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2005, 04:56 AM »

Maybe folk should look at the Yahoo! group Power Tools Software
http://groups.yahoo..../powertoolssoftware/

where this kind of thing is a preoccupation?

I've recently been playing with JBLab Secure Notes, which is cheap shareware and small and fast, but still has rough edges

http://www.jblab.com/pim.html

Password generator, encrypted, special past mode for Web (tries to guess the right node name), reminder feature that I haven't tried.

--
Robert Bull

nudone · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2005, 05:16 AM »

if anyone knows of an organiser that will sync with a pocket pc then i'd like to know, please.

i'm currently using outlook and agenda fusion but i wouldn't say that it's a perfect combination.

Sentinel · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2005, 06:29 AM »

Outlook.

Outside of that you will need 3rd party software to sync such as Intellisync or Cadenza (never cheap) and even then they will typically only sync to the bigger Enterprise apps such as Lotus Notes, Groupwise, Act and so forth. Frankly being forced to use Outlook at home for PPC syncing was one of the reasons I've gone back to using my Palm.

There is a definite missed marketing opportunity here somewhere for some of the smaller organiser developers to integrate their products with ActiveSync...

rjbull · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2005, 08:02 AM »

if anyone knows of an organiser that will sync with a pocket pc then i'd like to know, please.
-nudone (August 31, 2005, 05:16 AM)

Doesn't Natara Bonsai do that?

http://www.natara.com/index.cfm

ShadowPlan seems well-liked on the Palm, but the PC version is less good. Jot+Notes has some degree of synchronization with it, but I don't think there's a Pocket PC version

http://www.codejedi.com/

nudone · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2005, 08:25 AM »

thanks, rjbull. i'll check bonsai out now.

rjbull · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2005, 08:28 AM »

Oops, sorry - looks like Bonsai might only be Palm.

Sentinel · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2005, 08:35 AM »

Bonsai and ShadowPlan (my personal choice on Palm) are both outliners, so may well only give you a subset of what you are looking for - Certainly no calendar syncing or the like, and often just the outlines created in the app with just links to the appropriate entries on the handheld, rather than the entries themselves.

If this still meets your needs then the most popular one on PPC tends to be ListPro. I've used ListPro and it is not bad, though not as good as some of the Palm equivalents. Never used the PC desktop component for it though so I have no idea how well it may work.

http://www.iliumsoft.com

nudone · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2005, 08:37 AM »

yes, bonsai seems to be palm only.

i'll have a quick go with ListPro.

rjbull · « **Reply #15 on:** September 13, 2005, 09:02 AM »

if anyone knows of an organiser that will sync with a pocket pc then i'd like to know, please.
-nudone (August 31, 2005, 05:16 AM)

The author of JBLab Secure Notes
http://www.jblab.com/pim.html
is about to re-write it with PPC in mind. That's a long way off, but, now might be the time to put in your requests.

rjbull · « **Reply #16 on:** September 13, 2005, 09:09 AM »

I still think the best name is one that starts with "Super Happy" — jeez, that makes me laugh every time and want to speak Japanese.
-zridling (August 29, 2005, 08:00 PM)

I once came across a Taiwanese outfit called the "Full Yes Company." Just right for these customer-centric times

I see a new version of Essential PIM is available:

=== begin quote ===
today we are announcing a v.1 6 Release Candidate for EssentialPIM
Free!
There are many new features and bug fixes in comparison to latest 1.5.3
version.
Please remember, it is still a Release Candidate and before
downloading, BACKUP your database into another place (by copying *.epim
file using Windows features)
Download: http://www.essential...a/EssentialPIM16.exe

New features:

import from multiple RTF and TXT files (especially for those migrating
from TreePAD)
feature to change icons in Notes tree, pre-setup range
feature to set up Default font for Notes module
"Database Management" new window with essential information about
database
feature to add date/time into Note name
new "Add Note" dialog window
option to show Contacts without grid lines
Reminders are now with "No sound" by default
"Hide Clock" function
Picture in Contacts can be exported now
Undo/Redo buttons added to Notes
Tools-> Options now remembers last used tab
Changed To Do priorities flags to more readable on black and white
printout

=== end quote ===

moerl · « **Reply #17 on:** September 30, 2005, 09:06 PM »

