Mini-Review: PhatNotes 5.2 Puts It All in Context

Posted by: weiganla on Apr 23 2008 - 866 views

The first review I ever wrote for JAMM was of PhatNotes 5.0. It’s been a while since then. In fact, it’s been long enough for PhatNotes to get updated to version 5.2.

Last time I looked at PhatNotes, I decided I was never going back to the built-in Notes program. If you’re wondering why, please take a look at my old review and its 78 screenshots. The short version: there’s nothing else out there that lets you organize your notes as impressively. Links, tags, colors — PhatNotes has it all. 

As good a program as it was, I still had a few complaints about PhatNotes 5.0. The biggest one was that I couldn’t import or sync the .pwi files generated by Notes that play nicely with Outlook. This has been addressed by the release of PhatNotes Outlook Edition. My wishlist still included extended cut-and-paste support and automated labeling based on category.

So what about PhatNotes 5.2? Well, I’ll have to hold out until the next release to see if my wishlist features are implemented. This update’s main selling point is the Context Analyzer, which figures out that when you enter (for example) a phone number in a note, you might eventually want to use it to call someone.

Until now, the ability to configure the software to recognize websites, email addresses, phone numbers and custom commands and convert them into active links has been limited to PhatNotes’ desktop software. This version brings this functionality to the mobile devices. Other new features in PhatNotes 5.2 include support for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Mobile 6.1, a new desktop UI theme, support for regular expression when searching or filtering notes by text on the Smartphone, and improved usability and performance.

The big deal here is that now you can train the Context Analyzer directly on your Pocket PC, without having to go through the desktop companion. There’s just one catch, and it’s hinted at further down in the quote.

It’s easy to overlook.

support for regular expression

Translation: PhatNotes now speaks programmerese. Which I’m sure is lovely if you’re a programmer. If you’re like me… just look at this wiki and see how far you get before your head starts spinning fit to outdo Linda Blair.

Back to the Context Analyzer. The built-in settings for phone, URL, and email recognition take care of most people’s needs, but in case they don’t they can be customized anytime, anywhere. If for some reason I was desperate, I could probably handle tweaking these. I’d have help: PhatWare has thoughtfully provided a very thorough manual accessible through the little blue circle with the question mark.

  

Okay, after reading the help page a few things are starting to make sense. Now what about the mysterious custom context analyzer?

Wow, that sounds really neat and powerful. Too bad there aren’t any examples to get me started. I guess I’ll have to figure it out myself. Hmm, regular expressions. They sound important.

 

           Watch out, Linda Blair!

Good grief, that’s a textbook. And trying to learn Formal Programming Language Theory 101 before I can use the marquee feature of this update is not the best use of my time. I appreciate PhatWare adding what seems to be a very powerful feature, but considering the time it would take before I could harness it and the relatively small use I’d get out of it, the Context Analyzer is over my head and I’m going to let it stay there. Thanks to this review I know it’s there, but soon as this is posted I’m going to try to forget that.

Even though the Context Analyzer is not exactly user-friendly, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to take back my raves about PhatNotes. Version 5.2 has everything that I liked about 5.0. If there’s an unwanted extra advanced feature, it’s easy to ignore. I stick by what I said before:

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.

The good: it’s all here

The bad: confusing Context Analyzer

Where to buy: PhatWare or the JAMM Store, $39.95. PhatNotes is a JAMM Essential, so remember to use the code JAMM-ESSENTIALS to get 20% off in our store!

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