LivingTime Personal Timeliner for Mac2.5.2

Okay, let me give some detail. The user interface is atrocious, there is nothing intuitive about it. The main window is resizable, but it has no effect. To re-size the window you have to use the little magnifying glass +/- icons in the window. There's an icon in a section called "Viewing" that allows you to enter text in to your journal. That's confusing. Viewing should be viewing, add/edit should be add/edit. There's frequently two buttons on the screen that will take the user back to the main menu. I click on "Calendar" and a new window pops open. In that window is a "return to main menu" button, but the main menu window is clearly visible; there's nothing to "return to". None of the windows generated use Apple's standard close button; instead the user must locate your custom graphic "Cancel" button that looks nothing like any cancel button on the Mac and is not in the standard location of and cancel button on the Mac. When I quit an application, I want it to quit; just quit. I don't need to hear closing music and be reminded of the development environment. The fact that you really have to go through the tutorial or quick-start guide is a testament to the almost complete lack of thought put in to this app. And your download servers are a mess. I had to manually resume the download about 15 times to get the demo. Your servers kept resetting the connection or the transfer simply died. Even once you get the 28MB download, you STILL have to manually download the audio tutorial files to actually figure this mess out. IF you're a Mac user (and why else would you be on MacUpdate), DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP! You will be presented with an abomination of a user interface and a program that does not operate in any way like a standard Macintosh program you are used to. I can't even tell if it will do what I want it do because I can't get past the almost complete lack of usability. On the up side, the program didn't crash once in the 30 minutes I was playing with it.

Responding to Mr/Ms Anonymous: While I admit I'm baffled by some of Mr/Ms A's objections, I hope to provide a cogent response. First, the large download size... it *is* large, but the coding is not RealBasic. The underlying database engine is FileMaker Pro, with several add-ons permitting the charting, encryption, extensive contextual help systems, and (hopefully) pleasing graphics. With a common 512Kbps DSL connection, the download time is less than 8 minutes. Not lightning, but not too excruciating. Users with 56K dial-up connections can email me for a free CD. Windows and Mac installers are provided separately, although the data files *are* cross-platform compatible (if your platform tastes change). That does not add to the download size. I believe the obsessive-compulsive assessment is subjective. We subscribe to Socrates' quote that "An unexamined life is not worth living." Plus, there are many uses for wanting to recall the significant events in one's life. Check out http://www.livingtime.com for a top-ten list. And lastly, regarding the price: Our MacUpdate.com description has been abbreviated by their editors. There are many other synergistic advantages of the various features, but one significant omission is that we include access to thousands of public events. So one can see what else was happening in the world during the private events of one's life. There is too much more to describe here, so I hope you'll check out our product page: http://www.livingtime.com.

For Windows and Mac...Whoa! A towering achievement...and 27 Mb to boot. Must be RealBaSick again. Not that there's anything wrong with that in and of itself. But who needs all this in a single app? Obsessive-compulsives programmed it, and only obsessive-compulsives will delight in its use. The size alone discourages me from downloading it even to test. $49.95?????????? Sheer arrogance.