Screenshot of Symphytum Personal Information Manager

Free easy-to-use Personal Information Manager SYMPHYTUM helps you get organized

Indie Publishing Friends, Reviews, Writing

I’ve been CRAVING a virtual Rolodex/dossier box/index card program to help me organize things (like my book info)…today I stumbled upon a BEAUTIFUL and EASY TO USE Personal Information Manager (PIM) that let me do exactly what I wanted quickly, with little fuss.

It’s called SYMPHYTUM, it’s free for Windows, Linux, and Mac, and I love it already. Screenshot of Symphytum Personal Information Manager Each record starts as a blank screen, but you add the fields you want where you want them. Simple pick-an-option-then-drag-and-drop. I used a lot of “text” fields for my book page here, but the “date” field will pull up a calendar from which you can choose dates, and clicking the globe icon in a “web link” field will take you to the URL you entered in there. I’m sure there are other cool features.

You can also view all the records in a table, which makes things easy to see.

Two tricksy things:

  1.  When moving fields, they switch places with each other (when in a column I usually wanted it to bump the one I was replacing down)
  2. I couldn’t figure out how to resize my image at first, but after some experimenting I discovered the procedure: make the frame as big as you want, then get the image. If it’s not to your liking, resize the frame and get the image again.

My wishlist:

  1. It’d be nice if they had a toggle for “field-add” mode so I don’t accidently move things around when I’m just entering stuff (though I don’t think I’ve done that…yet.)
  2. I stumbled on a keyboard shortcut or two, but I don’t see ’em listed anywhere.

The next software program I want to get for writing is TrackerBox (which tracks sales across different vendors) but until then, Symphytum will work well in helping me keep ISBNs and the like straight.

 

Get 5 GREAT Step Aerobics Workouts for under $10!

Reviews

So in case you haven’t stumbled upon her YouTube channel workouts, Jenny Ford is hands-down the best step aerobics instructor out there. With other instructors I have a hard time following along, but her cuing is impeccable–when you get the hang of it you don’t even need to watch her!

I thought getting 5 of her workouts in one go for under $10 was a steal, so I got them today at her website!

If you’re even halfway of interested in step I recommend her. She has great free “learn the steps” vids at her channel, and the first vid in this package you buy is meant for complete novice steppers (and is available on YouTube to try out).

She also has a zombie step workout. Just sayin’.

 

 

 

Steam Review: Escape Goat 1

Reviews

ESCAPE GOAT homepage

I played this demo a year or two ago online and grabbed it during the Steam Summer Sale. So glad I did! This takes me back to my childhood days of playing 2D platformers. No epic plot, no marathon-length levels, just nice platforming puzzles in bite-sized groups. 

The way there are multiple areas unlocked (and also the way new zones unlock upon completion of the old ones) helped me pace myself and prevented frustration on tougher levels. Eventually I got into a zone where my brain seemed to be completing the puzzles for me, which previously happened on BRAID. It’s a nice feeling of flow evoked by the right amount of challenge and appropriately responsive platforming mechanics. 

Well-done, Escape Goat!