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Advanced SearchUser Name IslandMike
Member Since 2000-09-15
Total number of Feedback Posts: 15
Total number of comments: 4
Last 10 Feedback Posts by IslandMike [ Search for All ]
Invoice 3.0.4 (Mac OS X)
Potential, But for now User Discretion Advised 
There are a lot of invoice programs but many are so simple they are just glorified document producers. You need a program that can at least keep track of what balances are owed and submit statements -- it is true you can see the running balance but you can't send a notice of that knowledge. This software was actually more robust and responsive in its Version 2 incarnation. At least upgrades are free to the credit of the developer. But this version is very slow. Some learning curve because icons are not too intuitive. There is no way I can find to take a set of invoices for a client and submit a statement. It does have a nice ability to make more than one data file (he calls a store) and keep sets apart -- but you can also do that within the software by selecting product groups -- another very innovative feature you won't find very often in invoice software. For example, if you need to use the software to invoice for your shoe store but you also have products for another subject, you can select the product category for "shoes" that will isolate only "shoe store products" very helpful. That said, like one of the previous reviewers this software is one of those that comes so close you really want to like it. And I did enough to buy it but I am really disappointed -- version 3 has been out a while and there has been ample time to address the slowness issues at least. The developer seems to try to communicate but why the final products being released continue to have flaws is anyone's guess. Extensive if painful formatting of the layout is about a wash because it is a nice feature but very hard to use somewhat because field definitions are not intuitive. Perhaps if you had only a few items and all your customers paid each invoice it would be fine for you -- but for $80 you expect it to be the top of the pack not sagging toward the bottom. I'm keeping it and may come back but for now it has been a long waste of time and money. [alert admin]
Sunday, September 21 2008 @ 03:46 PM PDT
PDFClerk Pro 3.3.1 (Mac OS X)
Works Great, Consistent Over Time, Good Updates & Communication
When I read the other feedback I realized I had been remiss. I found this on versiontracker many years ago before it was even an official release -- I believe late 2006. I actually have some other PDF products but this one is the one I use, remember & keep up to date. At the time I became interested it was because the others took so long and were unstable -- when this new pony came along it revealed an ease of use that made it enjoyable to work with PDFs, then as it developed it became much more flexible and responsive than other options. Antonio reaches out and asks questions, invites you to help test, and answers your email questions without making you feel you wasted his time or you might have asked a simple question. Another factor is that the software addresses many complex uses but it is not priced out of range for us who use it for basic tasks (in my case to take a multipage PDF and break it apart or vice versa (take many unrelated pages and produce one set); and sometimes to sign or add text to documents. In this complex world the ability to use one good product saves time in learning, saves money in not having to invest in additional software titles, and saves space not needing to store extra programs and their versions of files. For me, I can open PDF Pro and work on my files and not need a "program file" version which is a definite plus. Options are also available as to how you learn and communicate if you have a question. If you like direct help, Antonio is there, if you like to use forums, he has an active and useful forum. Try it and see for yourself. He has earned his track record and I am so glad I stumbled upon his software -- one less thing to have to worry about as I feel very confident and comfortable with this software and the man that stands behind it! [alert admin]
Wednesday, September 17 2008 @ 07:29 PM PDT
Invoice 2.1.5 (Mac OS X)
No response to trouble tickets or email
I bought this several months ago and it can take some getting used to to find where the options are but the ease to work with it was worth the hunting. Layouts can take a lot of time to adjust and are frustrating to work with but the software shoots for wide adaptability. A bit odd that you can't choose a product's price to put on an invoice (it is grayed out) but the software allows you to put price+tax. Only just recently we had a local sale and needed to apply local sales tax. We did not look at that in testing. Our experience with the software with invoices that need to apply tax is that it gets confused and adds the invoice up wrong, giving for example if we sell 100 of a $1 item a subtotal of $99.84. I have sent emails and put in three trouble tickets on their support website but have not heard from the developer beyond auto reply boilerplate. So best you fully check this software will work before you pay your money, and perhaps shoot an email to see if anybody is still around. Hopefully they are just on a long vacation and will get this "bug" or three I have found resolved. Still you would think 100 x 1 = 99.84 would be an obvious error to pick up on and would have been found in-house. [alert admin]
