Lotus Agenda
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| Lotus Agenda | |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Lotus Software |
| Latest release | 2.0b / 1992 |
| OS | DOS |
| Genre | Agenda |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | www.lotus.com |
Agenda is a DOS-based personal information manager, designed by Mitch Kapor, Ed Belove and Jerry Kaplan, and marketed by Lotus Software.
Lotus Agenda is a "free-form" information manager: the information need not be structured at all before it is entered into the database. A phrase such as "See Wendy on Tuesday 3pm" can be entered as is without any pre-processing.
Its distinguishing feature was the ability to allow users to input data before the creation of database tables, giving the program immense flexibility to accommodate the myriad pieces of information a person may need to keep track of.
The program was an attempt to create a "spreadsheet" for words. The computing industry was at first quite taken by its audacious goal and the power it brought to users as they were given a tool that allowed them to structure "real life" information in any way they wished.
Its flexibility proved to be its Achilles heel. New users confronted with so much flexibility were often overpowered by the steep learning curve required to use the program. Attempts to overcome this through packaging pre-built databases with the program were insufficient to lift sales to adequate levels. In the end only several hundred thousand copies were sold.
The program reached version 2.0b. Instead of porting Agenda to Windows, Lotus stopped development on this program and introduced a new PIM, Lotus Organizer, that uses the paper-based organizer metaphor, in its place.
Contents |
[edit] The Program
The following jargon is used to describe Agenda's concepts:
An "Item" is a piece of free-form text
A "Category" is a way of organising information and was the original smart folder concept used by Microsoft Outlook 2003 and by the Spotlight utility in Mac OS X v10.4. Items can be automatically or manually assigned (linked) to one or more Categories.
Categories can be organised hierarchically and viewed as a tree network. "Parent" categories could inherit assignments from "child" categories.
The information could be presented in "views": in effect spreadsheet-like grids with items forming the rows and categories forming the columns.
Once an item is entered, the program can interpret the text to assign it to various categories. In every database a "When" category is included automatically so that if a date is embedded within the text, it is interpreted and an assignment is made. For example, the item "See Wendy on Tuesday 3pm" is automatically assigned to the following Tuesday at 3pm. If a category "Wendy" had also been created then an assignment could also have been made as well.
This gives the user a quick ability to find every item that has an association to Wendy.
The program can be used for:
- Time management
- Project management
- Research and information sifting
- General purpose database
- Accounting
- Problem solving
- Legal practice management
- Managing legal litigation cases
[edit] Current Status
The program has been released as freeware. It can be downloaded from the links below.
Lotus Agenda can still be used on Windows 3.x/9x/ME/2000/XP computers and there are still many active users around the world (see the Pimlist email list on Yahoo groups).
It suffers from:
- Only handling textual information
- A lack of file compatibility with office applications and information from the Internet means that information must be transferred manually between them.
- The program cannot print directly to USB printers.
On August 7th, 2006, Wired carried a report that Lotus Agenda was being redeveloped as a FOSS application, named Chandler. As of August 2006, Chandler is available as an alpha release for Windows, Linux and Macintosh.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Lotus Software has made Agenda 2.0 (the last version before development ended) available for free downloading, but without support or documentation.
- http://guterman.com/guterman_clips/guterman_clips_Agenda/guterman_clips_agenda.html
- http://home.neo.rr.com/pim/article1.htm
- http://agenda.bobnewell.net A good site for downloading a pre-installed version and learning about how to use the program
- http://wired.com/news/technology/0,71501-0.html?tw=wn_index_1 Report on the new FOSS version of Agenda, named Chandler.
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