With our lives becoming increasingly dependent upon the internet and lifestyle that demands long hours in-front of the machine, we need a desktop based solution that can help us with managing day-to-day tasks and keep track of them.

One such task management software Swift To-Do List 7 Professional is our subject of review today. Swift To-Do List (henceforth referred as STDL) is the flagship product of Dextronet and they have recently released the new version 7.

Installation

Dextronet allows you to get a fully functional STDL 7 professional 30 days license for trial before making a decision to purchase it. The trial can be downloaded here. The installable is a 5.7 MB exe file. After downloading, it took about 30 sec to install the software on my machine powered by Windows XP Pro. I was greeted by a 7 step Quick Start Guide.

Features

The software come with a big list of features. I won’t be listing all here but the ones that appeal to me.
When you open STDL for the first time it uses the default database by the name MyTasks.stdl. You can choose to create a new database from the file menu.

• Back-Up and relocate database operations can be done at a click of a button. I like the fact that company has given importance to small things, like the “Database Info”  option available under Advanced node – can be quite handy when you make use of back-up softwares.

• There are a host of customization options available under File > options menu. Things like setting up the default database, look and feel of your GUI, setting up reminder etc can be done from this place. If you find yourself sharing your machine with others you may want to password protect your database. The option is available under File > Options > Encryption.
• Task can be organized using folders and folder can in turn have child folders. Folders are organized in the form of a tree view. This is how a typical set-up could like.

• If you don’t like the boring folder icons, you can choose from a list of 140 icons that are available on double clicking a particular folder. Numbers in the brackets show the number of tasks available in a given folder.
  Once a folder gets highlighted on the left, the corresponding tasks can be seen on the right hand side.

• Notes related to a particular task can be penned at the bottom. The whole flow is quite logical. Other than the default columns, you also have the facility to choose from various columns available under “Manage Columns”. Overall, the main window of Swift To-Do list would looks like this (Click to enlarge)

• Double click on a particular task and you will get various options to edit the task. For example, Setting the priority, due date, reminder, notes, adding attachments etc.
• Another important feature that is available only in the pro edition is task emailing. Especially important if you’re working in a team set-up.
• STDL can be run from the USB drive.
• STDL auto saves any entry that you make in the application. Apparently small but a MUST have feature in such softwares.
• You can get the complete list of features here
• Trivia- Keep this link handy when you plan to move your STDL 7 software from one machine to another.

Licensing and Cost

This software comes in three editions lite, standard and professional. Lite is free and quite limited in features. Standard will cost you $44.95 while Professional edition costs $88.95. You can get the detailed comparison for various editions on this page. STDL comes with an unconditional 90 days money back guarantee.

Minor Issues I noted

The only problem I found – nothing related to software per-se –  is the sales home page (landing page) which may not entice me enough to keep reading the copy further. I think they have focused more on telling benefits rather than the features. Geeks like me are normally sold on things like comparison charts (with the competition)

My views

A nice software at a reasonable price. Given a choice, I always prefer to have desktop based solutions rather than their online counterparts. It becomes easy for me to check and use the software even when I am in my car or sitting in a limited internet connectivity area. This software has my full recommendation in that area.

Other than the above, I can see that this kind of to-do list can be of utmost use to people like internet marketers who have to do mundane tasks each time they buy a domain. STDL, in such cases, can double up as a project management software. Lets say you have to buy 50 domains. On all those domains, things like setting up mail server, hosting, installing theme, installing plugins etc is required. With this software you can create a list of such tasks once. Create various domains names as folders on the left hand side tree view and then simply copy the tasks in each of the folders.
Going forward, I would love to see a feature whereby you can create a “task template” and import those tasks at a click of a button.

Discount Code

Dextronet has offered a 25% discount code to all readers of ReviewOfWeb. With this discount code, pro-edition would only cost $66.7 while standard would cost $33.7. Here is how you can avail the discount code:

1. Go to this page to buy professional edition or to this page to buy standard edition of STDL 7.
2. Enter billing details and the code REVIEWOFWEB in the Discount Code box. [This discount code is valid for 3 months and expires on 8th/Nov/2010.]
3. Review your order on the next page and you’re done.

Thanks Jiri for the nice offer.

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