by Joyce Kohl
April 2, 1999
Each of us has appointments, important dates to remember, things to do at specific times, and plans to make for holidays and family events. Why carry thick, heavy organizers or "chicken-track" your wall calendars with illegible entries when you can use a computerized information manager such as Visual Day Planner 6.2 or Visual Calendar Planner 4.4 from inKline Global, Inc.?
Similarities
Identical in all but a few areas, both
programs are capable of maintaining daily, weekly, and monthly schedules which are easily
printed. Because of their dualities, this review combines both programs into one review
for the purpose of showing you the features of each program side by side in a comparison
type review. Visual Day Planner (VDP) is completely compatible with all the Visual
Calendar Planner (VCP) databases, and is actually an upgraded VCP enhanced with lots
of bells and whistles.
Installation Requirements
These may be the deciding factor for you:
VCP minimum requirements:
• Windows 3.x/95/98
• 386 processor
• 4 MB RAM
• 2.3 MB free disk space
VDP minimum requirements:
• Windows 95/98/NT
• 486 processor
• 8 MB RAM
• 6 MB free disk space
Full View of Visual Calendar Planner
Full View of Visual Day Planner
Some Feature Comparisons
VCP: Screen can be Maximized or minimized.
VDP: Screen can be Maximized, resized, or minimized.
VCP: "Sink" tab to reposition to bottom-most position and to switch to
a different program. That is, the programs ordinarily shown on the tray (if not configured
in Windows to be hidden) will pop up for easy retrieval. Or use Windows shortcut, Alt+Tab.
VDP: Simply use regular keyboard shortcut, Alt+Tab.
VCP: Large display of current time in sidebar - clock can be customized.
VDP: Time is always available in the tray.
VCP: No Drag and Drop icons can be used.
VDP: Unlimited choices of Drag and Drop icons. Add or delete icons.
VCP: May be Y2K Compliant, but I found no mention of it.
VDP: Y2K Compliant.
VCP: Plays PC tunes or WAVE sounds.
VDP: Plays WAVE or MIDI sounds and tunes.
VCP: I could not copy/paste information from the help to another program.
VDP: Copy/paste from help can be done.
Features Common in Each Program
•
Events:
Set for one time only or recurring every day, every week, every month, or every
year. Multiple events are easily set for the same day. The program will create the event
automatically, configuring the appropriate dates and then enter the information into the
correct cell without any further input.
Use the type of alarms you prefer. These can also be WAVE or MIDI sounds and tunes. If you don't like the sounds you see in the popup selection box, copy other files into your Windows media directory.
For example, I copied some files with .WAV and .MID extensions to my c:\win\media directory and they were then instantly available to use. If you prefer no sound, select the silence option in the dialog box. And if you're like me and can't remember what a particular MIDI or WAVE sounds like, use the player button to preview it.
Don't forget to type something into the notes area. This is required before clicking on the OK button. If you forget, a reminder will pop up to tell you. When an event reminder is set, a bell icon is automatically placed on the calendar to visibly show it. Events can be edited at any time.
• From any place in the programs, you have WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)
True Type font selections. Select size, color, effects, scripts, and attributes.
• Set the program to install itself as your desktop wallpaper where you can easily
refer to appointments and other dates of importance without the necessity of launching the
program.
• Two Search functions:
1. Event/Find Word to look for any word. When found, the word will be highlighted.
2. GoTo/Fast Search (or use F3). A monthly view pops up allowing searches between 1990 and 2009.
• The 3D look gives added "oomph." The font for each named day of
the week can be changed to whatever you prefer. These have been changed to Comic Sans MS.
Each day name could have a different font, different color, different size.
• Identical Toolbars:
Each of the program Toolbars show the same database opened. How does VCP get the database used in the VDP directory?
• Date Differences:
Another innovative feature
common to each planner is this gem to calculate date differences for days, weeks, or
months.
Once set, you simply hover your mouse over any cell and the difference between two dates will appear in the color you chose when setting the date difference option IF you also select the option to show it.
Like almost everything in either of these programs, the feature is there if you want it, and if you don't want it visible, it can easily be hidden.
• Memos: Keep a set of notes in the Memo areas. Right click any place within
the white area and a list of available options appears. How much will a Memo hold? I
created a text file of 7,380 bytes, then I copied it to the clipboard, double-clicked on a
Memo area, then pasted it ten times. I am assuming the only limitation would be the space
available on your hard drive! And, of course, you can edit any of the text with all the
font options.
• Each day is separately customized. Nothing you do for one day will bleed/carry over into another day. In this screenshot are the memo areas:
Tip: Use Wingdings for "Icons"
Any font can be used in either program, and that includes graphical fonts such as
Wingdings or any other font you may have in your Windows font directory. So, if you prefer
VCP, you can still use icons made with graphic fonts. I've purchased several sets for
creating interesting Web designs, downloaded various free font sets available on the
Internet, and found they work extremely well for VCP as well as VDP.
An interesting discovery I made while testing each of these programs is that the database I saved using font symbols in VDP appeared in VCP, too. How? I haven't a clue, unless it's because of the ability of each program to share databases over a network and my system is configured with a netcard for my cable modem Internet access. Whatever the reason, I LIKE it! Here's the screenshots of each program, the one with the white background is VDP; the gray is VCP:
Since these fonts worked, I tried to launch the VDP database inside VCP. It didn't work. Another strange happening: I typed in three characters using a graphic font while in VCP, opened VDP, and it was there, too! Only this time, the characters of "A B C" were shown instead of the symbols. Highlighting the characters and then double-clicking to bring up the font editor in VDP, then clicking OK changed the characters to the proper symbols.
I didn't spend any more time trying to figure out how the databases interchanged, but I did notice another odd thing in VCP. Clicking File from the Toolbar, I noticed the last opened file showed the one in VDP:
My Wish List
Only three outstanding things I'd like to see changed:
1. An increase in printing speed
2. Options for printing calendars at different sizes
3. Ability to select the background colors
We computer users are so spoiled by programs which we can customize to suit our taste (or lack of), that when met with an area in any program which does not give us the option to change it, we tend to complain.
Conclusion
I've installed and played with many, many programs of this type. Most are priced at three
times the cost of either VCP or VDP. Some require a learning curve I'm not willing to
follow. Others are overkill for a home user. Even if there are no future releases, no
updating, and no enhancements forthcoming from inKline, either of these programs is
absolutely great. Each planner can be customized for plain business-like appearance, or
classic elegance, or if you're into bright and bold, you can do that, too.
Both Visual Calendar Planner and Visual Day Planner use very little resources in my Windows 98 system (VCP uses five percent, VDP uses six percent), and closing them down returns the resource percentage to exactly where it was prior to launching each program. That alone is enough to earn my personal recommendation because any program which contains a "leak" of resources will automatically decrease my final evaluation of a program.
There's no doubt you will definitely want one of these planners. Neither of them takes over your system; both are highly customizeable; they're multi-rich in all the needed features. You can download the shareware versions, then try each program for thirty days before the meager registration of $29.95 is required.
Visual Day Planner 6.2
I think I like this one the best. Maybe because of the drag and drop icons? Anyhow, it's
great, and I give it five out of five Go Inside Review Lights!
Visual Calendar Planner 4.4
On the other hand, maybe I like this one best. It's clean and uncluttered look is
terrific. It, too, deserves and gets five out of five Go Inside Review Lights!
Copyright © 1999