Amazon.com: Planplus 4.0 for Windows Xp Franklin Covey Win Xp: Software

I have always been impressed by the nice feature set of the Franklin Covey products, and Covey's methodology seems pretty solid in general, but their software engineering appears to be among the worst in the industry overall. Version after version, this product has had not just serious but fatal bugs and flaws that make it nearly unusable for many of us. Their support is also terrible in general. I get a quick response in barely understandable grammar with an obvious and marginally useful answer, and then they simply ignore followups asking for further clarification. I cannot recommend Franklin Covey software in general.

Many problems I had with previous versions had to do with their confusing and weak implementation of the synchronization with Palm handhelds. FC made the mistake of creating their own version of Palm lists, so you ended up with multiple incarnations of tasks, events, and so on, and it was almost impossible to configure the synch properly to avoid duplicate items or missing tasks.

V4 of PlanPlus for XP thankfully fixed the synch problem, by simply eliminating it. They no longer synch directly to Palm, they only synch to Outlook, and then you would synch between Outlook and Palm. This is a good thing, in my opinion, making the synch much simpler and more reliable.

On the other hand, the new version introduces a whole set of new problems that are even worse. They keep their "database" in the My Documents folder, which means that if you use this on a tablet or laptop connected to a network you may be using it with Microsoft's IntelliSynch feature. That's bad because of the poor engineering of FC's database and lack of integrity or repair tools. When Intellisynch synchronizes your laptop and network versions of the database, it tends to corrupt the FC database, making the product unusable. There are no real repair tools and the instructions given by tech support are a jumbled mess of file copies that generally don't seem to solve the problem. After managing to reinstall the product about four times for this problem and recreate my database from scratch each time, I have decided sadly to give up. The features aren't worth this pain.

If you are going to rely on a database for managing tasks and events and notes, it needs to be a reliable database with good tools for repairing it in case of corruption. The software engineers at FC never even imagined their database could be corrupted, since their tech notes imply that apparent corruption is always due to a registry protection problem. I verified that this simply isn't true, and they have been extremely unresponsive in fixing any of the bugs and flaws in the product that have been discovered by myself and others.

I am not happy to have to give up on this product, since there are no real competitors with wuite the same feature set for the tablet PC. However it is unfortunately not usable because of the corruption issues, and it is also frustratingly slow to start up and has significant delays during use even on a very fast tablet PC. I have had to go back to Outlook, Office, and One Note, which don't have the nice integration of digital ink yet, but at least they are very reliable and perform well.

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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute JUNK! Buyer BEWARE!, January 10, 2006

By

Ted Finch "Chanimal" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Planplus 4.0 for Windows Xp Franklin Covey Win Xp (CD-ROM)

As one of the earliest users of Ascend 1.0 (the original name), since 1990, I have upgraded through the years to 8.1. Each version got a little better. I never used it on the Palm (which seems to have been a problem), but it worked great on the desktop. I had to reinstall Windows and my 8.1 disk were in storage (moving) so I used it as an excuse to purchase PlanPlus 4.1.

I was shocked! It doesn't even work the same way anymore. Following are some of the problems:
- The prioritized task list used to have a quick wizard that I used every day (it is gone). This was the SINGLE greatest feature. The product manager should get fired.
- The task list does not follow windows conventions--it doesn't let you know if you are in the correct field so it erases your entry.
- There are no longer reoccuring task (so much for scheduling my weekly items in advance (regular deliverabls, monthly reports, etc.). The reoccuring setup was very slick--gone, gone, gone.
- There are no reoccuring appointments (all birthdays, regular meetings, deadlines cannot be automatically scheduled). What were they thinking? I noticed a release for 5.0 that added this back--but it still isn't on their website (and it would need more than just this).
- The entire goal section is messed up (it will not allow you to carry your goals into your daily appointments automatically--can't, doesn't have reoccuring tasks).
- The print qualify is junk (lines too thick, doesn't look nice)
- It does not default to the last screen you were on when you re-enter it--it always goes to the calendar, even though I want it to go to the daily task list.
- You can't find an icon on the top for the "task list"--only for "notes" (which brings up the task list (go figure)).
- If you double click on a task (to enter edit mode (like normal), it takes the task and moves it to the 12:00 appointment slot (huh?).
- The program allows drag and drop, which is good. Except if I want to drop a task to the appointment, it only means that I am scheduling when I want to do it. Instead, it MOVES it, when it should have the option to copy it (so I can still mark it off my task list).

It looks like the XP version has 1/2 the features of the 8.1 version (and it is up to 4.1/5.0?). I find it unusuable and an absolute piece of JUNK! And I mean J U N K!

I don't know the history, but it appears they re-wrote it (probably to fix the synch problems) and completely messed up an incredible application.

I have since returned my copy and purchased a used copy of 8.1 off ebay (since mine is in storage in one of 350+ boxes). I hope this poor review warns everyone to stay the heck away from this until they re-create what they had before (even 1.0 was better than this) and then improve the bugs and synch problems.

The companies revenues have dropped steadily (from $500 million to $255 million). The annual report claims much of the loss is because of less sales of their electronic products. Yeh... junk doesn't sell!

I did notice that the print option was easier to use (required 2 clicks instead of 4 (but even then, the button should just print whatever is on the screen--you can go to the pull down print to find other options).

BEWARE of this junk!!!

Signed - massive POWER user who thought the application went to the dogs!

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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars DON'T FALL FOR IT!! NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT!, March 11, 2006

By

Tomo The Cat (Saint Small, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Planplus 4.0 for Windows Xp Franklin Covey Win Xp (CD-ROM)

Egads, I am so stupid. I read reviews for some other Franklin Covey software. Hmmm... 41 reviews and only 1 star. Oh well, I thought to myself, this is new stuff. They must know what they are doing by now!

I have lost information and about a FULL WEEK of waking hours trying to get the palm to syncronize. A few hard resets of the Palm have cost me my contacts (not good on a 'smartphone', a wiped out Task List on my Palm (gee, why did I get this stuff?), and more.

There is NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT. I tried the software free for 31 days. Should have listened to the voice that said 'it hasn't worked for 48 consecutive hours- give it up!'. Instead, I believed the tech support guy who assured me these last voodoo steps would work. They did- for 48 hours.

All my data was on FC software, and this just looked so good. It isn't. I am thinking of going to Salt Lake City just to scream at these people live- since it costs $25 to talk on the phone, and 'chat support' is only available during business hours. (Rude ideas about sharpening saws not come to mind).

All I can say is RUN AWAY!!! Do not be lured by the siren call of the software- LOOK AT THE SHIP REMAINS DASHED ON THE SHORE AND KEEP SAILING!

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