Now Up-To-Date & Contact is one of the longest-running PIMs available for the Mac. It combines powerful features with an attractive interface that's easy to navigate. A slightly older version (v4.5.2) is available for Windows.

Installation adds two icons to the Mac OS X menu bar, one for Now Contact and one for Now Up-To-Date. You can use the icons to quickly access either program, or to change its user preferences.

The default view for Now Contact is clean and well organized. Information fields include the typical name, home and work address, email address, home and work phone numbers, and URL, plus four additional custom fields. There's also room to add a photo, as well as notes and searchable keywords. A built-in layout editor makes it easy to customize the view if you prefer to have fields listed in a different order, or located in a different part of the window.

The default view for Now Up-To-Date displays a large monthly calendar on the left side of the page, and small monthly calendars and notes on the right side of the page. You can also view your calendar by day, week, year, or multi-day.

If you're using Now Up-To-Date in a business setting, its built-in server support lets you schedule meetings and share information with groups. You can also publish schedules and contact information on the Web to share with colleagues. If one person makes a change in a shared calendar, the information is automatically updated for everyone.

In addition to a built-in Help file, the package includes a well-written, 250+ page electronic user guide. Don't let the size of the user guide intimidate you. Although you might not discover some of the advanced features without reading the guide, you can easily get a lot of mileage out of this program without ever once cracking open the manual.

A free 30-day demo is available for downloading from the Now Software web site.

$119.95 (download and serial number)
$129.95 (CD with electronic manual)
$159.90 (CD with electronic manual and printed manual)

Pro: Clean, intuitive interface. Powerful scheduling, task management, and contact features. Highly customizable. User guide is well written and well organized. Can sync with Palm PDAs
Con: On the expensive side if you're buying a PIM strictly for personal use. Upgrade price is also a little high. If you want a printed user guide, it will cost you $29.95.