SheetPlanner 17+

Extremely powerful, yet easy to use

It's not every day you stumble upon a program that has this much power yet at the same time, keeps the basics extremely simple to use. I've used dozens of different methods and apps over the years to manage lists, projects, and timelines. Typically, when a program is robust, it lacks in the ability to provide simple data entry. Or, it's just the opposite where an application is easy to use but has no advanced features when you need them. SheetPlanner solves that problem by being both extremely easy to perform data entry while at the same time, provides the depth necessary to do advanced planning. In the software world, this is one of the toughest nuts to crack, but they've done it here!!! What I love the most is the flexibility to include start and finish dates (or not). Sometimes you want a simple list to manage company goals or daily tasks. At other times it calls for a robust project management system and SheetPlanner is there for you as well! Do yourself a favor and read down the list of features here. It's packed with all the stuff you need and wished you always had. The free trial offered with this is a no-brainer, so you have nothing to lose on this one and so much to gain! 5 Stars!!!

Mac Project Planner for the rest of us

Unless you have been raised on Microsoft Project, a project planning app is going to give you a huge learning curve with many of the features being overkill for all but the most dedicated user. Omniplan and Concept Draw are more approachable than MS Project, but the learning curve is still there. Sheetplanner allows you to begin with a spreadsheet/outliner interface to get started. You can then start adding complexity as you need or want it. I'm an administrator in higher education, and have little need for many of the features in a full-blown project management app. As a result, I went without for a decade. Sheetplanner is a perfect mix of ease of use and functionality that lets you get started at the ground floor, and then lets you add features as you see fit. I would encourage anyone who wants to use project management but cannot spare a load of learning how to navigate and use a monster project manager. It likely has more than enough features for your project.

Fills several needs, nicely!

Sheetplanner is an easy to use utility for mapping out projects as well as logging actual completion dates for tasks.

Task hierarchy is supported.

It will also work well as an outlining tool. The task lines can be used as hierarchical topics, columns for project planning can be hidden, and a notes field can appear inline or can be opened in a separate tab.

Outlines also get the added benefit of yielding a timeline.

When an outline is complete, it can be exported to OPML and then converted with the free Pandoc utility to RTF or DOCX format, yielding a document with topic headings using proper styles - the navigator pane of Nisus or Word will have the topic titles, and the notes will be inline in the document.

I can export a project or an outline with start and finish dates to a CSV file, that will then import into Aeon Timeline. If the Sheetplanner file has a column for assignee, Aeon Timeline can pick that up as a participant so Aeon's grid view is already populated.

For those who value data safety, my informal peek into a Sheetplanner package reveals good old JSON. That's a big plus for me, because proprietary data formats are silly things.

If I lost the Sheetplanner app, I would be very sad, but I wouldn't lose my data. I can get my hands on it without the app - and that's a great thing!

Developer Response ,

WeatherDeck, thanks for a great review. SheetPlanner is only going to get better. We have an incredible roadmap in store. Thanks from the team at SheetPlanner Software!