Customer Reviews

Anytime Deluxe 8.0 (Old Version)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought Anytime because I already had version 2.0. I liked the earlier version, but many of the things the older version had were either missing or less user friendly in 8.0. I couldn't load the files from version 2.0 directly into the new, (fortunately the old computer is still running so I could manually copy one to the other.) The entry process had a lot of unecessary steps which slowed down the process. Version 2.0 reminds you of missed date entries, the new one doesn't.

The version 8.0 has a lot of bells and whistles, like fax/cell/watts numbers, direct connection to e-mail, and a few others. The technical assist to Anytime is non-existant, either by 3 no-responce e-mails or 45 minutes on the phone. I'd stick with version 2.0 if you can load it into your computer, otherwise stick with Outlook.

Anytime Deluxe 9.0 sounds good for the money. Mine quit working on WinXP after 2 days, and tech support did not reply to my complaint for over a week, when I was given the address to their FAQ page. It contained no helpful information. After calling them, the tech support person admitted there was a problem, and had me modify my registry. The software ran for about 2-3 days, and then stopped working again. I have called and written emails and tech support has not responded in over a week. Even at its best, the software is mediocre - so save your money and buy some software that works and that the company will support.

I have looked all over for some good organizer software. Places like IBM want 80 bucks for lotus organizer. This software is only 30 bucks and does everything i need, sets alarms for appointments, keeps track of my to do list, and keeps addresses. If you want some good organizational software that wont break your piggybank but has a nice looking easy to use interface, this software is great.

I bought AnyTime Deluxe 8.0 to meet two needs: To obtain printouts of address book and daily calender for my DayTimer planner and to synchronize this information with my Palm Pilot.

It was little things that bothered me about the printout capability. Although the program added lines to cut paper for reduced size used in planners, the size for a standard planner is not 8½x5½ as it should be, but rather 8x5. Also, there is no easy way of making double sided printouts using the program - you need either a printer capable of double-sided printing or the patience to develop your own process.

I was totally frustrated with the synchronization capabilities of AnyTime Deluxe. Not all contact fields (phone numbers, e-mail, fax, etc) in the Palm Pilot were transferred to AnyTime. This was totally confusing, since the mapping rules with the program showed them to be properly mapped. For contact information, the Palm has pull down lists for defining type of contact (home phone, business phone, etc.). This info is not transferred into AnyTime Deluxe. Rather, there are its own pull down menus. When you use these pull-down list and sync with the Palm, the description is added to the phone number. (Example, if phone number in Palm is "555-1234" and you add description "Business Fax" in AnyTime and resync, phone number in Palm is "Business Fax 555-1234", using up precious display space in Palm lists.) Most frustrating, on several occasions when I changed info in my Palm and resynced, the synchronization program tried to delete all records in my Palm.

Because of the frustrations with syncing, I uninstalled AnyTime. The program removed cleanly, but the synchronization conduit did not. It left its conduit in Palm's HotSync manager and failed to reactivate the conduits to Palm's desktop program. I had to uninstall and reinstall the Palm software and all other conduits I use to get back to where I was before trying AnyTime.

My advice: If you use a Palm PDA, don't use AnyTime Deluxe.

The truth is that this program, has been, and continues to be a bestseller. It does this year after year because it is very full featured, easy to use, cheap, and intuitive...

There are those who need the robustness of MS Outlook, but Anytime offers many of it's features at a fraction of the cost. In addition, you will not find ANY organizer program with more layouts or printout options. Also, Anytime stores all of it's information in one file. Backing up is easy. Outlook spread's it's fragments all over your computer, including the Registry. Backing it up is a nightmare (even with Windows XP).

At work I use Outlook, but at home I use and trust Anytime. I have used Anytime since the DOS days. It continues to get better and better and has proved itself to be reliable. Give it a fair try, you won't be disappointed.

I stumbled into purchasing Anytime Deluxe when the contact manager software I had intended to buy (ACT!) was not available at my local retailer.

