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| Info Accelerator 8 | PIMs |
| Since the demise of popular
personal information managers such as Netmanage’s Ecco Pro, legal professionals have
gone to either Microsoft Outlook or popular legal-specific case management programs. For those not happy with these choices, I recommend Info Accelerator’s new legal version, a hybrid between personal information managers and case management programs. Baseline Data System Inc.’s new legal version of Info Accelerator comes as a special breed of the program’s Version 8 and is made up of three separate programs — calendar, phone book and a notes program. Interestingly, these really are three separate programs, not just modules within a program. Yet, they are all integrated, and the calendar and phone book even sync with your PalmPilot. One unusual feature of the program is it insinuates itself into the menu structure of several Windows programs such as Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect, adding a menu choice called “Accelerator” after the “Help” menu. From this drop-down menu, one can start the calendar, phone book, calculator and even use contact-based information to address letters and fill in customizable forms the user creates. For those programs in which Info Accelerator doesn’t create its own menu, a minibar docks at the top of your screen that performs many useful tricks in virtually any Windows-based program. From this bar, you can start the calendar and phone book or have a particular contact address inserted into a document or into programs such as Timeslips or QuickBooks. Surprisingly, the process also works in reverse so one
can have text highlighted in any document or Web page inserted into an existing or new
phone entry, or even search the phone book to find instances of a text string highlighted
in a document. For example, the contact entry for a witness to an accident can, in addition to the person’s name, address and phone information, contain a photo of the accident, as well as an audio recording of the witness’ observations. The phone book also has expected features, including dialing from the entry, one-button access to launch an e-mail, space for multiple phone numbers, and fields for Web addresses. While all these features are extensive, a user can have more than one phone book or calendar file, exponentially increasing customization flexibility. The custom category fields also double as custom information fields and can be used under a “Custom” tab in the phone entry. Here you can input all kinds of additional information, such as birthdays, court index numbers, real estate adjustment numbers, prices — you name it. The fields can be text, numbers, etc. and you even can create drop-down lists for items with known variables. And it’s all searchable. Info Accelerator also comes with a notes program for creating pop-up electronic notes that can be saved by client, case, day, type of note, or other criteria. These notes can be used instead of yellow Post-it notes and are searchable. But beware of a few things. The program’s Palm sync feature piggybacks on top of the normal syncing feature of the Palm Desktop. Since the phone book and the calendar are separate programs, the initial sync has to be done once for each program. This took me an hour, but less time is needed for fewer records or connection methods (USB or serial). Also, having the calendar, phone book and notes programs opened with other programs drained my Windows resources and forced several reboots. Info Accelerator is an alternative for those whose needs are not met by general calendars such as Outlook or the sometimes-confining structures of case managers. |
Baseline Data Systems Inc. (800) 429-5325 www.baselineconnect.com Price: $189.95 Pentium or compatible higher processor, with Reviewed by Jay Hollander, attorney and principal of Hollander and Company, New York. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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