Pagico 7
A QUICK OVERVIEW
April 2015
PAGICO 7 - OVERVIEW
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
System Requirements 3
Highlights of Pagico 4
1. Manage data and schedule in one place 4
2. Cross-link among things 4
3. Tag items anywhere and use Smart Collections to synthesize 5
4. Archive old stuff easily 6
5. Create automations with other apps via Zapier (NEW IN PAGICO 7) 6
What’s New in Version 7 7
Detailed Feature Walkthrough 8
1. Managing Projects 8
2. Managing Contacts 8
3. Using the Inbox 9
4. Managing Files 9
5. Keeping Track of Tasks (and other time-sensitive items) 10
6. Creating Cross-Links Among Everything 12
7. Use Smart Collections to Collect Items By Tags 12
8. Syncing Data for Personal Uses 13
9. Using 3rd Party Apps (such as Dropbox) to Sync Data 15
Closing Words 15
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INTRODUCTION
Pagico is a productivity system that stores and manages all your notes, tasks,
files, projects and contacts. It uniquely combines data management and
schedule management into one elegant package. Being loosely compliant
with the GTD method (Getting Things Done methodology by David Allen),
Pagico will work great for both GTD and non-GTD users. Cloud sync is
available to sync data among Pagico on computers and mobile devices.
Screenshots in this document were taken in Pagico 7 on OS X 10.10.
Screenshots in this documents are cropped for the interest of layout.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Pagico 7 is available for the following operating systems:
• Intel Mac with OS X 10.5 or higher
• Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8
• Ubuntu 12.04 - 14.04, 32-bit and 64-bit
Pagico Plus for iOS, sold separately, is a universal app, available for both the
iPhone and iPad (requires iOS 7+). Pagico Plus for Android is also available.
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HIGHLIGHTS OF PAGICO
1. Manage data and schedule in one place
The biggest advantage of Pagico is that users can manage tasks right next to
notes, files and other resources. This allows users become more productive
by not having to deal with information scattered in different places.
NEW IN PAGICO 7
Items in a project or contact can now be arranged by type, making it easier to find
certain items. Simply change the “Order by” viewing option to “By Type”.
Projects & contacts can now be color-coded. Just click on the “Flag” icon in the
title area to change the color selection.
2. Cross-link among things
In most cases, tasks are not just simple things. They may be related to certain
notes, other projects, persons, or files. And in Pagico, users can create
cross-links between different items very easily. Even better, projects and
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contacts have a footnote section showing all the inbound links. This makes it
easy to keep track of all the incoming references.
NEW IN PAGICO 7
Inline links can be auto-completed. Simply type the left square brake “[“ in a task
caption or note area, and Pagico will provide you with a list of all existing projects
and contacts.
Inbound links are collected and displayed at the top of a project or contact.
3. Tag items anywhere and use Smart Collections to synthesize
Users can write tags (keywords) on literally everything in Pagico (using the
@tag syntax), and review everything using Smart Collections. For example, a
user can write @phone-call in tasks or notes in various projects. Then, with a
Smart Collection for the tag @phone-call, the user can see everything carrying
this tag in one view, making it easy to track and complete all similar tasks.
This feature is very similar to the Context concept in GTD.
NEW IN PAGICO 7
Tags can now be auto-completed. Simply type the “@“ character in a note or task
area, Pagico will provide you with a list of all existing tags for quicker entry.
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4. Archive old stuff easily
Most todo apps don’t provide a nice way to store old stuff. While some apps
do store old items, they simply store and present a huge list of items that
cannot be practically used by users. Pagico, built on a solid personal
organizer foundation, encourages users to archive old projects by providing a
powerful tag browser and other features to make it realistic to maintain,
manage and browse a growing database in the long run.
NEW IN PAGICO 7
Completed tasks can be archived automatically. To enable this setting, please go to
the Preferences section.
5. Create automations with other apps via Zapier (NEW IN PAGICO 7)
Thanks to its Zapier integration, Pagico 7 now works great with thousands of
applications, including Google Calendar, Evernote and more! For example,
one can create a Zap to automatically save new Evernote notes into Pagico
as tasks, or create new Google Calendar events from new tasks created in
Pagico Inbox or a project.
To do so, simply set up a Zapier account and start connecting apps to
Pagico. Each connection is called a “Zap”. Users can create any connection
(called “Zap”) between apps.
