I should be honest and admit up front that the reason I started using Agendus was for the pretty icons. It’s nice to be able to look at the month view of the calendar and see an icon instead of a line or a shaded square to clue you in on your plans. It’s nicer still that you can personalize your icons any way you want. I didn’t even know Agendus managed contacts.

Stating that Agendus Pro is a calendar replacement for your Palm OS device would be a tremendous understatement, but there is no way to adequately describe it without a lengthy description. Given that fact, allow me to introduce you to the amazing versatility of Agendus Pro’s contacts management.

I quickly discovered that Agendus has its own contacts manager built in, and it is far superior to the Palm standard. With Agendus contacts manager, you have amazing flexibility in how you view your contacts. The built in contacts manager allows you to sort by Last Name, First Name; or Company, Last Name. Agendus allows you to sort in many ways, as illustrated in the screenshot to the left.

To the right you can see an example of my contacts sorted by first name. (Last names and complete numbers have been edited out.) The category displayed is “All.” You can, of course, also view by category. Another really nice contacts feature offered by Agendus is category shading. On the left is an example of the setup screen.

Notice that my mtdn (or mytreo.net) contacts are set to be highlighted in orange to match the mtdn website. Meeting, Task, and Memo categories can be highlighted as well. Depending on the view you choose, these colors make it simple for you not to confuse contacts. This is especially helpful if you happen to know three “John Smiths:” one at corporate, one from church, and your cousin John. Just categorize them as Business, Church, and Personal, and then choose category colors for each. You won’t have to think twice the next time you go to click on a John Smith.

On the right is an example from my address book showing how I use colors.

Orange for mtdn, white for no category, and military green.

The contacts manager in Agendus is extremely powerful, and as you can see, equally versatile. Agendus’ closest competitor (Datebook 6) builds contact integration into the calendar, but offers no contact management. That being said, let’s look at how Agendus integrates contacts into its other options.

I no longer use Directory Assistant (although it’s a great little utility), and don’t care that my trial version of On Demand (Sprint’s version of Handmark’s Pocket Express) has expired. Agendus comes with a powerful search tool that includes 411 for both people and businesses.

After you’ve found the person or business you were looking for, Agendus gives you the option of adding the results directly into your contacts. You are also given the options of dialing the contact, or going to mapquest for a route.

Let’s say you have a meeting with one of your many contacts. You set up a meeting in Agendus, and in addition to the time and date, there’s a place to add in a contact. This is convenient in many ways. From the meeting view, you can directly access the specific contact, and call to confirm the meeting, or (if necessary) warn him that you’re running late.

From either the meeting setup screen, or as a link from the contact, you can add all the other people who will be attending the meeting. Click on the Edit Attendees button, and you’re taken to your contacts list. At this screen, all you have to do is place a check in the box next to each name to easily add them to your list of attendees.

The only disadvantage is when adding attendees they must already exist in your contacts list. You can’t add a new contact without first adding them to your known contacts.

Agendus gives you a relational database that is nothing short of extraordinary. You can link any one contact to any number of any other contacts. You can list them under their own categories, or create your own. It’s especially helpful if you’re like me, and you can never remember where you know someone from, or even why you know them.

What we have looked at here, is a fraction of what Agendus can do. In a future article, we will look at the Meetings function as in depth as we’ve just viewed Contacts.

In the meanwhile, I highly recommend taking Agendus for a trial run!

Related Links

Agendus for Palm OS Premier Edition

Agendus for Palm OS Professional Edition

Agendus for Palm OS Standard Edition

Agendus for Windows Outlook Edition

Agendus for Windows Palm Desktop Edition

Agendus Mail for Palm OS SSL Edition

Agendus Mail for Palm OS Standard Edition

Filed under: Software reviews