The 7-days list view makes my day!
Written: May 20 '01 (Updated May 21 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Powerful, compatible with default datebook, icons, makes color Palm useful
Cons: Palm can’t differentiate contact list and datebook in this all-in-one app
The Bottom Line: After you’ve tried it, there is no way you can go back to the default PalmOS datebook application. It is everything a time management app should be.
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| transgenik's Full Review: Action Names |
In the old days, when I used a paper agenda, I always used different colors to easily spot different events in my week. When I received my color Palm last year, I was quite deceived to see how little the color has been integrated in the PalmOS. In the Datebook and Contact applications, for example, color was (and is still) only used to differentiate between selected and un-selected items.
In Action Names Datebook, color is everywhere. For example, I can write appointments in any color I like; I can also highlight the different “to-do’s” categories; I can even colorize the “past due” events to easily see those in my agenda. If you have a color Palm and have been frustrated over the lack of color, try Action Names today.
The application also comes with a set of icons that can be associated to each to-do and event. Needless to say that icons are a great enhancement to any interface: in just a glimpse of an eye, without needing to read long sentences, you get to know what’s in your agenda for the day, the week or even the month.
If it's my quest for a more colorful Palm that lead me to Action Names Datebook, I now recommend it for much more than it’s colorful options!
== Different views of the world ==
If you thought the PalmOS’ default datebook offered you a variety of views (daily, weekly, monthly and daily with integration of the to-do’s), think again. Action Names reinterprets the default views with great enhancements, and offers even more.
The daily view in Action Names integrates the to-do by default, but with a split screen that lets you easily decide to view only the to-do list or the daily entries (I always leave it to the split screen).
The weekly view can be organized it four different ways: a list of events, a 1-week grid, a 2-weeks grid and the blocks view (same as in the default application). The first three weekly views integrate the to-do’s, which is a great enhancement over the default application. As my title suggests, the 7-days list view is my preferred way of using Action Names: it gives a good overview of the week, showing the dates and hours where I have something scheduled; even though I sometimes have to scroll to see the end of my week at the bottom of the list, as the week goes by, the past days disappear from the view (which isn’t the case in a block view) and so does the scroll.
For the monthly view, Action Names offers three different choices: standard, clocks and icons. As I’m quite an icon freak (I use an extended icon database and take time to carefully select a meaningful icon for each event I enter), I go for the icon view.
Finally, you get an extra quarter view, where each month could be compared to the standard monthly view, but reduced in size. How practical! Why didn’t Palm think of it before?
== Highs and lows of an all-in-one application ==
The contact list manager is also much better than the one included with Palms. You get tabs to navigate through letters and can easily customize the views. I personally rarely use Action Names’ contact list, though, because I can’t associate my Palm “contact” button directly to it!
That’s because the contact list is treated as part of the Action Names Datebook, which is an “all-in-one” application: any button I configure to activate Action Names will start the last active part of the program. So you last consulted the contact list, then the contact list will be started even when you push your datebook button. A separate contact list compatible with the rest of the datebook application would help a lot to resolve this matter.
== You can search, but you won’t ==
Action Names finally comes with a very elaborated search engine, but I never use it. Frankly, I consider never using a search engine to be a good sign: the program is very well designed and it is so easy to navigate through different options and view that I can manage to retrieve any information without needing to search for it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
transgenik
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Member: Martine Gingras
Location: Rosemère, Québec, Canada
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 28 members
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