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Bonsai 2.0.5 By: Natara Software,
Inc
A few weeks
back I was talking to my brother, another Clié
owner, about the various pieces of software that we were using on our
handhelds. I mentioned that I was using an older version of Thought Manager
by Hands High Software (look for an upcoming review of this product…)
to keep track of all my articles and reviews for Clié
Planet. He suggested that I try what he was using – a product called Bonsai.
There are two
commonly used phrases used to describe the myriad of handhelds on the
market today: PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and Pocket Organizer.
Whoever coined the term “pocket organizer” must have been a
visionary because Bonsai gives the word “organizer” a whole new
meaning.
Let’s
start at the beginning. Bonsai, and its companion desktop software, gives
you numerous different methods of organizing lists of information: a simple
list, a To Do, a task, or any combination of the above. The difference in a
To Do and a Task is primarily in that a To Do is marked as being completed
or not completed (by a check mark in the box) whereas a Task can be in
various levels of completion – indicated by a tiny bar graph beside
the task.
In addition
to this, the software will allow you to organize the data into collapsible
outlines (up to 9 levels deep) and gives numerous options as to using
numbers and letters (or combinations) for numbering styles. While this may
not seem like a big deal, it gets increasingly more important as the number
of levels in your outline increase.
This program,
unlike other outline programs that I’ve seen, will even allow you to
link an item in one outline to a To Do or even to an entire different
outline!
One of the
other really nice features, for those with color
screens, is the ability to assign colors to items
based on category, priority, outline level, or due date.
Creating
outlines and items within them is very easy. You are given the choice of
using the default style of the outline (simple, to do, or task) and
category. After the outline has been created, however, you have even more
options. With each item within the outline you can choose to change the
default outline style or simply customize the way the items are displayed
based on their individual properties.
Manipulating
the outlines and items is extremely simple as well. The icon bar across the
bottom lets you choose to Open an outline (or other things such as creating
a new one or getting details on or deleting an existing one once
you’re in that screen), Return to the previous outline or screen
(helpful of you’ve jumped to another outline through an item link),
Create a new “sibling” item, Create a new
“daughter” item, get Details on the item, Find (or Find again),
Expand the outline items, open the Filter options, and Cut (remove) the
branch. The arrows on the right side are for Page Up and Page Down.
One powerful
albeit hidden feature for the program is found in its built-in shortcuts.
By swiping the stylus diagonally across the graffiti area (the standard shortcut
command) you can pull up options to go to the top or bottom of the page,
indent or “out-dent” an item (move in right or left in the
outline), attach a note to an item, or to delete the item.
The filtering
capability of the program adds a lot to its functionality. I can, for
example, open the Clié Connections outline
and choose to filter out all the completed items – therefore only
displaying the articles and reviews that need to be written.
The filtering
capabilities are very powerful and, as the screen at the right indicates,
will allow you to filter out items based on 10 categories – and
reverse the filter at the tap of a stylus!
Another
powerful aspect was the ability to sort by six different categories in
ascending or descending order.
I found that
the part of this program that I probably liked the most was the PC Desktop
that comes with it. It not only provides complete synchronization with your
PDA file (by that I mean that any change made to an outline on the Clié or desktop is automatically made on the
corresponding outline during your next Hot Sync) but also gives you the
opportunity to use your PC keyboard and monitor in making changes to or
creating large outlines.
Over all I
liked this product very much and, while I haven’t had the opportunity
to evaluate the latest versions of some of it’s
competitors, would recommend this whole heartedly.
Quality
100%
Stability
90%
Originality
85%
Looks 100%
Value 90%
Overall 93%
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