Kati Compton
01-29-2003, 09:46 PM
I just picked up Traveller by Two Peaks Software (http://www.twopeaks.com/main/software/traveller/). I'm making about 6 trips in the next month an a half, and so I wanted an easy way to keep track of all of these trips. Also of importance to me is being able to associate expenses with particular trips, which this program does.
I checked a number of other different programs (Pocket Traveller, SpareBrains, EzGo), but this seemed the only one that had both expenses on a trip-by-trip basis AND a desktop version that syncs to the handheld.
The desktop interface is identical to the PPC interface, so it's consistent and easy to use. Not much of a learning curve to this program - very easy. The only issue I had was that you have to run it on the PPC (and then exit) before you can get the desktop version to sync.
Also, the sync, while I'm very happy it's there, is only handheld-overwrites-desktop or the other way around, although you choose each time the direction.
The main screen is the "Trip Manager", where a list of all the trips is shown. An individual trip can then be selected to see the details for that trip. Each trip has a page of notes associated with it.
For each trip, you can schedule flights, hotels, car rentals, and "Custom Events", as well as enter expenses related to the trip.
The custom events feature is nice in that you can assign one of several different icons. For some reason, the "Family" category uses a Panda icon. Good for zoos, I guess. These events can be used to show meetings, activities, shuttle/train/bus rides, etc. I would like the ability to add more icons (perhaps custom-drawn by the user), but this is really a very minor issue.
A very nice touch to this program is that it keeps track of frequent flier accounts (multiple) and lets you set the # of miles for each flight leg, which gets added to your account's running total of miles.
I like this program a lot, and it fills my need. Because I'm doing all this travelling, it was certainly worth the $27 I paid for it ($10% coupon code at Handango: CLIE). And I try to use freeware instead of commercial software whenever possible, so spending $27 is quite an endorsement for me. The price includes both the PPC version and the desktop version.
There are a few features I'd like to see for future versions (in case anyone with influence over these things is listening)... Some of these suggestions should be pretty easy, others would take more time. None of these issues broke the sale for me, but I would be very happy if a new version were to incorporate some if not all of these changes.
1. Ability to hide completed trips (not just crossed out)
2. Ability to see on the Trip Manager, maybe a single line at the bottom, showing the total expenses, as well as see expenses per trip on that screen (if it would fit).
3. Ability to mark individual expenses as reimbursed (which would then decrease the total).
4. Ability to assign a category to a trip, then filter by categories (or just view all). At the very least, Business and Personal, although I always prefer user-defined categories.
5. Show for each day what city you're in (based on flight or custom event travel)
6. Attach a to-do list to a trip (items with checkboxes) of stuff that needs to be accomplished before the trip (or during). This could also be used as a packing list.
7. Be able to sort trip itinerary by increasing date (right now it's decreasing). I'd like to see the "next" trip at the top.
8. Be able to add specific mile entries to a FF account. Useful for adding credit card miles, and would make it easier to show a single trip when my husband and I are travelling together, but also reflect the changes to his FF account. Important here would also be the ability to show deductions from the account as miles are used.
9. This may be too much work, but make the synchronization more sophisticated to allow for changes on both the PPC and desktop to synchronize together correctly.
I think the ones below are less critical, but would make it so on a scale of 1 to awesome, this program would be super-great. ;) These are features that I saw in the other programs I tried, but while they had these features, they weren't as good as Traveller in what are to me the more critical parts of a travel itinerary program. Very wishlist-y.
* Be able to download updated currency conversion information
* Another neat feature I liked from one of the other travel software programs was a clothing size converter (as well as an English/metric converter...). I always get very confused trying to buy clothes in other countries.
* Ability to download weather information about the various destinations in a trip. (And if possible utilize extended forecasts to show weather for the actual travel dates).
If, like me, you're going to be doing a lot of travel - try this program. There's a trial version that I think works for 15 days. Well worth seeing if this program will work for you.
Keep in mind that the current price of $29.99 before discount is going to be going up soon - Feb 15th. So try it soon!
_________________________________________________
EDIT:
Forgot to mention this. It is able to add Outlook appointments based on your itinerary. It is customizable, and there are checkboxes for each category of event: Flights, car rentals, hotel stays, and custom events. It can also set a reminder and you can enter the category that it's listed as.
It does not work for trips that are already entered. But it does work for entires that are added after the setting is checked. I'd like to see this feature be able to sychronize trips already in the program, as well as have this on a trip-by-trip basis, rather than for all trips. Case in point - I'm using a different category in Outlook for job interview trips than for personal trips, and Traveller only supports one category (which you can choose) for all trips. I suppose I could get around this by changing the settings, entering the trip, then changing the settings again before the next trip. Seems like more work than necessary though.
