Organize Your Notes For Free

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bizon.org/bizorg/' target='_blank'>http://www.bizon.org/bizorg/</a><br /><br /></div>The most common reason that Pocket PC users give for carrying their little devices around is to stay organized. For a lot of us, if it weren't for the calendar, to do lists and contacts database, we'd be completely lost. Here's an application that helps the Pocket PC keep us even more organized: <a href="http://www.bizon.org/bizorg/">BizOrg</a>.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/bizorg.jpg" /><br /><br /><i>"BizOrg Pocket PC organizer provides the best place to store your Notes and Tasks, organize Contacts and Journal. BizOrg gives you one place to store all your notes and the freedom to work with them how you want. It helps you capture information in multiple ways and then organize and use it according to your needs."</i><br /><br />I installed this and right away I noticed a couple of very useful things. First, I like being able to link a contact to a task or note. Second, the contact listing uses a smaller font, so the contact's ENTIRE first and last name are visible. The best part of BizOrg is that it's <b>FREE</b>! So, give it a try; you've got nothing to lose!

[mrkablooey]

this looks interesting, and the livejournal integration/plug-in is appealing as well. i'm going to give it a try. :) thanks for posting it!

[jonathanchoo]

Sounds great...I will give this a try once activeStick fixes itself.

update: installed, glad they have a cab file on their site. The livejournal plugin seems to be quite interesting but I don't blog there. The app itself is great and certaintly worth more than free.

[Birdman]

I use the Outlook Notes function quite extensively both on my PPC and the Desktop. Does this program integrate with the Notes function or does it have its own prop. Notes database?

[akhella]

I use the Outlook Notes function quite extensively both on my PPC and the Desktop. Does this program integrate with the Notes function or does it have its own prop. Notes database?
I agree. That's the first thing I looked at when I ran the application: where are my notes? :)
May be intergration with outlook notes would be the best next step. Also I would love to have a blogger.com sync module.
I use NoteLens for note taking on the desktop and it's very well integrated with outlook.

[sylvangale]

Looks like Tombo, but prettied up a bit. The tab design is interesting. I'll have to try it out when I get home.

http://tombo.sourceforge.jp/En/index.html

http://tombo.sourceforge.jp/En/images/tombo_ppc_en.png

[Perry Reed]

Nice! I use LiveJournal for one of my blogs, so I'm definitely going to give that a try.

It sounds like it doesn't integrate with Outlook notes, yes? That's too bad. But if nothing else, perhaps I'll have a decent little mobile LiveJournal client.

[wocket]

This looks great. I'm currently doing research and i've been looking for a soloution to keep my thoughts and notes and a log of where i'm at and what I should be doing.

Just about to install it.

Wonder how it behaves in VGA.

[Brad Adrian]

Wonder how it behaves in VGA.
I don't know. I [sigh] still don't have a VGA device. :(

[Lex]

Freezes up my iPAQ 3845 running PPC 2002. Have to soft reset to regain control of the PPC. I don't see system requirements anywhere on the website.

[wocket]

Wonder how it behaves in VGA.
I don't know. I [sigh] still don't have a VGA device. :(

It's only in quarter screen on VGA awwww and it looked so useful too.

[Rob Alexander]

I use the Outlook Notes function quite extensively both on my PPC and the Desktop. Does this program integrate with the Notes function or does it have its own prop. Notes database?

If you're looking for something that will integrate with desktop Notes, but also link to contacts, appointments, etc., and that also has a much better handle on sorting and organizing large numbers of notes, then you may want to check out PhatNotes (http://www.phatware.com/). It's a mature product that's been around in some form or other since the HPC days. It's not perfect, and it's not free, but I found it enough better than the plain PPC notes product to be worth the money. The only thing it doesn't do is support the freehand drawings that Outlook Notes does. However, if that's important to you, they have another program, PhatPad, that does that and can integrate with PhatNote to almost return that functionality. You can DL and 30-day trial of each from their web site.

[thanos255]

I use the Outlook Notes function quite extensively both on my PPC and the Desktop. Does this program integrate with the Notes function or does it have its own prop. Notes database?

If you're looking for something that will integrate with desktop Notes, but also link to contacts, appointments, etc., and that also has a much better handle on sorting and organizing large numbers of notes, then you may want to check out PhatNotes (http://www.phatware.com/). It's a mature product that's been around in some form or other since the HPC days. It's not perfect, and it's not free, but I found it enough better than the plain PPC notes product to be worth the money. The only thing it doesn't do is support the freehand drawings that Outlook Notes does. However, if that's important to you, they have another program, PhatPad, that does that and can integrate with PhatNote to almost return that functionality. You can DL and 30-day trial of each from their web site.

The problem with the phatpad is that they left out alarms! It is a great program, but without setting alarms for my notes...it is useless for me personall.

[thanos255]

I use the Outlook Notes function quite extensively both on my PPC and the Desktop. Does this program integrate with the Notes function or does it have its own prop. Notes database?

If you're looking for something that will integrate with desktop Notes, but also link to contacts, appointments, etc., and that also has a much better handle on sorting and organizing large numbers of notes, then you may want to check out PhatNotes (http://www.phatware.com/). It's a mature product that's been around in some form or other since the HPC days. It's not perfect, and it's not free, but I found it enough better than the plain PPC notes product to be worth the money. The only thing it doesn't do is support the freehand drawings that Outlook Notes does. However, if that's important to you, they have another program, PhatPad, that does that and can integrate with PhatNote to almost return that functionality. You can DL and 30-day trial of each from their web site.

