Cozi Final Round Up: Who Needs a Date Book?
With families being stretched in 14 different directions, it’s no wonder that someone hasn’t created a system that allows families to keep track of everyone and everything right on their computer.
That’s what Cozi Central has done — created by a group of Microsoft veterans and perfect for Mac and PC users, it allows you to sync up with Outlook and your PDA, plus includes features like a photo collaging system, grocery lists, and a coded calendar. And my favorite part is that they really are out to help families make life easier.
And according to our first set of reviewers, it actually works. Something free and valuable! Hooray! But really, let’s look at the nitty-gritty because it needs to be easy to use if it’s really going to make life easier.
Folks really loved the list feature. “Cozi allows you to keep track of them without cluttering up the refrigerator or forgetting to finish what you started six months ago.” ”The shopping list is hands down my favorite part of the program, and the one feature I think I’ll be using the most.” ”I also really like how easy it is to make lists within the program. I rely heavily on lists and I currently have several written within Cozi. Having all of my lists together in the same place is really helpful and makes life a lot easier.”
Also, moms loved how they could make sure their spouses knew what was going on without sending them out with post-it note reminders. “With web access, my husband can even log on to see what is going on during the week and whether or not it is a good time to work late or get home before Mom loses her mind trying to get everyone where they need to be (usually at the same time)!”
Just like the first set of reviewers, the bloggers loved the photo feature. “This is, by far, the coolest screensaver I have ever seen.” ”The photo collage screensaver was fantastic. There were times when my laptop would be sitting open next to me on the couch while I was watching television and once the screensaver kicked in I became more enthralled with what was going on on my screen than what I was watching on TV. Great feature, Cozi!”
Some of the bloggers had hoped to be able to pre-schedule reminders but weren’t able to. They did, however, appreciate the overall calendar feature. “What’s nice about this is that if you’re trying to plan something and you need to know what your family member is up to, you can just check the calendar.”
A couple of our Mac users had some difficulties, as well as folks trying to sync Outlook and their PDA – slow loading, picture trouble, but that was remedied fairly quickly as one blogger noted, by the excellent support service. “Another tidbit that’s worth mentioning is the quick response time from the Cozi team. Through “Send Feedback” link on the home page, Dave contacted the team with a concern and had a personal response via email within a few hours, something that I found rather impressive.” ”The other thing I really liked about it is their customer service. Of course I like to research things so I tested out their customer service with some questions I had. I heard back within 2 hours on a Sunday evening and 30 minutes during a weeknight.”
But overall as one blogger put it “Cozi lived up to its end of our bargain. It provided me with one tool where I could save important dates, meetings and appointments, as well as my shopping lists, and allows my husband to easily access everything, too.”
We say try it out — it’s free — and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments!
Perhaps I’m too demanding, but I did not find this helpful at all.
Yes, I liked the ability to personalize the home page with your own photos, etc., but I expected it to be more intuitive, have more flexibility (be able to switch between multiple views (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) and to have more robust functionality.
If you are looking for a date book that the family can access on line, then this will do the job — but if you are looking for a true organizer/planner — this falls short.
It’s a great idea if someone were able to get it right.
First, I wanted to give a quick thanks to the bloggers who reviewed Cozi - it was fun reading, and really great to see people document their use of the product. It helps us figure out what’s working for parents, what’s not, and what you all would like to see.
I also want to respond to MrsBigDubya’s comment. I think that part of the issue might be (and please correct me if I’m wrong!) that she’s using the web client. There is also a PC client, that currently has those more robust and flexible features - including the multiple calendar views, the ability to use the photo collage, etc. We’re working to bring the web client functionality in line with the PC client, but for now - if you’re a PC user - you may want to download and install to get the true flavor of the available features.