Re: A few ideas for developers (Re: My current set)

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 3966

Posted by sub
2005-08-27 10:16:45

[Part 4, final (I think)]

The last couple of weeks I’ve been looking around for project and time management tools, in the framework of reorganising my way of working, as I am entering a very work-intensive period.

Being quite satisfied with my contact and information management tools, I wasn’t looking for an all-round solution, but rather for focused tools to support specific procedures in my new working model. A simple principle underlying this model, is to have no duplication of info and to consistently use the same tool for the same job everytime, thereby developing my skills at it and building my reference base at the same time.

I therefore initially left out all-round tools like Outlook which I consider bloated and too limited in its perspective, notwithstanding its raw power. I have now reconsidered, approaching things from a different point of view.

The envisaged interconnectivity I wrote about earlier may indeed happen; however, it may not be brought about by common accepted standards, such as vCal, vCard and OPML, but rather by the current market dominance of tools like Outlook and Word. See http://www.google.com.gr/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A//buzzmodo.typepad.com/buzznovation/2005/02/outlook_as_a_pl.html&ei=nm0QQ_igBa66RZCLxd0K

This dominance means, for example, that software vendors may make their product Outlook compatible, in order to target Outlook users just because of the potential market they represent. This then creates a vicious circle, as a number of useful add-ins are only available for Outlook, i.e. the Getting Things Done add-in, the Franklin-Covey PlanPlus etc. In addition, many stand-alone products, i.e. Project Management packages, may cater for exporting data by providing Outlook integration and precious little more.

So, I am currently settling down around Outlook as my calendar platform, with freeware DateLens as the main interface, Outlook Year View for producing my time plans and OutlookSync to keep Outlook files in my various PCs in sync. In addition, I’ve installed the freeware Outlook Linker which enables me to link to Outlook items from virtually any program, including my beloved Brainstorm.

(It’s worth noting here, that the Brainstorm team fixed a surplus error message I got when launching Outlook links from Brainstorm, within a couple of hours of reporting it yesterday afternoon).

There’s more; I’m testing the TimeTo task manager, though Outlook integration is not yet complete, the JCV Gantt Pro package and other similar tools. Last but not least, products that I use such as IDEA! and UltraRecall already integrate with Outlook and the integration will be getting better in new releases.

Mind you, I do not really use Outlook’s actual user interface; also, I do not intend to use Outlook as my main mailer or contact manager. For example, my faithful Calypso already holds many years of important messages in a file small enough to carry around. At the same time, I do not expect anyone to provide Calypso integration so for the moment I’m stuck with saving the messages I want as .txt files and importing them to Hyperclip or UltraRecall; or, perhaps, downloading specific messages in Outlook as well (so much for non-duplication!).

Is the above satisfactory? Perhaps, though I admit that my needs may not be as specific as others’. I may also continue to ponder about the future potential of real modular tools.

alx

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