When I became Palm-obsessed, I tried to use the Memo pad to replace the right-hand notes and journaling pages, but it just wasn't the same. Keeping those memos organized, and remembering where I'd put what information, seemed like such a bother.

I eventually gave up on journaling entirely. Natura's DayNotez (for Windows, Palm, and Pocket PC) is a replacement for the right-hand page of your planner, providing organization options and easy ways to access your information.

Overview
Figure A shows a day's journal entries in the Windows application and the Palm version. Naturally, the Windows application shows more information, but both are clear and easy to understand. Each type of entry can have a color and an icon assigned to it to distinguish it from the others.

FIGURE A


This combination picture shows both the Windows and Palm screens, which are both well designed and make good use of the available space. Roll over picture for a larger image.

While DayNotez can, of course, handle free-form notes, to my mind it's the template feature that really shines. I created a template for the writing journal entry shown in Figure A. This uniformity makes it easier and more productive to compare notes over time.

Speaking of time, DayNotez can keep track of how long you spend on a particular entry. I like how this feature has been implemented; the duration is left at zero minutes until you click on the 'edit' button beside the duration, at which point you can either enter a number of minutes or set an end time. As my writing journal entry shows, I used this feature as I worked on my novel to see how much time I was spending on each task and whether I was going to get to the end of what I'd planned in time.

DayNotez also allows you to generate statistics on how many entries you've made in each category, and how long you've spent overall on each category. Both of these features would be great for someone who needs to bill time to different projects.

The Palm version of DayNotez also provides a calendar view, to show you which days have entries. Figure B shows a month, and the icons associated with my entry types, on my Palm. The desktop version does not display the icons.

FIGURE B


DayNotez's calendar view makes it easy to see which days have which kinds of entries. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Synchronization and deletion
My concern with applications that operate on both the Palm and the desktop is always synchronization. I changed the same entry on both platforms and then did a HotSync, and was impressed with the results. A dialogue box, shown in Figure C, appeared, asking me which entry I wanted to keep.