15-Minute Reviews :: FusionDesk Deluxe v1.1.5.0

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is FusionDesk Deluxe version 1.1.5.0 by Virtuoza Software, Inc. – A task managing application with timers, reminders and tagging functionality.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“FusionDesk is project management and time tracking software for individuals and small teams. Its power is well disguised behind a simple and elegant user interface. Its flexibility allows it to adapt to your way of doing things, instead of forcing you to adapt.”

Quick Pros

• Clean interface – Easy to navigate
• Ability to add many informational columns (Priority, Elapsed Time, etc.) and ability to sort by these
• Many methods of organizing work – Tags, context, priority and due dates
• Lot of drag and drop support (Except to reorganize tasks in a folder)
• Work timers handy for service-related businesses
• Reminders available with recurring features
• Automatic and manual backup functionality a plus

Quick Cons

• No multi-step tasks directly available (Use the folder structure to simulate)
• Online help not quite helpful
• No printing functionality?
• Application does not disappear fully to System Tray – Leaves unusable Task Tray item

Expansion

While task managers have been flowing to Giveaway of the Day they all seem to be slightly different in implementation and level of interface. FusionDesk Deluxe is the first application other than Office 2007 that uses the method of ‘tabs’ and oversized icons. Unlike Office 2007 however, FusionDesk actually lays out their menus logically and doesn’t overwhelm with multiple pages and massive number of options per page. I found everything logically laid out – Modifying task and folder-related buttons are on ‘Home’ – Timer and sorting options are on ‘Organize’ – Layout, theme and visibility is on ‘View’.

It was nice finding the ability to add and remove visible columns to the main task pane of the application. With this, you can also sort based on these columns as well, or you can also manually sort on the ‘Organize’ page as well. I find this useful for helping keep what is important in front of you. With this said, there is also the other tabs below the project window (Left-most window) which you can see tasks by tag and contextual grouping, as well as the ability to see tasks you’ve trashed. To add to the organization aspect of this application, there is a fair amount of drag and drop support – Move tasks to other folders, reorganize folder recursiveness and more. The one part of drag and drop that I thought would be critical is the reordering of tasks within a folder as well as reordering the folders in the project pane.

A nice feature for a service-related business (Or time-limited task managers in an office setting) is the work timers. With the easy-access to them, it is fairly easy to remember to turn it on and off – You can even leave it on the Organize tab and have the timer visible in large format. (I’d still likely forget about it though myself.) Also nice is the reminders. There’s some power to them, and with ‘Recurrance’ and its full set of repeat pattern (Every x days, weekdays, weekly, bi-weekly, specific named days, specific named days of month… The list goes on of options.)

A feature that I am always on the lookout for is multi-stepped (chained) tasks. While you can easily simulate it in this application, it doesn’t directly allow you to link tasks so that one (or more) task will not become active (or even visible) until you’ve completed the first task(s), and chain them together. While you can do that with the folders at some level (And I am sure would be satisfactory for all out there,) there is times where I don’t want a task to pop up to distract me in a project until I’m to the point where I am to start. This application is aimed towards project management and should hopefully grow in this direction eventually. Two other feature suggestions is the ability to do a ‘Quick Task’ – Right-click on the System Tray icon, click ‘Quick Task’ and it will bring up only a small dialog box instead of the whole application. When you’ve put in the information, it will put it somewhere you predefine (An unsorted folder, ‘Phone call’ folder, etc.) and then select it so you can begin a timer immediately. As well, would be handy to put the timer information on mouseover of the System Tray icon, or even pop up a small window of designated folder of tasks and the current timer.

As for being geared towards a professional, why not allow the ability to print specific folders or entire project which is open, and better yet completed tasks with timer times attached? I know this may be saved for Professional, but it may serve well to have in this version as well. I know there is export functionality, but that isn’t the same as being able to right-click a folder and hitting pring, or using the menu to print a timer report for past x weeks or similar.

A few issues I had with the application. The online help is less then stellar – For most, the application should be very easy to use, but features such as Smart Views and Special tab don’t have much explanation to them (How Smart Views work – If Special tab does anything besides All Tasks, History and Trash.) Always good to have a good help file to show how the application can be used as a whole. There is a bit of an explanation on why Tags and Context is in place, but a demonstration of how to effectively use them for those who may be task-challenged may be good.

One issue that bugs me is that the first time you minimize the application, it goes to the System Tray for your reminders and timers – The problem is that it leaves a non-functional Task Tray item with the application’s icon which is not usable in any means to open the application, add tasks and so forth. It doesn’t go away until you close the application (So when you have the application on-screen, you will have two items in your Task Tray.)

Final Verdict

While this application flows really well, there is a few small issues. While free, if you do any home tasks, this may be a handy task manager for you. While free, I suggest giving it a try – It does work decently for what I do, there’s few bugs and there is a sizable number of features. As for $59.95, that is a huge price tag to chew off. The application is geared towards businesses but even for a business might be a lot to chew on, seeing the market is in the $19.95 – $29.95 range. While I feel it is the best desktop task manager I’ve used in a long time, it’s still a stiff price if I were to buy it (And I would consider it when I reinstalled my system.) Starter is free and essentially is only lacking reminders, timers, and some of the sorting functionality to cover the ‘lite’ home users, and Pro is $89.95, a huge jump but offers a more multi-user environment (Which I could use at my workplace,) and more reports.

Try before you buy, I guess can be the motto for this application. $59.95 may not be so much to chew on, if the application flows well for you and increases your productivity that much.

Posted by BladedThoth on Thursday, May 24, 2007