SplashData is one of the most famous Palm OS development houses – its applications are sometimes considered “weak” by power users, but are adored by many for their simplicity. When SplashData entered the outliner market, I wondered abut how their simplification would work in the outliner market(read: if the product wouldn’t have been dumbed down too much) – now the product is here, lets see how it works!
SplashNotes for Palm OS starts up with a list of outlines available on the handheld:
Tapping on an outline opens it for editing. The editing process is very simple – items can be dragged and dropped, and the arrows can be used for indentation.
Outlines can be collapsed and expanded easily, too.
The outline can be displayed in three different modes. Bullet mode shows small bullets next to each item, the checkbox mode allows you to add a checkbox next to each item, and the active mode shows only the unchecked items(checks propagate upwards automatically):
Text notes and hand-written doodles can be attached to the individual outline items:
This test covered SplashNotes 1.1 on a Palm Tungsten E2. SplashNotes worked well during the review, I experienced no crashes whatsoever. The program needs about 400k of RAM and costs about 30$(on the TamsPalm store).
Use the code NOTESFORME to get 20% off the product until the 9th of April. Valid only on the TamsPalm store!
Overall, SplashData succeeded in creating an affordable Palm OS outliner that does well what it must. The program does not contain any of the advanced features that make advanced Palm outliners difficult to use for beginners – simplicity beats functionality here. If you need a simple and easy-to-use product, download the 15day trial version and see if it suits you!
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I’m a big fan of simple but effective software. I think a lot of times the developers just keep adding features just because of a few users who want them. Nothing wrong with lots of features, just got to make sure it doesn’t worsen the interface.
(Hi! btw, just stumbled across your blog via google)
Hi Richard,
great to see you here – I hope that you enjoy your stay at TamsPalm’s!
As for adding features, yes, there’s always the famous 80/20 rule…but not having a feature available when you really need it can be painful too…
Best regards
Tam Hanna