REALLY Exciting new Calendar/Task Alternative

V

Venkatesh J

New member
Pardon me first of all for rather a "long and arduous post," but I'm REALLY excited about this and it's a result of many, many months of auditioning and testing! It is aimed at those of you looking for a GOOD, reasonably sized but very configurable scheduler; I've been using Agendus for ages and so I'll compare these two apps in combination with pros/cons of switching from Agendus. You'll need 3 programs (dont' panic) - 2 to use to manage the calendar/tasks, and one icon editor since you won't have the luxury of the editor included with Agendus. This, of course, would only be used every now and again for icon editing/adding/cleaning up - you've only got TWO apps to juggle for everything else:

A5 0.1L (4) Beta:
http://www.a5agenda.com/

Monthly Planner 2.3.3:
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&PartnerREF=&siteid=1&prodID=52120

Icon Manager 1.6b, Christopher Antos
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&prodid=47054

First the bad news: here's what you'll miss:
1. Vivid Agenda - use any keyword and the icon is chosen for you
2. Templates - the ease of quick templates with underlining, hiliter and icon won't be available
3. Drag and drop - this never worked properly for me in Agendus' 7 day view, but did work in "extended range" view and was, I admit, handy
4. Photos for contacts
5. Contact History Management
6. Wallpaper

However - the advantages are:

1. simplicity
2. configurable day-headers
3. loading speed
4. stability
5. lack of bloat (you save 1MB to 1.3MB depending on whether you're using Agendus 8.06 or Version 9)
6. No upgrade fees
7. T5 compatibility without V9 upgrade
8. No alarm problems
9. No birthday bug

First, A5:
The day headers and upper title bar configurability are what got me . . . you can go from plain top bar to skins of your choice (I chose the hi-res "Mac" look) and configure what the little tools on top lead you to. Handy!

The day headers no longer have to be blue and say "today, tomorrrow, next Wednesday, This Thursday," etc - they can be abbreviated, in any color you want, or not showing at all. Furthermore there are FIVE "list views" available at all times by checking 1 of 5 boxes on the right side. EACH VIEW can be configured to show to-do boxes, disappear or not after completion, and/or record completion date. Excellent! Simply write graffiti "s" to switch to grid view, with its OWN configuration and list of options for what shows, fonts, etc. Just great.

Second . . . Monthly Planner!
Now the "TOPPER" in my view, and thanks to Mooseman for knowing about this one and telling me . . . Monthly Planner 2.3.3. For those of you who used "MakeSpot" bundled with Agendus, and perhaps like me colored the whole thing light yellow (no weekend shading) and went by that as first view to see what icons were loaded . . . you're in for a treat. MoPlanner doesn't show a limit of 3 icons. It shows 1 icon. AT A TIME - but rotates the icons in any time interval you choose. Have 4 icons loaded for next Wednesday? Well, it shows them all, 1 through 4, in a rotation. Again, the flashing interval is changeable, "100" being 1 second. I chose "90" and it's great - tap on any "day" cell and up pops up a list of the tasks/events. Furthermore, you can move all events/tasks to another day with one command, sort of making up for "drag and drop" in Agendus. You can color present/past/future days and dates in different cell colors and change the text color of the number displayed. All "Saturdays," for example, can be in red or blue or whatever.

These two programs combined are 350k. Not 1,350k. Yes, you miss what I outlined above - but I'm a schedule freak and all I want is the schedule - plain - but configurable in how I view it. I have TealLaunch set to press once for A5, press and hold for Monthly Planner - write an "s" and I see the grid. If I want another list view showing "empty days" or not, or want more viewing area and less day information . . . it's there. If I want to alter the calendar in full day increments, Monthly Planner lets me do that quickly, and there's no chance of MISSING SOMETHING because the "4th icon didn't show up."

You could almost use Monthly Planner by ITSELF and do away with any other calendar app - since tapping a cell brings up a short list (that box's colors are configurable as well!). It's just the way to go if you ask me.

After 3 years of using Agendus and paying $19 to upgrade to Version 8 PRO, 6 weeks later Version 9 came out. I need Version 9 if I'm planning on going "beyond" the T3 I now have, since the T5 needed the "fixes." Well, "9" came out 6 weeks after I bought 8, and guess what - it's another $9.95. Now I understand Ver 10 is around the corner - and another $9.95. As Dana Carvey said in "Bush 41" voice: "Nahhhht gonnna do it."

A5 and Monthly Planner work with the T5 according to the developers - and A5 is improving all the time, the best being this current beta. I remember auditioning it last year and going back to Agendus - the icon rendering and
placement wasn't quite "there." Well it's there now - and I save $20 in 3 months alone (on top of what I've already paid) - just to have a calendar. By using Icon Manager you've got a better icon tool anyway, and can remove other objects and renumber your icons. Small bit of info on how I work icons and their numbering: I tend to move or create icons in "batches," placing them amongst other icons of same type - and then renumbering. I also remove icons that haven't been used since there's no use having ones you don't use - and doing the renumbering process after that, also. This involves going through and correcting the new placement numbers (once) since the wrong icon will appear in your calendar/tasks as a result of the renumbering. No big deal, and I always start the numbering with "1" (ONE"), not ZERO. I don't start with a generic 100 or 200 numbering; there's no need for it. That way the last icon is the total you have - 81 icons in my case means the last one is, obviously, #81. Just makes more sense.

