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Have questions about PlumLife?
We have answers that might help!
Q: Why don’t I have to install anything to use PlumLife?
Q: So how will PlumLife improve how I schedule my life?
Q: Will PlumLife make communicating with all the people in my life easier?
Q: Will PlumLife send me reminders and alerts?
Q: How does PlumLife help me communicate with people who hate email?
Q: Is it difficult to move from what I’m currently using to PlumLife?
Q: What happens if I need to do more first-time set up later on?
Q: How does PlumLife work with Outlook, Google or iCal?
Q: What happens if I use e-mail that you haven’t said you support?
Q: How can I manage all the mountains of data in my life?
Q: How do I organize specific groups of people?
Q: So can I tag things more than once?
Q: Can an Event be on more than one Calendar layer?
Q: Will I be able to print all this information out to hard copy?
Q: Can I quickly add events without having to worry about all the other options?
Q: What happens if I am not ready to commit to an event I’m trying to setup?
Q: Will PlumLife help me track all these people’s responses to my Events?
Q: Can PlumLife help me keep track of all the details of people in my life?
Q: What if PlumLife hasn’t anticipated important details about the people in my life?
Q: Can I send my contacts to others?
Q: Can PlumLife show me only information about People that is important to me?
Q: What is the difference between Tasks and Events?
Q: How does PlumLife make seeing my daily route easier?
Q: What happens if I need to find a specific event, person or task?
Q: What is the difference between a local and global search?
Q: Do I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get you to help me?
Q: Who provides the payment gateway system for PlumLife?
Q: How do I know my data is secure?
Q: Is there an iPhone or Android app?
Q: Why don’t I have to install anything to use PlumLife?
A: We believe two things:
1) That our customers aren’t always in the same place or using the same device when they need to see their calendars, contacts and maps.
2) That Cloud Computing is the wave of the future, so we built PlumLife to reside in the cloud.
With cloud computing, its like a website, there is no software to download; everything is accessed via an Internet connected device from a web browser or an app. Because your computer, smartphone or tablet isn’t the primary storage location of your data, everything is always accessible, protected and safe on our Amazon AWS servers. Want to learn more about Amazon Web Services?
Click Here.
Q: So how will PlumLife improve how I schedule my life?
A: We know you’ve already heard about OHIO (Only Handle it Once) and a myriad of other time management and communication techniques. Even when you try them out, it’s crazy, because WHERE it all is supposed to go. We’ve got an answer that might help. Our suggestion: When you create an event think of more than just who, what, when.
To give you an example of how this all comes together; let’s say you are hosting a dinner--your guests will of course be required and optional attendees so to them this is just a normal appointment. But perhaps you have children who need a sitter for the event - PlumLife lets you set that up. Then you may need someone to cook the food, set the table, make drinks and get the Hours d’oeuvres, pick up flowers, order a cake. PlumLife allows you to plan all that right from the event setup – unlike spreading all that work out across many different tools - the many emails, the stickie notes, the TO DO lists and the texts, the way you are probably doing it now!
Q: Will PlumLife make communicating with all the people in my life easier?
A: Absolutely! PlumLife will email your recipients and track their responses and it will give you the fifty-thousand-foot view of everything going on in your life with easily filterable controls to see and focus on only one or two things at a time. These features all come together into a powerful system that lets you quickly stay on top of all scheduling changes with an automated process for tracking everyone’s schedule or just the many projects, interests and clients you have yourself.
Q: Will PlumLife send me reminders and alerts?
A: Pride yourself on being punctual? We do too! Sometimes we need a little help which is why we insisted PlumLife have the capability to send and receive reminders and alerts by text or email.
Q: How does PlumLife help me communicate with people who hate email?
A: Not everyone loves email and PlumLife understands that. PlumLife can help you communicate in whatever way works best for each of the people in your world. You can Print the Day (along with the day’s map), you can email or text event information to the attendees, you can share a Calendar via a private URL, you can feed events directly to someone else’s (even your) online calendar (think Outlook, Google or iCal). Too many choices? Just start off figuring out your own personal system, and then slowly incorporate everyone else. With text messaging being so popular with the younger generation we have built our system to allow you to communicate your events via SMS Text Messages. Like email and text? No problem – PlumLife lets you use both means to communicate with people in your life.
Q: Is it difficult to move from what I’m currently using to PlumLife?
A: PlumLife understands you are busy and the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time learning a new system, let alone porting all your data from your old system over to your new one. That is why we have built our system to include several ways to port your data over and to do it in as few steps as possible. With most email and calendar systems you will be able to either simply export your data and import directly into your PlumLife, or you can setup continuous imports into PlumLife so that you can keep using your old system until you are ready to fully migrate at your own pace.