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Friday, February 15 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
Vacation Rental Tracker Plus 1.4.2 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
Not perfect but it strives for high hurdles and does much well
I have been mystified why there are no reviews for this product. You can spend a lot of time looking for vacation rental software for the mac -- believe me I have looked exhaustively. If anyone else has found something that exceeds this product please chime in. Unfortunately since the market is a low demand one, there is not a lot of developers competing. Much of the software out there you could do about as well with a home designed database and using quickbooks or MYOB as your accounting leg. This software is by no means perfect. I have gone around and around with the developer a couple of times to the point that it is really not worth my time -- the last two times there were serious defects in the new releases and I had to work with him for the purpose of attending to business. That is not a good place to be, it is something you would expect more in the Pee Cee world. But, that said, with time and patience many things have been resolved and as far as I can tell it is this one trick pony or nothing at all. Those of you who now search for vacation rental software can breath a sigh of relief some of us endured the abuse that fell to us before. Try this it should work for most applications. Until another developer comes close it is about all there is that I know of. If you have any volume of vacation rentals at all (we have only three but they are a chore to keep track of) -- you need decent software, this is it, and worth it. Advise -- keep a backup and don't jump too fast to upgrades they are often riddled with flaws and the developer is antagonistic to correct them. [alert admin]
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Friday, September 07 2007 @ 03:36 PM PDT
Vacation Rental Tracker Plus 1.4.2 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
Not perfect but it strives for high hurdles and does much well
I have been mystified why there are no reviews for this product. You can spend a lot of time looking for vacation rental software for the mac -- believe me I have looked exhaustively. If anyone else has found something that exceeds this product please chime in. Unfortunately since the market is a low demand one, there is not a lot of developers competing. Much of the software out there you could do about as well with a home designed database and using quickbooks or MYOB as your accounting leg. This software is by no means perfect. I have gone around and around with the developer a couple of times to the point that it is really not worth my time -- the last two times there were serious defects in the new releases and I had to work with him for the purpose of attending to business. That is not a good place to be, it is something you would expect more in the Pee Cee world. But, that said, with time and patience many things have been resolved and as far as I can tell it is this one trick pony or nothing at all. Those of you who now search for vacation rental software can breath a sign of relief some of us endured the abuse that fell to use before. Try this it should work for most applications. Until another developer comes close it is about all there is that I know of. If you have any volume of vacation rentals at all (we have only three but they are a chore to keep track of) -- you need decent software, this is it, and worth it. Advise -- keep a backup and don't jump too fast to upgrades they are often riddled with flaws and the developer is antagonistic to correct them. [alert admin]
Friday, September 07 2007 @ 03:31 PM PDT
FileChute 2.6 (Mac OS X)
A tool you did not know you needed
This is one of those things that you would not think you would need until you've had it. I used to send many more things in email, it is simpler to let the person on the other side click the link to your file and download it themselves and it keeps their email clients much leaner. With this application you can see what files are stored, delete them at will -- even compose an email to send the link all within the same application (FileChute). If you have more than one ISP or URL you can set up a different account for each and select among them easily with the FileChute interface. The automatic conversion to short URL is another well thought of feature that they provide. Sending and managing files on the user end, the fast one pony approach makes it one of those tools you will come back to over and over. There are many roads to Rome but this one is well travelled. [alert admin]
Saturday, April 21 2007 @ 01:48 PM PDT
BookingCenter 5.1 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)
These people need to wake up, OSX has been out far long enough for them to provide their modules in OSX, not in classic. For an outlay of $1800 to promote your rentals it should not need to boot into classic. [alert admin]
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Tuesday, October 10 2006 @ 11:28 PM PDT
MacGourmet 1.2.3 (Mac OS X)
Continues to be outstanding over the years
