Outliner/PIM roll call: Fall 2012

Posted by Dr Andus
Oct 17, 2012 at 09:53 AM

razorboy wrote:
>I went through the training module, and I
>don’t see how Amode would be used
>as a general info or data collector, since the thing
>seems a big project manager with -
>predictably - everything relating up to or down
>from, projects. Mind you, I haven’t
>had time to do the trial yet.

I agree with Alexander that Mindsystems missed a marketing opportunity by not promoting Amode as primarily a project management software, which is its key strength.

However, at its heart it is structured as many other PIMs, so the PIM functionality is there. Its a 2-pane outliner where each item not only has a rich text note (like MyInfo or UR) but also an associated concept map, alarms, attachments and some rather sophisticated way of making internal links (called “Relationships”). Plus the PM features of the Calendar and the Gantt.

Moreover, you can keep many databases (Amode files) open at the same time in tabs, and view them side-by-side in a single view in the Briefcase (project stacks). This latter feature I haven’t seen anywhere else.

The reason I don’t use Amode as a PIM is because I have other apps for those features that individually do a better job (CT for notes database, MLO for task management, VUE for concept mapping, Bonsai for outlining etc.). My other concern was about how it would deal with mountains of data, as even Mindsystems warn against putting too much data into a single file in order not to corrupt it, which is not ideal if you want a PIM.

Re the “Relationships” feature, you can have more complex relationships between items than even in a wiki. In Amode you can have 2-Way, Neutral, Outward, Inward, Finish-Start, Finish-Finish, Start-Start, and Start-Finish relationships, so you can construct some very idiosyncratic models (but this is most useful for project management).