Coming to PlumLife from paper? Then you definitely will find Bulk Entry is your best friend. It is the fastest, easiest, most compelling way to enter a list of events, a sports schedule, a roster of contacts, a list of action items, or anything else coming straight from paper or your stream of consciousness. You’ll wonder why nobody thought of it earlier!
Q: What happens if I need to do more first-time set up later on?
A: Sometimes when you are trying a new system out you want to just poke around before taking the plunge into full on conversion. When that happens you may want to come back to the import process. That’s why PlumLife always lets you get back to any setup screen you wish to access at any time with very few clicks. The setup wizard will always be right there at the top of your screen so you can return to it and every PlumLife calendar lets you access most import options right from the properties interface.
Q: How does PlumLife work with Outlook, Google or iCal?
A: PlumLife has been designed to take advantage of as many industry standards as possible in order to be compatible with the most popular e-mail and calendar applications out there on the market today. By adhering to these standards, PlumLife lets you set up subscriptions to your Outlook, Google and iCal and many other online calendars, while also allowing you to add events from your email to PlumLife as long as your service provides the industry standard .ICS attachment which contains the event details! (Most of them do, so don’t worry - and ping us if it doesn’t, we’ll see if we can help.)
Q: What happens if I use e-mail that you haven’t said you support?
A: With PlumLife it won’t matter if you’re using a system other than the one’s we’ve mentioned to get all your events easily into your PlumLife. As long as emailed events you get include an .ICS attachment, you can forward the event to add-to-calendar@notifications.plumlife.com and have these events show right up on your default PlumLife calendar. You can even do this with multiple email addresses you may use, so all your systems will talk fluently with PlumLife.
Q: How can I manage all the mountains of data in my life?
A: We have built in many filtering tools that allow you to quickly drill down to see whatever it is you need to look at. Each calendar exists as a layer, which allows you to show and hide the events on each. We also have Tags for events, people and tasks so that you can group things together. If those don’t help you find what you’re looking for, we offer local and global searches to find anything at all in your PlumLife.
Q: How do I organize specific groups of people?
A: PlumLife lets you build lists of people with the Tag feature. Tag as many or as few people as you wish, and then quickly find that group by selecting that Tag filter later. Whether you’re making a soccer team list, or a Christmas card list, it’s easy with Tags! As soon as you save an item with a word or term in the Tag field, you’ll see that Tag show up in the left hand column - now finding everyone with Christmas in the Tag field is as easy as clicking on that link!
Q: So can I tag things more than once?
A: Yes, Tags are just reference markers and so you can add as many as you like to all your data in PlumLife. Single Events, People and Tasks can belong to any number of tags you wish. Just add them, and find them again later from the TAGS link on the left-hand side. Note: If you’d like a Tag to be made up of two words or more, like Christmas Cards, you need to put quotes around the words you are combining, like “Home Room Moms”. Have Fun!
Q: Can an Event be on more than one Calendar layer?
A: The layer system wouldn’t quite be all it can be without this ability would it? In PlumLife every event has a primary calendar, which is what gives the event its color on the calendar. Then you simply add a Calendar name as a an Attendee to any event and it will also show up on that Calendar, even when you filter off the Primary Calendar in which the event belongs!
For example: The whole family is attending a BBQ in the neighborhood this weekend. I need to block that time for everyone on their calendars, but I don’t want to see the BBQ 5 times on PlumLife when I’m looking at all the calendars. The answer is to choose one Calendar as the Primary, and invite the rest of the Calendars to the event as Required Attendees. This way, the event only shows up once when all the Calendars are filtered on, but still shows up on each person’s Calendar if every other Calendar is filtered off.
Q: Will I be able to print all this information out to hard copy?
A: PlumLife offers print templates for every page; Home, Calendar, People and Tasks. But best of all, since you use PlumLife right from your web browser, you can print the page exactly as you have it shown using the built in browser print feature. Some PlumLife subscribers like to print out their Calendar View for the Day, and their Map View of the Day, and slide them back-to-back into a see-through sleeve. Isn’t that a great idea?
Q: Can I quickly add events without having to worry about all the other options?
A: We understand you don’t always want to use the full power of PlumLife when entering events. This is why there is a CREATE pane on the left which allows you to quickly create an Event, Task or People with only the most basic information.
Q: What happens if I am not ready to commit to an event I’m trying to setup?
