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Organizer is the personal information manager (PIM) that looks like a real organiser, complete with tabs and ring-binder. The advantage is instant familiarity, together with great printing options if you want to stick pages into a paper-based version. On the other hand, it's no longer true that typical PIM users also have paper organisers. The binder look is less compelling than it was, but Organizer remains the easiest PIM to learn.
The product's main features are a personal calendar and contact manager. Extras include a to-do list, telephone call manager, notepad and a web links organiser. Users on a network can share Organizer sections, with simple password control over permissions. You can also synchronise with a personal digital assistant, with support for Palm devices included and other options available.
At version 6.0 you would imagine that Organizer should be pretty good at its core functions, and it is. You can double-click a day in the calendar to create an appointment, and have comprehensive options for reminders, repeating appointments, and setting up meetings with automatic invitations and checking of free/busy time status.
The contact manager has plenty of fields available and is easily customised. For example, Organizer has a Zip code field, but using the Custom labels button it is easy to change this to postcode. The History view shows contacts one at a time, alongside an Activities page listing appointments, calls or other notes associated with that contact. These are hyperlinked to their source. Organizer has the essentials for contact management including features such as the ability to schedule a future phone call with an automatic reminder.
Existing users will not find dramatic changes in version 6.0. The most obvious new feature is the web section, where you can store web links including log-in details for password-protected sites. When the link is clicked, the log-in details are entered automatically. You can also download web pages and store them in the Notepad section. Organizer displays them in its own browser, which seems to use the Internet Explorer (IE) control to render content. There is also support for relevant Internet standards, including vCard, vCalendar, iCalendar and LDAP directory lookup. A simple but powerful feature will publish contact or calendar information as web pages, and will re-publish them daily or at other intervals.
Organizer's Easyclip feature is a great time-saver. It provides a range of right-click options such as Create Appointment and Create Contact. Typically, you would use this while working in another application, in which case Easyclip looks at the currently selected text and converts it intelligently.
For example, if you are in a word processor and select the text: 'Buy PCW, 1 March 2000', Easyclip's Create Task automatically sets this up as a task due on that day.
Organizer comes with Smartcentre, which is a toolbar with links to web-based information along with Organizer's calendar, contacts and reminders.
The problem with a PIM is that it tends either to be in constant use, or not at all. Organizer has a few weak points. Unlike Microsoft's Outlook, it is not an email client, so if you want to flip back and forth between your in-box and your calendar, you need to have two separate applications open. Most of the web features are similar to what is already available in Netscape Navigator or IE. Organizer is mainly for personal use, and the network features are weak. Lotus should have followed Microsoft's example and integrated the best features of Organizer into the Notes client.
Contact Lotus Development 0870 600 6123
See also:
All Office Applications
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