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Questions for LeaderTask users
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Posted by PIMfan
Jun 27, 2015 at 06:25 PM
Ken -
I own and use LeaderTask on a daily basis. IMHO LeaderTask is one of the the true “sleeper” Task/Note apps out there, and I think alot more people would like it if they checked out a demo version for a week or two. The UI was completely redone from v8 to v9, and while I didn’t care for the “Outlook-ish” v8 UI, I really like the current one. LT is incredibly flexible and powerful with a feature set that is deeper than appears at first take. For context on the type of PIM user I am, I also own Zoot & RightNote and am also a fan of InfoQube and Ecco. Suffice to say I like apps that are powerful even if there is some time investment required to take advantage. LeaderTask’s power and flexibility make it a comfortable fit with the above mentioned group of apps…but I digress….
To answer your questions:
1) ” I am also a bit confused about their pricing policy”: Purchasing a license includes one year of updates to the app, along with one year of synch services (hosted on MS Azure). I purchased a one year license via a sale for $29.98USD. For less than $3/month, it was a no-brainer for me. This price includes both cloud synch services to integrate with the mobile app (I use iPhone) along with updates to the application itself.
2) ” I am only interested in the stand-alone portable version of the software”: If you purchase LeaderTask, it will operate as a portable app - I have mine installed to dropbox, and I launch it from my desktop dropbox folder from both my laptop and desktop PC’s. As to using it in standalone mode, I did that with the original free copy I eval’ed from BDJ. But once I purchased a license, I then enabled their Azure-cloud synch, which gives me seamless access to my data using the iPhone LeaderTask app. Synch works well, and I’ve had no issues or crashes. But if you’re not interested in it, under Settings—> Synchronization, you can remove the checkbox next to “Enable Synchronization”. You also asked about the app “phoning home” - I am not sure of the answer….
3) ” I like how it handles both notes and tasks as well as offering projects, tags and categories”: You’ve hit on the sweet spot of LT that is executed more elegantly than any of the other apps I’ve tried. I’m in a master’s program, and I’ll describe how I use these features of LT for tracking all of my work:
- For each class I take, I create an entry for it under Projects. I name the project with the class name (e.g. “IST 587 - Mgmt Concepts for e-Business”)
- I then create a contact record for the project via right-click on the project—> Add Contact. The professor’s contact record appears. I then add the professor’s contact info and even picture from the syllabus (I’m a “completeness” kind of guy) to the contact record.
- Going back to the class syllabus, I then create top-level tasks - one for each week. I select the class (you can also use the In basket), and I use a sort of “quick-mode” entry style by pressing the Insert key, and create an entry for each week and include the class name. For example, “IST 587 - Week 1”, “IST 587 - Week 2”, etc. These represent my top-level task folders for organizing the assignments for each week.
- I then double click on a task to open the detail pane below the task hierarchy. For each top-level item, I then click the “Term” icon in the detail pane where I then specify the start and end dates for the week (using Ctrl-click).
- For each weekly top-level task, I then create the individual assignments by pressing the Insert key, entering the task name, and then pressing enter. If a task has a subtask, I press Alt-Insert to create a subtask. This quick-mode entry gets my entire set of class assignments entered in a hurry. Of course, you can then rearrange the hierarchy as needed using Ctrl and the arrow keys (see http://www.help.leadertask.com/hot-keys for a list of all hotkeys).
- Upon entering all of the tasks, I also create Notes items for the class (Ctrl-N). I create one for Class Readings, and one for Class Notes.
- In the Class Readings note item, I drag the class PowerPoint presentations and other assigned readings to the folder. This serves two purposes: 1) It helps me keep the readings for the class in one place; 2) Because I use synchronization, the reading materials are then available in the iPhone LT client (Android is also supported). Whether it’s PDF or PowerPoint, I can read the class materials anywhere I am! This allows me to truly be mobile with not only the assignments I have, but also the readings I must do. Note that you can also attach audio files to your LT items using the iPhone app! So when I need to quickly capture a thought regarding an assignment, I use the audio note feature.
- When I am in class, I select the Class Notes folder and use the “Add Note” feature to create an outline of the lecture material. Since the notes are RTF, it’s easy to later open them in Word and annotate or markup the original notes.
- LT’s ability to have each item contain notes in the item body in addition to being able to attach multiple RTF notes is something I really like and use ALOT.
- One quick tip regarding notes: If you capture notes in the body of the item, you can’t use the RFT formatting of the “Add Note” types. HOWEVER, it provides the ability embed links, so you can link to other content, websites, LT items, etc. And it also provides one “killer feature”: If you select multiple notes/tasks and then select Print, it will consolidate all of the item body content into a single document for printing. This feature lets me take class notes with content for each week in a separate note item, and then use the multi-print capability to print a consolidated outline of notes to study for exams. Very very cool feature and something I really like!
