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Product
Review
Spb
Diary Discuss
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4-26-05 - Editor
As is the story with most of the "out-of-the-box" Microsoft apps on a Pocket PC, the Calendar functionality is lacking, particularly in features for the Today Screen. Even with the release of Windows Mobile 2003, the features were still weak. Many people (including me) have used a Today Plug-in (such as Calendar+) to enhance the functionality of the Calendar on the Today Screen. Plug-ins like this are often used in combination with one of the advanced PIM apps such as Agenda Fusion or Pocket Informant. My personal combination has been Calendar+ and Agenda Fusion, and I've been generally pleased with the results. Then along came Spb Diary... Spb Diary is a powerful feature-rich Today plug-in, not just for your Calendar, but also for your Tasks and Contacts. Most actions related to Appointments, Tasks and Contacts can be performed without leaving the Today screen at all! Some key features:
Initial thoughts I've only been using the app for several days (being one of the lucky few to get an advance copy for review purposes), and I am quite simply, blown away by what Spb Software House has created. This app is incredible! As I explored the application, I kept stumbling upon cool feature after cool feature, each time saying, "Brilliant!"
While the essential function of Diary is to view and/or act on your Calendar, Tasks and Contacts, the brilliance comes in the many ways in which you can do that. In my effort to illustrate this true-to-life, I have created several animated Gifs to supplement my narrative. On with my review of Diary...
The application in one of it's many views Below is a screen shot (one of the few still shots in this review!) of how I currently have Diary set up on my device. As you will see further on, you can customize the view to suit your needs and personal style.
Options By tapping & holding anywhere, you can access the Options for Diary. The menu will differ slightly, depending on where you tap-and-hold, but Options will be there as well.
A walk through the Options settings General In the General settings, you can choose to integrate Diary with Pocket Outlook or whatever PIM application you might have installed. As you can see, I use Agenda Fusion. You can also tweak a variety of visual display settings such as the Header, what happens if you double-click on something, the Font style & size, and other items. After playing with the app for a few days, I determined that I liked the app to be 160 pixels in height on the Today screen. That way, it fit nicely with Spb Pocket Plus (& Weather) and PhoneAlarm, the other plug-ins that I use.
Calendar This is where you can really tweak how the Calendar will appear on the Today Screen. At first I didn't have the status bar showing, but after I learned about the functionality built into it (more on that in a moment), I made sure it was selected! My suggestion is to play with these settings a lot, and find the combination of settings that work best for you.
Tasks Similar to the Calendar settings, you can adjust the look and feel for the Tasks.
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