First Things First Review

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 16:20:39 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Nutter <manutter@mozart.cc.iup.edu> Subject: First Things First Pro - review/report Below is my review of the calendar/reminder/project-management utilit= y=20 First Things First Proactive, by Visionary Software. Mark Nutter manutter@grove.iup.edu =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D Cut Here =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D First Things First Proactive Visionary Software 1820 SW Vermont, Suite A Portland, OR 97219 Phone (503) 246 6200 FAX (503) 452-1198 Capsule summary Schedule management/calendar software plus an integrated outliner with surprisingly useful links to the calendar. Supports multi-user access to calendar files, multiple calendar files per user, automatic reminders, project deadlines, and customizable printouts of calendars, schedules, and outlines. Can also use Claris XTND engine to do file import/export. Compatible with the earlier First Things First 3.0. Requires: System 7.0 or later, 4MB RAM (with preferably a 2MB partition for FTF Pro), and 1.7MB of disk space. Quick Review Has a few flaws, but definitely on my "must have" list. Does what I want it to do, which is to remind me when I have to do something, and to print out neat monthly calendars and daily/weekly schedules. I don't actually need the multi-user capabilities of this product, but I imagine others might well appreciate them. Thumbs down: - Bombed on Datebook Format import. Or any of the data import functions, for that matter. Maybe it's because I have only the free demo version, maybe it's because I have 16 quazillion extensions loading in at startup, but I couldn't get any file import functions to work loading in files that I had previously exported from FTF Pro. - Click-arrows for changing time no longer present. One of the nice things I liked about the original First Things First was the way you could click on the hour, and a pair of up/down arrows would appear. Clicking on these arrows would change the time, automatically setting AM/PM appropriately, as well as changing the day, and so on. Not everyone would want to change dates and times this way, but I preferred it, and am sorry to see this handy feature missing from FTF Pro. - Long startup time; nearly a full minute on a Quadra 660AV. Again, this may or may not be due to all the extensions I load at startup time, but even MS Word loads faster than FTF Pro! - No balloon help. The manuals are there, of course, and like most people I almost never use balloon help, unless the program is new to me. No great loss, I suppose, but it would have been a nice touch had balloon help been there. - No easy way to archive and purge old, completed items. My chief complaint is that, after importing my old FTF 3.0 items, I had some 300 old, expired items, and no way, that I could find, to clean them out. I started the old click-and-clear me…