Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst interface for creating and prioritizing tasks, February 26, 2003
I don't think very highly of Outlook to begin with, so perhaps the Franklin development staff had their work cut out for them, but regardless, this has got to be one of the worst interfaces for creating and prioritizing tasks I've ever seen. Want to create a task for tomorrow? You can't just select the day and create a task. You have to create it for today, then go to the Quick Prioritize screen or open the task and then change the date. Want to reprioritize a group of "B" tasks to "A" tasks (since they are all "B" by default")? You can't select multiple tasks in the Quick Prioritize screen and drag them to the "A" column. You have to do one at a time. There's plenty more annoying things like this. The PlanPlus Home screen is not bad, but it takes forever to come up sometimes (and I have a 3.06GHz machine with 1GB RAM), and if you use Outlook in offline mode, you'll eventually see a glaring bug as you click through messages in your inbox (something about the offline folder file being in use by the maximum number of applications - brilliant). I love the Franklin method but I'm sorry to say that this software is a waste of time.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor support, October 19, 2002
By A Customer
I initially installed Plan Plus with no difficulties. After 10 minutes or so of 'playing around' to get to know it better, Outlook 2002 crashed with a message regarding Plan Plus and Add-in manager. After that it didn't work at all. I tried first to "repair" it, lwhich didn't work, and then uninstalled it, but the reinstall failed as well. I then tried to reach Franklin via the on-line chat, but after 15-20 minutes of waiting I gave up. I then sent Franklin an email, summarizing all the steps I had taken, as well as Outlook messages, but they never responded.My take is that Frankling does not consider robust software nor customer support to be either Urgent or Important. Steven Yarnell
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Idea, Poorly Executed, October 31, 2005
Summary: I am torn between giving this two and three stars. Given all the "one star" ratings, which I think are too harsh, I'm giving this three stars, but really, I think of it as 2.5 stars. It's not something I can recommend, yet I use it, and it's the best implementation yet of the Franklin Covey system. But it is plagued by quality control problems, and you can run into problems that range from minor usability issues, to crashes, and even minor damage to your Outlook data file.
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I've been a huge fan of the Franklin system since before it was Franklin-Covey. I have searched for years for a good electronic implementation of it, and have even worked hard to try to get Outlook to mimic some of its features.
The PlanPlus for Outlook add-on actually comes very close to fully implementing the FC system within Outlook, which is extremely convenient, as it integrates all your contacts, email, tasks, etc. in one environment. But as other reviewers have stated - and as I have personally experienced over years and years of using different versions of FC software - software quality is NOT something they understand. It's very frustrating.
In my case, I don't even try to get the Palm conduits to work, and using Outlook 2003, I run into various issues ranging from the occasional outright crash, to Outlook "disabling" the FC software after it crashes on quitting (extremely common), to serial number "key" problems, and more. PlanPlus definitely is doing lots of stuff behind the scenes to Outlook when it installs, and given their penchant for writing poor software, this is scary, and can result in some extremely nasty problems. You do NOT like to see Outlook launch, warn you that the file was not properly closed, and then start rebuilding it. So far, I haven't seen any clear data loss, but it scares me, and that's one of the big three no-no's of software design ("Do not frighten the user!").
All that being said, when it DOES work, it's actually a darned good implementation of the Franklin-Covey system. I like having the FC system of symbols for task management, and the task organizer is fair for managing daily vs master tasks, prioritizing, etc. By integrating with Outlook and automatically carrying forward uncompleted tasks, it eliminates much of the need for touching every task every day. There are some shortcomings - for instance, you can't select multiple tasks and perform a mass action - but I don't find they get in the way too much.
Some of FC's weekly capabilities, such as the Project Compass and Projects windows, are intriguing, and I actually have used their weekly approach (versus the "daily" approach of just tasks). But for the most part, their implementations are tantalizing for what they could be, and fall short of being truly workable as designed today.
I have a hard time recommending this software, but if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Franklin-Covey fan, and are willing to put up with the bugs (and a sort of Russian Roulette game when you install it, as you might be the unlucky one who has REAL problems), it's worth looking at. There is a demo version available from their web site, but if you install it, realize that uninstalling it completely may be difficult, although I personally have had no problems after uninstalling it on various machines.
I keep hoping that someday they'll get it right, and this is the closest they have come so far. They develop at an astoundingly slow pace, however, so don't hold your breath waiting for the next revision!
..Chris..
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