I haven’t even scratched the surface of the powerful features included in LT. I also use the categories, labels and markers to highlight important items and use many other features. I didn’t even touch on the custom views I’ve setup. There are group task discussion features and other capabilities I haven’t even tried. This tool really is a cornucopia of functionality. LeaderTask is incredibly powerful and there is something about how it all just comes together smoothly that is hard to describe. It is extremely stable and the UI just “makes sense” for my eyes and workflow.
It’s not perfect (documentation is sorely lacking - most of the above I learned through experience). I honestly believe the lack of documentation is what keeps LT from having a much broader user base. But if you’re not afraid of rolling up your sleeves and checking out the features via experimentation, LT is well worth the price. The mobile synch is so well done that it’s one of the few mobile synch tools I actually use on an regular basis.
Hopefully, describing my workflow above has given some insight into what LeaderTask can do. I have no association with LeaderTask except being a highly satisfied user. Let me know if you have other questions and I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned.
I’ve posted a screenshot at the below URL in case you want a peek at how my class tracking system in LeaderTask….
d
Posted by Ken
Jun 28, 2015 at 04:58 PM
Thank you for the detailed reply. I keep exploring this program, and I keep finding more confusing or concerning information, especially about Malware Bytes warnings. And, their pricing/different versions is also confusing, as there are two versions at BDJ which claim that you own the software, but you mentioned the annual renewal license. All in all very confusing, and a bit of a goose chase. I am willing to do my due diligence for software under consideration, but they are not making this easy. I suspect that I need to write them, so that will now be added to my ever-growing to-do list. Unfortunate, but I have already had enough software troubles recently to just download and take my chances.
—Ken
Posted by PIMfan
Jun 28, 2015 at 07:14 PM
Hi Ken -
I agree that their product differentiation on BDJ is really confusing. There are three “LeaderTasks” on BDJ, and I believe this is caused by them having named the offer in question differently each time. The one I originally got a as a free lifetime (non-updating) version was at http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/leaderTask-Daily-Planner.
I see some other people have mentioned Malwarebytes on the BDJ thread. I don’t use MWB, but I use Avast as my desktop AV, and Avast hasn’t had any issues with it. Thist is just an FYI datapoint….
Likewise, their versioning info is also quite confusing as you’ll see references to LeaderTask, LeaderTask Expert, etc. As best I can determine:
- The LeaderTask version for $34 listed on BDJ at http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/leaderTask-Daily-Planner is a fully functioning version without the synch services;
- The “Expert” version offered on their site for $59 at http://www.leadertask.com/en/buy is a version that includes one year of the synch services and one year of updates.
- There’s also a “company box” version designed for licensing across a company based on the number of employees (http://help.leadertask.com/license-agreement/10-license-agreement-for-leadertask-company-management).
One of the problems they have is that their product info is spread across sites with different URL’s. For example, going to http://www.leadertask.com provides a different site than another URL they own: http://www.leadercommand.com. And it’s on http://www.leadercommand.com that you’ll find some basic info on the cloud service and Azure (http://www.leadercommand.com/content/view/248/465/). They really need to spend some time on website consolidation and content alignment. Clear differentiation of product versions on their site is another need. Their current site is less than helpful, and it certainly doesn’t help their business model. I believe the biggest contributor to the situation is their being an eastern European company, and the English portions of the site are not getting perhaps the same level of attention to detail. It’s too bad, because the lack of content organization (and MWB warnings) can potentially result in some users walking away from this gem….
d
Posted by Ken
Jun 28, 2015 at 08:28 PM
Appreciate the additional information on product differentiation. I lifetime license without sync services interests me. I have not completely given up on them, but I do need to find time to figure things out. Do you know if their support would be of any assistance beyond what you have already provided?
Thanks,
—Ken
Posted by Pierre Paul Landry
Jul 14, 2015 at 01:21 PM
Ken wrote:
>Unfortunately, I had numerous problems when I tried both the portable
>versions of Rel 52 and 52b on my Win7 machine. In addition to the
>program being flagged for sandboxing, it kept locking up my whole
>machine required a forced shutdown. I want to use the portable version
>so it can be used at work, but I do not know what to do to get things
>running without these kinds of glitches. I can try the newest version,
>but I am not sure what will be different. Any suggestions?
Hi Ken,
I’m back from holidays.
Are you still having issues with IQ running on your machine ? Is the issue present on more than one PC ?
The portable version is “extremely” insensitive to the computer setup, and very few users have reported issues…
We can make a live conversation and/or screen sharing (TeamViewer or other) to help resolve it if you wish.
Pierre
IQ Designer
http://www.infoqube.biz