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Call management with the Palm organizer (continued)
Wrapping it all up
The Palm organizer can help you stay on top of the many phone calls you receive and place each day. In my evaluation I found that neither the built-in applications nor Action Names provide the kinds of phone call management features that are available in PhoneLog and Call Tracker. Action Names is a fine organizer for general contact information, but wasn't ideal for call tracking. PhoneLog has several compelling features, but the underlying format of Call Tracker seems better designed to keep complete records of incoming and outgoing calls. Give each a product a try and see whether they can help you stay on top of your calls. Table A compares the pros and cons of each product.
| Product |
Pros |
Cons |
| Built-in Apps |
Free; Access to calls on the desktop |
Have to use multiple apps to keep track of calls; look up only copies one phone number; can't add address records; look up by last name or company only |
| ActionNames |
Shows Calls, To Do items, and Calendar in a single screen |
No incoming call tracking; only one phone number lookup; can't look up mobile or paging numbers; layout doesn't show full names; Find doesn't work; no alarms; expensive |
| PhoneLog |
Share PhoneLog and Address Book on Address Book button; Outline Views; Linking to Contacts in Address Book; 2 lookup methods, and look up by first name, last name or company; Best posting to Address Book |
Not designed to track all calls Ð no way to generate follow up calls; no exporting to Date Book or To Do List; no alarms; list views are less configurable than in Call Tracker |
| Call Tracker |
Best design for tracking all calls; dedicated record types for incoming, outgoing, and scheduled calls; follow up button copies all call info to a follow up record; alarms' strongest export features; custom column configurations |
Doesn't work with earlier Palm models; can't add callers with company info to Address Book; can't share button with Address Book; can only sort list by Date; no outline views; doesn't link directly to contact records in Address Book; look up always defaults to work number; can't view notes in edit screen |
Ted Casey is Senior Product Manager for Electronic Commerce at Wired Digital. Previously, Ted was Vice President of Marketing at mBED and earlier was Project Manager in Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group and Interactive Media Group. This review is his own independent opinion and does not represent the view of his employer or any place where lawyers gather to write disclaimers. He can be reached at tedc@ibm.net.
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