Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 16:20:39 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Nutter <manutter@mozart.cc.iup.edu> Subject: First Things First Pro - review/report Below is my review of the calendar/reminder/project-management utilit= y=20 First Things First Proactive, by Visionary Software. Mark Nutter manutter@grove.iup.edu =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D Cut Here =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D First Things First Proactive Visionary Software 1820 SW Vermont, Suite A Portland, OR 97219 Phone (503) 246 6200 FAX (503) 452-1198 Capsule summary Schedule management/calendar software plus an integrated outliner with surprisingly useful links to the calendar. Supports multi-user access to calendar files, multiple calendar files per user, automatic reminders, project deadlines, and customizable printouts of calendars, schedules, and outlines. Can also use Claris XTND engine to do file import/export. Compatible with the earlier First Things First 3.0. Requires: System 7.0 or later, 4MB RAM (with preferably a 2MB partition for FTF Pro), and 1.7MB of disk space. Quick Review Has a few flaws, but definitely on my "must have" list. Does what I want it to do, which is to remind me when I have to do something, and to print out neat monthly calendars and daily/weekly schedules. I don't actually need the multi-user capabilities of this product, but I imagine others might well appreciate them. Thumbs down: - Bombed on Datebook Format import. Or any of the data import functions, for that matter. Maybe it's because I have only the free demo version, maybe it's because I have 16 quazillion extensions loading in at startup, but I couldn't get any file import functions to work loading in files that I had previously exported from FTF Pro. - Click-arrows for changing time no longer present. One of the nice things I liked about the original First Things First was the way you could click on the hour, and a pair of up/down arrows would appear. Clicking on these arrows would change the time, automatically setting AM/PM appropriately, as well as changing the day, and so on. Not everyone would want to change dates and times this way, but I preferred it, and am sorry to see this handy feature missing from FTF Pro. - Long startup time; nearly a full minute on a Quadra 660AV. Again, this may or may not be due to all the extensions I load at startup time, but even MS Word loads faster than FTF Pro! - No balloon help. The manuals are there, of course, and like most people I almost never use balloon help, unless the program is new to me. No great loss, I suppose, but it would have been a nice touch had balloon help been there. - No easy way to archive and purge old, completed items. My chief complaint is that, after importing my old FTF 3.0 items, I had some 300 old, expired items, and no way, that I could find, to clean them out. I started the old click-and-clear method, but that got tiresome pretty early, so I just selected "Hide Completed Items" =66rom the Calendar menu. Didn't get rid of them, but at least I don't have to look at them any more. - Program must be installed on startup volume. I tried moving it to a different volume, but then when I clicked on the floating clock to open up First Things First, it complained that it couldn't find the program. Nor would it follow the alias I tried placing on my startup volume. I purposely partitioned my hard drive and have more space on my non-startup partition than on my startup partition, so I wish I could have moved the FTF Pro application over to the partition with more space. Fortunately, I can at least store my FTF Pro calendar files wherever I want. - Scroll-up, Scroll-down arrows in Month view don=D5t work if day cell is selected. When you are in the Month view, the window displays a standard calendar-style layout, with each day's events listed in the square for that day. If you have more items than will fit in that square, FTF Pro will display tiny up/down arrows for you to click on to scroll the other items into view. Unfortunately, if you're scrolling down, the down arrow disappears once you reach the last item. If you click again, the entire square will be selected, and then the arrows won't work. You have to click on a different square to deselect the current square, and then you can click back on the square you want and get the arrows to work again. - Shift-select-then-drag moves all items to the same day whether they started on the same day or not. If you have to postpone a project for a week, FTF Pro will let you shift-click and drag items so that you can move multiple items at the same time. What may not be obvious, however, is that all selected items will be moved to the same day. Thus, if you select an entire week's worth of work and drag it to Monday of the following week, you won't just move everything ahead a week, you'll move everything to next Monday! (Fortunately, there is a quick and easy way to move everything ahead a week, even if the items are on different days.) -+ Capture Layout command nice, but why not just automatically remember window geometry? For a while, I had to open up my calendar window, then click the zoom box to have it fill the screen the way I want. After sneaking a look at the manual, however, I discovered I could preserve the "zoomed out" look of my calendar window buy selecting "Capture File Layout" under the Utilities menu. This records the size and position of all windows belonging to a particular FTF Pro file so that the next time you open that file, those windows come up the way you had them. Very nice, but why not make it automatic? I'd like it to just remember the size and=20 positions of all my windows, without having to tell it each time. At the very least, this should be a option you could set under the Preferences menu. Thumbs Up + Banners are nice. FTF Pro allows you to add "banners"=D1arbitrarily sized text boxes that you can put anywhere on your calendar. Put a cute quote in the empty squares at the end of the month, or use a banner to mark a special week. Banners have their own font and size, which you can customize to be different =66rom the fonts used elsewhere in your calendar. + Cooperates with FTF 3.0. I didn't test this, as I like the reminders in FTF Pro much better than those in the original FTF, so I just turned FTF 3.0 off for the duration of this test. + Custom beep sound for each reminder. My first reminder utility would let you set a different beep sound for every reminder that came due. This was both fun and useful, as you could tell what reminder was coming up even before you saw it. FTF lacked this feature, but FTF Pro has it, and I'm glad. + File-based deadlines. FTF Pro lets you store reminders in multiple separate files, and gives you the option of assigning each file a deadline date. If you try to schedule anything to occur after the deadline, FTF Pro warns you, then lets you do it, if you really insist. Nice way to organize multiple, separate projects. + Files can be stored anywhere, including server volume. This capability is handy in that you can have multiple users sharing the same calendar, thus making it easier to schedule group meetings. + Free demo version. The free demo only works for 2 weeks, but that gives a good opportunity to decide whether or not you like the product. + Multi-user access of calendar info. Again, makes it easier to consult other people's calendars and arrange group meetings. As you might expect, there are provisions for controlling who has access to your calendars. + Multiple calendar/project files. As mentioned above, FTF Pro allows you to break your workload down into separate projects stored in separate files. A special "linking" mechanism allows you to view all your scheduled events on a single master calendar. + Nice display of overlapping events - shows conflict without hindering your scheduling. + Nicely laid out QuickStart manual. + Quich-Resched advances items by defined increments, so items a week apart stay a week apart even if you move them ahead a day. + Reminder can be associated with other (non-FTF) files so that, for example, if it's time for you to work on the annual Report of Redundant Reports Report, the FTF Pro reminder will not only remind you, but will open up the file for you to work on, saving you a few extra mouse clicks. + Supports graphics in outliner (though not in calendar or reminder). + Versatile formatting options, both in outline view and in calendar view. +Hold Reminders is nice=D1put reminders on hold for a given period of time so that they don't pop up and interrupt things while you are doing that presentation for the Board of Directors. Summary This is a very nice program that does what it was designed to do. If it wasn't for that horribly long wait when first opening up the program, FTF Pro would be near the top of my "Must Have" list. As it is, I give it a friendly thumbs-up, and hope to see an improved version soon.