The problem with the phatpad is that they left out alarms! It is a great program, but without setting alarms for my notes...it is useless for me personaly.

[thanos255]

I use the Outlook Notes function quite extensively both on my PPC and the Desktop. Does this program integrate with the Notes function or does it have its own prop. Notes database?

If you're looking for something that will integrate with desktop Notes, but also link to contacts, appointments, etc., and that also has a much better handle on sorting and organizing large numbers of notes, then you may want to check out PhatNotes (http://www.phatware.com/). It's a mature product that's been around in some form or other since the HPC days. It's not perfect, and it's not free, but I found it enough better than the plain PPC notes product to be worth the money. The only thing it doesn't do is support the freehand drawings that Outlook Notes does. However, if that's important to you, they have another program, PhatPad, that does that and can integrate with PhatNote to almost return that functionality. You can DL and 30-day trial of each from their web site.

The problem with the phatpad is that they left out alarms! It is a great program, but without setting alarms for my notes...it is useless for me personaly.

And this program doesn't seem to allow freehand writing.
Is it that hard to make a program do that????

Geez this is annoying!

[MikeInDallas]

The problem with the phatpad is that they left out alarms! ...

And this program doesn't seem to allow freehand writing. Is it that hard to make a program do that????


It's not necessarily hard, just a very different form of input from a SIP.

Sounds like some of you are looking for something more along the lines of Notes Explorer (http://www.meshavi.com/product_ne.htm). It gives you a view of your notes in a hierarchical tree. (freeware)

If you want something to scribble with, apMemo is my first choice (http://www.apsoftsystems.com/apmemo/). No fussing with handwriting recognition, and you can set reminders for your scribbling. It's impossible to convert apMemo scribbles to text because that's not for that. It's great for quick notes. There's a lightly limited freeware version, or you can check out the trial. I registered mine, and I'm cheap! :wink:

This app sounds, OTOH, like ADB Idea (http://www.happyjackroad.com/AtomicDB/pocketpc/ideaLibrary/idea.asp). Hey! 8O I see they have made some serious updates, just released a little over a week ago. Anyway, this one will let you do scribbling (like apMemo), voice notes, etc, in a hierarchical tree. I see they've added data compression and what looks like a bunch of good stuff.

As for me, I use TreNotes, for one, because it has a desktop counterpart (so does apMemo). But according to happyjackroad.com, they're working on a desktop counterpart for ADB Idea too. Hmm...

[thanos255]

[quote]


If you want something to scribble with, apMemo is my first choice (http://www.apsoftsystems.com/apmemo/). No fussing with handwriting recognition, and you can set reminders for your scribbling. It's impossible to convert apMemo scribbles to text because that's not for that. It's great for quick notes. There's a lightly limited freeware version, or you can check out the trial. I registered mine, and I'm cheap! :wink:


Does this program allow note alarms? I don't see it as a function or in the documentation.

BTW thanks

[MikeInDallas]

Does this program allow note alarms? I don't see it as a function or in the documentation.

BTW thanks
Yes it does. :clap: You tap the clock icon in the toolbar and are given a quick entry selection, or can enter a time manually. When the notification/alarm goes off, you can snooze it, or dismis (uses the standard PocketPC notify dialog) and then will be shown the specific note you set the alarm for.

The only differences I can think of between the freebie version and the registered version is, the registered version adds: 5 more pen widths, more color choices, and puts the eraser on the toolbar instead of being in the menu. I splurged and whipped out the $12, for one because the free version actually worked (bugs me when I'm not trusted).

Speaking as a developer myself, I think the #1 biggest problem with software is that the guys who write it don't actually use it. Alex (the author) uses it, and it shows in the UI. :way to go:

BTW, I checked out the app that this thread mentions, and it does use the existing Contacts database, but creates its own notes database. Pretty nice app. What's more, the Contacts part lets you export your contacts data to CSV (comma-delimited format) so other apps can use the data! I've left it on my PDA just because of the export :byebye:

[Lex]

How do you get Pocket Word docs to show up within BizOrg? I figured out how to import my Notes but Word docs don't show in the list view. Screenshot at http://www.freewareppc.com/database/bizorg.shtml shows Word docs in the list. (Sorry for the dual post but the developer isn't answering.)

[Lex]

In case anyone's interested, the developer finally answered me and despite screenshots to the contrary, BizOrg cannot currently handle Pocket Word documents.

[Zagleft1]

I use the Outlook Notes function quite extensively both on my PPC and the Desktop. Does this program integrate with the Notes function or does it have its own prop. Notes database?

Kinda both. I use "Notes" extensively as well. One of the problems I continually run into with my anemic 32mb Hitachi G is that notes have to be in main memory to synch with Outlook, so after a large number accumulate both in outlook and on my device, it starts taking forever to open the "notes" app on the ppc. But I use the "import" feature of BizOrg as a compromise:

After a number of regular Notes starts building up, I first use the import feature of bizorg to bring them into that app, which allows storage on the SD instead of main memory. After that, I mass move the Notes that have accumulated in the desktop outlook to a file folder on the desktop which can then be searched with a utility like LookOut.

Result is that I can keep tons of notes in SD on Biz Org (which btw has a search feature) and can also search a notes database on my desktop without clogging both up with a high volume of notes