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Entered CNET Catalog: 02/27/2004
SKU: 28583
Manufacturer: Franklin Covey
Manufacturer description
FranklinCovey has developed exclusive tools that integrate proven planning methods into Microsoft Outlook to help you increase your daily productivity on the job. PlanPlus works seamlessly within Outlook, making sure you stay focused on your most important assignments and responsibilities. PlanPlus helps you answer the question "What's the most valuable thing I could do with my time?" before you accept meeting requests. It keeps you on track with "big picture" goals while helping you effectively manage all the things that need to get done today and helps you look at your whole workweek and leverage your time to make the biggest contribution on the job. PlanPlus offers a customized screen that puts your e-mail, notes, calendar, and task list all in one view. It encourages you to create a habit of proactive planning and provides engaging, interactive coaching to help you become more effective in managing your time, tasks, information, and goals. PlanPlus also provides the only way to implement the principles and practices taught in FranklinCovey training while using Microsoft Outlook.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/18/2004
 PlanPlus installs right into Outlook with its own toolbar for one-click access to the program's major features. |
You can access all of the program's major screens (PlanPlus Today, PlanPlus Home, Weekly Planning, Goals, Compass, Mission/Values, and PowerNotes) through the PlanPlus menu or through a series of shortcuts on the program's toolbar. For example, if you have Outlook shortcuts displayed on the left side of your screen, you can use the same area for PlanPlus's shortcuts, although the software inexplicably omits a couple of screens (DailyNotes and Thought of the Day).
Getting out of PlanPlus isn't as easy. There's no single button to close it down and return to Outlook proper. You can always click your folder of Outlook shortcuts, and the other option is to select the View menu, then Go To, and finally one of the original Outlook screens (Calendar, Contacts, and so on).
To set up personal information, PlanPlus provides interactive wizards that offer minicourses in four of its productivity screens (Missions/Values, Weekly Compass, Goals, and Weekly Planning), complete with numerous full-color examples, walk-throughs, and training exercises. For example, the Goals Wizard takes you through the process of identifying goals, achieving them, and understanding team goals. Also, if at any time a concept confuses you, there's an excellent built-in help system, called Coach Me, that discusses a broad range of concepts, offers examples and tips, and furnishes links to further resources. While not as elaborate as the wizards, Coach Me is still a lot more detailed than your average FAQ. PlanPlus provides a variety of useful tools, such as the Weekly Compass and Weekly Planning tools, that promote a highly structured, preplanned approach to the week's work. The software encourages you (through a series of screens with questions and blank fields) to follow the FranklinCovey planning methods--admittedly an acquired taste for some--to articulate a list of personal mission statements and overall goals, review relationships between tasks, and assign objectives. This type of hand-holding might seem daunting to a first-time user. To be fair, however, you can bypass any of these steps, and many FranklinCovey fans swear the process improves your time and activity management.
 PlanPlus walks you through a structured system of planning based on missions, goals, relationships, and tasks. |
The PlanPlus Today screen provides an excellent summary of the day's activities, while the Home screen combines many standard Outlook elements. It displays a monthly calendar, daily tasks and notes, an adjustable appointment calendar (daily, weekly, and monthly), and either your Inbox or FranklinCovey's note-taking interface, PowerNotes. You can expand and contract the size of each pane and close them individually, but you can't move any elements around to create a customized screen. However, new to this version is the ability to drag and drop data from one area into another. For instance, we found it extremely easy to turn an e-mail message into a task.
The aforementioned PowerNotes is new to version 2.0 and lets you capture an image of an Excel spreadsheet, a Word document, or a Web image, then annotate it anywhere with bullet points, drawings, or text in any font size and color. PowerNotes offers functionality similar to Microsoft Paint, but it's easier to use for the specific purpose of note taking--perfect for, say, reminding yourself that you need to find information for a missing Excel field. Just capture the empty Excel field with the Virtual Printer, use the Ink tool to circle it in red, and add a note.
Upgraders will also find an enhanced task list with more functionality than the one in the previous version. Now, PlanPlus 2.0 lets you assign completion dates and priorities to daily tasks; save task histories; and employ status codes for completed, forwarded, deleted, delegated, and in-progress tasks. The addition of prioritizing daily tasks improves the precision of task management. We wish, however, that PlanPlus would let you nest tasks hierarchically. There's no shortage of tech support for FranklinCovey PlanPlus. FranklinCovey's Web site includes a searchable knowledge base, e-mail support, unlimited live technician chat (Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT), and FAQs. We tried online chat support and received a prompt response from a courteous and knowledgeable technician. There is no link to the site from within PlanPlus, however.
 FranklinCovey offers several free support options for PlanPlus, such as the searchable online knowledge database. |
Phone support is available Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT. While FranklinCovey doesn't charge for first-time setup and installation calls, all other issues cost $19.95 per incident via a toll-free number.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2
User Rating: 
1/10
Worst ever!
Pros: Easy install.
Cons: Clumsy to use. Hard-to-read screens. Inaccurate results.
Review:
Email flagged for follow-up will show up in a Task list if you only display tasks, but when you go to the date that it is scheduled for, it's just not there. It's not anywhere. Isn't that the point of scheduling something for followup on a certain date? So that it would actually be on that date in the calendar? If you set up a project, it will display the info from that project rather cryptically in the main screen. It also tries to display too much info on a single screen - Home Screen contains Outlook Folders, 2 monthly calendars, task list, outlook e-mail header, outlook e-mail preview, planning calendar --- everything ends up so small that it's unreadable even on a 21" monitor.
User Rating: 1/10
Very beta. Poor support. Clunky Interface
Pros: Uses the FranklinCovey system Supports tablet ink
Cons: Unstable. Has required multiple reinstalls for various freezes and crashes. Non-intuitive clumsy interface. Poor tech support
Review:
