Rick Rawson wrote into the Users List a few months back the good and the bad in Chandler. (Bold and large type, mine.)

“As course director for a very large (16 credits) course in a professional program, I have a need to be able to coordinate and collaborate with a number of colleagues to prepare for and implement this course, which is logistically complicated. I have investigated a number of software solutions to no avail. These include:

• Airset
• Remember The Milk
• Spicebird
• ZOHO (project)
• Google calendar
• Thinking Rock
• Code Project
• Mozilla Sunbird/Lightning
• Abstract Spoon’s ToDo List
• Open source project managers

“I have tried each one, but none worked because, depending on the application, the web interface was too limiting, integration of various components was insufficient, required components were missing (task list with no calendar), collaboration was not available, or the software had too long of a learning curve. Project managers are simply the wrong solution.

“I stumbled across Chandler and was instantly enthusiastic. Being a bit of a geek, I went with the flow when I discovered that cut/copy/paste and print did not work. Go figure! OK, I’ll work with it.

“The desktop app is clean, slick, easy to use, easy to learn. Very short learning curve. Screen real-estate is used effectively. No other application puts collection lists, the calendar, and a detail view all on the same screen. I can see what I need to see, all in one place. In my opinion, having to click a button to access information is a virtual brick wall. Chandler avoids this for the most part.”

The following screenshot was taken from the Chandler Product Tour:

“Multiple, overlaying calendars is extremely useful. That the underlying calendar color fades is more-than-a-cool feature not found in the likes of Google calendar. It was a bonus to discover that I could copy an event to a second calendar and retain the freedom to delete one of those copies without deleting both. Putting “location” in the event on the calendar would be nice, but not essential.

“The completely seamless connection between messages, tasks, and events is unique in my experience. It frees me from having to think ahead. I can brainstorm lists of tasks, then go back and stick them on a calendar, moving them around as needed. I am not aware of another application that does this. Ability to create “projects” with tasks and subtasks would be nice but its absence is not a showstopper. Inability to do a secondary sort on the triage table reduces my productivity significantly, but it’s not enough to make me quit using Chandler…yet.

The existence of Chandler Hub and the provision for easy sharing of collections is an essential feature. For my situation, any software solution must include the ability to collaborate effectively and remotely.”

So what is Rick’s biggest peeve? Performance.

“I’m using Chandler to increase my productivity, but that won’t happen if I’m stuck waiting for Chandler to respond to a mouse click. I simply don’t have time to waste and, as much as I love Chandler, will eventually switch applications rather than see my productivity tank.”