Monday, May 5, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Alternative to Outlook
LeaderTask - Alternative to Outlook!
Sergey Novikov

I once asked a friend of mine what is
the best organizer?
He said, "Microsoft Outlook, of course". Then he thought a bit and
added, "The most popular one, anyway." But popularity is not the key
issue for me. And since I have to write down (or keep in mind) a lot in my
work, I decided to take it more seriously. I have studied a lot organizers
and schedulers.
LeaderTask from the Almeza company has turned out to be the most appropriate
and convenient one for me. I will not compare it with all organizers, but only
with the most popular one – Microsoft Outlook. No doubt Microsoft
Outlook is a high-quality software product, but LeaderTask outdoes it in some
things. Though Outlook is better in some other things. I will enumerate all
these parameters in this article. So...
LeaderTask advantages.
1. Separate object groups.
There are different types of objects defined in LeaderTask. These include:
projects, tasks,
notes.
Projects in LeaderTask mean those things that have time limits. Something
specific results from a project being completed.
A task in LeaderTask is the description of what should be done in order to
complete a project (project steps).
Notes are chaotic records that can be assigned to projects and separate
tasks (they may also deal with a contact/category/time, etc.). Notes serve
as a convenient tool for taking down separate thoughts that can be useful for
completing a project or a task.
A project may contain several tasks. For example, the "Writing an
article" project may include the following: "Studying
materials", "Writing a draft", "Sending it to the
editor", "Correcting the article". The result of the project
is an article.
That is, something large is split into smaller parts, which is very
convenient to use.
Besides, every project has the following properties: a name, a group
(logical, the one the project belongs to), a contact (the list of project
participants), a time period (the time the project will be completed within),
notes (comments to the project). You can filter tasks by these properties
(single out tasks from the list of tasks). I will dwell on filtering a bit later.
Each task can contain subtasks. For example, the "Studying
materials" task may include the following subtasks: "Visit
the library", "View information on the website", "View
advertising materials". Any task has parameters (tags) that can be also
used for filtering. These include: "Projects", "Contacts",
"Categories",
"Calendar".
Outlook has nothing like this - no different types of objects are defined
in it. There are no separate projects, tasks, notes – there are only
equal tasks. It means that notes (occasional thoughts) will be in one list,
which will make searching for a particular note afterwards more difficult.
It is completely unacceptable for a person who values time.
2. Tree-like tasks.
Tasks in LeaderTask are arranged in the form of a tree, which is achieved
due to the
task hierarchy
(splitting tasks into subtasks). It allows you to classify tasks, combine
them into one project (or into a task of a higher level). This way you get
tasks that are not scatterred, but strictly structured. The tree-like
structure allows you to see the heirarchy and understand what tasks belong to
what at any time. It reminds the tree of folders and files in the operating
system. It is much more convenient to keep tasks this way (since you are quite
used to it). Besides, these hierarchies can have as much levels as you need.
The tree-like structure allows you to:
- See all tasks at once;
- Sort tasks. You can sort tasks by any property (important/unimportant,
personal/business, etc.); - Group tasks. You can group tasks by criteria (either by one or by several
criteria at once). Criteria include: project, time, category, contact; - Use the "Periodic Task" option allowing you to complete tasks
that may occur at certain intervals; - Customize the settings. It is possible to customize the task tree the way
that suits you best; - Hide completed tasks. You can show (or hide) completed tasks at any time.
Which is also very convenient and allows you not to pay attention to tasks
that are already completed.
Tasks are not arranged as a tree in Outlook. It has one level only. All
tasks are arranged in one list, there is no embedment, which makes it
sometimes difficult to make out what a particular tasks belongs to. It is as
if all files on the computer were located in one huge folder. It is very
inconvenient.
3. Flexible interface customization.
It is possible to flexibly customize interface in LeaderTask (as in many
modern programs). Any user can customize tasks to be displayed in the way he
finds convenient. The following items can be used to achieve it.
- Floating panels. All panels in LeaderTask are floating – they can
be dragged to any part of the main window. The user can set the panel size,
set its position and type, specify how many panels should be displayed at a
time. Besides, every panel has thee buttons in the right corner of its title
bar. They allow you to maximize the panel (inside the main window of the
program), activate popup mode for the panel (the panel will slide out when
you move the mouse pointer over it), close the panel. - Highlighting. Every user can highlight task tabs in a particular color
in order to see better in the task tree. Highligting is a perfect tool for
marking the most important tasks, urgent tasks or tasks you must not postpone
or forget about. An important task that is not highlighted may get lost among
other tasks. LeaderTask allows you to avoid it. It seems as if nothing
special, but highlighting in different colors is a very useful tool
for planning your tasks right. - Skins. LeaderTask supports all kinds of skins, among which any user
will be able to choose the one that suits him best. - Fonts. LeaderTask supports all kinds of fonts. You can use it to
highlight various tasks in the list as well.
