MAX GAAV  I tried several launchers and contextual menu modifiers and this one has become my favorite, even over FinderPop that I used for years.

Virtually the same functionality as FinderPop but also other features like the very handy 'snippets'. It takes a bit time to study the settings etc. but in the end that's just a small hurdle to take for such a wonderfull workflow improvement tool. Thank you Devon!

But also one feature request for the developers: when fully used, XMenu places no less than six icons in the menubar. Why not just one, with preference settings for a contextual menu in which one or more can be activated? Laptops don't have that much space in the menubar and there are also other apps that place icons there...  
(Version 1.9)

MAX GAAV  With much pleasure I used FinderPop for years. Thank you Turly!

But as said by others as well, it doesn't funtion properly with Snow Leopard. And to be honest, before, in Leopard it also did not work flawless when Excel or Filemaker Pro was the active app.

I thus tried several launchers and contextual menu modifiers and one of them has become my favorite, even over FP. And, like FP, it is free: XMenu 1.9 (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13797/xmenu).

Same functionality as FP (though now from an icon in the menubar) but also other features like the very handy 'snippets'. It takes a bit time to study the settings etc. but in the end that's just a small hurdle to take for such a wonderfull workflow improvement tool.   
(Version 2.2)

MAX GAAV  I tried several apps like 'Things' and 'OmniFocus' as Apple's iCal is pretty restrictive in it's features and ways of working. While 'Things' and 'OmniFocus' are excellent apps, for me they tend to lead to 'playing around with them' rather than increasing my productivity.

Dated events/appointments obviously are best managed in a calendar environment. But organizing tasks can best be done in a multi-column app which allows features like start/end date, tags, the hierarchical place in a work breakdown structure etc. And this one of the points where BusyCal excels over iCal, by allowing listviews with a wide choice of activating/deactivating columns for extra info per entry.

Until now I use OmniOutliner for my projects and tasks, but any spreadsheet could do the trick too. But the main drawback of these apps is the lack of a calendar, alarms, syncing possibilities and a bit 'raw' working procedures.

BusyCal is indeed -as the developer says- like an iCal Pro version, and an 'iCal' which appears to be developing quickly. The developer is open to suggestions and very responsive. Even in beta it is already very stable and reliable. Also his site is top-noch, well structured and feature-rich. It all feels very trustworthy.

I'm now using BusyCal for a couple of weeks as replacement for iCal, and I expect it to become my future tasklist-manager too. Just a few refinements and some extra features more and this is one of the all-time killer-apps for the Mac. My suggestions in these:

* Small pop-up calendar for entering a date (like the due date)

* View option for tasks only, with editable columns (name, functionality) and sorting functionality.

* Larger graphic field in the todo's. Double clicking should lead to a search for a graphic on your Mac.

* Editable tags-lists (which is now semi-featured)

* Editable lists for info-prefs like 'location' and 'alarms'.

* Customisable Toolbar (fonts, colors, accessing address-book and Apple Mail etc.)

Thank you for your intelligent work. Look forward to the developments!  
(Version 1.0b14)

MAX GAAV  I tried several apps like 'Things' and 'OmniFocus' as Apple's iCal is pretty restrictive in it's features and ways of working. While 'Things' and 'OmniFocus' are excellent apps, for me they tend to lead to 'playing around with them' rather than increasing my productivity.

Dated events/appointments obviously are best managed in a calendar environment. But organizing tasks can best be done in a multi-column app which allows features like start/end date, tags, the hierarchical place in a work breakdown structure etc. And this one of the points where BusyCal excels over iCal, by allowing listviews with a wide choice of activating/deactivating columns for extra info per entry.

Until now I use OmniOutliner for my projects and tasks, but any spreadsheet could do the trick too. But the main drawback of these apps is the lack of a calendar, alarms, syncing possibilities and a bit 'raw' working procedures.

BusyCal is indeed -as the developer says- like an iCal Pro version, and an 'iCal' which appears to be developing quickly. The developer is open to suggestions and very responsive. Even in beta it is already very stable and reliable. Also his site is top-noch, well structured and feature-rich. It all feels very trustworthy.

I'm now using BusyCal for a couple of weeks as replacement for iCal, and I expect it to become my future tasklist-manager too. Just a few refinements and some extra features more and this is one of the all-time killer-apps for the Mac. My suggestions in these:

* Small pop-up calendar for entering a date (like the due date)

* View option for tasks only, with editable columns (name, functionality) and sorting functionality.

* Larger graphic field in the todo's. Double clicking should lead to a search for a graphic on your Mac.

* Editable tags-lists (which is now semi-featured)

* Editable lists for info-prefs like 'location' and 'alarms'.

* Customisable Toolbar (fonts, colors, accessing address-book and Apple Mail etc.)

Thank you for your intelligent work. Look forward to the developments!  
(Version 1.0b14)