Four Programs to Reduce the Time Needed to Keep Track of Important Information
Family Tree Software
Have you spent time accumulating family history information? Now wouldn't it be great to be able to search/browse/share your data with others? If you are looking for an excellent piece of software for doing this as opposed to using very large sheets of paper, I recommend checking out Brothers Keeper (BK). I have used this program for several years now and find it simple to use. BK allows me to include any and all information that I/we have been lucky enough to find concerning my family history.
One feature I particularly like calculates the relationship between any two individuals in your database. This was something I always had a difficulty with as I got farther into the family tree. The interface is very intuitive after the first 10 or 20 minutes with the program. I particularly like the “Ancestor” screen which allows one to investigate different branches with a simple click or two. In addition, by clicking on the focused individual, one can zoom in to enter data for that individual in the form of text, pictures, sound, video and more.
The program is quick, is shareware and interfaces to Gedcom through import/export. If you are interested in assembling your family history, this program is definitely worth a good, close look.
Personal Information Management
For many years in the past, I used a program called Dayplanner from Norton Utilities for my day-to-day note-keeping/appointments/etc. The program was designed for Windows 3.0/3.1 and had a straightforward graphical user interface with just the right mix of features for a small program and for my purposes. It had a great quick search feature and was part of a small suite from Norton. Unfortunately, this software hasn't been made available for the newer operating systems. For some time, I had been searching for a decent replacement for this favourite. Although there have been many programs written over the last few years that claim to be easy to use and that do almost everything you could want, I had difficulty finding one that felt as “comfortable” to use on a day-to-day basis as Dayplanner had been.
However, I was lucky enough a couple of years ago to come across a piece of shareware from Astonsoft Ltd. Called EssentialPIM. The version I use at present is V2.2 and is provided at no cost. If you need a way to keep track of addresses, birthdays, appointments, to-do lists and notes, this may be the one for you. EssentialPIM is simple to use and can import data from Outlook, Outlook Express and several other programs. The ability to export to many different formats is present as well. There are some similarities to M/S Outlook but I find the small overhead of EssentialPIM and the flexibility of use keeps this favourite on my desktop.
Diary / Journal Keeping
If one is looking for a way to keep notes only (or a journal) on a day-to-day basis, or is trying to arrange information in a journal format, I recommend looking at the FREE version of iDailyDiary. This program has an excellent search function and a clean interface. The formatting capability, which not all similar programs have, means that you will be able to organize in a way that suits you, have the data look good and be easy to read.
The program features include hyperlinking and password protection. The release that I have been using is stable (I have never had a problem) and does more than I need without being a hassle to use every few minutes or once in a while. It does not tie up lots of system resources and has never been the reason for a PC restart. A good and fast search feature makes finding your data simple. I think being able to find the information you have is as important as creating/saving it in the first place. If a program feels good to use (as this one does), then one is more likely to use it. For something like a journal/diary, this makes all the difference in how effective the software is.
If you check out Splinterware's site, you will see the other FREE and TRIAL software that they have available.
Money Management / Financial Software
Like many others over the last several years, I have gone through the process of migrating my financial management from paper and pen book-keeping to spreadsheet software and finally moved to financial software quite a few years ago. Last year, after having some recurring (aggravating) difficulties with a great-looking program from a major supplier, which I had used for 10 years, I started looking around for something simpler that would suit my needs.
AceMoney from MechCAD Software LLC has fulfilled all of my needs for money management, is a breeze to use, is fast, friendly and provides a pleasing way to keep track of any financial thing you wish. I gave up the fancy graphing/plotting of the previous program I was using for a program which demands only a very few minutes per day to track my income/expenses. If I need to graph some data, I can use one of export types to facilitate this. I was able to import the data from my previous full-blown program with only a few keystrokes which was very important as I needed continuity for my data for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was for income tax return preparation.
AceMoney is highly recommended by me, and used happily by many people around the world. Check it out!
