Pocket Informant 6 (R2.1)

A couple of years ago, we reviewed the then newly released WebIS Pocket Informant 4 from the perspective of a first-time user.

At that time Pocket Informant was by far the best Personal Information Manager (PIM) we had seen.

Today we revisit Pocket Informant (PI) in its latest form: WebIS released Pocket Informant 2005 (PI 2005) – the name given to PI6 – fairly recently and as always, followed that up with a couple of additional releases to make it even better.

I've been using PI since our editor reviewed PI4, and it is one of only a few programs I use not just daily, but most of the day.

This new version of Informant, like its predecessors, is by far the best PIM we've come across yet!

Join me on a whirlwind tour of appointments, contacts, tasks and notes all in a VGA compatible package.

Oh, but wait! There IS more.

Whereas we won’t be looking at it today, another WebIS product - Mail 2.1 – is a great replacement for the basic email client from Microsoft.

Together with PI 2005 you could easily have the perfect Outlook^® replacement!

Well, a lot has changed on the visual front from previous versions: Informant 2005’s new sleek layout, flawless gradients and VGA compatible icons are the first things that catch your eye. Then you look a little deeper and those who have used PI before will notice a revamped menu with new setting display.

The new menu and displays make PI 2005 a joy to work with, not that the previous versions were lacking in ‘user-friendliness’ but WebIS is always improving its already easy-to-use interface.

The calendar now comes with more than a few new features and also a new view.

In PI 2005 they've added a Timeline View on top of the standard Agenda, Day, Week and Month views which enables you to separately track appointments in up to six categories.

The new Timeline View lets you compare schedules and manage projects. Timeline View only shows events in the categories you select and shows them in separate rows so you know exactly if it’s in your business or leisure category for example.

Another new feature WebIS introduced in PI5, the version before PI 2005, was human day view.

What’s that you ask? Well let’s say I have an appointment that goes from 11pm on Tuesday to 2am on Wednesday.

Normally, it would show this appointment on both Tuesday and Wednesday. But human view enables you set the time that appointments show the next day.

Going back to our example, if I set PI 2005 to consider my day to end at 2am, it will not show the appointment on Wednesday when I wake up. Handy!

WebIS hasn’t left the contacts, tasks, and notes sections unscathed from their ruthless pursuit of improvement.

All the sections have new more customizable views. The new settings menu allows you to customize nearly all of PI 2005’s colors and also gives the user a very comprehensive choice of view settings and options, so you will be entirely happy with the way PI looks and works.

Yes!

As I said before the interface is very user-friendly – even for a first-time user.

And if you really like to know what you’re doing before you play, there is a comprehensive PDF manual which you can view on you desktop or print out if you wish.

Not that I’ve ever needed used it, I found that just having a play was easy enough.

Talking about ‘just having a play’ with it; that is the best way to find out just how good PI 2005 really is.

You can download a fully functional version from www.pocketinformant.com to trial and decide for yourself.

If you think it’s worth forking out your hard-earned cash, you can purchase a license for US$29.95 to register the trial version, so you don’t have to download and install another version. It’s also well worth mentioning that WebIS allows you to upgrade easily and cheaply – often free – so that you always have the latest improvements.

Conclusion

Pocket Informant 2005 comes in a sleek, very easy-to-use package.

It’s very well stocked with features that make even Microsoft’s Outlook^® look a little antiquated.

So Pocket Informant is still well ahead of the competition!

Come to think of it - what competition?

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