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Review today at Macworld - David, please go over there and set 'em straight

Fri, 2009-06-26 07:33 — threefus

Hi David,

Caboodle 1.3 is reviewed today at Macworld.
http://www.macworld.com/article/141250/2009/06/caboodle.html

I tried to dispute one of the authors claims about Caboodle over there and also expressed the opinion that a two and a half is too low. I invite other users to do the same.

‹ Yesterday's entries have disappeared Moving Caboodle to a New Machine ›
Fri, 2009-06-26 11:00 — David Sinclair
David Sinclair's picture

Re: Review today at Macworld

Yes, I knew the review was coming, and the mouse rating, though I wasn't able to see the actual text. Which is a pity, since it has a number of factual errors.

Thank you for your comment; I appreciate it.

  • Most immediately obvious, they got my company name wrong. It isn't "Dejal Software", it is (formally) "Dejal Systems, LLC", or (informally) simply "Dejal".
  • The OS compatibility is incorrect: the current version requires Tiger or later. An older version supports 10.3.9.
  • No link to the product page, only to the Dejal home page in the sidebar.
  • The term "navigation bar" is incorrect; the standard Mac term is "source list", and in Caboodle I call it the "entries list".
  • "If it can’t read the files itself, it’ll create an alias linking to a program that can." This is not entirely correct — Caboodle will embed any kind of document in the entry, displayed as an icon. An alias can also be added, also displayed as an icon — the difference is that embedded documents are stored in the Caboodle data, while aliases are stored externally.
  • "an attempt to export a text file to HTML yielded bad formatting". This is a bug in the OS's text system; there isn't much I can do to fix it. The review makes it sound like a Caboodle bug.
  • I'm also disappointed that the review only mentions many key features in passing, like the custom fields, encryption, etc. The review seems to relish pointing out every flaw, no matter how trivial (bold toolbar button, really?), and minimizing its value to the users. While I certainly understand that reviews are supposed to warn people of problems, this review seems to take that to the extreme.
  • However, I do appreciate the several mentions of my good customer service. That is a very important aspect for me.
  • I also enjoyed the "Dr Horrible"-themed screenshot. :)

I hope that they will correct those factual errors.

However, all said, any publicity is good publicity, I hope. Hopefully readers will make their own judgements on Caboodle's usefulness. And yes, I do have big plans for future versions, which will address most or all of the raised issues.