{rw_text}Giveaway of the day for November 13, 2009 is:

Inspiration Library

Version reviewed:

v1.73

System Requirements:

Windows Vista Home Basic, 2000, 2003, WinXP

Software description as per GOTD:

Collect interesting, original, beautiful web design and become more organized with your full web page snapshot collections. With our brand new Inspiration Library it’s easy to find and re-discover inspirational stuff and you will never lose track of interesting sites again.Features:

• Groups
  Group snapshots in your own way. Add folders and subfolders. It’s up to you how to organize your bookmarks.
• Tags
  Use flexibility of tags to classify your collection.
• Search
  Quickly search across your library.
• Rating
  Rating your snapshots is useful for finding best of them later.
• Full Webpage Capture
  Inspiration Library grabs the entire page to your library, not just visible part.
• Notes & References
  Include notes and links to web sites.
• Importing Bookmarks
  Import bookmarks from Internet Explorer.

Please note that free upgrades are available for this software.

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{rw_good}

• Straightforward and easy to use.
• Nice aesthetically pleasing interface.
• Ability to add unlimited bookmarks and categorize and tag them.
• Users can periodically “update” screenshots of websites.
• Built in search feature.
• Has ability to allow user to create portable version. Users have ability to export bookmarks.
  

{/rw_good} –>

{rw_bad}

• Has some bugs.
• Only imports bookmarks/favorites from Internet Explorer.
• Lacks any sort of bookmark synchronization tool between browsers.
• Lacks any sort of browser integration.
• Needs an option to open websites in browser by just double click instead of having to right click -> open.

{/rw_bad} –>

{rw_score}
{for=”Ease of Use” value=”7″}The actual workings of the program are straightforward and easy to use. However the lack of ability to import bookmarks/favorites from browsers other than Internet Explorer make it annoying. Also, doesn’t have any browser integration so… ya.
{/for}
{for=”Performance” value=”6″}When it works, it works great. However the program has bugged out on me a few times, and it does not properly import bookmarks/favorites from Internet Explorer.
{/for}
{for=”Usefulness” value=”6″}Lacking any sort of browser integration, ability to synchronize bookmarks between multiple browsers, and bookmark importing, I don’t see many people finding Inspiration Library very useful.
{/for}
{for=”Arbitrary Equalizer” value=”6″}This category reflects an arbitrary number that does not specifically stand for anything. Rather this number is used to reflect my overall rating/verdict of the program in which I considered all the features and free alternatives.
{/for}
{/rw_score} –>

{rw_verdict}[tdown]
{/rw_verdict} –>

The description of Inspiration Library makes the software sound a lot more complicated than it actually is. In a nutshell, Inspiration Library is a bookmark tool which allows users to add websites, and organize them by tags and categories. Each bookmark has a thumbnail attached to it of the website which is bookmarked. The developer presents Inspiration Library as something like a “website-scrapbooker” as opposed to a full fledged bookmarks manager.

This is what Inspiration Library looks like:

One particular thing I really like about Inspiration Library is the interface. The developer did not make it too overly flashy, yet still created an easy-pleasing interface with nice animations and transitions.

The main focus of Inspiration Library is the ability for users to add websites as bookmarks. To do this, users simply need to click on and fill in the necessary information:

A few things to note when adding bookmarks:

• The only “required” thing you must enter is the “Address” (website URL). Everything else is optional. If you do not add a title, a title will automatically be added after you enter an “Address”.
• Users can rate each bookmark on a scale of 1 star- 5 stars.
• Whatever “Group” you had selected before you hit the create-new-bookmark-button is the group the bookmark will be placed in. I personally don’t like this; I would prefer if the developer adds a drop-down menu to the add-bookmark screen allowing user to select which “Group” to place the bookmark in. Nonetheless, if you do place the bookmark in the wrong group do not worry – you can simply drag + drop bookmarks form one group to another.
• You may also put bookmarks in “Inbox” instead of a specific group – just be sure you have “Inbox” selected before adding a bookmark. The only problem I noticed with putting bookmarks in the inbox is the fact that the only way to take the bookmarks out of the inbox and put them in a group is to drag + drop bookmarks out of the inbox and into the group. The problem is drag + drop out of the inbox is not working; as hard as I try whenever I drag + drop a bookmark out of inbox and into a group, it just reappears in the inbox. This is one of Inspiration Library’s bugs I assume.

As bookmarks are created, they will appear under their respective group (or in the inbox):

With existing bookmarks, users can

• Double click on the bookmarks to view the screenshots of the webpages:

Users can scroll up/down/left/right and zoom in/out.

