When I use the
tablet pc for inking purposes, my use primarily revolves around two applications:
Franklin Covey's TabletPlanner 3.0 and Mindjet's MindManager. Picture your paper-based
Franklin Planner on your tablet, and you can pretty much imagine what TabletPlanner
is like.
TabletPlanner was
designed from the ground up as an ink application and it shows. I've been using
TabletPlanner since 1.0 and have beta tested both the 2.0 and 3.0 releases.
Version 3.0 is the best yet.
Initial Screen
The screen below
shows what the application looks like when first opened. As you can see, it
has the standard Franklin Covey layout (task on the left, appointments in the
middle, and Daily Notes to the right). Above the calendar are tabs that have
Calendar, Contacts, Mission / Values, and then your EBinder tabs.
EBinder
The EBinder is
where you store all of your notes. You can create general categories for the
tabs, then create an infinite number of folders within folders for organizing
your notes. In addition, you print anything to the TabletPlanner printer for
storage in a Ebinder folder. I use this a lot for printing web site purchase
receipts, web pages, etc.
Inking
The great thing
about TabletPlanner is that you can do everything in ink and it can stay ink!
You can ink your tasks, appointments, contacts. You can also write notes on
those same items.
Outlook Syncronization
For those of you
who use Outlook or are tied to an Exchange Server, TabletPlanner synchronizes
with Outlook either by the network or by Outlook For Web Access. It does a fair
job of converting the ink to text upon synchronization. I do have a fair number
of entries that I cannot read in Outlook due to the ink / text conversion.
I wish that the
synchronization were more integrated so that I could read my ink annotation
from within Outlook.
Import / Export
Version 3.0 includes
a feature that lets you import / export items from TabletPlanner to share with other
TabletPlanner users. To share your notes with non-Tablet Planner users, you can email the item to them as a .tiff or as a .mht web page.
Franklin Covey
Time Management
Version 3.0 integrated
Franklin Covey's time management practices. There is a section for Mission /
Values, Goals, and Weekly Planning (compass, rocks, etc).
Pros:
- Sync with Outlook
- Create notes
(ink or text) for tasks, appointments, contacts, and notebook.
- Ability to
print to the EBinder.
- Import / Export function
- Create folders
within folders
- Navigation
is much improved over 2.0
- Franklin Covey
time management is in integrated (Mission, goals, compass).
- Custom skins to allow you apply your own logo to the note pages and change the color schemes (I'll address this as a Tip in the Software section next week).
Cons:
- Contact Management
is very poor.
- Email support
is poor at best.
- Need ability
to drag and drop items from email to calendar and tasks.
- Need ability
to work with email from within TabletPlanner
- Need ability
to integrate audio recordings
- Need way to
move a Daily Note to the EBinder more easily than cutting / pasting.
Buzz Meter: 4 out of 5
Tablet
Planner costs $129.95 or $64.95 to upgrade from 2.0
Download
the trial at -
http://www.franklincovey.com/downloads/tabletplanner/trial.html?c=Home_TextLinks_TabletPlanner
More
information on the Tablet Planner web-site -
http://www.franklincovey.com/tabletplanner/index.html
