Review: Developer One, Agenda One v2
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Management Features: Item Entry and configuration.
While the views are likely to catch your eye and be the initial reason you give this program a shot; it is the amount of work that Developer One has put into its input screens and methods that will keep you using it. Agenda One is the cousin to another PIM application by Developer One named Agenda Fusion. When Developer One set out to create Agenda One the main focus was to take some cues from Agenda Fusion for display, but completely revamp the input screens and methods to come up with an application that was easier to input from the device. Many devices are still choosing to fore-go the keyboard in favor of a slimmer profile and Developer One recognizes this.
Creating and editing a record is quite different in Agenda One than in most other programs, and at first it seems a bit awkward but is a nice improvement.
Once you use it a few times you get the hang of it, and when you realize that you don’t need a keyboard or a stylus for the majority of your items you appreciate the efforts that were made.
The best way to describe the input is that it is a linear menu system where a few extra navigation taps are traded for the option to leave the stylus in its holster or the keyboard tucked away under the screen. I was surprised after getting used to the input in Agenda One I was using my keyboard less and less.
In addition each entry has some common text blocks available without even opening the keyboard or launching the SIP. You can add entries to the list for your own common entries so if you find yourself needing to type the same thing repeatedly you can add it to the list so it is only a single click away.
Configuration and Options
The configuration options are plentiful and include the ability to control how and when your information is displayed along with the colors of the application. There is a theme builder application that is a free add-on and allows you to build a total theme for the colors and backgrounds shown within Agenda One. You can find quite a few themes on the Developer One website, and you can also share your own. I found most of the standard colors to be good, with a few exceptions where the standard color choices made reading in the smaller views difficult, but overall the original color scheme was fine with me. If you decide to give the themes a try there are many free ones available at the Developer One site and you can download them directly from within the program which is a nice touch.
One thing you will want to configure early on is your category information. The categories themselves are sync’d from Outlook, but the color coding and other display information is not; which would have been expected. The color choices are very similar to Outlook so you can save yourself from having to relearn your colors by simply duplicating them from Outlook, but Agenda One adds another option which is quite nice: icons. Icons are related to your categories and since your appointments only have a color bar on the side of the appointment the icons help to visually cue you as to what category an item belongs. The icons are shown throughout the application and in some places where the colors are not available provide a great alternative. Although the icon choices are a bit scarce there are some add-on packs available for purchase (there is one free pack included with the program) to help this out.
Overall the configuration options do a great job of allowing you to customize the look and amount of information displayed by the program, but with the multitude of options it is a bit daunting to find the one setting you want to change. I suggest taking the time (I spent about 1/2 hour) getting everything you want setup after using the program for a few days as the options will make much more sense once you have some experience. You will probably also find that many of the things you want to change are in the options as the programs configuration covers so much.
Last Page: Impressions and things I would like to see
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