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Spiral
February 12, 2003
Spiral is a very clever program meant to appeal to those who don’t need a full-blown outliner or project manager such as ShadowPlan, Bonsai, or LifeBalance. It sports a simplified interface that’s easy to use, though it may take a while to remember what all of those icons are for! Thankfully the program comes with a very nicely done manual that also includes a tutorial to get you started. The application is based on the idea of “Notebooks”— each notebook is a specific task or list. Once you open a notebook, you are presented with the main screen pictured below. Notice that you can have different types of items: “Groceries” is a folder than can contain other folders or notes, and “Lettuce” is a note item. Note items can have various attributes added at creation, including a check box, a priority, a progress bar, or a date, as shown in the New Item screen. There are a couple of other types of items, including timed to do items and sketches (though drawing is only supported for Palm OS 3.5 to 4.x devices; OS5 support is planned for the future).
At the bottom of the screen you’ll find an icon bar that allows you to access every feature of Spiral. The first icon pops up a window containing every available icon; the large “N” next to that is the button that allows you to create new items. Next is the icon that toggles the checkbox feature on and off, and the next one allows you to set the due date and priority of an item. The pencil and paper icon allows you to enter more detailed information about the item, and the “circle and square” icon brings up the sketch feature if it is supported on your device. The alarm manager is next, and then the trash can where you can delete items that are no longer needed. The last icon closes the notebook and returns you to the main Spiral screen, where you can select another notebook to work on. You can also choose the icons that appear on the bottom of the screen with the toolbar editor. It’s also important to note that Spiral can import items from the Memo Pad, and export either individual items or entire notebooks.
I found Spiral to be fairly easy to work with, but not much simpler to use than ShadowPlan or Bonsai. In fact, the icons, which are most likely considered to be the simplest interface option, were harder for me to use than a standard menu system. I kept having to go back to the manual to figure out what each one means. Navigation was also a little tricky to get used to. You can move items and folders around via drag and drop with the stylus, but the only way to create top level folders is to make sure that no attributes are checked— that drove me crazy until I figured it out. I really like Spiral, but I think I’ll be sticking with ShadowPlan for now. I think that Spiral is best suited to fairly simple projects and lists, and is ideal for the new user. It is more straightforward than some of the other Palm OS outlining apps out there, but power users will more than likely want to use the applications to which they’re already accustomed.
Spiral is available at the Fresh Perspective web site for $23.95. You can also get a free 30 day demo at the site. Even better, if you use the coupon code POCKETGODDESS when you place your order at the FPS web site, you’ll save 20% on any FPS product priced at $20 or more— that makes Spiral only $19.15.
PocketGoddess rating for Spiral: 
