The next series of reviews I will be writing is about personal organizers. Since this class of programs is a very broad and diverse one, the usual review process will need to be modified. In particular, there are so many different uses for these programs that it is only practical to look at them from one or two perspectives. Instead of digging through all the features and functions of the programs and comparing them to other leading programs (which would take far too long and be very complicated), I will instead judge them based on how well they handle a certain task. This will be based on my usage and the functions that the app offers that cater to that type of usage.

I feel qualified to judge two uses in these apps: first, as an aid to the writing process, and second, as a tool for capturing and organizing research. As a college student in a liberal arts school, I have to write a lot of papers. As such I feel qualified to speak to whether a program in question can help the writing process, this will also include note taking in class. Also, as a former academic debater, I feel qualified to speak to the research management aspects of many of these programs; both for capturing information and for organizing it for quick retrieval later.

I’m already starting work on a DEVONthink Pro 2.0 review, but I want to wait for the official version to be released before writing it. I have started using it now simply because the feature set is so deep. I just want to fully wrap my head around it before trying to describe it to other people and objectively judge it. You will probably see another review or two before DEVONtechnologies releases the full version (i.e. the non-beta version).