A: Sometimes you are planning an event, but not quite ready to mark it off as ready to go. This is why PlumLife has a Save to Draft button, which sets the event up on your calendar in a special draft state. The only difference with this state is that the event has a draft icon that tells you it’s not yet committed and nobody who you’ve added as a recipient is yet notified. It may be a small distinction, but it is very comforting being able to put things on your plate when you’re not yet ready to take action. So, if the Draft Icon shows up, no one has been sent an email or text about that event!
Q: Will PlumLife help me track all these people’s responses to my Events?
A: PlumLife uses an icon system for every event that enables you to track the response of recipients easier. This way you can know the status of the people involved in an event by quickly scanning your calendar for this very obvious visual cue. The presence of this icon tells you that you need to take action. You will never have to walk around with that frantic feeling that something or someone may be missing again!
If you need further details on what’s amiss, just open up the Event, and you’ll see the details on who’s accepted, who’s declined and who has not responded to delegated Task or Sitter/Driver requests.
Q: Can PlumLife help me keep track of all the details of people in my life?
A: You know a lot of people, and there are a lot of things about them. Because of this, PlumLife has a large set of data fields to track all your contact info. We’ve got some really interesting and helpful fields, like Custom Fields, Casual and Formal Salutations, and space for information on multiple homes and work places.
Q: What if PlumLife hasn’t anticipated important details about the people in my life?
A: That’s no problem either! PlumLife has a property in the Account page, which allows you to assign Custom User Fields to all your People. If you know someone who uses the latest social network, simply add their ID here and it will be kept along with their other info. Know someone in direct sales – no problem just add the product line they sell and everything will be kept together with them. Some of our subscribers are in Direct Sales for clothing, and we thought it was great when we learned they were using Custom Fields for people’s sizes.
Q: Can I send my contacts to others?
A: It’s as simple as pressing a button! Just select the contact and when the card view opens up click the Send button. Type in an email address and the contact will go to them.
Q: Can PlumLife show me only information about People that is important to me?
A: The List View in the People Tab can show or hide any columns you wish so that the only information shown is what you want to see. You can also arrange the columns in any order you wish, so that the list fits your preferences. Simply drag and drop. Want Name, Email, Phone, Address? No problem! Do you prefer Name, Company, Business Phone, and Business Address? You got it!
Q: What is the difference between Tasks and Events?
A: They are both very similar, in that they both involve doing something, and often at a specific location and time. But the main difference is that typically a task will involve only one person, it can be assigned ownership and may not have a specific date or time to when it must be done. PlumLife is very unique in that it has both, but integrates them together in a way never before seen. You can see them on the by themselves, or side by side, you can see them on a Map.
Q: How does PlumLife make seeing my daily route easier?
A: The location of your events and tasks will show up on a map whenever you add an address to them. This is useful when you are planning your day, or just want to see how much traveling you or people in your life are going to be doing. Since PlumLife is cloud based, you will be able to keep on top of this map as you are out and about during your day. Another great feature that you can’t get with anyone else!
Q: What happens if I need to find a specific event, person or task?
A: We support a full text search, so you can simply type in some keywords or phrases from something you know is in your system and it will pop right up!
Q: What is the difference between a local and global search?
A: A local search looks only in that specific PlumLife area such as the Calendar events, People contacts, or Tasks. When you do a full global search, you will find data for all three and the results will be displayed together in one single list. This way you can be as specific or general as you like and what you are looking for will always be easy to find.
Q: Do I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get you to help me?
A: Absolutely not! Every page in PlumLife has a Feedback button in the top-right corner. Please never hesitate to click there and tell us what you are thinking or need and we will always be prompt to get back to you! If you prefer email, then simply email us at support@plumlife.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible. We know we are nothing without you, our customers. So please reach out to us if you ever need help, or just want to tell us your thoughts!
Q: What is PlumLife made of?
A: We built PlumLife using a wide variety of open source modules that give our features the greatest array of functionality. The whole site is written using the object-oriented language Python on top of the Django Framework.
Q: Who provides the payment gateway system for PlumLife?
A: We use Authorize.net for all our billing transactions. More merchants trust Authorize.Net than any other payment gateway to manage their payment transactions securely and reliably.
Q: How do I know my data is secure?
A: There are two ways PlumLife works to keep your data secure. First, we use Thawte to sign and secure all data using 256-bit SSL encryption. This ensures that your data is safe while traveling across the Internet and protects it from hackers intercepting your data during transit. Next, we use the Amazon AWS service to keep your data protected and safe on our servers. Amazon has maintained their highly respected reputation in the industry by using the highest standards and practices to keep all data they store safe from intrusion or public exposure.
A: Since you can access PlumLife using the browser on any phone, tablet or computer, we do not have an app (yet). No promises on timeline, but, rest assured, it is a high priority just because it will make interacting with PlumLife that much better.
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