I have not regretted one moment switching to this recipe software. Go check out their forum -- it is active and thriving -- which is a sure mark of software that is good and growing. They don't have version 2002.003 because they don't NEED to keep improving it every couple of months -- it isn't beta software it works NOW. I've had my recipes published because of this software for three years and I get feedback frequently from people telling me how much they appreciate the ability to see on-line and then take a "computer copy" to their own machines. You can't please everybody but for most folks out there this is going to be their "meat, potatoes, gravy, bread and dessert". Bravo to such superior software and keep it coming. (See their forum for users who have listed their sites with recipes on-line.) [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 2 of 2 users found this helpful
Friday, September 15 2006 @ 02:42 AM PDT
ShutterBug 2.0 (Mac OS X)
Multi-Purpose Far Beyond Photo Gallery Use
If you guessed what the software does from the name alone you would think it makes nice web albums of your digital pictures. And yes, it does. But it is not restricted to only that function. As other reviewers here have mentioned -- the software is easy to use -- so easy you may think "Well, that's all it does and that's cute". You can download it and have a nice site page up in just moments. However, with a bit of tinkering under the hood -- reading the manual, going to the forum, you will find this software exceeds just putting your pictures on a webpage. The developers are constantly working on this by listening to the users; and you might be pleasantly surprised to ask a question on the forum and have a response in hours, sometimes minutes. You might expect them to refer you to a web page or section in the help manual, but these developers take the time to help you point by point and case by case. Other users on the forum are helpful and faithful to the product as well -- not often found with software of any genre. Take it for a try, ask feel welcome to ask questions and be ready for a good experience! [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 5 of 6 users found this helpful
Saturday, April 01 2006 @ 04:38 PM PST
iuLoan 6.1.0 (Mac OS X)
Use only if you are desperate -- alternatives are free
I am in the same boat as a couple of other paid users -- if you upgrade the fee is steep and the return is low for what you get. I can't even use the demo with my existing files to make simple changes to test run. The demo should be called crippled-ware. When you buy a shareware product you expect the relationship to be mutual with the developer -- in this case it's all about them not you -- they read the reviews here but ignore the distress. Personal emails are likewise unanswered. My advise is seek beyond this company; find one that will meet you half way not just take your money and care less. In my case I did a search and found excel spreadsheets that can do the same thing (actually do balloon payments like real life) and they are free -- they work this software does not. Some other developer should step in and provide a product and then back it with customer service this company is unwilling to provide. Don't upgrade and pour good money after bad. Don't buy as you will feel ripped off plain and simple. A Fancy interface, a spot on versiontracker, a website does not justifiy the repeating steep upgrade costs, the lack of practical ability to function in today's flexible loan calculations, nor the failure of the company to address their customer's attempts to communicate their concerns with them directly or via these public outcries. They will call this a rant -- I'd call it advise based on direct experience with their product and direct experience with being totally ignored in customer to developer emails. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 7 of 7 users found this helpful
Saturday, March 25 2006 @ 12:17 PM PST
Last 10 Comments by IslandMike [ Search for All ]
For not perfect but certainly viable software try Vacation Rental Tracker Plus by SpiritWorks, it has a bit of a learning curve but it does most anything you would need and the developer is responsive and there are frequent updates. Most of the stuff on the internet that is fee based will not do you any good. You still got to go and advertise on several sites and handle the processing -- so why not…
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Friday, September 07 2007 @ 03:21 PM PDT
I have had this software for over three years running eight licenses. We have one location with 12 cameras. This software works and it works very well with many types of equipment. If you go to their site there is an exhaustive list of what will work from the low end range to the high end range you could buy. Most anything you need to know they have already given you resorces to on their…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Friday, September 07 2007 @ 03:05 PM PDT
I have this software for over three years running eight licenses. We have one location with 12 cameras. This software works and it works very well with many types of equipment. If you go to their site there is an exhaustive list of what will work from the low end range to the high end range you could buy. Most anything you need to know they have already given you resorces to on their website.…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Friday, September 07 2007 @ 03:00 PM PDT
I can tell you that you do need 2 licenses to share the addresses in both directions. What is LDAP?
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Thursday, March 16 2006 @ 12:00 PM PST
