Version 7.0

General talks about EssentialPIM

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charles@mc.net
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by charles@mc.net »

Maxim -
Thanks for your prompt response! And thank goodness I can return to version 6.58 -- otherwise it would have been a real problem for me.
I've just reverted back and I'm greatly relieved. I can now continue on as I was before.

Please know that I have been a big supporter of Astonsoft and EPIM, recommending it to my friends, documenting numerous fixes and improvements for your firm and even doing extensive proofreading of your firm's marketing materials as a favor to you, etc. I've loved (LOVED) your EPIM Pro product (and still do!). Unfortunately, the new interface is unusable for me. (For the same reasons as given above.) So, I regret that I will probably stop here with version 6.58 permanently. I understand that Astonsoft will likely make few if any fixes or improvements to this version in the future, but please never force me to upgrade in the months and years ahead. Thanks again.
It's been a "good ride."
Charles S.
Northbrook, Illinois
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by Konserv »

OMG!!! WHY????!!!
With the new fugly GUI all the reason to use EPIM is gone. The modern" flat style, snow blind, bloated gui extravaganza is impossible to use.
If I were looking at EPIM for the first time now I would never choose it, the gui is notjing we will "get used to".

Registered for life but Going back to 6.58, if it stops working with Google it is time to switch for something else.
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Christopher Whitmey
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by Christopher Whitmey »

Just downloaded and installed v.7.0 Much regret to say ... :cry: :x

I constantly use: 1. EPIM Today display with Tasks showing; and 2. Contacts. It uploads at start. Why has the display font gone SO LARGE?

Scrolling is time wasting. :roll:

Where have the lines in Contacts gone? Readability is decreased by their omission :(

How much user testing did you do on the display?

Is it possible to change the display font size please?

It's uninstall 7.0 and back to 6.x.

Regret to say an EXCELLENT product has regressed to JUST OK.

Other readers: please see viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13483&p=78123#p78123
EPIM Pro 11.2.4 Lifetime: Windows 10: Andoid EPIM 6.0.10
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by KuroTenshi28 »

Wahoo ! That's what I could say a big mistake if design is to disliked.

I just don't understand why people say it's not usable to the point they would plan to "quit" EPIM. What I love are its features. UI is ok, even if not visually very attractive.

But yes, we need UI customizations settings or extended theme support. Which I don't understand, is how did alpha/beta tests worked ? Users probably said you took the wrong way, no?

I am not so annoyed by the new UI, faster and cleaner to me. But indeed, it's quite sad with this "monochrome" pattern.
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by Scotty »

WIN7
EPIM 6.58

I've commented before on the RC's so I'll keep my thoughts on the full released v7 brief.

I've tried Max, I've really tried, to find a way to make EPIMv7 work for me. I've even removed the navigation bar to give me more space.
I've really given v7 a chance to shine.
But the look of v7 is horrific, it assaults my eyes. So uncomfortable to use. Takes up more memory
At that point I had given up on v7. Uninstalled it.
Then Max, you said recently that v7.1 will bring colour themes and that kept my interest. I thought my chances of liking v7 would be greatly improved if I could actually stand to look at it.

So I reinstalled v7 again & went back to trying to get used to it.
But the more I use it, the less I like.

All modules look terrible and all my information in them looks pathetic & disjointed. My scroll finger aches.

The final travesty came when I opened a contact to look at the notes.
33 characters!! Max, honestly, 33 characters. How is this progress?
I thought, that’s it. I'm done.
EPIM v7? More like EPIM v0.7.

I have an idea Max, how about you take the 'Tags' & 'Quick Links' out of v7, put them into v6x & call it EPIM v8 and we'll forget about this v7 mess.
We'll all pretend it didn't happen.

Max your telling me that there is no going back to v6x. I disagree, v6 will always grace my computer, it fast & effective & fantastic.
V7 is a fat, messy, slow, bloated.
I will not use v7.

