14 DAY TRIAL // What do you think of not having to remember the meetings you have to attend, the birthdays (and preferences) of all over one hundred friends of yours, or their addresses. What if you have to remember a meeting that is due two months from today?
In "ancient" times, when paper was an extremely important element in every person's life (about 15-20 years ago), a personal organizer or personal planner was a small booklet where you would note meetings, phone numbers, addresses, tasks, to do lists, etc. All you needed back then were a pencil and such a notebook (agenda) and your capacity/will/desire to write stuff in it.
Not too long ago appeared the PDAs (personal digital assistants) - in the early 90's. The digital era began its reign. Now the notebook your father used to write in the birthdays, phone numbers, etc., is definitely obsolete. We have all kinds of alternatives from the softwares for the desktop computer and laptop to PDAs and even mobile phones.
EssentialPIM is an EPim Ltd software designed to assist you in keeping track of your friends' birthdays, important meetings, to do lists, tasks to carry out, etc. It "weighs" 1.44MB and it takes a gulp of only 2MB of your memory. A good thing for all the future users: the software is absolutely free so you can use it as long as you want, without fearing that the license will expire and you'll lose the entire database.
What does this baby do? Everything a planner does and more. It is an exceptional personal information manager.
The interface is extremely easy to use and has a great look. It is composed of the classical menu bar, the toolbar in the left (arranged vertically) and the options in the right side of the application window. There are some options in the File menu that deserve our attention as they are extremely functional.
One of them is the Database Management option that shows the size of the created database and compresses it in order to save some space used by the deleted or temporary files. It gives you the location of the database on your hard disk, the number of Tasks, To Dos, Notes and Contacts.
Another feature worth mentioning in the File menu is the Password Protection one. Here the user can protect his/her database by applying a password. This is because the database is saved on the computer and the software also works with multiple users.
The developers of the software have thought of the fact that this is not the first application of this kind so they introduced importing and exporting options. You can import schedules, contacts, and notes from MS Outlook, contacts from Windows Address Book (.wab) and from Comma Separated Values (.csv).
Keep in mind that major personal information managers can export any data to this format so you can use it as a transitional format. The data can be exported as follows: notes and to-do lists to HTML, .rtf and .txt; schedules only to HTML and contacts to .wab, .csv, HTML, .rtf and .txt.
In the Options submenu, under Tools, the user can make various settings such as minimizing the application to system tray, on close, run on startup, displaying the clock, all these in the General tab. Autosave settings include two options: every user specified time and upon minimizing. It is recommended to take a look in the Backup tab as it will definitely be useful at some point.
Especially for power users (but not exclusively) is the Shortcuts tab. It contains keyboard shortcuts for all the categories supported by the software (Schedule, To Do and Notes) and global and switching between modules shortcuts. If you are not content with the key combinations here's where you can make the changes.
The Contacts module of the software allows the user to insert as many contacts as s/he wants. This category is divided into four tabs: Personal Info which gathers "superficial data" so to say (name, phone, email, address, city, MSN, webpage, birthday), Business where you can insert data for company, job title and business contact details, Notes - designed to put whatever you want in there (description of the person, warnings, family tree, etc. just use your imagination) and Picture tab which allows you to add a picture of the contact (I guess this option is for those that have a weak memory).
A great thing in the Contacts module is that you can edit not only the data for the contact, but also the fields describing the data. So, if you do not want the field for the messenger ID to be called MSN for instance, you can change it to whatever you want. Also, the user can add or delete fields. Pretty useful, don't you think?
The Schedule and the To Do modules contain pretty much the same options. Add tasks, set the start time and due date, priority, level of completion, and category (important, business, must attend, vacation, etc.). You can also add a reminder, and in the advanced menu you have the option of playing a sound, displaying a message or running a program installed on your computer.
In the Schedule window the user can also specify the duration of the event and set the task as recurrent (set the start and end date, the number of occurrences and the repeat pattern).
The Good
The software is freeware and does a great job. I think it has a great functionality. The interface is very easy to use and you won't get lost except among the tasks and events you insert.
I just loved the Insert Picture options both in the Notes menu and in Contacts module.
The Bad
Although the software's interface is easy to use, it is not too appealing and a little color would not hurt at all.
The Truth
A great software at the cheapest price ever. I enjoyed testing it as it did not pose any problem and it delivered everything it promised. The tree notes is extremely useful as it allows you to create a "parent" note and then add notes related to the event, called "child" notes.
I'll place it in my favorite softwares category and I think I will begin using it as my other devices have too limited memory to remember all the stuff I cannot.
In conclusion, all you forgetful out there, cry no more as there is still hope for us!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
