Blog
I'd like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who reads this.
The nActionr beta test is still ongoing, as we attempt to eradicate the last few issues and quirks on the to-do list. In addition to wishing them Merry Christmas, I'd like to also thank my beta testers from the bottom of my heart. You are testing every nook and cranny of nActionr and we're all going to benefit from it.
As Christmas is a time of giving, I thought I'd break the news that nActionr's licensing will be changing when the beta becomes the final product. There are two changes and the first is that all nActionr licenses (existing ones as well as all future purchases) will become perpetual. There will be no additional fees for any upgrade, major or minor. The second change is that the price will be increasing to $24.95.
Have a happy holiday everyone and I'll see you in 2008
Posted by Jonathan Ballinger on Dec 22, 2007
Beta 3 of nActionr 1.2 has been released for internal testing. The feedback for 1.2 in general has been really pleasing. As a developer, you like it when your customers are enjoying using your application; it's what makes me leap out of bed in the mornings, ready to work on nActionr.
The other big feature of 1.2 is Outlook support.
There are now three modes of operation in nActionr. First, there's the original mode: XML. This mode is unchanged from how nActionr functions as of 1.1 and earlier. All tasks, contexts and projects are stored in an XML file.
Second, there's an Outlook mode. This mode does not use an XML file at all. Instead it stores all the tasks in the Outlook task database and loads the projects and contexts from the categories of the Outlook tasks. The downside to Outlook mode is that empty projects and contexts do not persist between nActionr sessions. Colour-coding does not persist either. The benefit is that all the information is stored in the Outlook database.
Third, there's a Hybrid mode. This mode stores contexts and projects in an XML file, and all the tasks in the Outlook task database. This allows for empty projects and contexts to persist between nActionr sessions. Colour-coding is also saved in the XML file.
I personally use Hybrid mode now.
There is also some other news about nActionr: The price will be increasing to $29.95 when version 1.2 goes on general release. I do not know when this will be yet, that depends on when the beta tester feedback indicates that it is ready. The number of issues is decreasing every day so I do not think it will be long before 1.2 leaves beta. Until then the price will stay at $19.95.
Anyone who has a full license to nActionr is welcome to join the beta. You should have received an email from me inviting you to use version 1.2 but in case you haven't, just send me an email asking to be added and I'll sort things out for you.
Posted by Jonathan Ballinger on Sep 23, 2007
Please excuse the slightly pretentious title, but Version 1.2 just doesn't seem right as a heading. I'm going to use this post to talk a bit about version 1.2 of nActionr, and the changes that will be coming.
The first change that most people notice when they try, or see, the new version is the task list. The old one, while it served its purpose, was not functional enough. It did not allow enough control over what was displayed. The upcoming version of nActionr has a new task list component created to act as a task list. It's probably easiest to show the differences for starters rather than explain them all without letting you see the differences.
Lets first look at a picture from v1.1. You have a list of items and they're color coded. And that's pretty much it. Now let's look at a picture from v1.2.
There's quite a few differences but one good usability change is that the task entry textbox along the bottom of the screen is greyed out when you can't save what you enter into it. Select a task, though, and you can still edit it as before. Choose a context and project and you can still enter a new task as before.
I'll run through the differences between the versions as quickly as I can.
- A next action has been defined. The checkbox for the Next Action task has a red border across the top of it. These can be set by the user, or automatically created by the application based on the order of the items.
- The "Wait for response from Auntie Ethel" task has been set as a Someday/Maybe. Someday/Maybes are identified by the blue border going across the bottom of the checkbox. Someday/maybes are set by the user only.
- The completed task (added for the benefit of this post) at the bottom is now italicised, struck through and greyed out so that your eye ignores it when you are glancing at the screen.
- Individual rows are more distinguishable as the background for each task alternates between white and a light blue.
That's the visible stuff on the actual tasklist. Now for the rest of the new-for-version-1.2 features that are related to the task list:
- A visual indicator to show if you are showing Someday/Maybes or not. This is the little blue SM on the toolbar at the bottom. Clicking this toggles Someday/Maybe display off and the icon changes to reflect this.