I sincerely hope ALL OF YOU will at least try these two apps; Monthly Planner leaves a remnant in the notes section of your calendar saying

"ICON:36
AN"

or some other number depending on YOUR icon #; A5 will leave some numeric text next to icons used for recurring meetings/annual events - but they are NOT visible unless viewed in calendar or FindHack. It will NOT corrupt your calendar database, as using DateBk5 WITH Agendus has a tendency to do. I removed all traces of "#AN" from notes, but Monthly Planner will re-use "AN" in its coding (I can't figure out why).

Be aware that if you uninstall Agendus it will WIPE OUT your A5 icons, EVEN IF they are renamed to "A5 icons." Other than that I'm convinced this is the way to go, and have adopted these two apps as "organizer of choice." I thought Agendus was the absolute GREATEST for a long, long time - but the constant bloating, bugs and being charged for upgrades after we put up with the bugs was and is just too much. If you're a beta tester you get free upgrades - well, we were ALL beta testers as far as I'm concerned - and a lot of us spent a lot of money doing the testing on what we thought was a "finished" product. This is not right, and nor is being charged again after 6 weeks of using a product whose problems had to be corrected in the NEXT version.

Monthly Planner is $14.95, and A5 is freeware. Upgrades on Monthly Planner are free for life.
 
I use Zlauncher as well as Clean Unistall to selectively delete the files that I want to delete - which as often as I beta test Agendus and stuff - my icon file never gets deleted.

Plus a backup exists at all times on the hard drive of my pc(s).

If you inadvertenly delete your Icon file - it will reside in your archive folder on your hard drive and can be restored by the old double click on it from your archive folder so don't fret too much.

Since, I advised Paul of Month Planner's existence - please advise the developer of this fact......I actually use Month Planner in conjunction with Agendus because of it's banner's and drag and drop capabilites as Paul described.

Paul - send your annual Agendus payments to me. :D
 
This is because the Program was designed to run on top of Agendus and it must therefore use the same encoding otherwise you will get corruption of database.

It was and is the best way to do it - IMHO.

Why not steal the "best" icon setup (and first I might add) to emulate with your program - and since Month Planner doesn't have any other views per se, it was necessary.
 
Mooseman said:
"All the more reason . . .
I use Zlauncher as well as Clean Unistall to selectively delete the files that I want to delete - which as often as I beta test Agendus and stuff - my icon file never gets deleted.
Plus a backup exists at all times on the hard drive of my pc(s)."

- Not sure I understand that at all.
1. Yeah, you need backups. Preferably SD Card(s) and PC(s) and CD(s).
2. I have around 10. People may NOT have them "in the field," and would be upset if their icons disappeared. That's why I mentioned it. That's no reason an icon database whose name has been changed should need to be reinstalled.
4. I'm well aware of uninstall apps and the fact that Agendus plainly has 8-9 Saved preference listings (which most people never view because they don't have a way of viewing them or aren't interested). It's just a huge messy piece of crap.
5. On the "Installer" of Version 9 Agendus (yes, there's now an INSTALLER, the things so massive), there's a "3k temporary install file" and other crap that gets left behind if you delete the application -- with an uninstall manager.
6. When I get back from a 3 day trip, I may install the A5 iconset provided with A5, and see what happens then. I believe the "AN" creator ID must be associated with the icons themselves having already been installed - let's see what happens when they're A5 icons from the get-go. Perhaps same result.

This is not a debate about Agendus or backup policy. It is a recommendation of two great programs used in conjunction - A5 and Monthly Planner - from someone who uses and I mean USES a "time organizer" often. I know Moose does - and unfortunately this "setup" can't accommodate contact management in which case I suppose you'd need a THIRD app - and that might be self-defeating when Agendus does all of it, albeit in 1.5MB while installing wallpapers and 3k "setup files" and gobs of saved preference entries.

"Since, I advised Paul of Month Planner's existence - please advise the developer of this fact......I actually use Month Planner in conjunction with Agendus because of it's banner's and drag and drop capabilites as Paul described."

Sorry, but I'm not sure I understand that, either, Mooseman - there is no "drag and drop" in Monthly Planner, and I should advise the developer of WHAT FACT? Oh, and I already gave you credit for the recommendation. As far as the $9.95 . . . I could respond with some terse humor of my own, but . . . . we're friends! Actually, I'm leaving in about 2 hours for "up North," including Moosedesto - perhaps we can finally have that beer.