What are your guys' takes on EssentialPIM? I tried it once a while back and didn't get all the hype.. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Maybe I didn't look deep enough, and maybe it's gotten better.. so I'm asking you

zridling · « **Reply #18 on:** October 08, 2005, 09:43 PM »

I have to agree on EssentialPIM. It's one many advantage is that you can add entried directly in the calendar, which I really like. But throughout each mode, there is so much wasted space. I don't care about fancy icons (that can be hidden), I want to see more events.

moerl · « **Reply #19 on:** October 11, 2005, 10:51 PM »

Last time I tried EssentialPIM, I really wasn't all that impressed. I might give it another shot. I'm currently using "Backpack" from 37signals and really like it. However, if you don't have access to the web, you can't use it, which is quite a disadvantage. Here's something else some of you may find interesting. I have not tried it myself yet but Intend to do so soon. Anyway.. what happened to ITSD now? How do you guys like it? When I first tried it I liked it a lot, but I ran into problems with it after that.. I don't blame *it* though.. it probably was my system that was a bit messed up at the time.

Nighted · « **Reply #20 on:** October 11, 2005, 11:40 PM »

For to do list and reminders I use Rainlendar: http://www.ipi.fi/~r...p;project=rainlendar

For notes, recipes, game codes/faqs, whatever, I stick with Keynote: http://www.tranglos....om/free/keynote.html

But hey, I'm cheap!

rjbull · « **Reply #21 on:** October 12, 2005, 03:33 AM »

For notes, recipes, game codes/faqs, whatever, I stick with Keynote:
-Nighted (October 11, 2005, 11:40 PM)

Keynote's never quite "clicked" with me, and I noticed that the person who collects the Yahoo! group on PowerPro as a Keynote file remarked that it "struggled" with large files. Any comments on that?

kfitting · « **Reply #22 on:** October 12, 2005, 05:39 AM »

By struggle what do you mean? I have several Keynote files over 4 meg and havent noticed any problems. Once an individual node gets to be rather large the program slows down while in that node, is that what they meant? Keynote 2 is supposed to alleviate a lot of this and add tremendous functionality... unfortunately, while development was started, no news has come in the last couple months. Hopefully it hasnt ended, but we'll see.

Kevin

rjbull · « **Reply #23 on:** October 12, 2005, 10:55 AM »

By struggle what do you mean? I have several Keynote files over 4 meg and havent noticed any problems. Once an individual node gets to be rather large the program slows down while in that node, is that what they meant? Keynote 2 is supposed to alleviate a lot of this and add tremendous functionality... unfortunately, while development was started, no news has come in the last couple months. Hopefully it hasnt ended, but we'll see.

Kevin
-kfitting (October 12, 2005, 05:39 AM)

It probably is what you mean, but quoting http://www.pcrei.com...PPMLA_README_1st.txt
which is the PowerPro support site
"Though I have given the steps to collect all the years' archive
into a single .knt file, mainly for searching purposes, my personal
advice is to keep each year's archive in a separate .knt file like,
2000.knt, 2001.knt, 2002.knt etc. This is because Keynote struggles as
the file size becomes larger taking longer time to open, save and
search. Since you can open multiple .knt files at the same time
(tools > configuration options > general settings > uncheck "allow
only one instance") it should be no problem."

Looks to me like Keynote development has been stalled for more like two years than two months? But IIRC it's open source if someone else is willing and able to carry it forward.

kfitting · « **Reply #24 on:** October 12, 2005, 12:23 PM »

I see..... yes, it does take more time to open, search, and save because it stores the entire file in memory when it's opened.

New versions have not been released in two years, but go to the message boards. THere are several posts from marek from June (I believe) giving status updates on 2.0. 2.0 is (supposed to be) a complete rewrite from scratch using a component called TRichView to get around many of the inherent problems with Microsoft's RichEdit control (more info available on forum). It also uses a totally different file format that does not load the entire file into memory.

However, like I said, nothing has been posted in the last few months from marek saying what has been happening. Progress may be going on, but not that we can see! As far as getting other people to carry on development, while not impossible, I would definitely suggest reading through the problems marek has run into, especially concerning the RichEdit component. Tables, hyperlinks, etc, are an inherent problem. TRichView looks like a great solution... but it costs, and someone needs to program for it.

Kevin