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I'm a 5 year Bonsai user considering the upgrade to 4.0, but cannot find a concise list of what is actually improved in 4.0 vis-a-vis 3.5x. Can anyone tell me what's new in 4.0 or provide a link thereto?
Many thanks,
Marco
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What's Better in 4.0?
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#1
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Posted 24 January 2006 - 02:46 PM
#2
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Posted 24 January 2006 - 03:48 PM
#3
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Posted 24 January 2006 - 04:19 PM
Many thanks!!
Disappointing "upgrade". Not many of the changes are significant, looks like a way to squeeze 9 bucks out of Natara's user base.
I think I'll keep using v3.5 as long as I can, then jump to a shareware or freeware clone.
Disappointing "upgrade". Not many of the changes are significant, looks like a way to squeeze 9 bucks out of Natara's user base.
I think I'll keep using v3.5 as long as I can, then jump to a shareware or freeware clone.
#4
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Posted 25 January 2006 - 04:59 AM
Sorry, but v4 is most definitely a significant upgrade, but as always YMMV and it depends what you use it for - if just to keep outlined information, then there's probably not many of the new features you'll use, but if you use Bonsai for organisation/task lists then it may be difficult to appreciate just how much of a difference the new features make until you try it out yourself (make a backup of your v3 outlines if you do try v4 and later decide to go back).
- the new 'Next Action' filter allows you to do simple dependencies or plan a couple of actions ahead, e.g. I can have a 'Waiting for review comments', followed by 'Process review comments'. I won't see the latter until I check off the dependent action once I've received comments. In v3 I'd have to manually go back and add in a new action or put up with actions I couldn't do yet being shown.
- sortable flat filters has allowed me to drop my todo list application completely. I can filter on tasks I can do in a particular context and sort them by date, priority, text etc without affecting the underlying structure of my outline. This is effectively two views - a 'planning' view and a 'doing' view. In v3 I could do a flat filter but it would be pretty useless in deciding what my priorities were because I'd have to scan the whole list anyway.
- calculated custom field. So far I've used this to sum up costs of things I've bought, but you could also use it to calculate hours spent/still to do.
- show all children filter option - I use this to show me all actions associated with my documents, leaving out all other actions I need to do. In v3 I found not being able to do this frustrating because I could only filter on action, not on their parents (e.g. projects) and showing all their children.
The other minor improvement that I like is having a dedicated colour for completed items, regardless of your other colour-coding. It's a visual thing - I can quickly scan over completed items without having to examine everything.
I know others like the Google Desktop Search integration and the desktop spell checker.
However, I would agree that IMHO Natara haven't really done a good job marketing the new features - the
main Bonsai page doesn't look any different to v3 - I can't see anything describing the benefits of v4, as opposed to listing (e.g. in the Palmgear info) what may sound slightly obscure features (e.g. what's a next action filter? why would I need to sort a flat filter?).
Stuart
- the new 'Next Action' filter allows you to do simple dependencies or plan a couple of actions ahead, e.g. I can have a 'Waiting for review comments', followed by 'Process review comments'. I won't see the latter until I check off the dependent action once I've received comments. In v3 I'd have to manually go back and add in a new action or put up with actions I couldn't do yet being shown.
- sortable flat filters has allowed me to drop my todo list application completely. I can filter on tasks I can do in a particular context and sort them by date, priority, text etc without affecting the underlying structure of my outline. This is effectively two views - a 'planning' view and a 'doing' view. In v3 I could do a flat filter but it would be pretty useless in deciding what my priorities were because I'd have to scan the whole list anyway.
- calculated custom field. So far I've used this to sum up costs of things I've bought, but you could also use it to calculate hours spent/still to do.
- show all children filter option - I use this to show me all actions associated with my documents, leaving out all other actions I need to do. In v3 I found not being able to do this frustrating because I could only filter on action, not on their parents (e.g. projects) and showing all their children.
The other minor improvement that I like is having a dedicated colour for completed items, regardless of your other colour-coding. It's a visual thing - I can quickly scan over completed items without having to examine everything.
I know others like the Google Desktop Search integration and the desktop spell checker.
However, I would agree that IMHO Natara haven't really done a good job marketing the new features - the
main Bonsai page doesn't look any different to v3 - I can't see anything describing the benefits of v4, as opposed to listing (e.g. in the Palmgear info) what may sound slightly obscure features (e.g. what's a next action filter? why would I need to sort a flat filter?).
Stuart
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