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More on Idea! - interesting but longish
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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.
Outliners.com Message ID: 2055
Posted by jackcrawford
2004-07-13 03:13:23
It looks like some of us have had the same idea about contacting Sycon (and referring them to this discussion group).
Below are some comments from Sycon about Idea! functionality, a new version in the wings and future plans. The templates mentioned at the end sound like the sort of thing that Freebyte also offers with Treepad.
Because I don’t work that much inside a PIM/outliner, but need to get things in and get things out with no fuss, Idea! seems to me to be the most interesting and practical product on the market for quite a while. It’s certainly testing my loyalty to TreePadBiz!
[Sycon comments follow - slightly edited]
> Do you recommend a maximum database size for individual databases?
The database won’t grow that much as the attachents are mainly the files which need disk space not the body of the email. As the attchements are detached and stored on the disc, it does not affect the size of the database a lot.
The database size is therefore not a problem. If you use OLE objects in the RTF field etc, then this eats a bit more memory but is also uncritical. The only point where you have to be careful with according size is pictures. If you paste large pictures in the RTF field, they are converted to Bitmaps and stored as those. Then the database grows quickly. If you do not use a lot of pictures the database size is always uncritical as it contains mainly
textinformation and links. A typical IDEA! database rarely has more than 500 KB or 1MB (although you can have 100 MB or even more - we tested with 100 MB). Please have a look at the size of your current Idea! database. It will probably have not more then 200KB.
> Are you continuing to develop the software? If so, what
> features are in the pipeline?
YES, the software is contiounsly under development and we will probably release a new version this week.
New features include:
1) Better integration with Outlook:
a)You can now link not only mails from outlook but also folders, contacts,tasks as attachments via drag and drop into IDEA!.
And when you move a mail in Outlook, IDEA! will still find it. You do not have to adjust the outlook folder name. Speed has been improved to call linked documents/objects.
b) It is also possible (with a small trick) to create objects like tasks, appointments, mails etc. directly in Outlook out of IDEA!.
Currently some restrictions apply concerning the column structure in Outlook. They have to be in the order “from” “subject” “received” or in the send folder “to” “subject” “send” where the date for send and received should be a normal date and not contain a long name for a day e.g. Sunday .... (if you haven’t changed the standard settings it will work). Contacts will currently work from the telephone list view and from the detailed business card view.
We will try to get rid of all restrictions concerning this and just discussed this issue this morning. We are 99% sure that we can remove all these restrictions completely and soon.
2) Category tree and filters
The menu above the tree has a checkbox with “AF” which stands for “automatic filter”. If you check this box and click on a category, only those records which are in this category (and its sub categories) will be shown in the right hand window (AND filter is autamtically activated).
You can apply now additional filters to these filtered records. E.g. the due date filter or status filter.
Generally cascading filters are supported now!
3) Fulltext search for information in the IDEA! database and “outside” the database. The fulltext search has been extended and it is now possible to integrate the indexer of the operating system.
a) You can search in IDEA!.
b) You can search “outside” IDEA! using the index catalog of the opertaing system
c) You can search both a) and b) at the same time or independently from each other
d) You can build an intersection between both search results
e) Search results from the index catalog can be sorted and grouped and are available to integrate them via drag and drop as a attachments.
f) Files found via the index catalog which are already attached are marked and you can jump immediatley to the records where they are attached.
4) Internal Links
You can create internal links. This means you can create a link for record A to record B, where record A is then an attachment of record B or vice versa.
To do so you just need need to copy a record in the tree with the copy command and paste it as an attachment to the record where you want to set the link. Or you can use ALT + left mouse key with Drag and Drop to create the link.
5) Adding records
Even when a filter is active, you can now add records to the database.
6) We worked on some handling issues (e.g.
a) when you click in the tree sometimes you had to change a record till it will jump to the marked record. This is fixed - the selected record will now be marked immediately
b) some menu points have been rearranged.
7) The length of a filename and a folder name can now have 240 characters.
8) An additional box to enter a string for a full text search has been integrated in the menu above the records to quickly execute queries.
9) RTF Field
a) You can edit the text field now directly without opening it with double click.
b) Direct copy and paste into the text field is possible now as well
c) (OLE functionality; has always been part of the RTF text field but will be documented better in the future
10) EXCEL Import
a) You can import data from Excel worksheets (create records with title,text, note, date, status and originator)
11) A report generator is availabe for business edition users (free -
without additional cost) which lets you create your own reports.
Planned improvements for the next version are (beside many others):
A) Outlook integration and mail import
1) Even better direct mail import from Outlook (including attachemts,
importing more then one mail at a time, being able to group and sort mails in Outlook before import; import will be possible from any outlook folder - not just inbox, outbox and draft).
2) Automatic conversion of linked mails into outlook message files (.msg) ->
this allows then to archive the mails as they are with the whole idea! database because the mails are then files.
And one last remark about the IDEA! team edition. Most probably the idea! team edition will also be available as a flexible collaboration platform on an Internet server soon. We plan to set up an example IDEA! team database on our internet server so that you can log in and see how this would work and serve as a collaboration plattform for groups without a LAN or WAN.
Beside additional functionality we are also offering now IDEA! databases with content templates together with our canadian business partners. The website is up now and f this is interesting for you, you might have a look at http://www.teamstart.com . Content templates (idea! databases) for project management and other topics
will follow and be available soon.
Christian Dˆhm
Sycon Beratungs GmbH
Beethovenstr. 18
41366 Schwalmtal
Tel. +49-2163-948930
Fax: +49-2163-948931
[Sycon comments end]