Review: MyList Pro
Score:
90%
Version Reviewed: 3.5
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
Introduction
MyList has already been reviewed on "All About Symbian", but after it's recent update to V3.5, it really does deserve another review (given all the new features and improvements Ximplify have put in) and maybe you need to take another look at it as well.
What is Mind Mapping?
Every workplace has "The Organiser," someone who delights in using flip charts, flow diagram, and big bits of paper to work out the latest strategy or ideas. Keep this in mind for a moment. Anyone who has used the Folder View in Windows Explorer will be familiar with the idea of having a folder, where you can expand out the view to see sub folders, who have their own sub folders, and in each folder you can have files (or information).
MyList allows you to have this flexibility, to create headings and sub headings. Each of these items can have a memo attached for more detailed notes. It's like having the guy with the big bit of paper inside your 9210, except it's a lot easier to read the writing.
The best thing you can do is grab the demo version from Ximplify's website and have a play around, trust me you'll get the principles in no time.
Mind Mapping on other platforms.
I've used Mind Mapping style applications on various computer platforms. My first Series 3a used Topix, a little known app that provided the hierarchical view and a memo functionality. Treepad is a Windows PC application that is, in essence, a direct equivalent of MyList on the PC, with an almost identical feature list.
MyList has a lot to live up, and I've got a pretty good idea in what I want in an app like MyList. To my delight, MyList deliveries pretty much everything that I want... and then some.
How It All Works
Go have a look at the help file, this is a review not a tutorial! But even with the built in Help, Ximplify have shown how versatile the app is, packaging the relevant info in a separate MyList file to view, rather than the standard Help package. While this does help new users see what they can do, I think that this solitary move away from the norm isn't something I'd like to see happen on a regular basis. It can be worrying to a new user when the Help key doesn't work in their new application.
Niggles
Pretty much any application is going to have something that the reviewer finds that isn't quite right, or seems to be out of sorts. So, following that tradition, here's what doesn't quite sit right with MyList.
When editing text, I am so used to being able to hold down the ctrl-shift combination, and then hit the left or right cursor to select an entire word. I've been doing this since the Series 3 and before. In MyList, this changes the width of the split screen memo/topics divide. Even though I've been using MyList for some time, this still catches me nine times out of ten. It's a good feature, it's just using the wrong hotkey.
While you can edit a Topic in a full screen window, there doesn't seem to be a way to allow the memo to take up the full screen. And you are more likely to fill this with text than a topic heading.
And finally, the zoom function changes the Topics, but doesn't affect the memo view. The only workaround I could co me up with is to change the font size. Hmmm... The thing to emphasis here is this are all small things, and don't distract from MyList at all. I couldn't find any bugs, even after trying to break it - so hats off to the developers for this.
Practical Uses
I thought it would be a good idea to show how flexible MyList is with four very different examples, all of which this one application can handle.
Super Notepad
This is what I suspect the majority of individuals are going to be using MyList for. While the supplied Notes application bundled on the 9210 CD is okay for very short things, MyList has lifted my note taking to something genuinely useful.
I'm currently planning the christening for my daughter (everybody go aww... at the picture) and where Nokia's notepad would have been awash with entries all prefixed Eilidhs's Christening, in MyList there is one heading for Eilidh. Under this is another (initially hidden by collapsing the tree view) call Christening. Then we have Invites, Location, Food, Travel and all the other things I need to be remember.
MyList makes a smooth, uncluttered notepad that is easier to use than any other notes app available for the Communicator.
Project Management
We've already touched on "Project Management" with my example above of organising a Christening. While the big complicated projects are going to need GNATT charts and dedicated software, the majority of small to medium projects can be run quite happily from MyList.
And another sign of a well thought out program appears. If you have colleagues at your work who have 9210's but don't register MyList, then after the shareware trial period runs out, then instead of not running, MyList allows you to carry on viewing MyList files - you just won't be able to edit them. Great if people need the project plan for reference, but don't need to update anything.
Mini Websites
One of the unexpected new features in the update is an export option that allows you to generate a website (using dynamic html in IE5 on a PC)
MyList has pretty much every common export for mat to allow you to get your information out of your 9210 and into pretty much any other computer format. Along with the impressive 'website' export, it can also export to a single html web page (everything is on one page), Nokia WORD format, plain text, and csv (comma separated value - useful to go into Access and other PC based data applications).
It just shows that not only have Ximplify thought of what you need on the machine, they've thought about what they need to get off the machine as well!
Reviews for AAS
Yes, you can also use a separate MyList to sketch out ideas for creative writings (such as this review), but you cold also use it to keep track of characters, plots, McGuffins and the chapter structure of your next literary masterpiece?
Wish List
It's hard to put anything here as Ximplify have covered most of the major ones, so I'm left with...
- Sync with a native PC application such as Treepad
- IR support to talk to Thought Manager on my Palm III (selfish, but very useful)
- A companion 7650 viewer, because when my new phone gets here, I'll want to carry my lists with me in the smaller machine. Of course, a 7650 and PC sister app would be just as useful.
Conclusion
Ximplify have to be commended for not just doing a bug fix on an exceptional product, but adding wholesale changes to improve it for everyone.
Really this could be argued as a new version (v4.0), rather than an incremental upgrade. Existing users will already know how beneficial MyList can be. Those who haven't looked at it should grab a 14 day trial version from their website.
It's got a host of features that only a few people will ever really use, but the majority of people are going to use a mix of what is there. It's nicely flexible, and not to complicated.
Now, if only we could get a nice Windows desktop partner application we could all go home happy. Hmm, an import/export filter for "TreePad" perhaps? Or would it be too much to ask for a dedicated PC companion app with the same file structure.
Scores
MyList Overall Score... 90%
MyList is one of those bits of software you will either never need (because the simple Jotter/Notepad on the 9210 CD is sufficient) or something you can't live without. Not an out and out 'must be on the machine.' but it's damn close.
I dunno, is it a mega-app that deserves a 90%+ score? Well, they've caught me on a good day. MyList, you're a Mega-App. Now go and celebrate all those downloads you're about to get!
Ximplify Addendum - Pratical Uses - Alarms
Users can attach an alarm to any item and/or heirarchy of items on the list to create an alarmed to do list. This was something that many users had requested for. It is extremely useful if you have a series of items that can be grouped into various to-do activities such as Pickup Groceries, Laundry, Library Books Due etc. Users can attach alarm to each activity eg Library Books Due and list title of books to be returned as subitems. When alarm rings, the user is reminded that there are books to be returned to library. S/he then only needs to expand the item to reveal the list of books to be returned.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at