Another program similar to ECCO Pro you could look at is Task
Plus, available here.
http://www.padring.com/soft/Business/Specialized/TaskPlus.html
I downloaded it (Ecco) as I am something of a PIM collector, always
looking for the perfect PIM. But I was a bit surprised at how much I
disliked it. Ecco was clearly was designed some time in the late 80's
early 90's and the user interface reflects a very early Windows
approach. That's just my impression based on my needs, your mileage
may vary.
I bought ECCO Simplicity (an ECCO subset) in 1996. It had just
been taken over by NetManage from a small company in Oregon. I
have no idea what ECCO stands for. I could not find out from the
people who developed it, nor could I from the buyer. I later
"upgraded" to the full-blown program that you can now download
free. I think that what NetManage wanted when they bought the
software was the group aspect of ECCO; it members of a group
transmit memos to each other and to schedule a meeting easily:
the kind of stuff that became office-standard via Microsoft
Office in corporations. NetManage probably had eyes on expanding
this networkability to larger networks, and perhaps the web.
At the time, it was the top-rated PIM. It is an extremely
powerful program and almost infinitely customizable. It is
outline-based; almost anything can be put into an outline form.
You can create outlines on as many topics as you want. You can
move or copy outline blocks from one function (phonebook) to
another (an outline or the scheduler). Further, a number of
fields can be merged from one mode to another as fields that are
tacked onto a specific outline. You can almost envision each
outline as being a custom computer program of its own and/or a
template for people (such as yourself) to plug data into.
Right now, I'm using ECCO with my Handspring Visor Delux
palmthing. They synchronize through the main Palm interface
software protocols and the latest version of the Palm software
(Handspring is a Palm-based organizer, now, in fact, owned by
Palm). Because ECCO predates the Palm OS, certain things that you
create within ECCO will not transfer over into the Palm device.
For example, the phonebook provides an open-ended notes field for
every phone entry. The contents of that field don't show up on my
handheld device. The issue is simply that ECCO offers many more
capabilities than the Palm OS does and has more user-friendly
abilities. For example, if you reschedule an appointment in ECCO,
you can just drag the appointment event to the new date and time;
with the Palm software, you've got to cut and paste it.
ECCO's later development coincided with the US Robotics Pilot,
which was sold and became the Palm Pilot. Thus, ECCO, believe it
or not, is provided with the four standard Palm "Channels." For
that reason, it is possible to get your data back and forth.
Those channels are set in stone. However, like I said above, ECCO
is much more capable and in Palm terms, ECCO already contains
more "channels", and allows you to create hundreds of them if you
want. No matter what, the two entities can only synchronize data
in the four standard Pilot channels. Anything else won't wind up
on the Palm device, but it will remain intact in ECCO.
ECCO follows Windows standards halfway and its own the other
half. I am not a wild fan of Windows conventions; a lot of them
are just patch jobs that have become standard; some are downright
stupid and Microsoft's use of the computer keyboard was clearly
implemented by people who don't know how to type. ECCO, in most
cases, is more sensible. The capabilities go on and on and on. I
still can't say that I know this program! Having said that, ECCO
presents certain problems:
- It is so flexible that it can be confusing. There's only one
level of "undo," and you may have already run two steps beyond
that.
- Text can be sized, fonted, bolded, etc., as in a good word
processor. However, the text attributes may not be visible in all
modes of display. For example, the month-window calendar displays
text-only; no color. The daily view shows all the nice stuff.
- Printing is totally insane. Changes may or may not "take"
permanently. There are no "save" buttons in print layouts. Every
time I want to print a monthly calendar, it takes me a half hour
and 10 or so bad prints to get one sheet for the wall. Unless I
ensure that every aspect of the print job will be printed, I'll
have to go into every setting window to change certain items back
the way I want from defaults that I don't like and can't seem to
change.
- ECCO and my Okidata 12i printer don't get along with each
other. The issues are just nuts. Like, if I set the printer
defaults for line art and the dpi to 300, I can get a decent
printout of the calendar. But if I set the printer in its normal
mode: graphics at 1200 x 600 dpi, my days are printed with
horizontal lines, but not the verticals. Having to do special
printer default resets just to print a one-page calendar is truly
crazy-making. I can't live with this. The program worked a whole
lot better with an HP 2 heavy-duty 300 dpi Laserjet from 1989.
For reasons that I can't understand, NetManage just abandoned
this program after Windows 95 came out. This is a mystery: a sane
company doesn't just dump a product that's gotten such rave
reviews. Like XyWrite, ECCO has a cult following.
I'm now using Windows Me. I intend to move up to Windows XP. I
have some doubts that ECCO will make the transition smoothly. I
do trust that the Palm OS, on the other hand, will be kept
current and that it will be backward-compatible (even though it
does appear that the Palm OS is being split into two paths). I
suspect that I will wind up moving my calendar and address book
functions into Palm, and keep the outlines in ECCO.
ECCO's documentation has always been a sore spot. The old printed
doc was just a reprint of the help screens. In later versions,
they just dispensed with the book altogether. Netmanage provides
all the documentation on their web site, as well as FAQs,
bulletins, etc. In addition, PALM provides certain information on
their own site for ECCO synchronization. If you own a Palm OS
product, you may be able to get personal support for this
(limited, of course).
So, if you want to only use your PIM on your PC, ECCO may be
perfect for you. Or not. Ironically, you may prefer the earlier
ECCO simplicity. That's a very nice piece of work. It is
essentially not as unlimited as ECCO Pro. In other words, you
can't create 45 outlines, but you're limited to nine!
Richard
)
