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ActionGear, simple yet powerful task management

by Brett Terpstra Oct 28th 2008 at 11:00AM

ActionGear has been out for a while, but I think it deserves a mention as a potentially great task-management app, falling somewhere between iCal or a bare bones outliner such as TaskPaper, and the robust end of the scale where Things and OmniFocus are duking it out.

Within ActionGear's simple interface, you'll find a sidebar with your Inbox, (nestable) Groups, and Smart Groups. The main focus of the interface is a task list in which tasks can be nested within their groups (folders). Each task can have flags, notes and attachments, and there's a tagging system which allows Things-like flexibility. You can use it as a basic to-do list, or make the Groups into projects and tags into contexts and go all GTD with it. The Smart Groups can emulate, to some extent, the Perspectives you'd find in OmniFocus.

Overall it seems like a good solution for those who need a little more structure and power in their task management than what can be done with iCal, but don't really need all of the extra features of OmniFocus. If that's you, give ActionGear a shot with the free trial. If you dig it, it's $29USD for a license.



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ActionGear has been out for a while, but I think it deserves a mention as a potentially great task-management app, falling somewhere...
 

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Hugh Bien

Hi guys,

I'm the programmer from GearSquare, the company behind ActionGear.

ActionGear saves tasks to the harddrive on successful shutdown or when the app quits. So on a laptop crash, it can't save the latest changes to the harddrive.

On the next release, I'll be updating it to save straight to the harddrive when adding or editing any tasks. This will make sure data is even if your laptop crashes.

@Gustavo, thanks for figuring out a way to sync across multiple computers!

@Brady, an iPhone app is in the works and will be available in January 2009.

Thanks for the write up!

November 02 2008 at 3:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Hugh Bien's comment
JimHarrison

Actiongear's greatest weakness appears to be its attachment handling. Apparently creating attachments or local file/folder links results in the file or folder contents being copied into the Actiongear database. These resources can then be exported to regenerate the original object, but not otherwise used. If Actiongear instead allowed links to files or project folders that opened those resources when clicked, it could serve as a streamlined task/project information management hub, and it would really be a contender in this class of software.

December 07 2008 at 1:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brady J. Frey

I like this - very down and dirty, clean and quick. If they had an iPhone app, they might have me, but as someone who's moved from iGTD to Things, I can't downgrade the iPhone feature for that speed bump.


October 29 2008 at 6:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Brady J. Frey's comment
John

First off, let me say I *really* like this program. After trying various task managemt apps (OmniFocus, Things, even Entourage), this program seemed to be developed for just the way I want to work. Entering tasks is simple, and organizing them is also simple. While some more robust task managers could have me spending more time tweaking my task list than actually completing my tasks, ActionGear had me spend just the right amount of time inputting and organizing my tasks - which was about zero time. Great, right?

Unfortunately, I'm experiencing a possible bug with the program. I've been having battery issues, and each time my computer goes through a hard shut down (due to lack of power from the battery), I lose *all* of the data I have put into ActionGear. All of it.

I've emailed their tech support and will update with an answer, but in the meantime - if this is truly a bug with their program and not some quirk on my machine - I would advise not relying on ActionGear to keep your data safe.

October 31 2008 at 11:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Olga

It is a good app though I would prefer to have my tasks online so that they are accessable from everywhere. For example, http://task2gather.com seems to be one of the few online task management services that supports all major platforms (Windows XP, Vista; Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch and now Windows Mobile). At the same time Task2Gather is reasonably priced. The collaboration with such services can be more efficient.

October 29 2008 at 2:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

'Things' looks much more polished than this..

October 28 2008 at 6:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gustavo

Yup, it works... provided that you are able to sync your iDisk to your multiple computers. Even better is that it AUTOMATICALLY syncs if you have that setting enabled.

October 28 2008 at 12:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gustavo

An interesting way to 'sync' ActionGear across multiple computers

Taken from ActionGear's support modal:
How do I backup my data?

All data and attachments for ActionGear is located in this directory: /Users//Library/Application Support/ActionGear/. Be sure to backup this directory to keep your data safe.

If you take that directory and put it on your iDisk, then create a symlink to that iDisk, I assume you would then be able do the same on your remote computer and therefor be able to effectively 'sync' the two. Just remember to connect to the internet and sync your iDisk prior to adding new action items... I'm testing this out as you read.

October 28 2008 at 12:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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