If it's critical to keep the Outlook adding only when flights are added, then when adding a trip it should bring up that preferences page to make sure the settings are what you wish for that particular trip.
I checked a number of other different programs (Pocket Traveller, SpareBrains, EzGo), but this seemed the only one that had both expenses on a trip-by-trip basis AND a desktop version that syncs to the handheld.
The desktop interface is identical to the PPC interface, so it's consistent and easy to use. Not much of a learning curve to this program - very easy. The only issue I had was that you have to run it on the PPC (and then exit) before you can get the desktop version to sync.
Also, the sync, while I'm very happy it's there, is only handheld-overwrites-desktop or the other way around, although you choose each time the direction.
The main screen is the "Trip Manager", where a list of all the trips is shown. An individual trip can then be selected to see the details for that trip. Each trip has a page of notes associated with it.
For each trip, you can schedule flights, hotels, car rentals, and "Custom Events", as well as enter expenses related to the trip.
The custom events feature is nice in that you can assign one of several different icons. For some reason, the "Family" category uses a Panda icon. Good for zoos, I guess. These events can be used to show meetings, activities, shuttle/train/bus rides, etc. I would like the ability to add more icons (perhaps custom-drawn by the user), but this is really a very minor issue.
A very nice touch to this program is that it keeps track of frequent flier accounts (multiple) and lets you set the # of miles for each flight leg, which gets added to your account's running total of miles.
I like this program a lot, and it fills my need. Because I'm doing all this travelling, it was certainly worth the $27 I paid for it ($10% coupon code at Handango: CLIE). And I try to use freeware instead of commercial software whenever possible, so spending $27 is quite an endorsement for me. The price includes both the PPC version and the desktop version.
There are a few features I'd like to see for future versions (in case anyone with influence over these things is listening)... Some of these suggestions should be pretty easy, others would take more time. None of these issues broke the sale for me, but I would be very happy if a new version were to incorporate some if not all of these changes.
1. Ability to hide completed trips (not just crossed out)
2. Ability to see on the Trip Manager, maybe a single line at the bottom, showing the total expenses, as well as see expenses per trip on that screen (if it would fit).
3. Ability to mark individual expenses as reimbursed (which would then decrease the total).
4. Ability to assign a category to a trip, then filter by categories (or just view all). At the very least, Business and Personal, although I always prefer user-defined categories.
5. Show for each day what city you're in (based on flight or custom event travel)
6. Attach a to-do list to a trip (items with checkboxes) of stuff that needs to be accomplished before the trip (or during). This could also be used as a packing list.
7. Be able to sort trip itinerary by increasing date (right now it's decreasing). I'd like to see the "next" trip at the top.
8. Be able to add specific mile entries to a FF account. Useful for adding credit card miles, and would make it easier to show a single trip when my husband and I are travelling together, but also reflect the changes to his FF account. Important here would also be the ability to show deductions from the account as miles are used.
9. This may be too much work, but make the synchronization more sophisticated to allow for changes on both the PPC and desktop to synchronize together correctly.
I think the ones below are less critical, but would make it so on a scale of 1 to awesome, this program would be super-great. ;) These are features that I saw in the other programs I tried, but while they had these features, they weren't as good as Traveller in what are to me the more critical parts of a travel itinerary program. Very wishlist-y.
* Be able to download updated currency conversion information
* Another neat feature I liked from one of the other travel software programs was a clothing size converter (as well as an English/metric converter...). I always get very confused trying to buy clothes in other countries.
* Ability to download weather information about the various destinations in a trip. (And if possible utilize extended forecasts to show weather for the actual travel dates).
If, like me, you're going to be doing a lot of travel - try this program. There's a trial version that I think works for 15 days. Well worth seeing if this program will work for you.
Keep in mind that the current price of $29.99 before discount is going to be going up soon - Feb 15th. So try it soon!
_________________________________________________
EDIT:
Forgot to mention this. It is able to add Outlook appointments based on your itinerary. It is customizable, and there are checkboxes for each category of event: Flights, car rentals, hotel stays, and custom events. It can also set a reminder and you can enter the category that it's listed as.
It does not work for trips that are already entered. But it does work for entires that are added after the setting is checked. I'd like to see this feature be able to sychronize trips already in the program, as well as have this on a trip-by-trip basis, rather than for all trips. Case in point - I'm using a different category in Outlook for job interview trips than for personal trips, and Traveller only supports one category (which you can choose) for all trips. I suppose I could get around this by changing the settings, entering the trip, then changing the settings again before the next trip. Seems like more work than necessary though.
If it's critical to keep the Outlook adding only when flights are added, then when adding a trip it should bring up that preferences page to make sure the settings are what you wish for that particular trip.