Calendar Plus Professional by SBSH

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=95186' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/brainstore/...productId=95186</a><br /><br /></div>"Calendar Plus Professional 3.0 is the most powerful enhancement for the Pocket PC Today screen. CP Professional wraps together three tools:<br /><br /><b>Calendar Plus Today</b> - The leading Today plug-in in the market, enabling you to view on the Today screen your upcoming agenda - up to 30 days!, your tasks, and your contacts' birthdays/anniversaries. Featuring appointments and tasks in a combined and intuitive display, full customization capabilities, language support for English/French - easily switch between the two languages, categories filter, 24 hour colored time-lines and many other features.<br /><br /><b>Calendar Plus Search Solution</b> - A powerful Pocket Outlook searching tool. Search your contacts, appointments and tasks databases in a great intuitive design. Enjoy sophisticated search capabilities by phone number, mobile phone, email address and much more.<br /><br /><b>Categories Manager</b> - "Attach" icons and colors to each of Pocket Outlook's categories to achieve better results with CP Today."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.handango.com/include/pictures/347733/main.gif" /><br /><br />I'm one of those people who find the built-in PIM functionality sufficient for my needs, but it's nice to see that developers are giving us new tools for those that need it. This doesn't seemed aimed at challenging the dynasty of Pocket Informant or Agenda Fusion - instead, it looks like an enhancement to the basic PIM functions. Anyone tried this yet? If so, let us know what you think! [Affiliate]

[Gator5000e]

Looks ok, but a little too busy for me. I still love Snoopsoft Dashboard over all these calendar replacement programs like Pocket Informant and Calendar Plus, etc. Dashboard is simple and clean. Just my opinion.

[Jason Dunn]

Looks ok, but a little too busy for me. I still love Snoopsoft Dashboard over all these calendar replacement programs like Pocket Informant and Calendar Plus, etc. Dashboard is simple and clean. Just my opinion.

I haven't tried Dashboard in over a year, and I stopped using it because I felt it made my Pocket PC sluggish - how do you find the performance?

[Pat Logsdon]

I haven't tried Dashboard in over a year, and I stopped using it because I felt it made my Pocket PC sluggish - how do you find the performance?
I use Dashboard (Beta 2) on my 4150, and it seems fine to me...

[Gator5000e]

Dashboard also works fine for me as well. I do not notice any performance problems with it installed.

[razor]

Jason, did you try the older 1.x version or the beta 2.x version? That could make a difference in features and speed.

[Jeff Rutledge]

Looks ok, but a little too busy for me. I still love Snoopsoft Dashboard over all these calendar replacement programs like Pocket Informant and Calendar Plus, etc. Dashboard is simple and clean. Just my opinion.

I haven't tried Dashboard in over a year, and I stopped using it because I felt it made my Pocket PC sluggish - how do you find the performance?

I found the same with version 1x. I played with a beta of version 2 a while back and the performance hit seemed to have been taken care of. I ultimately decided not to stay with it, but not due to speed or performance.

[ricksfiona]

Looks pretty cool. It makes me want to switch from TransACT.

[karinatwork]

I've been using Kitara Genesis for a few months now and I absolutely love it. It does exactly what I want it to do, and it has a ton of settings and icons to use.

http://www.quenchsoftware.com/kitara_main.php

Maybe it's worth to look at this and compare the two applications. The price is about the same (Kitara is a little cheaper).

K.

[SassKwatch]

Dashboard also works fine for me as well. I do not notice any performance problems with it installed.
Ditto.

At least with v2.x. I seem to recall a little bit of a performance hit prior to v2, but nothing discernible now.

[MichaelA]

I'm another happy Dashboard owner. I bought it ages ago for my Casio E-125 and when I got my new ASUS A620 I wasn't even clear that the software was being actively developed anymore. I really missed it and couldn't find a decent replacement, so I went hunting on their website and I think I may have even googled for it. I managed to find the beta and once I dug out my old purchase information I was downloading it and using it again on my A620. Excellent. Speed seems good to me too.

Only gripes I have:

- I wouldn't have known there was a beta if I hadn't gone looking and really hunted. It would have been nice if they could have emailed registered users. But I certainly can't complain, as I was surprised I could even get the ARM version since I bought the old MIPS version ages ago.

- The only slowdown I notice is after a soft reset. Whenever you go to a new launcher page that you haven't seen before it seems to take a while to load and cache the icons for that view. After the first time, it's snappy.

I just checked and I'm running 2.0.036. Is there a newer one?

[SassKwatch]

I just checked and I'm running 2.0.036. Is there a newer one?
According to a message I just saw on the Snoopsoft support forum over at pocketnow.com, it appears there's a 2.0.045 version now.

On a side note....

I've often wondered how much discussion of competing products is appropriate in discussions such as this.(?) It's clear the developers of some apps mentioned on the 'front page' here at PPCT also frequent the discussion of their product. And while I would guess most of them find some of that discussion interesting and possibly even helpful towards future development of their own product, I would think it might also get a little discouraging if discussion of the competition tends to take over the thread.(?)

Not pointing any fingers as I've certainly done this myself. Just curious.

[CESkins]

Anyone actually used Calendar Plus v8? How does it compare with other solutions besides Dashboard like Scarybear's Quick Tasks ad Quick Agenda?

[digger]

I had a detailed look at Calendar Plus Professional and have been really impressed. This has a lot of functionality and customisation capabilities and does look really nice. There are a few things I would like to see added, such as the ability to search Notes in the Search applet and customisation of colours as sometimes it is hard to read overdue tasks (displayed in red) depending upton the theme in use. But overall, a solid and fast Today plugin.

