Getting Organized-Digital Style: Part 2

There are quite a few credible information management products available for the business PC user. We will review products that attempt to balance user-friendliness with functionality.

Each of them will do a better job of organizing you than paper alone. Each of them enables the scheduling of tasks and appointment, and of organizing contact information, and does a good job of importing data from other programs. But there is a significant difference in overall power and ease of use. The worst of them will be somewhat helpful but the best of them can transform your life.

Lotus Organizer 97

Organizer 97 has the simplest interface of the products we've evaluated. It uses the comfortable metaphor of the paper organizer transformed into on-screen pages for address book, calendar, to-do and calls. It will look very familiar to everyone.

Organizer 97 is probably most helpful for folks who need to manage their own activities rather than those of others or for those who jobs don't require the management of a large number of contacts. There is a helpful project planner for tracking one's own projects. Organizer 97 also enables the creation of information pages to keep track of important data such a price lists, product info, etc.

In spite of some nice features, Organizer 97 is weakest in the contact management arena. There is no easy way to link a contact with an appointment, call or to-do. Nor is it possible to maintain a history of various activities relating to an account or group of accounts. In terms of communication, Organizer 97 makes it pretty easy to send an email to a contact. But there is no way to track that email as part of the contact's record. There is also no simple way to send a letter, send a fax or conduct a mail merge.

In short, Organizer 97 has a nice interface, some nice features but is severely lacking in horsepower. RATING: C+

Microsoft Outlook 97

I know that Microsoft's entry in the information manager sweepstakes has received many plaudits in the computer press. I must demur. I find it to be among the most complex and least useful of the information managers we tested. Like all Microsoft products, Outlook 97 looks good. But looking good isn't enough to make users feel good. Beneath the elegant façade there are too many layers and too many mouse clicks needed to accomplish anything.

One cannot just set an appointment; the program tries to make you send an email or fax to confirm it--and spawns a whole process that attempts to place a fax if no email address is found. In addition, it isn't possible to tie a task to one or more contacts. You can assign a task to someone but Outlook insists on sending an email to make it happen. Writing a letter or doing a mass mailing is pretty straightforward, as it should be, since Microsoft makes the leading word processor, MS Word. But, even that task drags on as you wait for MS Word and the appropriate mail merge wizard to show up.

I know Outlook 97 comes free with MS Office 97. But, because your time is valuable, invest the money in one of the other products we discuss. RATING: C

Day-Timer Organizer 98

This is a pretty solid product, especially for those of you who may be fans of the venerable paper and ink Day-Timers. DTO 98 offers a good compromise between ease of use and functionality. Although its design is a bit clunky, it provides very good contact management capabilities. DTO 98 provides a complete and customizable contact form to maintain virtual reams of information about clients and prospects. Drag-and-drop capabilities simplify the scheduling of appointments, tasks and calls. In addition, DTO 98 enables you to link contacts and activities for project management. The network version provides excellent group scheduling capabilities.

DTO 98 does fall short in two areas. First, although it is possible to send a letter to a contact, it requires many keystrokes and much head-scratching. Second, there is no integrated email--and, although some information managers (Outlook 97 comes to mind) are too email-centric, email should be part of the ideal product.

DTO 98 has one unique and handy feature: Express Services. These enable you to place a call or schedule an appointment or task without opening the program--right from the Win 95 task bar. Of course, if you are like me, you always have your information manager loaded and ready to go.

DTO 98 is a useful product with a few shortcomings. RATING: B

Sidekick 98

Sidekick 98 is the great-grandchild of early 1980s product called Sidekick, which was a very simple and intuitive electronic helper. It retains the simplicity of its early days and adds sophisticated dialing, scheduling and Internet capabilities as well. This product also excels in the import of data files from other information managers--essentially making this often tedious job a no-brainer.

The data metaphor is that of a card file. SK98 allows all kinds of card files to be used with a variety of customizable formats. You can not only track people you can track wines or music. It is quite simple to add an information field--say a vintage year or record label, to rearrange the fields in a contact file and to sort the information in multiple ways.

SK98 also makes it very easy to send a letter or fax, because it contains its own mini-word processor. Hence, without needing to resort to a manual and to spend hours trying to figure out a complex mail merge with MS Word, you can write a letter to one or more contacts from within the program itself. Email from within SK98 is equally straightforward. Calling capabilities are also impressive; it identifies incoming calls with caller id, offers single-click dialing. SK98 makes effective use of the Internet. You can publish your calendars to Web or do group scheduling. Finally, it is very easy to synchronize your PC data with the handheld PalmPilot or the miniature Rex Card.

Sidekick 98 offers more than enough power for many users, although it does not pack the wallop of ACT 3.0 or Goldmine 4.0. Rating: B+

Act 3.0

ACT is also a pioneer in the information manager realm. Designed originally in the mid-'80s for a pre-Windows world, ACT aimed at managers with minimal typing or computer skills. Despite greatly increased power and complexity, ACT still enables new users to become productive very quickly.

ACT excels in contact management. You can keep complete and flexible contact records that are tightly integrated with appointments, calls, tasks and related letters, faxes, email and files. You can even link directly to a client's Web site from within ACT. Contacts can be sorted and filtered in dozens of ways--put into logical groups such as clients, family, A, B and C prospects, club members, etc. In addition, numerous reports provide an analytical look at your daily activities as tracked by ACT.

As with Sidekick 98, ACT integrates a word processor that greatly simplifies the writ