FranklinCovey PlanPlus For Microsoft Outlook 2.0

by Global Marketing

Product Features

• Manage personal and professional planning in one application
• Options to print and synchronize data with handhelds
• Daily and weekly productivity tools
• PowerNotes for integrating note-taking into Microsoft Outlook
• Built-in training from FranklinCovey's productivity workshops

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00016W556
• Item model number: 28583
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 1, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,810 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #96 in Software > Business & Office > Schedule & Contact Management > Organizers & Address Books
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

FranklinCovey PlanPlus 2.0 for Microsoft Outlook is a unique productivity application that seamlessly integrates the powerful planning and time management of FranklinCovey's best-selling planning system directly into Microsoft Outlook.

PlanPlus enhances the dominant corporate application for scheduling and email with essential planning tools from FranklinCovey's world-renowned productivity solutions. Users can now manage personal and professional planning in one application, with the options to print and synchronize their information to a paper-based, handheld, or Tablet PC planning systems.

PlanPlus is designed for the knowledge worker who has multiple projects, is time pressed, and needs to stay focused on top corporate priorities. PlanPlus is unique in that it lets the manager build his or her priorities list as well as the key tasks to support it, drag and drop those tasks directly into Outlook, and send those top priorities on to direct reports for action item follow-up.

PlanPlus 2.0 has added enhanced daily productivity features and all new PowerNotes to its core planning tools, providing a powerful system to help you achieve your highest priorities. In addition to providing specific implementation tools around core FranklinCovey other PlanPlus 2.0 features include:

Daily productivity tools to help you get the right things done each day

• Enhanced "home" view: combining views for your daily or master tasks, calendar, daily notes, Outlook email, and the new PowerNotes.
• Enhanced prioritized daily task list: manage your tasks by date and by priority and focus on today's important activities.
• Daily notes: a simple note-taking feature used for quickly entering phone numbers, notes, voice mail messages, etc.
• Microsoft Outlook email: places email in context with your day and provides a "right-side" email preview pane.

Weekly planning tools to help you focus on and achieve your highest priorities

• Mission/values: reconnect to your core values, personal mission, or purpose
• Schedule goals: review your goals and schedule activities that will bring you closer to achieving your goals
• Schedule compass: review your key roles and relationships and create "big rocks" for the upcoming week
• Schedule tasks: review your "master tasks" to create a realistic plan for reaching your goals.

Exclusive PowerNotes that integrate the power of enhanced note-taking capabilities directly into Microsoft Outlook

• Capture: handwrite notes using your Tablet PC, capture Word* files, Excel* spreadsheets, presentations, or Web pages into PowerNotes and then share with others.
• Organize: Organize your most important information using standard Outlook folders. Combine and format notes using a drag-and-drop operation.
• Find: use the standard Outlook "find" feature to search for anything in your PowerNotes.
• Share: e-mail your notes to others, publish notes to a Web site, or share them as a .TIFF file.

Enhanced mobility: Synchronize your data with Palm OS handhelds and Pocket PC devices. Use your Tablet PC as a full featured note taking system and print all your vital information to all sizes of FranklinCovey paper planning systems.

Built-in training from FranklinCovey's "world class" productivity workshops. PlanPlus includes mini-training sessions called Wizards that contain some key concepts taught in workshops.

Product Description

PlanPlus for Microsoft Outlook 2.0 brings you a complete suite of tools, for the businessperson who's always on his feet. Never lose track of appointments and important tasks with this powerful planner! Capture your handwriting to handwrite notes for your tablet and handheld Search for anything in your PowerNotes and share them easily through e-mail Built-in productivity training from world-class FranklinCovey workshops

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Buggy, March 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: FranklinCovey PlanPlus For Microsoft Outlook 2.0 (CD-ROM)

I have always been a Covey fan but the vendor who designed this is clueless.

Per tech support (useless) I have installed and uninstalled Plan Plus, Outlook 2002, Outlook 2003, Office XP and Office 2003 over and over for ten days. After each uninstall I had to scrub the system registry. Each time Plan Plus would develop new bugs and crashes every ten minutes or so.

The Pocket PC interface is minimal and tech support is by on-line chat that won't accept sentences of any length so you can't really communicate very well. Forget about cutting and pasting the long error messages generated. The techs handle every question with the same set of useless answers, I'd swear it is some automated software program.

The old version took a number of installations in order to get it working, unfortunately 2.0 is even worse.

To Covey Execs, find a new software developer.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do NOT Buy FranklinCovey PlanPlus, July 9, 2004

By 

Franklin Troubles (Rockford, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FranklinCovey PlanPlus For Microsoft Outlook 2.0 (CD-ROM)

I have never written a review of a software product before. I felt compelled to write one about FranklinCovey's PlanPlus For Microsoft Outlook 2.0 because I hope to that it will dissuade people from wasting money on this product.

Until I bought this product, I had no beef with the company FranklinCovey. I have been using their paper planner for the last 6 years. I had hoped that PlanPlus would simplify my life by allowing me to use planning tools while in Outlook. In reality, I have had nothing but trouble with the nearly impossible installation, the buggy product, and the infuriating tech support.

It started when I tried to install the product on my laptop. I worked with their tech support online (they charge if you want to actually speak with someone). I went through quite a few tech support people, many of whom seemed to repeat the same mantra of "uninstall/reinstall" which I did countless times. I really had to push them to get them to help me. When they were stumped and they said they would research the issue and get back to me and of course they never did. Eventually I got someone online and I would not let them go until we resolved the installation problem. After 5 days of working at this, it was finally installed. To my horror, it slowed down outlook so significantly that I decided to uninstall it.

Around the same time I was dealing with problems with the install on my laptop, I was trying to also install this on my desktop PC. I worked with tech support for about 3 weeks off and on. Again, they were stumped. They kept repeating the phrase, "We will get back to you at the earliest." I never heard back from them. Now I wonder what they meant. Was it the earliest ice age? The earliest millenium? They kind of left it open for interpretation. It's been several months now and I have wasted so much time on this. I was never able to install the product, I kept getting an error message and the installation would stop.

I can't return the product because they don't accept returns on software if it has been opened. All I can do at this point is vow never to buy another FranklinCovey product again and encourage others to reconsider their plans to purchase this product. If you are a diehard Franklin Planner user, like I was, I would recommend that you stick with the paper planner - it's far less buggy and you won't have to deal with an indifferent tech support that will "get back to you at the earliest."

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Slow, Crashes, but nice idea..., June 8, 2004

By 

Karen A. Banaszak (Hanover Park, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FranklinCovey PlanPlus For Microsoft Outlook 2.0 (CD-ROM)

I'd wait to buy this until they come out with version five or so. By then, the bugs might be gone. As it is now, I'm using Outlook 2002 on a Windows XP 3ghz machine with 1gb of RAM, and it takes me 34 seconds to load Outlook (time for the splash screen to go away). Occasionally it will tell me it had to disable PlanPlus on startup as well. The memory usage (if you leave it open all the time like I do) is high as well, although I don't notice it much, having such a leet box (translation: fast computer).

I do give them 2 stars instead of 1 because it's pretty. I decided to use it based on screenshots alone. Outlook 2002 on its own is really dull, especially after you've looked at it daily for years. The extras (like the Compass, Mission/Values, and Goals) are very similar to their planner kits' first few pages. So if you liked those, I'm sure you'll enjoy the extras on PlanPlus.