WinOrganizer 3.3

Beyond managing contacts, appointments tasks, and notes, this PIM, like AnyTime Deluxe, tracks passwords. But nowhere else does this pricey, underpowered program match its rival. I admire its fl exible design but not its weak calendaring, support for external programs, and networking.

The app has pluses the tree-like folder structure, for example, makes accessing main modules (Contacts, Events, Notes, Passwords, and Tasks) easy. It also lets you add and rearrange folders, organizing as you see fit rather than fumbling with categories, filters, and other Outlook conventions. You can password-protect documents and folders, and even assign a top-level folder to each user.

Sadly, for every cool feature there’s some little gotcha. Want to import Outlook contacts? You have to export them to CSV format fi rst. There’s a big gotcha, too: no integrated calendar. You must manually open the pop-up Today window. And although WinOrganizer contains all the normal calendar views, it incorporates hundreds of distracting “this day in history” entries I couldn’t disable.

Syncing with a Pocket PC device requires a $20 plug-in; you can’t sync with Palm PDAs at all; and to share info you need the $95 fi ve-user family edition. WinOrganizer performs a few tasks really well, but until it gets the basics down, I can’t recommend it.

[tags]WinOrganizer 3.3[/tags]