Stand Alone, Inc. - DateMan Comparison

The DateMan Advantage

A Comparison between DateMan, More Info, and Action Names

In order to show why DateMan is the best contact manager available, we compared DateMan 3.1 to Action Names 4.04.1, to More Info 4.11. After comparing the three applications, DateMan has clear advantages over both of the other contact managers. It lets you control the size of the application with its modular design, uses only the built-in soups, gives you many choices of how information is displayed, includes more different types of entries, and links all your information together. DateMan 3.1 is also easy to customize so that is fit your needs exactly. The paragraphs below detail the differences between the three applications, and there is a quick reference chart of all the information at the end.

DateMan's advantages appear as soon as it is installed on the Newton. Contact managers are large programs, both in terms of the information they display, and the memory space they require. DateMan helps manage both cluttered information and memory size by breaking the application into many smaller packages. DateMan only requires that the main package, and the remaining packages should only be installed if you need them. Each package contains extra features, so you only install the ones that you need. The rest are left un-installed to reduce the program size and so DateMan only shows you the information you actually use. While Action Names follows the same structure as DateMan, More Info has only three packages, and all are required for the program.

It is important that a contact manager be able to use information already in your Newton. DateMan uses the built-in Newton soups, so it automatically includes all of your information. This also helps to make sure that there are no conflicts with other programs. If, for example, you have two programs that use the built in to-do soup they both draw information from the same place, so there is no problem. However, if one of the programs needs its own unique soup for to-do's, while the other one uses the built-in soup, they are drawing information from two different places. It's easy to imagine how this can cause conflicts, or result in missing information. Also, using the built in soups avoids any possible problems from having to translate the data. Both DateMan and More Info use the internal soups, while Action Names does not for either calls or to-do's. Once a contact manager is up and running, it's important that it display your information in a format that is clear and easy to use. DateMan shows your information in two distinct ways. It can either show you a single day, with the different types of information separated into different sections; or it can show a multiple day view, for whatever length of time you choose, with all of the information grouped by day. You can also change between the two views just by tapping the Overview button. This arrangement lets you easily switch between a long-term view of what is coming up, and a detailed view of a single day. Action Names follows much the same format, but More Info does not. More Info always keeps the information separated, whether it is viewing a day or a month. It doesn't give you a way to glance at a long term schedule and quickly see all that is going on each day.

DateMan also makes it easy to keep track of your schedule. It includes many more types of entries than either More Info or Action Names. In addition to the appointments, events, calls and to-do's , DateMan includes several special entry types. It includes entries for mail, faxes, and web sites and goals. Goals are special entries that can be broken down into subsections. These are useful for large tasks such as, for example, something like writing a book. Each chapter could be a sub-goal, and the Goal entry will keep track what percentage of the entire goal is finished. DateMan also has special icons for each of the entries, so a glance at your schedule lets you know what is coming up. Neither Action Names nor More Info has as wide a range of schedule choices. One of the most important features of a contact manager is how it integrates all of it's information. All three contact managers have ways to link different pieces of information together. DateMan can link any type of entry with any other type of entry. It connects the pieces of information, and includes a link symbol with each of them, so that you can easily move between them. More Info has similar capabilities, but Action Names is much more limited. Actions Names can only link data entries to name cards. With DateMan, its easy to connect information, and move between it as you need to.

DateMan has all of the features that you need to control your schedule on your Newton. DateMan has many features that make it quick to enter your information, including things like the ability to write many to-do's at once on a single sheet with the multi-to-do package. Another example is the ability to switch between entry types from its creation slip. This means that if you create a new meeting, and then decide it would be better suited as an event, you don't have to re-enter the data. DateMan also supports printing, faxing, and beaming information. Almost every aspect of DateMan can be customized, so you can craft it to your needs. It has all of the features of Action Names and More Info combined, and more besides. Best of all, it incorporates all of the features into an extremely fast and easy package that helps get your schedule, and your life, under control.