- A visual indicator to show whether all valid tasks are shown or just the Next Actions. This is the red ALL next to the SM which currently indicates that all valid tasks are being shown.
- Current sort indicator. You can now sort the task list quickly between: Alphabetical, [User Defined] Display Order, Identity and Importance. The Identity is the order of creation, while the Display Order is the user defined order of the tasks. This is selected from a pop-up that appears when you click the exclamation mark icon (which currently signifies Importance mode). The items are sorted in order of: Overdue, Next Action, Incomplete, Someday/Maybe, Completed when importance sort order is chosen.
- Overdue items are bolded and underlined in order to attract attention when glancing at the screen.
This post has gone on for a while so I'll stop for now. There are more changes that I'll share with you over the next few days. If anything here isn't clear enough for you, please do let me know. It'd probably be best to use the forum as others may have the same questions but, as always, e-mail works too!
Posted by Jonathan Ballinger on Sep 14, 2007
The first month of nActionr being available to the public has just ended and the uptake has been pleasing.
The feedback that I have received has given me a better idea of what you, the people using nActionr, want to see in the product.
Outlook integration is being asked for by quite a few of you and if this is what is preventing you from investing time and money in nActionr then please contact me and tell me.
There's also been some interest from BlackBerry users and that is something I have looked into and if the desire for a BlackBerry version is high enough I will look at supporting this platform in the future (so let me know if a BlackBerry version interests you).
What most people who are reading this want to know, I suspect, is: "What are my plans for the Pocket PC version?"
Well, for starters, the next version of nActionr will contain a more expressive task list that will clearly show your someday/maybes as being different to your tasks. You will also be able to define Next Actions explicitly for those of you who, like me, can sometimes see all the actions involved in bringing a project to fruition and have entered all these into the system.
People who have purchased the full version of nActionr will soon be offered the opportunity to receive beta versions as they are developed. This will allow you to help shape the future of nActionr (as well as use shiny new features before anyone else).
I will create a roadmap for nActionr once enough feature requests have come in and I have correlated these with my own ideas.
I have plans to create companion desktop software as not everyone has the capability, or inclination, to enter reams of text via Pda keyboards (soft or hard) and this will also herald a Smartphone version of nActionr. In addition to the Windows version would there be interest in a MacOSX version? Or would my time on the MacOSX side of things be better served creating a utility to sync with one of the many good MacOSX GTD products?
Rest assured that development is continuing on nActionr every day, and do write in if you want to see a particular feature.
Posted by Jonathan Ballinger on Sep 04, 2007
It's my pleasure to announce the release of a new product: JABSystems Pocket PC Timer.
This little utility acts primarily as a countdown timer and was created because I was having difficulty figuring out exactly how long two minutes was. There were other timers available but I wanted one that was:
- Available on Windows Mobile
- Easy to use over and over
- Able to both count down and also tell me how long I'd spent on something
So I wrote my own. It is a Windows Mobile application (with Touchscreen and Smartphone versions available) that has a simple start/stop button along with a separate reset button, and the ability to count down from a predetermined value while counting up the elapsed time on the same screen. When the countdown runs out, an alarm sounds and the elapsed time keeps on rising until the stop (or reset) button is pressed. This lets me see just how woeful my estimate of two minutes for the next action was. I had one today that ended up taking thirty-five minutes from an original estimate of four minutes.
You can see a video demo of the Pocket PC Timer on its product page along with download links. Be sure to let me know if you find it useful!
Posted by Jonathan Ballinger on Sep 02, 2007
With the creation of the Pocket PC Timer I felt it was time that nActionr be moved to the JABSystems.co.uk domain before too many links are out there for the old site. The URLs still work via the magic of redirects and the domain will just be an alias for this site.
Anyway this is just a short "Welcome to the new site" post to formally announce the opening of JABSystems.co.uk.
In the future you can expect to see news updates appear here, and in the RSS feed available at this site, along with longer, more detailed articles about how I personally use nActionr and JABSystems Pocket PC Timer together to enable me to get things done and other topics of interest.
Posted by Jonathan Ballinger on Sep 02, 2007
Archives
RSS Feed