Exclusive 25% Discount On Mariner Software Products For DragosRoua.com Readers

OK, this is a commercial announcement and I’ll be very open and direct: as of today, you have 25% off for any Mariner Software products until December 31st 2008 via DragosRoua.com. Yes, you read it well, it’s 25% off for ALL Mariner Software products, not only the flagship product MacJournal. I’m so happy that we – meaning me and Logan Ryan from Mariner – finally put this together. It took some time and then some more communication processes, but as of today we’ve completed the promotion.

How can I use the promotion?

Yes, right, let’s skip the clouds on this one: first of all, go to the Mariner Software shopping cart (it will open in a new window) and at the top of the page enter in the promotion code field the following code:

eDragonu

Yeap, right. I’ve put it a little bigger, in case you miss it . And then click on the “Go” button. You will have to see a text like: “Promotional Pricing has been applied to all products below.”. Now check the products and you’ll see the new, discounted price. That’s all you have to do. Select your products – it will be a shame to buy only one in this promotion – and then go checkout. And enjoy. That’s really all you have to do.

How did we came up this?

I am a regular user of MacJournal and Story Mill, both from Mariner Software and I am satisfied with them. I use them at the core of my activities every day and I just do what I have to do in a relaxed and productive way. I’m not going to use words like “thrilled” or “excited”. First of all, because I don’t believe these words when I see a commercial presentation. They’re not for real. People get excited in completely different situations, or at least I hope they do, for their health.

And second, because I don’t feel this way about those products. I’m not excited when I use those excellent applications. I’m just so focused to what I do, and, on some very deep level, so thankful that those applications are not standing in my way, bloating me with unnecessary features that would distract me from what I’m doing. They are just good, decent, honest value for money software. And yet that is so difficult to find nowadays.

Another reason for this promotion is my intention to recommend only products that I’ve tried and I found useful. I will not endorse or promote products that I’ve never tried, only to skim a buck or two. There will be other offers or recommendation here, but you can rest assured that they will be following the same principle: only stuff I use and find useful.

What’s in the bag anyway?

If you’re ready to buy, just go there and place your order. But if you’re not, maybe a little more information about what’s in this promotion anyway can change your thoughts…

So, Mariner has a 18 years long history in making software for the Mac. They have several packages that would be of interest and I’ll try to briefly outline the packages I know or use.

First of all, there is MacJournal. I extensively wrote about it in the post about power blogging with MacJournal – GTD style and I highly encourage you to take a look at that post. Especially if you’re into GTD, but it works like a charm even if you aren’t. That post outlines my personal setup for my everyday blogging and journaling activities.  But if you’re not familiar with what MacJournal is, I’ll tell you that MacJournal is arguably the most used journaling software on the Mac platform. It lets you create, edit and manage journals. It also lets you publish entries remotely on your blog, or add rich media content like audio or video. You can create nested journals, or you can build smart journals applying filters to your existing content. Despite the feature richness MacJournal is still one of the easiest to use piece of software I used.

Story Mill is a book writing tool. I used to think that all you have to do for writing a great book is an idea, talent and time. Basically, this is still true. But Story Mills gives you a far more easier way to tackle a book writing activity. Oh yes, now you know: I’m writing a book and I’m using Story Mill for that. I can’t tell you more now, but most likely I will distribute the book electronically – this will be an ebook, in that case – and it will be something in the personal development field. And oh, did I already tell that: I’m using Story Mill to write it.

Another tasty piece of software included in this promotion is MacGourmet Deluxe. It’s a recipe and wine manager. I’ve used the demo version several weeks ago and it was a charm. I made a promise to myself that I will wait for the next promotion on Mariner website and then jump onto this one. Oh, but there is a promotion running as we speak, right? 25% off of ALL the Mariner Software products. Better hurry up . I’ve had a recipe website for years and I know how these things work and MacGourmet is a real asset. Seriously speaking, I think of using MacGourmet to write my raw food recipes and distribute them somehow. I don’t know when this will happen, but it’s in the plan anyway.

There’s plenty of other stuff to be included here, from Mariner Write to Mariner Calc, and also some great package value. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s also true: you can have now any piece of those simply great applications with a fantastic – yet time limited, so please hurry up – 25% off discount. The promotion last only until December 31st 2008, so just go there now and pick your choice. And, most important, don’t forget about the promo code:

eDragonu

Again, just in case you forgot it.

Why we’re doing this?

Because we both want to give more value, that’s the bottom line. I do write about productivity software and techniques, and Mariner Software makes software in that area. We both need to create better experiences for our users / customers. Putting together a special offer is one of the easiest and most direct ways to show this intention. Oh, you’re wondering if there’s something in it for me? Yes, of course it is. This is how a business works, everybody should win. So, every time you make a purchase with that promotion code I’ll be giving a part of sale. Keep that in mind if you decide to buy something from them.

OmniFocus alpha – first impressions

So, I finally got a chance to put my hands on a bleeding-edge version of OmniFocus. This is alpha software, and I only had access because in a moment of inspiration i signed up their mailing list. Now, that was a good decision.

Omni has asked me nicely to keep those builds private and this is exactly what I intend to do, however, since we already have the excellent video tutorial from Ethan (beware, around 25 megs to download), I think some screenshots are allowed. So, here we are:

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  • there are a lot of things form other Omni products: inspectors, styles, etc I use OmniPlan and Omni does look familiar to me…
  • there is also a very subtle resemblance to kGTD, at least at the colour level, this is nice also
  • the Filter thing, this is definately the most important feature for me so far: you can filter on almost any parameter you can think of
  • seems like a little cumbersome, iGTD gave me a “flexibility” impression, and OmniFocus gave me a “corporate” impression
  • seems also a little resource hungry, but this is just an impression, I haven’t had time to test it as I should be

Omni main screen:


You will notice that this is the Projects view, there is also the other one, with a “@” sign, called the Contexts view.

Below are the inspectors:


Task inspector


Context inspector


Project inspector


Dates inspector

My first impressions after less than 48 hours since the first opening is that is usable software. Is it alpha, so you may encounter surprises, but it’s usable. Unfortunately, my other projects are keepeing me from filling it with serious data and start fiddling with the Filters feature (which I consider to be the most important one) but I guess in a few days I will be able to do that. Fortunately, until then we may have a public beta.

What I like:

What I don’t like:

Again, those are first-look impressions, not reviews, so take them with a little bit of salt. I really look forward to write stuff about it as I go along. Until then, as dani suggested, I updated my list of GTD application in the sidebar with iGTD.