Full review can be found at: http://www.pocketreview.net/default.asp?section=article&id=26&page=1

[amitregev]

Here is a great review for CP Pro, posted by Prof. Gerald Tan, Adelaide, South Australia :

"
When I first bought my PDA some years ago, every time I turned it on and saw the Today screen which displayed my appointments only for that day, followed by the cryptic line “5 tasks, 2 high priority”, I used to say to myself, “Whoever wrote that program needs to have his or her brains tested”. I longed for a Today plugin that could show me my appointments for two or three days ahead including the current day, as well as my tasks over the same period. I searched the Net and found one freeware plugin that could show me my appointments for the next three days (great! I thought, but the feeling lasted only for a few minutes, as it could not display my tasks). Another commercial program could show me my tasks, but not my appointments. For a while, I had two plugins on my PDA, one to show my my appointments for the next three days, the other to show me my tasks. While crying myself to sleep at night, I would often wonder why someone could not write a program that could display both my appointments and tasks over the next few days. Surely that can’t be all that difficult?

Calendar Plus Professional 3.0 does exactly that (and more) with a high degree of professionalism and finesse. It has all the markers of a well thought out, and superbly crafted, program: it is highly configurable, easy to use, was written with the needs of the user in mind (something that cannot be said of many programs that are commercially available), and reasonably priced. It allows the user to specify how many days (up to 30 days) of appointments are displayed on the Today screen, whether tasks should be included, the size of the virtual screen that is used to display the appointments and tasks (with a neat scrolling device if more space is needed), which PIM is to be accessed (the Windows default, Pocket Informant, or some other user-defined PIM), the size of text in which information is displayed, etc. etc. The program automatically sets the colour of the text on the Today screen to provide constrast with the background theme. If an appointment of task on the Today screen is tapped, or tapped and held, (the user can set this), the appointment or task can be opened, or the PIM can be opened, so that the item can be edited or deleted. There is also a useful search engine incorporated so that user-specified appointments or tasks can be located. Small icons on the Today screen allow the user to view all tasks, or upcoming birthdays, as alternatives to the standard appointments and task for the next, say, three days. In its latest version, a further enhancement has been incorporated. The user can see all appointments (but not tasks) for each day marked as coloured vertical bars on a small white rectangular “time bar” that indicates that there are appointments at different times of the day. This is very useful for a quick glance to see if one is busy or free during the day.

Calendar Plus Professional 3.0 is the latest incarnation of a long line of earlier programs that started with Calendar Plus. Since then, it has evolved and grown, incorporating more and more useful features. Unlike other programs that attempt to reinvent the wheel (why would anyone want to buy a recently advertised program that tells you what tasks are due and display them on the Today screen when there are already programs on the market that do that?). Instead, it integrates and enhances the PIM on one’s PDA, and presents information on appointments and tasks that will increase one’s productivity and efficiency.

As a user of Calendar Plus Professional 3.0 (and its ancestors) I unreservedly recommend it to others who are looking for a Today plugin that is, indeed, the “gold standard” of its genre. I use it all the time, and now cannot do without it. It has enabled me to organise my time efficiently and productively. The only downside to all this (if it is a downside) is that I now no longer have any excuse for missing an appointment, birthday, etc. My wish list for future versions of Calendar Plus Professional is to include tasks in the “time bar”, and to show which appointments and tasks have notes attached to them, allowing the user to view those notes by tapping on them. The developers of Calendar Plus Professional 3.0 are probably a few steps ahead of me on these, and have probably been working quietly on these enhancements for a future upgrade (I no longer cry myself to sleep). These would make an excellent program into a near-perfect one! "

Prof. Gerald Tan, Adelaide, South Australia

You can get more full details and download the trial version from www.sbsh.net

[juni]

I tried Calendar Plus and deleted it, then they updated it and I tried it again - soon to delete it again. It is such a nice concept, but somehow it always feels cumbersome and sort of clutters up the today screen.

btw. Chris from Snoopsoft just released version 2 of dashboard. It is available @ handango and pocketgear. :)

[sonsy]

Hi Juni,

Always play fair, It doesn't look too convincing to post a message against CP Pro. and then post a message regarding compatiture software..... :|

[juni]

It is my honest opinion of Calendar Plus, I had great hopes for it but it didn't feel comfortable. I think the problem was that it looked way too cluttered. I always tried it whenever it was updated...and then got frustrated.

I've used both Scarybear's Quick Tasks and Quick Agenda and liked them a lot (except for slow responsiveness sometimes)


I mentioned Dashboard since it already was mentioned in this thread and I thought I'd share the info that a new version has been released.

So in your opinion it isn't allowed to mention competitive software in a thread about your (?) software or in a review of it?

[sonsy]

CP is still not my software, I received a free copy from them after helping them along the way with some problems.

The reason I wrote it was because I felt your review was unfair with this really good software. CP really helps me view all my appointments and tasks in a joint long-view.

[Steven Cedrone]

It is inevitable that competeing software products will be mentioned in response to posts designed to let poeple know about new producs/updated products. We all feel the need to let people know why we think what we use is better than anything else available. At one time I was very much against this, but I have softened my stance. I like to hear the opinions of people that have used, not only the product being discussed, but competeing products as well. But I do like to hear why they like product A over product B, not just "Use product B" :wink:

That's just my .02

Steve