Previously… last month I found a backup CD from 2002 which included what I then believed were mandatory applications for my Mac. Some surprised me as I can’t ever imagine thinking Microsoft Outlook is mandatory, but I did have a huge rush of nostalgia for what was once my calendar and address book: Now Up-to-Date and Contact.

Now Up-to-Date and Contact

Oh, now, these I miss. These I’d be using today if I could. It was actually a pair of applications: Now Up-to-Date was a Calendar and Now Contact was an address book. I remember they worked together very well and that every time I’ve tried an calendar or address book since, I’ve been judging it against these two. If I imagine I would’ve held on to WordPerfect for as long as I could, I know I wouldn’t have given up NUDC willingly. But times move on, hardware and operating systems move on, you can neither buy NUDC now nor run it on any current machines. It’s a loss. Mind you, I’m no longer the power user I was for calendars so the one that comes on my Mac is fine enough for me. Especially as OmniFocus, my current beloved To Do manager shows you today’s tasks along with a peek at the calendar for today’s events. So useful. But I’ll raise a mug of tea to NUDC tonight.

The Blank Screen: Mandatory Applications from a Decade Ago (20 February 2014)

I did. And then put it all out of my mind – until this week’s MacPowerUsers podcast featured a calendar application called BusyCal. I’ve heard of this and never looked at it. Even when I was actively searching for a replacement to Now Up-to-Date and Contact, somehow I didn’t try BusyCal. And MPU’s David Sparks mentioned on air that BusyCal was from the original makers of NUDC.

That probably means I met them. I remember covering the launch of the Windows version of Now Up-to-Date and being very disappointed. I asked the people about its missing features and they said that they were coming. Actually, I remember them saying I must be a power user and I’m embarrassed to say I liked that. I was young. But over the next few years the company did add features to both the Windows and Mac versions yet somehow, it all stopped being quite so crucial. I’d love to know the sequence of events and who went where but all I’ve found out is that Now Software was bought and the original developers went on their way.

And their way brought them to BusyCal.

I installed the trial version last night. It is the freakiest thing. It’s an entirely new app but it looks and feels like Now Up-to-Date did, at least so far. The icons don’t really match yet they feel as if they do. And it has the one feature that I most craved when I was searching for a replacement: the ability to see all your To Dos in the calendar itself. Right within each day. I used to love seeing how full the calendar got and in particular how multi-coloured it got with different categories and calendars and so on.

I switched that off in the first five minutes last night. I switched off a view of To Do lists in the first five seconds. To Dos now live in OmniFocus and they have no place in my calendar. Strange how totally one can change one’s mind.

It’s going to be interesting to see whether I switch off other features too. Right now I feel I’m wallowing in an unexpected nip back in time; I’ve got thirty days on the trial version to see whether it really still belongs in my vastly more productive life.