Review: PhatNotes 5 - Organization Freaks, Rejoice! PhatNotes Lets You Sort, Tag, and Link All Your Notes

Posted by: weiganla on Sep 05 2007 - 3,869 views

If all you use your PDA’s notepad for is to jot down a few lines on occasion, the built-in application is fine. However, I use mine to take notes during lectures, conferences, and presentations all day. The data piles up fast, and if I ever want to be able to find a vital piece of information again, the native Notepad just isn’t going to cut it. Enter PhatNotes. It bills itself as the ultimate notes organizer for Pocket PC. Let me tell you, I have some notes in dire need of organization. Let’s see what this program can do. (To give fair warning, this might take a while.) Click here to read the rest of the review. Installation is through the typical .exe setup program and ActiveSync. PhatNotes Professional includes a desktop module in addition to the PPC program that is essentially the same, only larger. It’s very nice, and I won’t mention it again. In a few minutes I was up, registered, and running. The home screen of PhatNotes 5.0 looks something like this: You can arrange the display to your satisfaction through the menu. In fact, almost every aspect of the way PhatNotes presents itself to you is customizable. Don’t like softkey menus? There’s a "classic menu" option. Prefer to view database statistics, or maybe a customized set of menu buttons? You can do that too. Once you start a new note, it’s easy to bold/italicize/underline or make text look pretty by tapping the aA icon. (Menu -> View -> Toolbar makes the handy row of buttons appear.) So, the cosmetics are nice. The user interface is intuitive and a breeze to navigate through. So far, I’ve shown you a prettier version of the built-in Notepad, but PhatNotes has a lot more in its bag of tricks. The first level of data organization in PhatNotes is the database where your notes live. I’ve created six databases below. I also created a group (as PhatNotes calls subfolders), "The Brain," to hold the "Psychiatry" and "Neurology" databases. Putting databases into groups is a simple drag-and-drop operation. The Pediatrics database has too many notes to navigate easily. Fortunately, PhatNotes lets me fix that. After setting up categories and color-coding my notes, things are much better. In addition, I have the ability to password-protect my notes and set alarms. PhatNotes can sort my notes by category, date created/modified, color, or priority with repeated taps on the three colored blocks icon. Using the filter command, I can display only notes that meet my criteria. Now here’s where it gets really cool. PhatNotes allows other files, images, sketches (if PhatPad is installed), voice recordings, and PIM data to be attached to notes. Notes can also be linked to each other. Here, I’ve linked my notes on fetal heart monitoring and obstetrical pharmacology. Trust me, that’s a good thing. If all else fails, PhatNotes has a search function. A nifty new feature in PhatNotes 5.0 is the ability to recognize web addresses and phone numbers and automatically load the site or dial the number with a tap. While it boasts what seems like a long and complicated list of features, the best aspect of PhatNotes is that it’s extraordinarily easy to use. PhatWare’s latest update has made an already terrific program even more powerful while actually improving usability. The initial time investment in customizing the options and interface pays off in a big way, so that I am now officially spoiled. After using PhatNotes, I’m never going back to Notepad. I have just a few minor quibbles with PhatNotes 5.0. Cut and paste does not seem to work in the Subject box, so that I had to manually re-enter the title of my note. Second, while the ability to filter by each labeling element separately is great, it would be nice to have the option to make, say, all my Meeting Request notes automatically appear in pink and as high priority. Finally, and most seriously, PhatNotes can only import notes in .txt and .rtf formats. There is no easy way to transfer old notes in .pwi files from the built-in Notepad into the body of a PhatNotes note. PhatNotes has so many features that going through all of them would make this review even longer, and none of us wants that. Suffice it to say that this is one fantastic application that no serious note-taker should be without. PhatNotes can be purchased direct from Phatware - or of course at the JAMM Store. PhatNotes is also on the JAMM Essentials list, so you can always get a 15% discount on it at the JAMM Store - just quote the coupon code JAMM-Essentials at checkout. Technorati tags: phatware, phatnotes, notes, productivity, Just Another Mobile Monday

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