.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE DateBk6 has advantages over the built-in Palm Datebook
.AUTHOR Heather Wardell
.SUMMARY Many people use their Palm handhelds primarily for calendar and todo list functionality. While the built-in applications are more than capable of performing these duties, they don’t have much in the way of extras. Pimlico Software’s DateBk6 offers more than two hundred and fifty improvements over the built-in applications, and is one of the best-supported applications we’ve ever seen to boot.
.OTHER
Many people use their Palm handhelds primarily for calendar and todo list functionality. While the built-in applications are more than capable of performing these duties, they don’t have much in the way of extras. Pimlico Software’s DateBk6 offers more than two hundred and fifty improvements over the built-in applications, and is one of the best-supported applications I’ve ever seen to boot.
DateBk6 is a large application, taking up nearly one megabyte of my Palm’s memory, but the features it adds make it worth the space. The manual is over a hundred pages, and packed with information and tips on how to make the best use of the program, but the software is still accessible for the new user.
.TEASER To learn more about DateBk6, tap here.
.H1 Installation and setup
The program requires two files to be installed (the application file and a resource file), with the help database an optional third. I recommend installing it too, since it provides a quick and easy way to access help directly from the application. The main application file can be installed to a memory card, but the resource file must be in main memory.
Right after installation, DateBk6 is functional and can be used without further settings or customization, but the real power of the application comes from tweaking its settings and display to best suit your needs.
.H1 An overview of DateBk6’s operation
Pimlico has done a great job maintaining the general look-and-feel of the standard applications while adding more features. This means that anyone familiar with the built-in applications will be able to navigate DateBk6 easily.
For an example of how much functionality DateBk6 can add, Figure A shows the Today view of DateBk6 on the left, and the built-in Calendar’s Today view on the right.
.FIGPAIR A DateBk6 packs a lot more information into its Today view, all of which can be customized to suit your needs.
DateBk6 offers the Today view as shown above, a more standard day view, a weekly view showing bars blocking out your booked time, a weekly view showing the text of your appointments and tasks for the week, a monthly view showing which days have appointments, a tiny but amazingly readable full-year calendar, and a view that lists all your upcoming tasks and appointments.
As if these weren’t enough, you can create your own views based on any or all of the originals. The manual provides a full-page list of possible views, and some are really interesting, such as the suggestion to use a specific icon to track days when you feel a specific medical symptom, then use a yearly view, filtered by that icon, to look for patterns.
The program comes with a small set of icons, but many more are available for purchase from a variety of software developers. Personally, I generally do not use the icons (although I did add some for the screen shot) because I tend to spend far more time searching for the perfect icon than actually doing the task. However, they’re available, and can be very useful.
A feature I use more frequently is the ability to change the color (text and background) and font size of tasks and appointments. This can be done for all items in a particular category (all work appointments in green and personal ones in brown, for example), or to add emphasis to a specific item, and makes it much easier to spot the most important tasks or appointments.
DateBk6’s improvements to the standard applications run much deeper than just saved views and user interface, though. The application allows you to link appointments, todos, memos, and contacts to each other. If you have a meeting with a particular client, for example, you can link the client’s contact information to the appointment, and link a memo containing your agenda for that meeting as well. Going the other way, you can see everything that is linked to a particular item, such as to see all the meetings you’ve had with a client.
As a marathon runner, I enter the same sorts of appointments every week: long run XX hours, interval run XX minutes. DateBk6’s template feature makes this painless. You create an appointment or todo the way you want it, with the perfect colored font, icon, and alarm settings, then save it as a template. When you invoke the template, the item appears, on the date being shown, exactly as you saved it. You can edit the new item as you see fit (replacing that XX with a terrifyingly high number, for example), but having most of the work done for you saves a lot of time.
DateBk6 uses the same databases as the built-in applications, so everything is synchronized to your computer with a normal HotSync. It stores all of your item-specific settings (fonts, repeats, icons) in the note field of the item. If you add a note to an item through DateBk6 itself, you don’t see the notes it’s made, but you do see them if you look at the item via the Palm Desktop or another application. I have never found this to be a problem, though, as long as you don’t accidentally erase the information.
.H1 The DateBk6 experience
DateBk6 is difficult to review because there are so many features deserving of attention. I have been using DateBk6 and its predecessors since I began with DateBk3 back in 1998 or thereabouts, and I was surprised, in the process of writing this review, how many of the features I take for granted in my day-to-day activities are actually DateBk6-specific.
Setting alarms on todos, floating items that drift from one day to another until checked off, putting a four-digit year into an annual appointment (such as a birthday or anniversary) and then being able to see at a tap how many years ago the event occurred… all of these are part of DateBk6, not the base applications.
.H1 Customer support
At the beginning of this review, I mentioned customer support. I wrote a review for a different agenda application which included a daily quote feature. The application pulled quotes from a memo and displayed a different one each day. When I returned to DateBk6 after the review was complete, I missed this feature, so sent an email to ask whether it was something they had considered.
I received a reply from CESD, (C.E. Stuart Dewar, Pimlico’s founder) in less than a day, saying that this wasn’t currently included but that DateBk6’s architecture had been designed to permit plug-ins to be created with relative ease. He then offered to make a plug-in to display quotes. A few days later, he emailed me the plug-in, which worked perfectly and is now available as part of the DateBk6 download. Figure A, above, shows the plug-in in action.
.H1 Conclusion
In Palm software, I often find that you either get quick and responsive tech support or a professional and polished product, but not both. Pimlico has both down to an art, and DateBk6 is worthy of a place on everyone’s Palm.
DateBk6 receives a rating of five out of five.
.RATING 5
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Learn more about [[http://www.pimlicosoftware.com/datebk6.htm|DateBk6]].
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
