Parker Planner (for iPhone)

Who couldn't use a little help staying organized? If "a little" help is all you need, Parker Planner for iPhone (99 cents) is a decent app to add to your daily routine. Parker Planner is a calendar, to-do list, and note-taking app all in one.

After spending a few days with it, I found it was too light for my needs, but I'm what you might call a hardcore list maker and scheduler?I even write a weekly column aboutgetting organized. Parker Planner gives you a centralized view on its home screen of your day, previewing your hourly calendar, five most recently added to-do tasks, and a small window for notes and ideas. My particular needs call for much more detail in all three of these areas, and a better representation of time in the calendar, but for less seriously organized people, the app does an acceptable job.

My preferred iPhone app for maintaining more advanced schedules, to-do lists, and notes is Awesome Note (+ToDo) ($3.99, 4 stars). Alternatively, you could use apps that come included with your iPhone, such as Calendar and Reminders (preinstalled with iOS 5). Both of those apps work well and are designed in a way that makes them simple to use. What you lose with Apple's apps is centralization in a single app, although that might not be a concern for light list-makers and schedulers.

Parker Planner Features
Parker Planner's home screen shows the current day at a glance. The current day always appears in color, so if you flip to another day, the border turns gray. Color choices only consist of blue, green, and red (default).

Three panes on the homescreen show a preview of your calendar, to-do list, and notes. Each section of the screen is rather small, so you can't see very much at a shot. You can change the view from the default to see your week or month at a glance, or see a list view of your to-dos and notes. The calendar has a list view option as well, although it's tucked away at the top of the app rather than along the bottom with other buttons of its kind.

Centralization is Parker Planner's main strength. The app can pull in information from other calendars, including Outlook, Google, the Apple Calendar app on your iPhone and any other calendar you include in iCal. All the various calendars are color-coded in the app to help you remember the nature of your appointments.

The main view window treats the to-do list and notes sections like redheaded stepchildren. They're pushed to the right side and given so little space you can hardly read what's on them. If you make very short notes and to-do tasks, the space may be adequate, but it didn't suit my needs. Plus, one very important feature in a to-do list, deadlines, is missing. Parker Planner treats to-dos totally separately from the calendar, whereas I would rather see a separate calendar for to-dos, or integration with the existing calendar.

Park It?
Parker Planner isn't a bad app by any stretch, but serious organizers will find it doesn't offer them enough advanced features. Anyone who needs a light app that centralizes their quick notes, short to-do tasks, and calendars can pick up Parker Planner for 99 cents.

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