Getting organized is all the rage lately, what with an endless sea of GTD apps, todo Dashboard widgets and Growl alarm systems. There is certainly something to be said about making a list and checking it twice - especially when your list offers Google Maps in a mouseover popup window, a Dashboard widget, individual alarms, syncing across Macs, iPod exporting and much, much more.
Listz is just such an app, and it is absolutely slammed with features. It even offers backup burning to disc, tabbed lists, extensive styling options, drag and drop support, categorizing list items, and support for printing lists if you aren't bringing your little white or black (or green, or red...) sidekick. But all this functionality comes at a price that is likely to appeal only to the power list'ers in the crowd: Listz sells for $39.95. It isn't the cheapest organization app I've ever seen, but it very well might be one of - if not the - most functional, especially with those slick rich media mouse-over popups.
The only way to tell for sure, of course, is to download a demo for yourself and try it out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-17-2007 @ 1:21PM
Jesse Gillespie said...
How the heck is this supposed to be 'functional?' This app is a joke.
I'm really disappointed - for a second there I thought this was going to be the app I've been looking for all year. Unfortunately, it's really over designed, and poorly thought-out.
For starters, there's no way to create your own categories in the application. No, really, it can't be done. You have to download an extra application "CalKitBeta," make a special category file and import your categories from there. This is an absolutely essential feature that is much more important than the crudulent bells and whistles they did include.
The tabs are infuriating, since they shuffle themselves whenever you click on them. This makes them infuriating to use, because there's no way of knowing where a particular tab is. And if you have more tab than you have space for on your window, you have to use incredibly slow nonstandard scroll buttons to go through them.
The interface uses all kinds of nonstandard, cryptic widgets. After 10 minutes I've given up trying to figure out what the button on the upper-right corner of a list does.
On the whole it's an unusable hodgepodge of nonstandard interface elements and conventions. One of my favorite 'features' is the "use selection for Find" item. I'm not sure what this does. This is inexplicably blacked-out when you have an item selected, so I'm not sure what it does. Also, I spent five minutes trying to figure out how to open a list file when you close them. There's no 'open' item under the file menu, where it should be. Instead, there's a separate "lists" menu (not to be confused with the separate "listz" menu).
What I want is a sleak, easy to use organizer with useful, standard tabs and smart groups.
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5-17-2007 @ 1:28PM
Jesse Gillespie said...
Oh and also, if you want to open a list, go to to the 'lists' menu. If you want to delete a list, go to the file menu....
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5-17-2007 @ 1:28PM
Jesse Gillespie said...
Oh and also, if you want to open a list, go to to the 'lists' menu. If you want to delete a list, go to the file menu....
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5-17-2007 @ 6:17PM
Gary said...
Thanks for taking the hit for us, Jesse. Your review makes me wonder if Chartier even installed the app or took his review from the sales pitch.
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5-17-2007 @ 6:26PM
AR said...
In the past, when I tried this app (more than once) it was frustrating and not intuitive - unless things have changed (which they don't seem to have), this one is a no-go for me and i suspect others, as well.
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5-18-2007 @ 3:25PM
BilboVernonToups said...
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5-18-2007 @ 11:25PM
Rob Williams said...
The reviewer was quite clear about what his review was about: the rollovers. Literally, obiter dicta (dropped a few words in passing).
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6-03-2007 @ 6:17PM
Ray Cee said...
I've been using Listz for some time now, I think it's great, and I would hate to try to get along without it any more. I can do no better than to suggest that the reader of these posts go to the web site, download the application, and play with it for a few days. If you do so you will probably decide it's a definite keeper, just as I did.
As for Jesse's comments, I can only presume he did not spend as much time with the application as he did composing his complaints about it.
To begin with, categories are easy to create. Go to the "manage assets" menu and select "Categories." Hardly tricky, Jesse. (By the way, the download choice that Jesse mentions is to help those interested in creating new icons for their categories do so. That's all.) So much for "No, really, it can't be done."
Next, I've never had a problem with tabs being hard to find, or with the notion that (as Jesse says) "there's no way of knowing where a particular tab is." That's only true if you don't bother to look. Further, perhaps Jesse was looking at a version before the current one in which holding down the Control key while clicking on the top Tab gives you a nice tidy listing of every tab. From there just click to select the one you're interested in. (Again, Jesse, perhaps reading the instructions might be helpful.)
As for giving up trying to understand what the button in the upper right corner does, it's straightforward and easily understood. And if it isn't self-explanatory, which I found it to be, then you can find out by reading the introductory List or by going to the Help window. No problem, and a very useful function.
I could go on responding to Jesse's grossly misleading and largely inaccurate comments, but there is an element of silliness in them that leaves me impatient to read further. (Perhaps, Jesse, you had a hangover when you looked at the application? Not a major sin; I've done it myself.)
Instead, as I said, let me encourage folks to go to the Listz site, download the application, and play with it for a few days. If you like it, buy it. As I said, I did. If you don't like it, then be sure you have at least read the instructions and looked at the example List before you discard it — and especially before you start talking to others about it.
By the way: I don't work for Robochanz or have any connection with them other than having exchanged emails with them about how the product might be improved. Those emails have produced timely and gracious and responsive replies.
Good people, good app. Try it; you'll like it.
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