14 DAY TRIAL // I don't know much about the others and I would lie to say that I really care, but when I think about me and my actions, I get to the conclusion that I forget things on a daily basis. I don't have a notebook to carry with me or any electronic agenda, and my home office is full of paper notes forming an organized chaos. To be honest, I don't like the way things are at all, but what can be done about it?
First of all, I could try to organize myself...nooo, I did that before many times, and each time, the action failed in a way or another. As usual, when the traditional methods fail, you have big chances to find a computer helper to rely on. What I am talking about here are the software organizers, programs that can really help you get some discipline into your life, so let's see what we can catch today...
The victim's name is StarReminder, its version number is 3.87 and came to me as a 30 days trial. The installation kit is almost 2MB in size, and the setup process passes by like a gust of wind, so no problems here. If you like this program and consider buying it, you'll have to be prepared to pay 14.95$ for the full version. Let's see some order and discipline now, shall we?
This program's interface is well organized, good looking and easy to use. You can't get lost if we consider the complexity of the main window - menu bar, toolbar and scheduled task display area, that's all you get to see when you open the program for the first time. The features behind it are easy to use and can really help you get organized, so let's find out more about them!
Of course that the only things you have to care about inside this program are the tasks you need to be warned about. First step is to add as many of them as you need, so I'll try to give you a hand with that now.
There are three ways to add a new task. The first one is to use the Insert key, the second is to double click the nice button placed inside the workspace and the third one is to use the Add Task command from the File menu. Choose the one that is better for you, because they all lead to the same place: the Add Task wizard that has only three steps to follow. First, add the title and notes of your reminder. Second, choose when to be warned about it (you can set a one-time notifier or schedule it to run on a regular basis). At last, choose the actions to perform and you have created your first reminder!
The actions that can be performed when a reminder is triggered are enough for me and I guess they should be enough for most of you too - play a sound, pop up a note, send an e-mail, run a custom program or shutdown your computer.
The tasks can be displayed as large or small icons, as a list or with details for each of them, and the toolbar buttons allow you to display only certain reminders - completed ones, those that will be triggered today, tomorrow, in the next five days or simply all of them.
This should be most of it, so I'll go to the conclusions now.
The Good
StarReminder is a small, good looking and easy to use tool for an easy task - helping you remember things.
The Bad
This program doesn't have any documentation included, apart from the tutorials and examples built in as reminders, and the worst part is that you have to pay for it.
The Truth
StarReminder is an interesting program, but there's only one problem - you have to pay for it, and I wouldn't pay for a basic reminder like this. I have to admit that I like this tool, and I encourage you to try it for a month, but not to buy it. Anyway, no matter your final decision after the trial period ends, don't forget to enjoy this!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
