Sidekick 98 - Feb/Mar '98

Sidekick 98

If you remember when Sidekick first hit the market, you are showing your age. Back in 1985, this PIM veteran created the category. Over the years, it has evolved from a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) program to a full-fledged Windows 95 PIM. In addition, the product is now produced by Starfish Software, not Borland. Not burdened by frills, this is a workhorse, particularly the latest version, Sidekick 98.

Sidekick's design is clean and straightforward. There are six buttons on the right: Calendar, EarthTime, CardFile, Memos, Expenses and Activities. The phone book is called Cardfile. On the left hand side is an alphabetical list of everyone in your Cardfile. A sliding indicator shows your position and you can click on any letter to quickly jump to that group of cards. On the right is detail for that card. Each card has about 20 fields. You can add new fields, rename or delete existing fields. In effect, Sidekick is a simple flat-file database. You can take advantage of this to create your own databases. Sidekick 98 lets you keep multiple cardfiles open. Tabs along the bottom display the names of open files.

The Calendar has four panes: Events, To-Do lists, and Calls. Tabs at the bottom change the view from Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly. Enter new items by single-clicking and typing. Double click on any entry to open a dialog box. Whichever method you choose, you can set alarms and recurring events. Check boxes are included for Unconfirmed and Completed items. Or check the box to enter a record in your Contact Log. To-Do items can be tracked in Sidekick. A timer is provided to gauge how much time you have spent on a particular project. Set priorities for any item with visual aids for each level. Limited notes can also be included.

Sidekick 98 offers enhancement in three areas. First, synchronization with handheld devices is provided using TrueSync. For example, you can sync your data with your PalmPilot. However, this takes over the synchronization for all other programs. If you are already using your PalmPilot with other PIMs be careful before installing TrueSync. Sidekick 98 also provides greater integration with your e-mail programs. Specifically, Sidekick 98 can integrate with Eudora Pro, Netscape, and MS Exchange. Double-click any e-mail address within Sidekick and automatically launch your e-mail client. Finally, Sidekick 98 now includes better Web integration. Using the built-in Web Publisher, you can publish your calendars and cardfiles to HTML files. However, be careful before adding these tools because they may try to take over your computer.

Starfish Software Inc.
(888) 782-7347

Pros: Grandaddy of all PIMs provides basic features. Easy to create databases.

Cons: Lacks many of the features found in other PIMs.

Verdict: Sidekick may be a sentimental favorite, but it has been eclipsed by its more sophisticated brethren.