PhatNotes is a program that runs from your Windows Mobile device and PC to allow you to manage notes, letters, emails and various other documents. Its functionality is extensive and the reference in its name to ‘notes’, really does not do its functionality justice. PhatNotes runs from your mobile device and synchronises with the program on your desktop PC. Is this the ideal note taking solution for your device? Read on and take note!
INTRODUCTION
WHAT’S HOT
- New database manager now supports multiple groups (folders), drag and drop
- Context analyzer allows dialing phone numbers, opening URLs, and sending emails by clicking on a word that represents a phone number, a URL, or an email address.
- Added new text formatting features (WM5 or later)
- Options dialog box is now accessible for Note Editor
- Added The Set Paragraph numbering dialog box (WM5 or later)
- Four new paragraph formatting buttons have been added to the Note Editor toolbars – Numbering, Line spacing, decrease indent, increase indent and Set Paragraph Numbering (WM5 or later)
- Export/import notes as UNICODE text or CSV
- Changed behavior of 5-way navigator in the main window: up/down keys allow you to scroll the database list, notes list, or preview depending on the focus, left/right keys allow to move the current input focus.
I installed PhatNotes by downloading the exe. file from the PhatWare web site onto my laptop. This in turn then loaded the cab. file onto my mobile device.
SETUP
PRODUCT FEATURES
The first thing that appealed to me about PhatNotes was the familiarity because it has some of the same functionality that we love with Windows applications. As you can see from the example provided, when writing notes you have the basic formatting tools found in Windows applications, which are activated from the icons along the base of the screen.
You are limited to two font styles, Tahoma and New Courier, a set of basic colours and a range of sizes from 7 to 36.
In my view, PhatNotes is designed to give you the flexibility of being able to produce documents whilst on the move, but I think ultimately it is just a short term solution until you are reunited with your desktop PC. Once the note has been synchronised to PhatNotes on your desktop PC, you can then import the note into Word and then you have the full word capability, range of fonts and sizes available to you.
One of the selling points of PhatNotes, and this is where it starts to be more sophisticated than your average notes facility from Windows Mobile Outlook, is that you can you can put your note into a category such as Comment, Conversation, Document, Email message etc. by selecting the icon that is circled . This allows users to be much more organised with the notes they are creating.
The ‘Category’ can be set as one of the columns on the front screen of PhatNotes so that notes can be arranged according to Category, but also according to ‘Subject’, ‘Created Date’, ‘Modified date’ and ‘Authored’ Date, depending on what the user wants. The Columns screen is located from ‘Menu’ at the bottom right of the PhatNotes front screen.
The icon (circled) at the base of the screen is the ‘Context Analyser’.
The Context Analyser allows you to set PhatNotes to recognise phone numbers, email addresses and, web site addresses so that when they are used in the note, you can then make a call, send an email from the note itself. In the example shown, the pocketnow web site has been located from the note. This again is another example of how useful this can be for recording details that are going to serve a wider purpose than just the note that you are recording them in at the time. In particular the phone numbers can then be used to make the call. Once in the Phone screen, then numbers can be saved into Contacts as well as being recorded in the call log for future use.
I liked that you could use ‘Find’ and ‘Replace’ functions in the ‘Search’ option.
As in standard Windows applications, Find allows you to search through the text of a note for a specific word or phrase, matching the case if necessary.
Once the required word or phrase has been found, you have the option to look for the next occurrence of it.
The ‘Replace’ function also works in the way you would expect, tell it which word or phrase to find and what to replace it with. This then gives you the Replace or Replace All options at the bottom of the screen.
The Menu options are not related to the current note specifically, as you will see.
The ‘Menu’ option at the bottom right of the screen has a number of further options, some of which are worth more explanation than others. For example, in ‘Menu’ / ‘Note’ there are 2 options, ‘Import’ and’Export’.