I would like to check in from time to time, to see if the madness is ever cured, but that's about it.
Max, surely you can see that the vast majority of the forum is against v7
Contact Notes.gif
Task Manager.gif
v6  vrs v7.gif
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by PeCe »

KuroTenshi28 wrote:But yes, we need UI customizations settings or extended theme support. Which I don't understand, is how did alpha/beta tests worked ? Users probably said you took the wrong way, no?
Alpha testing, I can't answer about.
Beta testing. Lot's of comment was there too about the interface and features. I can say a lot has improved, otherwise even more people wouldn't like it. BUT it was decided by Astonsoft and development that the general look of the interface was not going to be changed. :(

Because of this also during betatesting people reacted that they would stay on 6.x and were not going to upgrade their main program.
Peter Tak
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EPIM 11.8.4 Pro portable / Android EPIM 6.0.17
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KuroTenshi28
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by KuroTenshi28 »

Astonsoft must have had serious motives to make these changes. Probably a technical matter for a new base.

7.0 is probably the beginning of a new thing, like Vista had been the beginning to 7 then 10.

So the main issues are :

- Not enough space for many informations. Or incorrect default layout.
- Not enough information separators (lines, grid)
- Depressive and/or blinding theme
- Not enough UI customization

I think we can summarize like this.
Last edited by KuroTenshi28 on Fri Jun 17, 2016 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by KuroTenshi28 »

Scotty wrote:...

The final travesty came when I opened a contact to look at the notes.
33 characters!! Max, honestly, 33 characters. How is this progress?
I thought, that’s it. I'm done.
EPIM v7? More like EPIM v0.7.

I have an idea Max, how about you take the 'Tags' & 'Quick Links' out of v7, put them into v6x & call it EPIM v8 and we'll forget about this v7 mess.
We'll all pretend it didn't happen.

Max your telling me that there is no going back to v6x. I disagree, v6 will always grace my computer, it fast & effective & fantastic.
V7 is a fat, messy, slow, bloated.
I will not use v7.

I would like to check in from time to time, to see if the madness is ever cured, but that's about it.
Max, surely you can see that the vast majority of the forum is against v7

Contact Notes.gif Task Manager.gif


v6 vrs v7.gif
WIN10
7.0

I don't understand the issue with memory and the space. For memory it's the contrary to me. Between 40mb and 60mb (when I got several Windows open) now, and before about 100mb. And for space, I am using 125% scale font. Do you work only in Windowed Mode ? Maybe you can resize the ui to fit your needs ?

Image

Image
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by ricsotherid »

Max, there's something a bit disturbing in the way you are interpreting customer feedback.

As a hardware and software designer combined with management of my own company, I spent many years dealing with the same issue of customer perception and expectation. I was able to provide very different solutions than what customers requested and expected because my concept and vision went far beyond and lead them to a greater level of professionalism and achievement. In effect I wrote the book that became the standards of an industry.

Almost the opposite is true when someone mimics one of the industry's less competent players.

Your customers are telling you they don't like what you are doing.

You are not listening.

It would be a good idea to carefully re-read the posts in this forum and change your priorities accordingly.
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by Roel »

I too would like to see much higher information density a la versions 6.x. More in my field of view, less scrolling. Functionally EPIM remains wonderful, and releasing a "classic" theme or similar solution in version 7.1 would go a LONG way to making your customer base happy while still retaining the advances of tagging and linking.

And by the way, THANK YOU for enhancing the bold font on unread emails (which I commented about under RC 2), so much better! :-)
Roel Hammerschlag
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by MetalDrop »

KuroTenshi28 wrote:Wahoo ! That's what I could say a big mistake if design is to disliked.

I just don't understand why people say it's not usable to the point they would plan to "quit" EPIM. What I love are its features.
I don't think anyone here has actually said they would quite using EPIM, though I could have missed a post somewhere. The main consensus is to roll back to 6.58. Many of us are way too invested into EPIM to just up and "quite" and thankfully EPIM is a well made enough program that it is possible to hang back on old versions for a quite a long time.

Of course that said if you showed me EPIM 7 and I had never used EPIM before I would pass and move on I wouldn't have became invested in it at all.
Which is something I recently tested a family friend who had never used EPIM before; I started them out in version 7 for two weeks (Yes I used an RC but not a whole lot changed from RC3 to release so it's still quite valid) they barely used it at all and said it just wasn't a "nice feeling experience". At which point I put them on version 6.58 and now they are an avid daily user of EPIM. The important thing to this test to me was that the family friend was a windows 10 user which I figured would be a great less bias test subject since nearly everyone else I know uses Windows 7 due to their dislike of 8/10 so it's not a big shock when they don't like version 7 compared to 6.
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by Mark »

Will also add myself to the list of users who don't care for the new interface. Others have pointed out many of the differences. The primary one for me is the larger fonts and spacing. I just can't see all of the things at once that I used to be able to see. Have decided to rollback to 6.58, but will continue to use. I hope that improvements can be made in future versions to bring back some of the UI design features that make the pre-7.0 versions so nice.
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by KuroTenshi28 »

MetalDrop wrote:
KuroTenshi28 wrote:Wahoo ! That's what I could say a big mistake if design is to disliked.