After a challenging experience converting my existing records to Anytime, I discovered that I liked the programs interface, and the ability to control many of the views that I had not been able to control previously.

Then I bought my PDA, to carry all this great information around with me. Unfortunately, the documentation in the manual for syncing this data to my PDA consisted of ONE PAGE -- the title page. The "help" function was not full-featured, either.

So I decided to call Tech Support. BIG MISTAKE. Two weeks later, my emails have referred me back to the (less than helpful) web site and help functions. TWO messages left with supervisors have gone unanswered. When you call Tech Support, the queue is so full that you cannot even hold, and are told to call back later. The story from Individual Software is that:
1. All their tech support staff are in training, and only one person is available to answer the phones.
2. All their tech support staff is in training, and only two people are available to answer the phones.
3. The training is over, but all the staff is returning old calls while new ones continued to be answered by one person.

Today I asked to speak to a manager, only to be told that none of them show up for work until after 10:00 am. I tried to leave a voice mail message, but the receptionist accused me of being snotty. (I wasn't snotty, but I was certainly frustrated, and very assertive about wanting to speak to someone in charge.)

I guess this is truly a case of getting what you paid for. Unfortunately, I'll have to junk the software and go buy a reputable program with real tech support. Sigh....

I bought AnyTime Deluxe 8.0 to meet two needs: To obtain printouts of address book and daily calender for my DayTimer planner and to synchronize this information with my Palm Pilot.

It was little things that bothered me about the printout capability. Although the program added lines to cut paper for reduced size used in planners, the size for a standard planner is not 8½x5½ as it should be, but rather 8x5. Also, there is no easy way of making double sided printouts using the program - you need either a printer capable of double-sided printing or the patience to develop your own process.

I was totally frustrated with the synchronization capabilities of AnyTime Deluxe. Not all contact fields (phone numbers, e-mail, fax, etc) in the Palm Pilot were transferred to AnyTime. This was totally confusing, since the mapping rules with the program showed them to be properly mapped. For contact information, the Palm has pull down lists for defining type of contact (home phone, business phone, etc.). This info is not transferred into AnyTime Deluxe. Rather, there are its own pull down menus. When you use these pull-down list and sync with the Palm, the description is added to the phone number. (Example, if phone number in Palm is "555-1234" and you add description "Business Fax" in AnyTime and resync, phone number in Palm is "Business Fax 555-1234", using up precious display space in Palm lists.) Most frustrating, on several occasions when I changed info in my Palm and resynced, the synchronization program tried to delete all records in my Palm.

Because of the frustrations with syncing, I uninstalled AnyTime. The program removed cleanly, but the synchronization conduit did not. It left its conduit in Palm's HotSync manager and failed to reactivate the conduits to Palm's desktop program. I had to uninstall and reinstall the Palm software and all other conduits I use to get back to where I was before trying AnyTime.

My advice: If you use a Palm PDA, don't use AnyTime Deluxe.

I like AnyTime Deluxe. I tried a bunch of other programs - different daily planners - and this one just seemed to be better. AnyTime has a feature that sends out reminders at different times, like every 3 or 4 days, or the last Friday of the month. The other calendar systems I've tried didn't have that many variables in the reminders. I've been using AnyTime for over 3 years, and would recommend it to anyone interested in staying organized!

We have owned this product in Versions 7 and 9 for our law office for several years. If you need for more than one user to access the program simultaneously, as we do in the office, the program networks seamlessly. You could pay a fortune for a multi-user calendar like this from other vendors. If you have more than two users needing access, you can buy a license. I have seen many complaints in these reviews about technical support; I have e-mailed a couple of times and received a thorough response within 24 hours. The interface for the calendar and address book is easy to use. I highly recommend the program because of features, ease of use, and price.

Have been using this (actually version 9) for a week or so. It seems to do everything you'd want, and is very similar to the paper day-timer I used years ago.

No problems. No complaints.