Heirarchical Organizers: Why Do I Need One?

[Lex]

Heirarchical organizers like ADB Idea Library, Biz Org; do I need one? How do you use 'em?

I'm serious, part of me wants to use one of these apps but I'm not sure why. BizOrg locks up my iPAQ 3845 requiring a soft reset so for me, that one's not a winner. I figure if I needed one of these apps I'd have to be willing to 'live with it' all day, and I currently seem to prefer to work from Agenda Fusion's interface most of the time.

I'm a sucker for freeware and usually fret about ways to use it 'because it's there'.

[Brad Adrian]

The primary benefit of these types of organizers are for project management. There are Pocket PC programs that work with Microsoft Project, but I've found them pretty unsatisfactory. With a hierarchial organizer, though, you can accomplish some pretty sophisticated project management by creating tasks, subtasks, sub-subtasks, etc.

Personally, I think they're great.

[Lex]

Thanks Brian. In that case, if I tell you I own ListPro, do these other apps hold any advantages over a well-built drag & drop list and outliner app?

[ignar]

ADBIdea supports multimedia. So you can add voice or picture nodes. You can also add task items which will be added PIM database. I use ListPro mainly as a flat file database and a quick checklist while use ADB as a thought organizer.

[wocket]

ADBIdea is great I've got so much of my research notes on it everything from text, drawings, web links to attaching other documents in it all nicely organised.

Plus now there is a desktop companion for it.

Exporting my ideas in html format is another big plus.

It operates like a journal in my pocket and goes where I go (with certain execptions, remember your pocketpc is not a bath-time toy).

I'd tried Bisorg but it's not very VGA friendly. I contacted the author and they said they will provide VGA support at some future date. Otherwise it's great for journaling.

[Lex]

Thanks guys, great input & I'm giving ADB a try.

Edit 8/12/04: I've discovered there's no way to promote or demote items. You'd have to get it right first try because there's no way to re-arrange sub-items. This is a win for outliner apps until they add this feature to ADB Idea Library, and the developer is planning to in the future.

Edit 8/15: The developer points out you can put an alpha or numeric prefix in front of ideas, then reload the same library and that'll force the order as you wish. Not a bad workaround for the moment !

[CEGiven]

I liked the multi-media element of ADBIdea and especially the price. But I finally moved to ListPro for a couple of reasons.

First, the drag and drop convenience was actually a necessity for me. I use ListPro to track my status reports, and I move items from the "In Progress" section to the "Completed" section. The heirarchy lets me track multiple projects and customized columns allow me to track date and times for each entry.

Second, since I'm using it for status reports, I need the ability to print the contents of my lists weekly. This led to a third benefit of having a desktop version that syncrhonizes with the PPC.

And lastly, I had a lot of heirarchal lists in Word, Excel, and EccoPro. I was able to convert them into CSV files and import them into ListPro.

I currently use ListPro for these tasks: Multi-project status reports, with each project showing categories and dependencies via heirarchy arrangement; A shortened contacts list of the most critical contacts (which include "contacts" such a server IP addresses); Shopping lists (grouped by store, e.g., Walmart vs Home Depot); Wish Lists (mine and ideas for other people's birthdays, including which "state" quarters my wife is missing in her collection); A list of web sites I need to visit later; Business hours for places I frequent; Businesses and discount details (places that give my company employee discounts); Reading lists of favorite authors (e.g., I read murder mysteries and Barbar Mertz writes under various pseudonyms. Even under her single pseudonym Elizabeth Peters she has several series, then under each series (such as the Amelia Peabody series) I have them arranged in the order in which they MUST be read, and then have a check by each that HAS been read -- then when I go to the library or a bookstore I know what to look for); A list of conversions by length, volume, weight, etc. (downloaded this from the ListPro web site and added my own); A writer's reference for a book I'm writing (characters, places, events, plot points, ideas to incorporate, etc.).

[dinoignacio]

I use Scary Bear's SuperList. It's a hirearchial list program that's very easy to use. Check it out.
http://www.scarybearsoftware.com/ppc_sl_overview.html
It's free if you only want to maintain 3 lists. It's cheap though so I bought it.

It's helped me stay organized at Siggraph this year and I'm using it right now to plan for Buningman.