More Tools To Organize Your Mac: A Cool Duet.

Encore Review: Need to organize you and your Mac? Here’s two jewels ready for the spotlight. TopXNotes for organizing notes and information, and Wallet for organizing everything else that needs security..

If you like five star Mac applications, you’ll like one of these nifty tools.

TopXNotes for storing a little of everything and helping to keep you organized. Wallet for securely storing login IDs, passwords, credit card numbers and more.

What’s great about the Mac is the variety of applications that do what we need done the way we like it done. The problem, of course, is that no two people do exactly the same thing the same way all the time.

So, Mac appllications that help you get organized and remain organized have to be somewhat flexible in design because we don’t organize ourselves the same way.

Perhaps that’s why TopXNotes constantly gets a five star rating. Flexibility. Though Wallet is good and improving, you may find that TopXNotes is about all you need, and more useful.

TopXNotes is made up of a number of sections; QuickNotes, NoteOrganizer, a Multi-View, Templates to get you started, and Encryption to secure valuable information.

Templates are 10 pre-defined templates to get your organizational process started. When you click on the New Note menu, Templates is a choice.

There’s “templates for Email Contacts, Web Accounts, Financial Accounts, Serial Numbers and various other lists.“

I started with Shopping Lists, Bank Accounts, Email Accounts, and Serial Numbers. Except for Projects and Tasks, these tend to be the most used items when I’m on my Mac.

That got me started and let me become familiar with the basics of TopXNotes without having to figure out how to do what I wasn’t sure how to do just yet.

My biggest peeve with all the organizational tools Mac360’s covered this month is Projects and Tasks. No single Mac application does it just the way I think I might like it.

Until now. TopXNotes is also an organizer with enough flexiblity that you can set up your own Projects list, and within each project, assign a number of tasks. That’s handy and flexible.

Of course, getting information into a Mac organizer is one step, getting it out so you can see what you’ve put in, is another issue. TopXNotes makes that part easy, too, with NoteOrganizer.

NoteOrganizer is really an advanced and flexible table of contents which lets you quickly scan your notes, information, numbers, accounts, whatever, in a simple vertical and horizontal method.

Each item or folder (you decide which you need and where you need it) is listed in column view, then to the right, the Category, and the Notes number.

Not everyone likes column view, so TopXNotes also has MultiView which lets you look at the content in each note, item, or category. Click on an item in the left pane, and the information shows up in the right pane.

This view is so flexible you can view URLs, email addresses, shopping lists, directions, whatever; one at a time or all at once.

Security is a big issue these days, and most organizers of any kind now allow encryption or secure locking of information. It’s the same with TopXNotes.

Your content can be securely stored with a password. No password? No entry to the content. That means you can safely store more valuable information than shopping lists, directions, and the like.

Click Here for a look at TopXNotes’ details and download link. $30 puts it in the mid-range for expense, though TopXNotes is loaded with features, stable, dependable, and like my husband Jack, mature (or, been around awhile).

That brings me to Jack’s favorite organzing tool, Wallet. For half the $30 of TopXNotes, you get a Mac application that’s aimed more at security and lists, than notes.

The latest version of Wallet views information differently than most notes organizers. The left colum, right column will be familiar to most Mac users.

Blowfish encryption is used to protect your content (Jack tells me that’s a good thing). The latest version has .Mac integration with iDisk, and comes with a QuickPick so Apple’s Backup will store Wallet’s info offsight.

There’s even synchronization with your iPod, and a password generator.

The feature Jack seems to enjoy the most is the autofill function, which works similar to the auto fill in Safari. Once you’ve stored a login ID and password, one click will open the URL in Safari, fill in the appropriate login information, and open the page.

You can store notes and lists in Wallet, but it’s nowhere near as flexible for projects, tasks, and other kinds of information as TopXNotes.

Both applications tell me that the Mac platform is not only alive and kicking, it’s thriving. Mac developers are updating their applications rapidly, adding new features and functionality.

This is a good era to be organizationally challenged if you’re a Mac user on OS X.

Off Topic Note: I’ve updated the Mac360 Store with over 100 new categories—More Macs, more iPods, more Mac books, more software. Click Here and select any category for more detail, or use the handy search function. Whenever you buy from Amazon through the Mac360 Store you help support Mac360. Have you ever noticed how much Apple’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” television commercials remind you of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote? Seriously.