14 DAY TRIAL // Databases with names and addresses have always been popular. Even the mobile phones support adding all sorts of details for every contact there is. Having such a utility on your computer is not at all costing and if you spend a long time in front of your monitor, then having an address book installed comes in really handy.
Storing your contacts and accessing the database is really easy as most email clients have this option and are also free of charge. And as Outlook comes with every copy of Windows you'll catch two birds with one stone.
My Contacts is a very light application that stores the details of the contacts in the address book. There isn't too much to it and I think this is the easiest software to use in this category. The interface is simple enough for a monkey to get along with, as all the requirements are for you to know a bit of English.
The price of the application is $9.95 and the program comes in an evaluation version that restricts adding more than five contacts. The limitation does not hinder in any way the testing of the application and you will get more than an idea during the evaluation.
The interface is split into two areas designed to give you access to the stored information. In the upper part there is the Details window and in the lower part you have the Contacts section where all the names of your contacts are stored. Working with them is simple: click on a contact and you will be displayed in the Details window all the information available.
The three buttons displayed in the main window are all you need for working with the program. Add Contact, Edit and Delete cover all the options made available by My Contacts. Add details box is nothing I expected. There are nine fields to be completed and they include only the basic information you could append to a contact's details: name, address, city, state, ZIP code, phone, cell phone, fax no. and e-mail. The user will find adding information like working place, position, a short description box etc. impossible.
I thought that the $9.95 on the price tag are invested in a much more complex software that allowed more then these basic features. However, if you do not need to complete all the fields available you can add in the fields as much additional information as the box permits as there is no restriction of typing in letters in the number boxes.
Editing the contacts is rather deficient as you are not allowed to change the name of the contact (some people change their names after marriage). All the other information like address, telephone number city etc. can be modified in any way you want. The interface does not offer this possibility, indeed, but there are ways to by pass it. In order to change the name of the contact and leave all the other details untouched, just go into the installation folder of the application (usually the path is C:/Program Files/My Contacts) and open the "contacts.xml" file in Notepad. You should be able to make the desired modification in here. Save the modified file and restart My Contacts.
Every time you press one of the three buttons available you will hear a pretty annoying (in my opinion) sound. Unfortunately, this cannot be eliminated.
Believe it or not, My contacts has been properly prepared for launching to the public and everything is done by the book. It has all there is necessary for a software that is intended to be used by all sorts of users and even comes complete with a Help menu that explains the process of adding, editing and deleting a contact. Although some of you may notice a slight irony in these lines, there is none intended and I truly appreciate the fact that it has a Help menu.
The Good
My Contacts is light and extremely easy to use. The interface is nice and simple. The code is written perfectly (it would have been hard not to consider the complexity).
The Bad
The price is definitely an issue as there is a myriad of other applications that provide the same service for free. There is no search option and the application window cannot be resized. So if you have about 100 contacts and you do not make a rule of typing in the surname or the name first, then finding a certain entry may take a while.
You cannot add the picture of the contact or even append a short personal description. A few tabs providing more options like company where the contact is working, department and position would be an improvement and would partially justify the price.
The Truth
Given the price and the options provided, I definitely stopped using it after testing. There is no use in paying such a deer price just for adding, editing and deleting the contacts. Even a 10$ mobile phone has the same options available and more.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
