14 DAY TRIAL // Each one of us was once a kid, but I don't know how many of those that are now older than 25 can watch video footage from their childhood or check an accurate timeline of their early age - first word, first step without help, and all the other events that are a pleasure to hear and watch, but which are hidden in the mist for most people. Anyway, we're in the 21st century now, and things are "a bit" different.
The only things I have available from my childhood are a lot of black and white photos, some audio recordings and, of course, my parents' stories, but if I am going to have a child of my own anytime soon, his memories are going to be more interesting than mine. Just think about this - digital photos, video footage, and accurate event tracking, from the first weeks in the womb to the first "mama" or "dada" spoken and further on. Of course that I won't keep all this information inside text files or write it down in a diary, but use a specialized software instead...
This program is a revelation to me, especially because I have never seen something similar, and so I get to review an interesting program and face the challenge of discovering new things at the same time. The name of this application I am talking about is Baby Diary, its latest version is 2.0.350 and what I have here is a limited feature, 30 days trial. If you want to buy the program, you will have to pay 19.95$ for it. The installation package has 3.9MB in size and was as easy to setup as possible, leaving us only two things to check - the interface and features.
Baby Diary's interface is not one of the most attractive ones that I have seen so far, but it's good enough for the program's purpose. The main window is well organized, having a menu bar, a side toolbar to the left and a work area divided into four sections - child information, the category tree, the time filter and the general information area. Each of these sections' panels are resizable, and some graphic elements can be changed using built in skins.
The main task of this program is to help you keep information, photos, audio and video recordings of your baby's prenatal development, delivery, first steps and more, as I was saying earlier. The first thing you have to do is to add a new baby using the child information area, and the interesting part is that you can even add unborn babies...
Next, you have to move to the category tree and start adding information. Just press the New button from the side bar and you'll be taken to a nice interface, very easy to use, that allows you to add text, photos, audio and video recordings. The trial version doesn't allow you to add new categories or rename existing ones, but you should be able to do it once you have purchased the full program.
Moving on in time is very easy to do it using the time filter panel, located just below the category tree. You can't miss it, believe me!
The Charts let you view different graphs concerning your children's development, such as head circumference, weight, height, dental chart and US vaccination schedule. Each of these charts can be customized as you need, so don't worry about missing something.
At last, I should tell you that if you want to let everybody know about your kids, you can export your diaries to Web books. A Web book is a site created using a template that displays all the information from a certain baby diary into a nice and easy to use interface.
As I was saying, graphics can be changed, and you can also add custom graphics to this program, although its interface is not fully skinnable. When the kids will be old enough to use the computer, I am sure they're going to be extremely happy with this program!
The Good
Baby Diary is something completely new to me, and it was a pleasure to discover it, being easy to use, pretty cheap and very useful for parents that want to keep their children's memories well organized.
The Bad
I know the interface can be better than this, and I really don't like seeing documentations which are written using a poor English language, but I hope this problem will be solved as soon as possible, because it's pity to leave things this way.
The Truth
Even if you don't plan on having kids any time soon, I recommend you to check this program and - who knows - maybe you'll change your mind...Your free trial period awaits, so get the program and don't forget to enjoy it!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
