[kwlug-disc] Productivity Suites, calendars, and contacts

[B.S.]

That may be true for gmail (assuming imap client), contacts, and (sort 
of) calendar, but definitely doesn't work out for their mickey mouse 
tasks facility.

Not to start a firestorm, but PIM has been a sore point since Agendus / 
Palm demise. Google Tasks exacerbating the abrasion.

So, Joe, couple things to start:

1. What are you looking for?

If PIM is e-mail [bad move (-: ], contacts, calendar, and tasks ...

- e-mail bad move in sense of having a nicely 'self'-centric organizing 
tool / PIM [what's on -your- plate to do], e-mail has a tendency to blow 
you away with everyone -else's- issues, not yours. So, not to say it's 
not nice from the PIM to shortcut to the e-mail program to send, or note 
this e-mail as a task, it seems better to keep e-mail and PIM side by 
each rather than within. (If useful, a number of task solutions allow 
you to e-mail yourself task entries and/or vice versa.)

I get that you're looking for all data to sync across platforms, which 
at the least includes Linux desktop, Android PDA, and web (I assume) - 
are there others, like any Windows devices / PCs in the mix? [Willing to 
run a vm?]


2. What is it you're looking for in terms of tasks?

Personally, I prefer a one-pane outliner (thus I gain sub-tasks), with 
additional fields (which makes the rub), like date due and more, in a 
text editor like sized / tight display. i.e. the Google web display of 
tasks just doesn't do it, nor most browser based things. Let me arrow up 
/ down, right/left (indent/exdent) and type away. If this is what you're 
looking for, choices get few and far between. (Although I gather node.js 
stuff is emerging that may be promising.)

Are you looking to do GTD, (vaguely remembered terms ...) 
Franklin-Covey, Moleskin, 43 Folders, sticky notes replacement, project 
planning (GanttProject comes to mind), ???

Have a look at https://checkvist.com - the inherent problem being 
integration (or lack thereof) with the rest of one's PIM.

Or even TiddlyWiki, TDL ToDoList, Task Unifier, FreePlane/FreeMind, 
MindRaider, EssentialPIM, or ThinkingRock.

Further, consider whether you're looking for some sort of wiki-like or 
'notepad with tabs' type journalling / note capturing facility, such as 
Evernote, which seems to be all pervasive these days. Not advocating 
Evernote, just asking if that sort of facility is something in your 
specifications.

Is time reporting / billing / invoice generation a factor?


3. It seems the world has gone from Palm & PIM, dropped into a black 
hole, and come out the other side re-invigorated as CRM.

So a personal xtuple type something may actually be more where you want 
to go. ?


Do let us know. This topic keeps coming up for many of us, I believe 
largely because the magic bullet of Palm / Iambic Agendus dropped off 
the radar some years back, and nobody has found (or mentioned here) 
better mousetraps since. But many are looking ... give up ... look about 
hopefully for a bit ... give up ...

[Evil Google getting us most of the way with tags munged IMAP, but the 
task side never getting any love.]

In the mean time ... check out CompanionLink 
(http://www.companionlink.com/), see if your combination of desires and 
devices can be satisfied. e.g. DejaOffice on Android at least let's you 
search your contacts on reasonable fields, unlike Google (which only 
searches on a small subset).

Curious your message has come along when it has ... I have 
http://www.crmsearch.com/top-10-open-source-crm-systems.php up in a tab 
waiting to be read, to see if this crm / non-xtuple idea has any value, 
myself


On 12/02/2014 01:23 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 12:56 PM, Joe Wennechuk
> <youcanreachmehere at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> So I guess my question is what is the best way to manage my contacts and
>> calendar so they stay sync'd across my desktop, android device, and
>> internet. What are some of you using for this purpose?
>
> Nothing special at all.
> All you need is your Gmail account and an Android device, and you
> already have both of them.
>
> Get all your contacts from where ever you have them, and export them
> to a CSV file. I did that from Yahoo way back when, and Gmail imported
> them all (on the desktop, not on Android).
>
> Here is what Google says
> https://support.google.com/mail/answer/12118?hl=en
>
> Then you spend several hours cleaning them, merging duplicates,
> ...etc. Yes, it is tedious, but definitely worth the effort.
>
> Once you do that, you now sync your android device with your Gmail
> account. Automagically, everything will be kept in sync for you. You
> edit a contact on the phone, and it is on your desktop, and vice
> versa.
>
> This is the best selling point of Gmail and Android.
>