planner

Clunky interface

RunningMan Calendar touts itself as a full-featured, easy-to-use calendar, but after getting our hands on it, we found it to be anything but.

RunningMan Calendar's user interface is, well, clunky. The Help menu on the publisher's Web site does offer some helpful information--for example, the main Help menu will give you a list of what is possible with this calendar--but we found it overall limited in its scope. We got started by clicking on a day in the calendar, hitting the File button, and adding an anniversary. A notepad document popped up with instructions on how to type … Read more

Vista users beware

Designed for church personnel, this complex program offers the tools to help you create and manage church schedules. Because of the various events, people, and other things it tracks, setup may take some time, and less experienced users might be overwhelmed by the program's busy interface. We also found some problems for those running Vista on their computers.

The program's main interface is busy and little has been done to dress up this database-driven program. On first run, a menu gives you the option of creating a new file with or without the help of a wizard. Some … Read more

Poor calendar substitute

Keeping dates and times straight is a necessity in today's overbooked world. Cotton Calendar claims to be a dynamic program to help users get themselves organized, but it falls flat on nearly every promise it makes.

This program looks about as simple as a calendar can. It features a small month-view calendar with some simple buttons along the top. Users can cycle through the months and year by using these buttons, but they are very confusing. The monthly view of the calendar is disappointing because users cannot intuitively click on a day and add a note. While we acknowledge … Read more

Lacks focus

Daily Planner Plus aims to be the organizational tool to end all organizational tools. However, rather than being a jack of all trades, the program ends up being a master of none thanks to an over-abundance of useless features.

This program has a look unlike any other planning software we've tested. Users first see a large open screen with small command icons running along the top and settings running along the left side of the screen. Initially, this looked more like a design program than a planner. The commands along the top range from creating a daily journal, calendar, … Read more

Liquid Planner gets project portals

Fuzzy scheduling tool Liquid Planner is expanding its reach into the collaborative task management market with a neat new feature called project portals. These are group pages that offer some of the same basic collaboration features you get with the core product, however they can be branded and shared with anyone else who is not a paying Liquid Planner customer.

Any project you're working on in Liquid Planner can now become "portalized." These pages serve as a central place to access shared files and lets outside users keep track on a project's status and ongoing tasks … Read more

Never forget an appointment

Pagico (Professional) is a unique database program that organizes your thoughts and contacts, and even allows you to schedule tasks. It offers a very easy-to-navigate, template-style interface that will appeal to all user levels.

After installation, the program does require that you enter your e-mail address to activate the 15-day trial period. The overall interface design is clean and simple. Menu commands at the top of the window let you create and edit new databases. You can create a new database for keeping notes and for contacts. We especially liked the template style that made it easy to figure out … Read more

Not easy to learn

Life Balance for Windows provides users with an opportunity to organize and prioritize their lives. Where some calendar systems attempt to simply keep you informed, this one attempts to help you meet goals and provide balance in your life. However, users may need to schedule time just to use this complex tool.

This programs looks like many other personal organizational/calendar programs, but the comparison ends there. Users are given opportunities to schedule events, reminders, and other crucial information for one's day-to-day life. Life Balance also adds value by providing users the ability to input their goals, such as … Read more

The Knot marries WedSnap

The Knot on Monday announced that it has acquired WedSnap, the developer of the popular online wedding-planning application Weddingbook.

With the merger, The Knot is marrying its site with the highest-ranking wedding application on Facebook, which last year awarded WedSnap $25,000 in seed money as part of its FBFund competition.

While The Knot remained mum on the purchase price, it touted the features Weddingbook will bring to its site.

The Weddingbook application features community boards on which users share wedding advice, a tool to create a wedding profile box to post updates to the upcoming nuptials, and direct links … Read more

Free Chronotebooks at the Muji Times Square store this Friday!

To celebrate the opening of their newest Times Square flagship location, Japanese retail store MUJI will give away 500 "Chronotebooks," their unique take on the classic (read: boring) paper planner.

MUJI's second store in New York, located at 620 Eighth Avenue, will offer exactly 2,170 items at the time of the opening, and all products will share the same strict MUJI rule: no branding. The name "MUJI" comes from the Japanese word "Mujirushi Ryohin" that essentially means quality without a name. Some people call MUJI the Japanese IKEA, but I'm not … Read more