I just don't understand why people say it's not usable to the point they would plan to "quit" EPIM. What I love are its features.
I don't think anyone here has actually said they would quite using EPIM, though I could have missed a post somewhere. The main consensus is to roll back to 6.58. Many of us are way too invested into EPIM to just up and "quite" and thankfully EPIM is a well made enough program that it is possible to hang back on old versions for a quite a long time.

Of course that said if you showed me EPIM 7 and I had never used EPIM before I would pass and move on I wouldn't have became invested in it at all.
Which is something I recently tested a family friend who had never used EPIM before; I started them out in version 7 for two weeks (Yes I used an RC but not a whole lot changed from RC3 to release so it's still quite valid) they barely used it at all and said it just wasn't a "nice feeling experience". At which point I put them on version 6.58 and now they are an avid daily user of EPIM. The important thing to this test to me was that the family friend was a windows 10 user which I figured would be a great less bias test subject since nearly everyone else I know uses Windows 7 due to their dislike of 8/10 so it's not a big shock when they don't like version 7 compared to 6.
Yes there is a difference between users and developers. As a developer I see a clean, reactive, bug free, memory friendly, more readable (on a 1080p 19 inch monitor), and rather intuitive UI. As a user, I see a plain (maybe ugly) UI, quite empty (by default), that doesn't show its differences from alternatives, and doesn't highlight important features. Indeed I chose EPIM (6) by its UI first, that was appealing and different. And I saw nearly immediately I had more than a simple mailbox.
Packaging is a good way to sell a product, even if worse than another ^^

I can handle 7.0 as I know EPIM's features and I am a developer that is not reluctant to "modern UI" (I have a Windows Phone and Windows 10, and I work in .NET ^^). But that's not what "simple" people wants. Users are 99% of your clients.

You have to think about people that have ALL THE DAY EPIM open (like me) for professional business. It should be enjoying to see and use. In v7, it's not annoying for me, but I am using it "only" 4 or 5 time a day for mailing and calendar.

I hope for everybody 7.0 is just a new base for something super nice !

EDIT : As I rarely use Contacts, Tasks and Notes, I didn't understand. Now I see what people wanted to say. In Contacts, there are unuseful spaces between each contact. Same thing for Tasks (less "serious" there). You can optimize space to condense things a bit more, and add vertical and horizontal grid separators.
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by VDSD »

Hello,
I've yesterday bought a lifetime license but am extremely disappointed in the new layout. This looks like a version of the 90 Have previously chosen EPIM for its beautiful layout and clear calendar.
Hopefully there quickly updated with the old layout. I'am using Epim now for 2 years.
Otherwise I switch completely over to google gmail and google calendar
Incomprehensible !!!
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Re: Version 7.0

Post by nodrog »

I'd like to join both camps here - I've used EPIM since the very early days and I've been delighted with most of the improvements and it is good to see responses to users' requests. Most of my early gripes (search, label printing etc) have been resolved and the program has been a joy to work with. I am able to do almost all my daily work from within EPIM.

I tried V7 and I have reverted to V6.58 because for me the layout is faster to use and it is easier to find information within notes.
Tags and the other improvements in V7 would be useful, but for me it is not worth the inconvenience of the overall interface.
I can understand that tablet users might find it better, but on my PC and Laptop it is definitely a step backwards.
6.58 is much easier on the eye if you are using it for hours each day with a decent sized screen.

I wonder whether a choice of skins might be possible in future versions of 7?

For the moment I'll continue to appreciate V6 and hope that the response to V7 users is as sympathetic as it has been in the past.
Thanks for all the effort!
Thanks
Gordon

EPIM Pro latest version, Win 10 Pro 64 bit
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