I take the $9.95 thing seriously. Very seriously. I purchased from Iambic: FastWriter, Tiny Sheet and Agendus. I was "awarded" AllMoney for registering them online. 3 of those 4 products have now been discontinued - and then I sent $9.95 + 19.95 for upgrades to Agendus. That adds up to quite a bit of $$$. I'm no longer interested in "upgrade highway robbery," nor in having to be Iambic's bitch to try and avoid it. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that ActNames/Agendus has been a terrific & useful program for me - I just prefer this new setup. $14.95 to another developer (MonthPlanner) who in my view has one heck of a clean app at 130k and no upgrades, seems like a good idea.

By the way - I hope the rather time consuming initial post above (for author and reader alike!) stays intact as a recommendation of organizer softwares used in conjunction, and not another "Datebk5 vs Agendus" tedious time-waster. I'd like to hear from others who have tried it and what they think of it. If someone's happy with Datebk5 or Agendus that's just SUPER - but if anyone auditions these two apps - A5 and MonthPlanner - I'd like feedback and I'm sure the developers would too.
 
Thanks for your advice I will try this new set of A5 and MOnthly Planner and see how usefuyl is. I just downloaded the Agendus professional and find it very complete lathough a nit heavy. (Do u recommend me the v9 instead of the "professional").

Another questions:

1) it shall not be very ocmplicate to deal with 3programas instead of 1?

2) which desktop agenda or PIM do u recommend me instead of usiing th ehorrible Outlook or the Palm Desktop? Is the Agendus for Windows good?

Kind regards.

Martin (from Buenos Aires) ;)
 
The A5 looks interesting. I do have a question about the ability to change time zones when travelling. I have both Agendus Pro 9.06 and Datebk5. Datebk5 is able to adjust the calendar views to reflect which time zone you are in. The times are converted to your current local time zone instead of being frozen in your home time.

However, Agendus lacks this feature. I tried changing the current location in the Palm Prefs, but the times did not get adjusted inside of Agendus. I know version 10 of Agendus has a trip mode, but it only links tasks, expenses, etc. to scheduled trips. However, I see nothing relating to time zones.

If A5 was able to let the user change time zones, this would definately be the program to switch to.
 
Answer for dwinget and additional comment:

Reinstalled A5 to check that for you - as far as I can see, no it does not. Rats.

However - Im "re-impressed with A5" all over again and have kept it as primary "datekeeper" with Monthly Planner "bringing up the rear."

Wrong - see addendum below.

Datebook button gets A5, Datebook button "hold" (TealLaunch) gets Monthly Planner. There are some 5 digit numbers separated by colon, eg "0:34"55" which appear in Monthly planner items, front page (not notes) - and I believe this is a synching of recurring meeting information for A5. A5 doesn't display them, and neither does tasks/calendar native apps. I renamed the icon set from "Mo Plan Icons" to "A5 Icons," and that doesn't seem to make a difference. Month Planner uses "AN #45" Iambic coding no matter what you name the set - A5 gives you amenu of which icons you want to use (nice).

If one can live with that, and use Monthly Planner for recurring monthly stuff and A5 for the To-do's and single tasks - with two buttons you see the whole month. That's how I've set it up, anyway. They're both very impressive especially in combination.
 
2nd Addendum 11/7/05:

A5's outta here, although I'm not going to blame it specifically. I was foolish enough to try Agendus 10 - all 1680k of it, and found it wasn't putting "details" of meetings to the events. In other words, you got the icon and the date right, but no "Sally's birthday" unless you went back and re-entered it. So I dumped it and loaded A5 - and cleared by calendar and tasks database to start over.

Got a hard crash requiring hard reset. Then got endless loop on hotsynch when synching "Tasks." Uninstalled A5, reinstalled Palm Desktop, reinstalled conduits, used dbScan to delete all shortcuts, changed Tasks and Calendar to "handheld overwrites," and changed "System" to Desktop overwrites. That fixed it. Yikes, what a pain.

It's Monthly Planner all the way, solo, for me now. Great list view with Day headers, popup to today if I want it, compact submenu of today or ANY days' evenets while in month, and limitless (I think - I've used up to 5) rotating daily icons in month view. No more "3 icon limit in the box." You can choose from a small wubmenu on "day-tap" as well as having it pop up full 1 day or multi day schedule at startup if you have events scheduled for that day at all. Nice. I have mine set to month view only, with poppable submen for any day I tap; that's all personal preference of course. But at least they're there.

At 122k and flashable - it's just awesome. I couldn't recommend it more highly and it's my only calendar app. As I said before, and this is important: It uses the "AN#222" style icon information and puts no other "weird characters" in either the to do / meeting entry (as A5 did, eg "10:34:5") or notes section - so no more corrupted calendar db's.

Most excellent. A good, simple calendar app is harder and harder to find these days - 122k and "does it all" (at least for me, and I'm picky!) is pretty excellent. You CAN make default icons for categories, and CAN select font color with Monthly Planner - only thing it won't do is highlight entries with a color. If you can live without that it's the way to go, IMHO. Just passing along since the "additional testing and A/B'ing."
 
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