With this new level of app integration, users can create amazing automations
and save tremendous time.
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WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 7
As a major update to Pagico for Desktop, version 7 packs a number of new
features and improvements. Here is a list of the notable changes:
• Zapier integration for cloud-based automations
• Natural Language Processing for new tasks.
• Newly designed metadata sidebar shows linked projects and contacts
• Newly designed Inbound Tasks area shows tasks assigned to the current
project or contact
• Newly designed New Task panel allows easier & faster task creation
• Newly designed By-Type display mode shows content in an organized
layout
• Files can now be tagged
• Metadata of imported emails will be processed and displayed
• Projects and contacts can be color-coded
• The new “Me” contact item for better task delegation for teams
• Improved Notifications Panel shows more useful items for teams
• OS X System-wide Service for quick task creation from selected text or file
• Improved search mechanism with in-page result highlighting
• Improved efficiency and stability of the workspace sync feature
• Auto-hide completed tasks (configurable in the Preferences section)
• Text AutoComplete for tags (@tags syntax) and crosslinks ([link] syntax)
• Redesigned user interface
• Overall improvements to user experience
• Many other minor stability improvements
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DETAILED FEATURE WALKTHROUGH
Below is a slightly more detailed introduction on the major features in Pagico.
1. Managing Projects
The Projects section can host unlimited number of projects, which are data
containers that could store things like notes, lists, tasks, and files, etc. Once
projects are properly tagged for categorization purposes, users can easily
browse their projects using the unique tag browser, which turns their “flat”
project library into a hierarchical structure. Here’s a screenshot:
This tag browser has a unique design and can be very effective when dealing
with large number of projects as the database grows. Projects can also be
set to “inactive” for archiving purposes. This makes it easy to archive old
projects without deleting them. For active projects that are constantly needed,
they can be added to the Bookmark section (in the sidebar) for easy access.
2. Managing Contacts
Users can also build profiles for their contacts and manage related data,
including notes, tasks, lists and files. Note that the contact info area is very
flexible, and users can put in any data fields as they need — such as phone
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numbers, or even the department a person works in. Users can then choose
to group contacts based on these data fields. Here’s an example:
To use certain data field for sorting purposes, you need to switch to the
Preferences section and configure the desired data fields. Similar to projects,
contacts can also be added to the Bookmark section for easier access.
3. Using the Inbox
The Inbox is a standalone data container to for everything that doesn’t (yet)
belong to any projects or contacts. Things can be quickly saved to Inbox and
be moved to projects or contacts later if need be. One of the advantages of
the Inbox storage is that it’s stored separately from databases. This means
you can store something here and access it no matter which database you’re
using. A perfect “bridge” for users with multiple databases (one for work,
another for personal, etc). Users can enable the InboxSync feature to sync
their inbox data over the cloud, and have access to the data on all of their
devices --- Office laptop, home computer, and Pagico Plus on mobile
devices.
4. Managing Files
Storing and managing files is very important. All the data containers
mentioned above can store files. Files can be imported by simply dragging
and dropping into Pagico.
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By default, files are copied into the Pagico database. This way all the files are
properly stored and organized in Pagico, and there will be no duplicated files
on users’ computer. Users can open and edit the files by double-clicking on
the icons. Even though files are stored in a Pagico database, all the changes
the users make will still be saved back to the file object. For example, double-
clicking on a .PSD file in Pagico will bring up Photoshop to open the
document. Make all the changes as you would, and press Cmd+S to save.
The changes will be saved into the file object in the database automatically.
Alternatively, the users can link (aliases) to those files by pressing and holding
the Option key when dropping the files.
5. Keeping Track of Tasks (and other time-sensitive items)
Tasks can be created and stored anywhere: Inbox, projects and contacts.
Click on the “+” button in the toolbar create a new task, which can then be
expanded to a list hosting multiple items. Each list item can be assigned with
starting and due dates (and times, optional). Once a due date/time is set, a
list item will be considered as a task, and it will appear in a number of places
throughout the application, to keep the users informed. More on this will be
covered below. Notes can also be assigned with timestamps, making it a
perfect tool to manage meeting notes (note with a date in the past), and
appointments (note with a date in the future).
When you have tasks and appointments scattered in projects or contacts, it’s
easy to miss them. Therefore, the Dashboard screen is designed to keep you
informed.
