What made me write today, is the "frustation" that Iambic's latest release of ActionNames Datebook, version 5.2, still has no support for the HandEra330 hi-res (240x320) display but instead seems to favour Sony's "super" hi-res display on its new NR70 & NR70V series PDAs (and also the 320x320 display on Sony's T & N series).
I have been using ActionNames for a couple of years already, and I like it a lot ... with the split agenda views (to do and appointments on the same screen) coupled with its integration with the built-in Addressbook and To-do list. However, its weekly view of appointments, though still useful, is cramped and clutterd due to limited screen "real estate". This brought me in search of an alternative software that can give me a good screenshot of my activities for the whole week. My search pointed me to a software aptly called Weekly Plan, developed by a JM Jeong from Korea (http://wp.jmjeong.com).
The latest version realeased is v 1.16, supports the Clié's Hi-Res, 320x320 screen and also the HandEra330 QVGA 240x320 screen ... Just what I was looking for.
Weekly Plan, is very much the same as the "Week Planner" in most diaries or paper organizers It shows your appointments and to dos for the whole week in one screen, a function the built-in datebook seriously lacks. The built-in datebook's week view just shows blocks of time which you have committed and time slots still available. This is useful to check on your free time to set future appointments but not easy for users to identify the activities associated with each "block". Weekly Plan, on the other hand, gives you a summary of your appointments and to dos in one display.
Comparison: (left to right) Sony 320x320 display, Standars palm 160x160 and HandEra 320x240 resolution
Weekly Plan has only one main view, with the screen partitioned into seven sections or boxes for each day of the week (in 2 columns, Monday-Wednesday on the left column, Thursday-Sunday on the right column). At the very bottom of the screen, is the "description line", where you see more "description" of an event you selected. You can clearly see your schedule on every of the week, for the whole week. Using the smallest font on my HandEra and hide the virtual grafitti area, I get a very good "snapshot" of my weekly activities. Its great on a Sony PDA too .... If you drop by the developer's website …. the screenshots on a Sony 320x320 hi-Res screen is just plain awesome.
One of my favorite function is Weekly Plan's ability to handle creation of a new appointment, meeting or to do directly from within the application. Just tap the day/date box, a "T" and "E" appears. Tap on the "T" to create a to do item or the "E" to create an event like a meeting/appointment. Tapping on the two letters will pop up a screen for you to fill in details of the to do/event, like description, time, alarm, due date and so on. Since Weekly Plan shares its database with the built-in datebook and to do list, all items created in Weekly Plan is viewable in the two built-in applications.
Tap the “day/date” box and a “T” and “E” pops up to create new a new to do or event.
Another great function is the ability to move appointments and to dos within the week. For example, I have a dentist appointment at 3:00pm Monday but suddenly, I need to meet with a client to handle some important matters. I called the dentist and reschedule the appointment for 3:00pm Thursday. In Weekly Plan, I can just tap on the Monday's dentist event and drag it to Thursday's box ... and that's it, the appointment is rescheduled to Thursday. As far as I know, other than Weekly Plan, only Iambic's ActionNames 7-days view can do this.
I am not saying the stock datebook cannot move appointments like that, you can move it around by dragging and dropping the appointment "box" in its week view, but to me, Weekly Plan gives a cleaner interface to my preference.
Weekly Plan is able to launch your favorite datebook application for the users to edit by tapping the "description line" at the bottom of the screen. In the application menu, there is an option to select a datebook application of choice. For me, tapping the description of an event or to do takes me to ActionNames. I seldom use this function though, since Weekly Plan handles editing of events or adding a note to an event fairly well.
Other third party datebook replacements, like Datebk4/5 and ActionNames datebook, also have this view embedded but if you don't want to pay US$30 for a full blown datebook replacement, Weekly Plan is a good alternative for only US$12.
My personal comments; If you are using the built-in datebook and want a better week view, then it is worthwhile getting this shareware. If you are already using Datebk4/5 or ActionNames Datebook, don't bother. For me, I use it to take advantage of its HandEra support which Iambic fails to add to their otherwise excellent ActionNames.... Sigh.... :(
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