14 DAY TRIAL // Personal organizers have known a huge evolution and from those small agendas everybody used to carry around to feel important they have turned into electronic devices capable to store lots of phone numbers and names. Nowadays, almost everybody is using a computer organizer as the time spent in front of it reaches in some cases 90% from the work time.
This type of organizers depends entirely on the space on your hard drive and you can add as much information as you want. You can even add pictures and small notes related to the contacts. How much more can this tool evolve?
Alive Organizer is developed by Vitolab Software and the price the developer is asking is $34.95. Some would say that it is more than they could pay, but I say you should think twice and try the software as a twenty days trial period is available for the free version.
Alive is indeed a good name for the application as the program also offers you a blog posting option that can be configured on the spot. It does not matter if you do not have a personal blog because the option of creating one is also available. A number of blog creating locations (Blogger, Live Journal, Type Pad and WordPress are just a few of them).
If your blog host is not listed you can add it on the spot, all the fields for the extra info being available (username and password). The user can also test the connection to be sure that the blog will be published.
The dynamic interface makes available an auto hiding Alive Organizer Tree that contains all the necessary fields (calendar, contacts, work, task, event and blog). Each of the features can be configured once you open them. In the left side of the application window there are the viewing options which are arranged vertically.
To get more alive than the blog feature the developer has included a RSS feeds reader. It is very flexible, although it is not a professional tool and will display the feeds inside the software, and the news item will be opened in your default web browser. News channels can be added in the RSS Parameters and the update is performed with a single click either for the current feed or for all of them. The channels are displayed in tabs and under them there are the news items.
The current tasks can be activated from the right hand side of the window. Every task will be displayed accompanied by the day it has been set for, together with all the other user specified details (planned time interval, contacts birthdays or anniversaries etc.). Clicking on one of them will open the task editing window where you can operate all the desired changes.
A very interesting option to be included in a personal organizer is the Weather Forecast option. No matter what area of the globe you want the weather for the search engine will find it and you will get a four day weather forecast. For the next day the software displays the temperature (Fahrenheit or Celsius degrees), pressure, wind speed etc.
In my case, the forecast for the next day was fog and I learned the rising and calling time, as well as the visibility. The configuration can be set in the Weather Forecast Parameters. A test can be performed to see what website your location is listed on. Due to the rich amount of data to be stored Alive Organizer comes with a packing option which is found in the Tools menu. Options allows a full configuration of the application, although there are not too many options. Not to skip a birthday or a wedding anniversary the program permits minimizing to system tray and alerting you with a sound when a significant date occurs. If you are forgetful you can set Alive Organizer to start with Windows.
The Good
Amazing options and features. Easy to work with, great interface and very useful tool. Everything you need is included in here and if the price seemed a bit large it was just a first impression.
The Bad
I wish there was an alerting option for certain news channels and an automatic refresh for the feeds. But the application is still at the beginning and such improvements will come in time.
The Truth
What else can I say when all you need and more is added in Alive Organizer. I think it would have been too much if the software would have been equipped with an internal web browser. But who knows what surprises future releases will bring...
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