‘Import’ allows text from documents to be added to the notes, with ‘Export’ extracting text out of a note into a word document. I found this a little confusing at first. The first time you import a piece of text, it is straight forward but if you decide you want to import a different piece of text then you have to save it as a new document before importing it. I suggest having a play with this to get used to it. Once you are used to it though, it adds a great dimension to the notes you are keeping by allowing you to incorporate key information from other documents.
Notes with password protection are identified by the key symbol. There appears to be no criteria for passwords so you can have any combination or letters, numbers and symbols. The password is then requested whenever you try to open the note or if you come to delete the note.
The other feature that stood out for me in this part of the program is the ability to insert other files such as images, voice recordings, contacts, appointments and tasks.
In particular, you can link the notes to each other so that if you have notes relating to each other you can easily identify and access them.
This is where PhatNotes has the potential to be more of a document management system for your notes when combined with the review functionality to remind you to check the currency of them and the protection to limit who is able to see them. This again adds another string to the ever growing bow of PhatNotes that sets it apart from standard Windows Outlook notes. Combined with the ability to then send the note by email and infrared, this makes PhatNotes very useful.
All the notes are stored in databases.
These can be set up to organise them as you want. Any databases set up on the mobile device are then duplicated in the desktop PC once the next synchronisation takes place.
For added security databases can be backed up on the phone as well as on the desktop PC. From the desktop, backups can also be scheduled to happen automatically. This is going to be invaluable to those who use this program for business more than leisure.
PhatNotes has the facility to add a link to it from the Today Screen making it quicker and easier to access. The Today Screen is set up from the ‘Menu’ option on the front screen and is located under the ‘General’ tab.
When you have created your note, you can set a reminder for it so that at a desired time it will remind you as a reminder would from your calendar, that it needs addressing.
When setting the reminder you can choose the day and time that it runs.
An example of how you could use this might be, you have written out a letter, and the reminder will appear at a pre-defined time to remind you that the letter needs to be printed and sent. Again, how you choose to use this up to you.
The last key feature that I am going to focus on is the synchronisation between the mobile device and a desktop PC.
In my view, PhatNotes is useful for those on the move, probably business people who at some point are going to return to the office and then will be able to pick up the work they have captured in PhatNotes and transfer it into the necessary Office format. Synchronisation works through Activesync so when you plug the mobile device into the desktop PC and go through the synchronisation process, one of the options you can now choose to synchronise is PhatNotes.
PhatNotes does have other features to it, such as being able to change the toolbars to suit the users needs, filtering the notes by dates, text and priority, organise the notes by dates, category, colour and priority and setting up default settings for the toolbars, columns, reminders, new notes, attachments etc. Again this allows for personal customisation of the program.
There is an extensive user guide, 194 pages to be precise that takes you through all the functionality. No I haven’t read it all and the fact that there are 194 pages tells you how extensive the functionality on Phatnotes is!
HELP SUPPORT
Just be aware that things like Phatspell and Phatpad are additional programs that you can install from your PC once Phatnotes is installed.
OPTIONS
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
BUGS AND WISHES
I would also like to see the spell check built in rather than being a separate program that needs to be installed.
I think they could provide more font type options. Even Arial, which is one of the most commonly used fonts in my experience, would be useful.
PURCHASING
PROS
Synchronisation with a desktop PC
Ability to create links between notes
Ability to attach other documents, notes, pictures etc.
- Good customisation ability
CONS
Confusing ‘context analyser
‘- Pricey
- Screen on the device is too crammed with the database list open – but at least you can switch this off
- Not sure I see the point of being able to reduce the zoom on the note preview as it gets too small to read below 75%
| Value |  |
| Ease of Use |
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| Features |  |
Overall |
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I really could not find much fault with Phatnotes. It is a very sophisticated program that is easy to use and looks very good. The synchronisation between the pocket PC and desktop PC is the essential part and that gives it the added dimension in my opinion.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
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