REVIEW: AgilityLab’s AgileNotes 2.0

[Dale Ahn]

AgileNotes is an Advanced One-tap Note taker and Word processor for Pocket PC with text and drawing formatting and .pwi, .rtf and .txt files support.

Use AgileNotes to decorate and emphasize your texts and pictures quickly and share them: AgileNotes uses standard format and agile notes can be viewed with standard PocketPC Notes.

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Getting Started and Compatibility

AgileNotes comes as a .CAB file which should be executed and run from your device But before you install AgileNotes you will need Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2 SP1 (.NET CF) or above for the installation and software to work. Install both and you’re good to go.

This will work on Windows Mobile 2003 Se and Windows Mobile 5 devices with VGA, QVGA, and square support.

Writing

Write mode in AgileNotes is simple enough; take notes, document, write. As AgilityLab describes AgileNotes I thought it would be an advanced one-tap note taker but instead it turned out to be an advanced tap, drag, then tap again note taker. There seems to be more steps than needed. To change the font characteristics such as bold, italic, colors, etc. you must first highlight your text then apply these options. Also I noticed that there are no options for font size but there is are zoom buttons to view the font larger but you can’t have two different font sizes in one document which lacks variation, and speaking of fonts there is only one.

One thing that I did find useful was the voice recorder which allows multiple recordings in one document and the ability to place the recording anywhere on the document. A nice speaker icon indicates where your recording is placed within your document.

Say you’ve written some text and now you want to implement some pictures or draw, so you click the pencil and paper icon to move over to Draw mode. Toggling between Write and Draw mode is just one-tap away.

Drawing

Draw mode is smooth and clean, if you already have text on your document you will see the text transparently as you draw anywhere on the document, even over the text. But like Write mode you will have to select the draw images and texts before you can change the color, line, and fill options. Lines are limited to only four colors and fills are limited to six.

Formats

After saving documents you have three file formats you can save in, .pwi for Pocket Notes format, .rtf for rich text including Pocket and Microsoft Office Word compatibility, and .txt for plain text formats. If you have a drawing in your document only the .pwi format will keep your drawings, but be careful as in AgileNotes you can overlap text and drawing but when converted to Microsoft Word the text and drawings will not overlap. And If you have a recording it will be right where you left it.

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Pros:

• Record function with notes
• Easy toggling between Write and Draw mode
• Works well in both portrait and landscape

Cons:

• Very basic with limited functions
• Only one font
• Not enough colors and lacks font sizing
• Not exactly one-tap note taking

Overall Thoughts:

AgileNotes is a very basic note taker and nothing more, this application doesn’t have the full functionality to be called a word processor. If you really wanted to you could take quick notes in AgileNotes and re-style it in Microsoft Word later on but that only creates more steps that don’t need to be taken. I’m sure AgilityLabs are continuing to work to enhance and expand AgileNotes’ functionality but as of now I would not use it.


If you don’t like my opinions and would like to try it for yourself then...

• Click here to download the trial version (trial is fully functional without the ability to save files) and Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2 SP1 or
• Click here to buy AgileNotes 2.0

Thanks to AgilityLabs for providing me with AgileNotes 2.0.