Original review published on Steve Litchfield's 3-Lib.

Even Notepad's author, Mark Esposito, agrees that his Series 5 creation almost defies description. I think I can best describe it as an information organisation tool, though others use the terms "Mind mapper" or "Project manager". The idea is to create a hierarchy of text notes, in true 'outline' fashion, with each note breaking down if necessary into sub-notes, on a level below. Against each note you can link a single application or document file (Word, Data, Sheet etc.) and set alarms and due dates.

As always with Notepad, to make the concept work you'd need to make it your primary working environment, a considerable change from the Series 5 system screen and folder structure but at least made easier by Notepad's excellent adherence to Psion's own style guides. The well-designed (and rather Sketch-like) toolbar means that most day-to-day functions are close by when you need them and the program's menu system is very intuitively laid out, to the extent that Notepad wouldn't shame Psion as a homegrown ROM application.

Each entry in the notepad can also be associated with a search string in your designated 'Contacts' address book. With care, this can mean a one-to-one relationship between individual notepad entries and specific contacts, a useful step forward in the great integration game. Also useful when using Notepad as a contact management environment is the built-in calendar, showing which notepad entries have 'due dates' matching a specific day.

As with Notepad Deluxe on the S3 (see below), a system of 'plug-ins' mean that third parties can create their own custom functions, working to make Notepad into the tool that they want; the plug-in system was a great success in the 16-bit version and I'd hope to see the same enthusiasm from users this time round. One major plug-in which has been elevated to a higher status is the 'Map view', which gives a graphical overview of the whole of a Notepad and which has been included as part of the main menu.

In use, I have to say that I found the map view hard to get to grips with - it has to be manually 'rebuilt' after every change to the notepad if you want to see the changes and it only shows a single 'branch' of the notepad 'tree' at any one time. As with a few other interface niggles in this, the first Series 5 release of Notepad, I'd expect Mark's usual professionalism to come to the fore and address them in fairly short order. The welcome availability of a downloadable demo should speed this process and give him plenty of useful feedback.

I found the limit of one linked application or document per entry rather restricting, with the workaround being to create another notepad level beneath the entry, with separate sub-entries, one for each app or document. This did seem a bit clumsy, as did the 3 second delay when exiting a linked item before Notepad switched itself back to the foreground (although, to be fair, this may be an EPOC limitation).

As with the Series 3 version, Notepad has the potential to create a whole new way of working on the Psion, and there aren't many programs you can say that about. For any users who find that the limits in the Series 5 system screen and Agenda cramp their style, Notepad could be just what the doctor ordered.

I was looking at the v1.01 (R3) demo, downloaded from Pelican's web site. The full commercial version can also be downloaded, via ESD from New World Technologies.

For a much more detailed look at Notepad for the Series 5, see the full review in issue 22 of Palmtop magazine.

Disclaimer: The following comments are the responsibility of the poster. epoczone.com is not responsible in any way for what they may say.
If you have not already done so, please read the terms and conditions before you post a comment.