The Dashboard Flowchart shows you everything that’s time-sensitive. There
are four different view modes, and the default view shows 6 weeks with the
ability to scroll horizontally. Everything time-sensitive, including tasks and
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notes with dates, will be shown in this chart to give users a bird’s eye view of
their schedule. It’s an intuitive way to “forecast” scheduled tasks.
The Dashboard section also hosts the Today and Might-Do lists. This is
another unique design that helps users to focus on what’s due on the current
day. Only today, tomorrow and past due items will be shown here. It’s a very
simple mechanism for prioritizing tasks. Simply drag the tasks up or down to
prioritize the items, or drag tasks between the two lists to reschedule. For
things that can wait, drag them to Might-Do; and for things that have to be
done today, drag them to Today.
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6. Creating Cross-Links Among Everything
Many things are inter-related, and users can easily create links among items
in their database. For example, to link up a task with a file, simply click the
Link button, select the target (or type in a few keywords to filter through a
large database), and click “Done”. Alternatively, you can just type [project
name] in notes or task title areas to link to existing projects or contacts.
7. Use Smart Collections to Collect Items By Tags
Tagging items in Pagico is easy. Simply use the @tag syntax anywhere (notes,
tasks, etc) and the tags will be recognized and displayed as keywords. To see
all the tagged items in your database, you just need to create a Smart
Collection. In a way, this feature is very similar to the Context concept in the
GTD method, where all tasks carrying the same keyword (@tag) can be
collected and displayed in one view. In Pagico, we’re extending this feature to
not only tasks, but also text notes, files and containers. Here’s an example of
a Smart Collection based on tag @bugs, which is a collection that we use to
track software issues across all our projects. In the screenshot, you can see
all matching items being listed under their group title, as well as projects that
match the same keyword.
Similarly, users can use this feature to track all types of tasks, such as
@phone-call, or @next, or use location-based keywords such as @office and
@home, etc.
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Besides Smart Collections, users can also create Static Collections that are
just like folders --- users can manually choose what items go into the
collection. Static Collections can only host projects and contacts.
8. Syncing Data for Personal Uses
To sync data for personal uses, users need to first create a Pagico ID account
(http://my.pagico.com). With this account, users can enjoy the free InboxSync
feature as well as the ability to create individual workspaces. Once you have
the account, simply switch to the Preferences section, sign in with your login,
and enable the InboxSync feature.
To sync projects and contacts across your devices, you need a workspace.
For personal sharing, the ideal scenario involves a total of no more than 4
devices (a combination of computers & iOS devices). For example, you can
own up to 2 computers running OS X, Windows or Linux, and two iOS
devices (iPhone and iPad). With a Personal Workspace, you can sync
projects and contacts on all the four devices synchronized via the cloud.
The Workspaces cloud sync works a little different than things like Dropbox. It
is a selective sync mechanism — users get to choose what gets sync’ed,
instead of syncing everything. Here’s how to get started:
1. Switch to the Workspaces section.
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2. Click on the “+” button, then choose “Create a new Workspace”, if you
don’t have one yet.
3. Select and create a “Personal Workspace”.
Once the workspace is created, you can go in and share projects and/or
contacts as you need. To get your other computers in the same workspace,
please follow these steps:
1. Install Pagico 7
2. Create a new database or open an existing database
3. Switch to the Preferences section, and log in with your Pagico ID account.
4. Click the Auto-Join button to join all workspaces created using the same
account
Of course, you can create (or join) multiple workspaces to share data with
different groups of people or colleagues. This will fall into the teamwork
scenario, which isn’t covered in this article.
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9. Using 3rd Party Apps (such as Dropbox) to Sync Data
Alternatively, if you do not wish to use our workspaces cloud service, you can
also use things like Dropbox to sync your database across computers. Here’s
an article on how to do just that. Please avoid using Dropbox (or similar sync
apps) and Workspaces at the same time. 3rd party sync apps do not solve
conflicts nicely, and they tend to confuse the workspaces server a lot,
causing syncing issues. Therefore, it is advised to disable the Workspace
Sync feature when you use 3rd party data sync applications.
CLOSING WORDS
This concludes this brief introduction to Pagico 7. Even though it is already
too long, it still only covers a small portion of what Pagico offers. Feel free to
visit our online materials at http://www.pagico.com/ to learn more about it, as
well as our other offerings. If you have any questions, please do contact us at
support@pagico.com.
Thank you!
NOTES 17 LLC
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