Query Bleary
Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 09:48 I went a little crazy last week. I spent too many hours looking up producers, and by the end I was a cross-eyed basket case.
When I couldn't figure out how to log my submissions and my contacts, I knew I was in trouble. Excel list? Too unwieldy. Free manuscript tracker program? But I can't export or import the data. What else is on the Internet? FileMaker? What's FileMaker? Oh wow, I have it on my computer. Should I learn it? Looks complicated. Lemme try... This sucks! I should be writing. Why am I not writing?... I sat there staring at the screen, unable to make a coherent decision.
Somehow I found the wherewithal to shut down the computer and go to bed. And the next day I gave the queries a rest.
So far, I've received 6 responses--all saying "no thanks."
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Reader Comments (2)
Responses are good, even when they're bad!
I've tried Intuit's Contact Manager program, which is bloated and crashes often. I have FileMaker, but you're right, it's a pain to get past the learning curve, and for contact management it's not much better than Excel. I keep going back to Outlook. I am NOT a huge fan of Microsoft software. I own the Office XP suite and instead I use OpenOffice. But I have not found a program as good as Outlook when it comes to managing and organizing contacts. You can download the 2007 version (with Business Contact Manager) free for 60 days and test it out (even free it's the full version). I've tried literally a dozen programs, Outlook's the only one that keeps your email and contacts synced with each other, and allows you to view any tasks, projects, notes and correspondence related to a contact just by opening the contact up.
Hang on there, all you need is one "yes."
Bento is what you need. Filemaker is overkill. Bento is a database application developed by Filemaker for people who aren't database programmers. Very easy to use, attractive templates, you'll be up and running in no time. Only for OS X Leopard. Go to www.filemaker.com/bento/ and try a free demo. You'll love it.
Regarding a pre-existing solution for Filemaker, check out the Script Log solution at:
http://www.everythingcd.com/filemaker/contents5.html
"Solution for Screenwriters to track their submissions to agents, managers, producers, publishers, and executives. Version 2.0 is also designed for any writer who has multiple submissions that need to be tracked, or for agents who have multiple writers to track."
Haven't tried it myself. Probably an older solution that is not very attractive. Personally, I would design my own in Bento.