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+--- Thread: Any Daylite users here? (/showthread.php?tid=45694)
Any Daylite users here? - tuqqer - 12-18-2007
I've recently gotten completely smitten with a contact management system called Daylite. I'd heard about it last year, when I was starting to look around for a more robust program that tracked contacts and customers and all of the communications I during a day, but I didn't really look at it. A friend knew I had switched to the Mail/Address Book/iCal/.mac combo with the advent of Leopard, and knew I found it sorely lacking for my needs. I was checking out OmniFocus, and then Things, and he suggested I take a look at the new much-improved version of Daylite.
Holy smokes. This is an amazing program. As with anything, it's about the right tool for the right job and not everyone would benefit from its setup. But for entrepreneurs building a business, I highly recommend taking a look at it. I'm still way new to it, but the things I find most appealing already are:
1. it integrates seamlessly with Mail. But,
2. it replaces the weak-ass iCal and Address Book completely, and replaces them with the most robust Calendar and Contact Manager I've ever seen. Even more than Now Contact and Entourage (I've never played with Outlook or Act, so can't compare those).
3. So customizable. Every field, every window. You can really tweak things so that they work for your company or situation.
4. Tons of training videos on their site.
5. Very friendly forum. I already got a phone call from just some user in Minnesota that saw a question I posted, and mid-work (he owns a wood flooring company), called me and spoke for 20 minutes on how the program has changed his business life. It's been a while since I heard that kind of passion about a business solution application.
Too early to tell if I've completely gone over to Daylite. The next few weeks will tell. But for now, I'm very excited about it, and I'd love to find out if there are any others here who're using it. I'd love to exchange ideas and hear how you're doing with it.
Re: Any Daylite users here? - endymion - 12-18-2007
I have a friend who uses it... but he doesn't post here.
g=
Re: Any Daylite users here? - tuqqer - 12-18-2007
Get him over here!
Re: Any Daylite users here? - Jimmypoo - 12-18-2007
I use daylight for most of the day, but rarely at night.
Re: Any Daylite users here? - Silencio - 12-18-2007
If you live in Lappland, you can't use Daylite for another few months.
But seriously, I haven't touched the app in a few years. It was very good, but flawed in a few key ways back then. I'm curious to see the improvements they've made.
Re: Any Daylite users here? - loveshine - 01-03-2008
tuqqer
How about an update?
I have been using entourage because i didn't like mail and ical back when I checked them out.
I downloaded the trial but I don't have the time to play with it and it is a little costly to actually purchase but your comments sparked my interest.
Re: Any Daylite users here? - tuqqer - 01-03-2008
I'm into it deep, loveshine. So deep that I not only bought the program, I've taken about 8 hours of personalized training from a few of the trainers that they have listed on the site (all using Screen Share). I haven't been this excited about a productivity program ever. It is, bar none, the best contact management/personal productivity/GTD/reminder/calendar/address book application on the Mac. No question.
Its full integration with Mail is stunning. And because of that, you never again need to open the weak Address Book and iCal again. And yet, it uses the mysterious Sync Services thing so flawlessly that it's constantly updating (every 10 seconds) them.
The leap out of Entourage wasn't easy, but now with Daylite, I don't regret it at all. Both Address Book and iCal are very weak programs, for anyone dealing with customers (hell, anyone dealing with over a few hundred contacts). But Daylite takes over for them, and does it brilliantly.
It's hard, as a new user, to point out all the things that make it so useful and fun to use, but here are the main ones:
when someone sends you an email in Mail, Daylite has this extra side window that either recognizes the sender, or asks if you want to add the person. If they're already in Daylite's contacts (which remember, 10 seconds later are also in Address Book automatically), it will, if you want, copy the contents of the message to that contact's card. Meaning: every to/from email that you have with someone is recorded in a list with that contact! So if Joe Smith phones you and starts asking about XYZ, you quickly go to his contact and see every communication you've had with the person. And, because this info is copied over into Daylite's database... you can delete the original message in Mail. No more setting up custom folders in Mail, to track each person's comms.
If the person is not in Daylite's contacts yet, you can quickly hit the Add button. Again: anything you add into Daylite will quickly be added also into Address Book (even if it's not open). Further, I have some Apple Scripts that I had written to parse a customers information any time they order something from my website. Those scripts work with Address Book. However, 10 seconds later, that new contact info is copied back into Daylite. Very slick.
Daylite has a reminder system as robust as Entourage's. I use it multiple times a day.
There is so much other goodness in Daylite. It's networkable, so your secretary or wife or children can sync into the same database (and you can mark certain parts of the DB as private). It ports over SO slickly to your labtop for travel, and then syncs back to the main computer once you're back in the office (this alone makes it worth the money).
The thing that strikes you about Daylite is just how damn robust it is. It's rock stable, been around for years, the company is constantly upgrading and adding new features. I have no doubt that it is the best GTD, personal productivity application for small or medium business owners.
One other note: I needed training on it. It was too big to figure out by myself, so I hired some of the independent trainers that they have listed around the country. Most are quite pricey, in the 100-160/hour range, but I found a really sweet young gal who, after the initial first hour at $80, charges just $25/hour (I spoke and emailed about 30 trainers before finding her). She works with Leopard's Screen Share and walked me through a few hours of training in a very nice interactive way. Her name is Rachel and she can be reached at rachelmccuistion. That's a GMail address. She didn't know the more top-level business things in Daylite, but no problem. You can save those for one hour with the really expensive folks. I'll ichat her periodically each week, with a list of new questions, and then we'll do another Screen Share if needed. She's a great teacher, absolutely passionate about Macs, perfectly priced, and I love giving her the business.
Last point: I'm a fan of simple. I like software that I can learn in 3 minutes, without reading the manual. What Daylite reminded me was that, for something as important as business-level CMS and personal productivity, complexity is good. In this case, complexity means depth, robustness, richness, building on something that will allow your business to grow for the next 10 years. It was kind of a shock to realize that I had to actually study Daylite, and get training on it. But once I got over that, I realized that there was no better investment of my time or money. This is the holy grail I'd been looking for for the past 7 years.
Hope that helps. If you eventually get going in it (once you're past the training phase of it) feel free to contact me, and we can Screen Share ideas on how we're using it. I seriously would love to form a Daylite Buddies group.
Re: Any Daylite users here? - loveshine - 01-10-2008
Thanks for the very detailed update.
I use Entourage and I like how you described Daylites way of handling e-mails.
I just bought OmniFocus and I am going to see if that fills my current needs.
Daylight sounds great - I'll let you know if I make the leap.
I really apreciate it.