Info Select 5 – part 2

Like I said last month, Info Select is a program that people either love…or hate. And many of the software reviewers---accustomed to those orderly rows of boxes and fill-in-the-blanks of the "normal" Personal Information Manager (PIM)---well, they just, plain, flat, don’t like this program. Consider David Haskin in the November 1997 Computer Shopper, commenting on Info Select 4: "Beyond its unique abilities to manage both free-form and structured information, Info Select’s other PIM capabilities are weak….Info Select’s to-do list capabilities are even more anemic….Info Select also scores poorly on more advanced contact management capabilities." Or Kathy Yakal in the December 14, 1998 issue of Shop & Compare: "Info Select is a terrific idea for an information manager, but its execution doesn’t fulfill that promise, and the PIM lacks the polish it should have by now." On the other hand, Byte magazine’s famous columnist, Jerry Pournelle, weighed in on Info Select in the November 1996 Byte, that the program is great for helping him write his novels, and "it’s also great for diaries, keeping track of work in progress, and other stuff. You can learn to use it in about 5 minutes, and I don’t see how anyone gets along without it." Ditto for some fans caught raving on the Info Select web page (or I should say, Micro Logic’s web page, the company that puts Info Select out). Said one: "I just wanted you all to know that I am completely enamored of Info Select 3. It has quite literally reorganized my entire information life….It’s hard now to imagine life without it…a truly astonishing piece of software engineering."

Okay…what’s going on here? Well, I can’t explain everyone else’s rants and raves, both for and against Info Select, but I can tell you that Info Select 5 is the most important single program that I use every day in my law practice (out of, say, a dozen other programs that are used daily or almost daily).

Does Info Select do my calendar and scheduling (super-important for a lawyer)? No, although it does have such capabilities. Does it do my word processing? No, although it has extensive capabilities in that area also, from templates to spell checking to the ability to generate fill-in-the-blank forms. Does it handle my email? No again, although it has extremely extensive capabilities in that area. Does it even do my to-do list (another super-important function for a lawyer)? No yet again; for that I use a little standalone shareware program called To-Do List Pro.

Well, then, why is Info Select so dang-blasted important and useful to me? Well…hmmm…kind of…duh…well, like…I guess, almost everything. And therein lies the rub when it comes to this little bombshell. It’s so flexible, and so good at so many things, that every user uses it as an absolutely crucial program for…whatever that user finds it most useful for. Jerry Pournelle uses it for keeping scenes and characters straight in writing novels. He’s a writer. I’m a lawyer. I use it for…

• Keeping track of what’s going on in individual lawsuits and disputes, which (as you might imagine) have numbered in the thousands over the years. I use the free-form note-taking ability that Info Select gives me to notate everything that happens in every case I have. Then when I need to refer to any particular lawsuit, whether it be with regard to discussions on the telephone, or what the judge did at the last hearing, what position the opposing shyster…uh, lawyer, is taking, or what the phone number and/or address of any-of-the-above might be…I just pop it up in Info Select.
• Keeping track of names and addresses and telephone numbers and email addresses and the such (finally, something that other PIM’s are used for…and I can’t imagine that any other PIM could do it better or more effortlessly).
• Keeping a "personal dictionary." Yep, that’s what I said. Don’t we all run across words that just aren’t in our pitiful vocabularies from time to time? When that happens to me, I strike back: I pop that bugger into my Info Select dictionary (i.e. "list of words you don’t know"), plug in the definition, and when that word pops up again I just check in my personal dictionary. Strange, admittedly, but there it is.
• Keeping…uh…"miscellaneous or oddball information." Do I remember how to send and pay for a certified letter when I’m asking for a signed receipt back? And what’s the procedure and cost difference between certified and registered mail? Who knows? Info Select knows, because I put the instructions for myself in there years ago. Ditto for, oh, billing procedures, contact information, legal clauses in various documents, procedural hurdles in various situations, etc.
• Legal authorities: Admittedly, this could be grouped under "oddball information" above, but it’s what I do. Do you want to know what interest rate a circuit court judgment drew in 1954? I’ve got it. Or how about the authority for slapping an attorneys’ fees claim on an opponent when the contract only says they can get such rewards? I’ve got it (it’s statutory, for all you lawyers out there). Or what about the various charges involved in issuing and serving a post-judgment continuing writ of garnishment? Who the hell would know? I certainly wouldn’t if I didn’t have it stashed in an Info Select window.
• Let’s see…what else is there. Lots. Closed file lists. Payments by debtors. "Miscellaneous interests." Computer information. Neighborhood civic association newsletter information and volunteers. Professional associations info and happenings. "Projects in process." Client lists, cross-referenced with files and lawsuits. Internet information and locations. Out-of-town lawyer contacts. Plot and character information for writing projects (yep, I dabble in the black art of fiction writing). Info about repairs, upkeep, modifications, components, records, etc. on….everything, from the lawn mower to the copy machine to the oven and stove, to the various computers around here.

And plenty more. And I really only scratch the surface of what Info Select can be used for. That’s the funny thing about the program: Everyone uses it in a different way, for different purposes, none of which may be the "most popular" uses by others, or even "most recommended" by the manufacturer.

Which brings me to an odd thought: In all this talking about what Info Select 5.0 can be used for, I haven’t described how the program actually works. The answer to that is…well…it’s a free-form, text-driven, windowing PIM database that has uses, as Micro Logic puts it, "limited only by your imagination" (whereupon they list about 50 examples off the top of their corporate heads). That doesn’t adequately describe the software in a supposed software review, I know. So thank goodness for the Internet. To get the real flavor of the program, go to http://www.miclog.com/isover.htm. You’ll find full information on Info Select 5.0 there, including screen shots.