It is possible to partially customize the interface in Outlook (but it is
no so easy to do it). In particular, panels are static in Outlook (they are
not floating) and it is also impossible to highlight particular tasks in
different colors in Outlook.
4. Structuring tasks.
That's where LeaderTask is completely incomparable - it offers extremely
wide features for structuring tasks. First of all, it is structuring tasks
by projects and subtasks (what I mentioned above). Besides, it is possible
to structure tasks by categories, by deadlines, by priority, by contacts.
The most important thing in LeasderTask is structuring tasks by priority.
Priorities are arranged into a library of priorities that you can cusotmize so
that it meets your needs. Tasks structured by priorities allow you to single
out the most important tasks among all other tasks and complete them first.
Tasks are not structured in Outlook. All tasks are displayed in one list
where it is reall difficult to make anything out.
5. Clear view.
One of the main
advantages in LeaderTask is a clear view of tasks
(particularly on the "Today" panel). Along with the task tree and
highlighting, it is achieved by the following:
- Tabs.
Multiple tasks are grouped with the help of tabs in the "Tasks"
panel. Any items in the "Navigator" panels can be used as these
tabs. Most often, they are projects. Using tabs is very convenient. For
example, there are two projects: "Writing an article"
and "Design development". And these projects include a lot of
tasks. Not to view tasks from both projects at once, you should click the
corresponding project tab and the "Tasks" panel will show tasks of
one project only (for example, those from "Writing an article"). - Filters. It allows you to view records by certain selected parameters.
Parameters (criteria) are set when you create records: task start time,
responsible person, physical locations where the task is completed and others.
It means that filtering allows you to select records (from different projects)
among all created records by certain criteria. This feature seemed the most
actual one to me since it offers wide opportunities in selecting what is
needed at the moment accoding to some event from the entire list.
There is no clear view in Outlook. And even more – viewing tasks is
made as difficult as possible. As I mentioned before, all tasks and notes are
displayed in one list. There are no trees, no highlighting, no tabs and only
simple filtering (you cannot create custom filters).
6. Differentiated tasks.
LeaderTask allows you to
plan your activity
assigning tasks to a certain context. Context means circumstances that suit
best for completing a task (for example, "in office", "at
home", "at a conema" and others). Also, it is possible to
single out tasks by parameters and attributes set for them. For example,
by projects, by
contacts, by priority, by urgency and by others. In other words, LeaderTask
considers the same tasks with different attributes as different tasks (which they are).
Tasks are not differentiated in Outlook. All tasks are equal. That's
probably the reason why it does not have such useful features as trees,
filtering and others...
Microsoft Outlook advantages.
Microsoft Outlook (to be exact, a lot of add-ins both from Microsoft
and from third parties) allows you to synchronize your data on the computer
with data on other devices, such as cell phones, pocket PCs, etc.
There is no such data synchronization in LeaderTask. It should be
mentioned that LeaderTask is not assigned to any system during its
installation – you can store it, for example, on a flash drive and
use it on different computers. It is a bit of excuse.
Microsoft Outlook
has automatic data impot and export. You can import quite a lot of items:
address books, e-mail messages, account settings, etc. You can also export
this data into various formats that are most convenient for importing by
other programs. Besides, there are special add-ins enhancing the data import
and export features.
I could not find data import and export in LeaderTask.
Summary.
These are the main advantages and disadvantages of LeaderTask. Since I
plan my time only using the computer and only in LeaderTask, I do not have to
import, export and synchronize data. But, of course, it is no excuse for its
drawbacks. Probably, they will be fixed soon. And if they do it, LeaderTask
will become the best
organizer ever.
And there is no doubt that they will do it taking into account how thoughful
software developers from Almeza are about their software making it
comfortable, appealing and functional. Most probably, data import, export and
synchronization are only a question of time.
All that may be even implemented already in the current version of the
program – it all depends on when you are reading this article...
LeaderTask is a perfect choice for everyone who is looking
for an alternative to Outlook!
Download the free trial
vesion of the LeaderTask organizer


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