Content area
Full Text
Despite its name, the only connection between Sidekick for Windows 1.0 and the venerable Sidekick for DOS is that Borland InternationaI Inc. owns both programs. Sidekick for Windows is a combination of the calendaring code from Prisma Software Corp.'s Windows PIM YourWay (purchased by Borland last year) and a completely new interface developed by Borland.
Sidekick favors simplicity over exotic features. Aside from a pop-up calculator, which seems to have been thrown in as an afterthought, there isn't much in the way of extras. Sidekick lacks DDE links for moving contact names and addresses to a word processor. It has no contact-history capability or expense/tracking utility like Day-Timer's. The kinks in the phone log make that module nearly useless.
Nevertheless, Sidekick for Windows is attractive. It's inexpensive (with a $99 list price), small (delivered on a single floppy, it needs only 3MB of hard disk space), visually appealing, and easy to learn. What it does, it does well. Inside the powerful address book module, you can customize records to contain as many as 100 user-labeled fields per record. The daily, weekly, and monthly calendars are nicely designed, and you can use well-implemented dialog boxes and drag-and-drop functionality to manage appointments and set up events.
If you can overlook its problems, Sidekick for Windows may suit your needs.
FEATURES:
Sidekick for Windows comes equipped with three modules, each with a very clean and attractive interface: the Cardfile (a flat-file database that you can configure as an address book using supplied address templates); a calendar; and a note-taking module. No cute book covers or binder rings here, just crisply defined windows and easy-to-grok icons.
Each of the modules features a similarly designed toolbar, with icons available for opening and saving files, cutting and pasting text, using the dialer, printing, and summoning the program's popup calculator. You can customize the toolbar for each module by adding or removing commands.
Each module also provides one window--awkwardly dubbed the View in View--in which you can display selected information from the other views. You can, for example, display your Cardfile contact list in the Calendar view, or your daily schedule in the Cardfile view. Sidekick allows you to drag and drop items from one module to another.
Along the right-hand...