• Right click on the bookmarks to open them in web browser and to do other things:

One feature I hope the developer adds is the ability to change it so double clicking on the bookmark opens the website in the default internet browser instead of viewing the screenshot. I say this because I would rather double clicking opening the website and right clicking to view screenshot rather than the other way around; I find it quicker and more useful.

Anyone that does not like the thumbnail view of the bookmarks can change the view to “list view” by clicking on (located at bottom of program window):

Another useful feature of Inspiration Library is the ability for users to easily browse their bookmarks by either searching via the search box located at the top of the program window, or filtering bookmarks by tags (see the tags list at the bottom left of the program window).

Lastly, here is some more on the functionality of Inspiration Library:

• In addition to creating bookmarks, users can also create custom “Groups” (categories) to put these bookmarks in by clicking on :

Keep in mind whichever group you have selected before you create a bookmark is the group the bookmark will be placed in.

• Inspiration Library has a “recycle bin” which users can easily use to recover deleted bookmarks.

• Users can import bookmarks/favorites from web browsers:

Currently only Internet Explorer is supported.

All imported bookmarks/favorites are put under the “Imported bookmarks” group.

However there is a huge bug with importing IE favorites that makes this feature effectively useless: the title of the favorite is imported but the actual URL of the website is not:

I tested for this bug with Internet Explorer 8 under Windows 7 and Internet Explore 6 under Windows XP; it happens on both so I assume it is a general bug which will happen on all IEs on all OSes.

• Users can periodically update screenshots of the websites bookmarked:

• Users can export all the data (i.e. bookmarks) of Inspiration Library:

The developer makes the feature sound like it creates a portable version of Inspiration Library (I got duped myself by the title) but in fact it does not create a portable version of Inspiration Library; instead it just exports all the bookmarks and screenshots of the websites for all groups into .PLF files.

Now for all its good, Inspiration Library is still an infant as a bookmark manager because it is lacking a couple of critical features:

• The ability to import bookmarks/favorites from browsers other than Internet Explorer.
• Any sort of browser integration which allows the user to add bookmarks from within their browsers directly into Inspiration Library.

A less critical but nonetheless desirable feature Inspiration Library is missing is:

• The ability to synchronize bookmarks between multiple browsers, and possibly even computers.

I do hope these features are implemented in future versions.

Lastly, aside from the bugs already mentioned (the inability to move bookmarks in inbox and the improper import of IE favorites), Inspiration Library regularly bugs out. I would be doing something like adding a bookmark, or moving a bookmark, and I will get an error window like the following:

When this error, or a different error, appears, I have to forcefully close Inspiration Library and restart it.

This review was conducted on a laptop running Windows 7 Professional  and Windows XP Professional 32-bit. The specs of the laptop are as follows: 3GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 2600 512MB graphics card, and an Intel T8300 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

{rw_freea}

Tidy Favorites

Tidy up your favorite bookmarks with this software. Organize your favorite links as live thumbnails instead of trying to work through plain-text links. Open, delete, move, resize and update bookmarks in a single click. Conveniently use the same set of favorites and the same convenient user interface in all of your browsers – IE, Firefox, and Opera.

Too many bookmarks make your favorite links harder to navigate than firing up a search. Hundreds and hundreds of text-only favorites look exactly the same, cluttering your browser and becoming less and less usable with every new addition. Tidy up your links. With Tidy Favorites, you can now organize your bookmarks in a totally new fashion. Imagine how a Mac would do things – only Tidy Favorites does it better.

-Download.com

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Tidy Favorites is similar to Inspiration Library in the sense that Tidy Favorties provides thumbnails/screenshots for bookmarks/favorites. The difference is Tidy Favorites works out of a browser and is aimed to be a full fledged bookmark manager, being cross browsers and platform and having the ability to import from other browsers.

Inspiration Library, on the other hand, works independently of browsers, lacks browser integration or importation or synchronization, and can be used for more than just bookmark management. In fact the developer advertises Inspiration Library as something like a “website-scrapbooker” instead of a bookmark manager.

{/rw_freea} –>

{rw_verdict2}When I first started using Inspiration Library I was impressed. Even with its lack of critical features, I was going to give it a thumbs up because, I feel, the program is doing well for being in its infant stages and the features can be added later on. However, I give Inspiration Library a thumbs down because of the bugs; make the program bug free and it may just be worthwhile. My recommendation for today is Tidy Favorites. While I personally like Inspiration Library’s design better than Tidy Favorites’, Tidy Favorites is just a lot more mature application at the moment.
{/rw_verdict2} –>