rldunn

I think that since the Clie Organizer (CO) is one of the most unique features to come on a PDA in years, if ever, it probably deserves it's own thread. To prevent a whole bunch of Clie Organizer threads in this rush after the TH just got in stores, I think I'll sticky this one to for awhile. Let me know if you think I've stickied too many threads in this forum, but hopefully it will make it easier to find specific information on the info people are looking for right now, rather than having to search through many threads.

Now, on topic, I'm still not sure what to make of the Clie Organizer. I just got my TH yesterday, and by last night when I went to bed, I was ready to give up on it forever. However, when I woke up, I tried it out again, and it's unique features seem so useful that I'm going to give it another shot. Here's some random thoughts:

1) After dealing with the pathetic Clie Viewer in the past, I was very concerned that it would take forever to find the stuff I wanted to drag and drop. This is not the case. Clie Viewer is so much improved, it's almost like a new app.

2) This should almost be 1a. I'm not sure what that area containing the pics, notes, and voice recording is called, but we should come up with a name. I'll use Drag & Drop Bar (DDB) for now, but I'm not sure that's a great name. Anyways, the DDB has a date box. When you click on it and choose a date, the DDB only shows pics, notes, and voice recordings from the date you chose (or the closest date if the date you chose had none). This makes it very easy to find the stuff you want to drag & drop, unless you want to drag a really old pic or note. However, given how this will likely be used, I think it's pretty likely that you would want to drag & drop something that was created recently, so it should work good.

3) I can't believe I'm excited about an eraser, but I am. This eraser is actually a smart eraser. Rather than having to worry about hitting every little pixel, if you want to erase a word you wrote, just tap on the eraser, and do a quick squiggle over the word. This is hard to describe in text, but it's just like if you wanted to cross out a word on paper. You need to do more than make a single line, but if you do a quick squiggle, the whole word is erased. Very cool!!

4) I could maybe give up having colors of an appointment automatically assigned when you choose an appt category, as is done in DB5, since tapping the color for each appointment isn't that hard. But why oh why did they choose THOSE colors!! They are all pastels - purple and pinks and yellow and orange. Why don't they let you change the color pallette!! I want blues and reds and something a little more manly!!

5) I have not found speed to be an issue at all. There is a small lag, but for all of my stuff, it's well under a second. They have also made some concessions to the slower processor. For example, in the Free notes section, all the handwriting is first filled in using a very narrow line. That part is done almost instantaneous. Then, it goes back and slowly makes all the lines their normal width. I think that's a great compromise. In the DB part, after adding a bunch of handwriting and notes (at least on this week and some of my months), there was no noticeable slowdown. Maybe when you do this for a full year, it's a problem, but I think the purge feature will help with this.

6) I love the new address book with the tabs on top (for ABC, DEF, etc). I know, a lot of commercial apps have had this for years, but I don't use enough contacts in my work to justify them, so this is great for me!!

7) I wish you could drag a todo onto the DB screen or be able to set an alarm on a todo. You can view todos on the DDB part of the DB screen, but it's not the same. And actually, it's a little frustrating, since you expect things in the DDB to be draggable.

8) I love being able to have either linkable free notes from the DB and also being able to handwrite on the screen. I think this will be a great feature - probably the one that would make me give up DB5 if I decide it's worth it.

That's it for now. I'm still not sure whether I'll be using this or going back to DB5. Each has it's own strengths - it would be great to combine them. Even if I decide to go with CO, I may keep DB5 around for floating events and todos that need alarms. They seem to stay out of each other's way for the most part.

Griff

Has anyone found a way to filter the todo items displayed in the DDB when you choose Todo?  I looked and looked but couldn't find it.

The freenotes really are pretty neat.  I can certainly see using them for "Home Depot" lists and the like.  Jot down what you need, cross it off as you go.

As far as the rest of the Organizer, it's a bit too limited for my needs.  I really need the ability to have preset views of todo items available. 

ifonline

Your description reminds me of the old Newton MessagePad. Ever have one? If you wanted to erase a word, you drew a mark similar to a lighting bolt or a spring on its side, and the word dissapeared in a puff of smoke (it actually had the animation, as I remember).

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LupeValenz

Anyone found out how to take the MS tag off the icons for the clie organizer? I know all you need is to put the image in ram but I like having all themes/icons on one MS. So far I haven't had any luck .

ignar

Well, my To do screen takes 6 to 7 seconds waiting. I have only about 20 items there though many of them are recurrence ones. Only change I made to the default setting was let it display the due dates along with the items.

Palmguru

No way I am giving up my Datebk5 for THIS!

Griff

My todo screen took a long time to load too...at least w/in Clie Organizer.  I did see that they have the old "classic" apps installed too.  They really did this upgrade right, unlike Palm with the T3.

I think I will likely stick with DB5 and ShadowPlan for my every day life.  I do plan to use the Free Notes feature for making lists and whatnot.  There's just something nice about crossing something off in a store.

My hope is that Sony will upgrade the Organizer program AND provide that upgrade to the early adopters.  There are some definite places it could improve.

Palmguru

Why can't you just cross it off in Datebk5 or Shadow? It only looks classier IMO.

Reggie

Some things to add:

1. The new MemoPad can hold up to 32K! (before it was just 4K). At, least there is now a place to store notes that you will be typing for example.
2. The smart eraser functions very similar to how tablet PC erasing functions, it looks for the whole contiguous line, and erases it (them).
3. You can now put an alarm on a FreeNote ala Bug Me.

More to come. I'll be releasing two reviews soon -- Clie Organizer and TH55 (yes, separated).

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Griff

Some things just don't belong in a rigid data format.  For me quick lists like a Home Depot run just don't belong in Shadow or DB5.  Plus it takes alot less time to scribble down 5 items to get than to try to G2 or Decuma them in.

 

rolando

For those who are having the long delays when todos are loading, have you tried purging old todos? Some people never do that and it can take up time as the processor sorts through which are still pending and which are still done.

Rolando

rldunn

I was just going to suggest that as well. I purge my completed todos often, and my todo screen comes up very fast.

rldunn

I don't think that's possible.

Wytnucls

I have 3 questions:
1. Is the app using the built-in palm databases?
2. Can you span an appointment over several days?
3. Has anyone tried to sync with Outlook?

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