Cute Organizer is a fairly basic PIM that provides a lot of useful features for casual users, with a slightly confusing interface the only real issue. It covers all the basics--you can input contacts and information about them, schedule appointments, make notes, and so on. In terms of bells and whistles, it is a bit sparse compared to other programs, but this can be seen as removing a lot of annoying distractions few people actually use, in favor of focusing on the key features which most people need.

The interface for Cute Organizer is fairly simple--there are three basic views, for addresses, tasks, and notes, and each can contain multiple user-defined folders for ease of organization. The default view for each is fairly barren, but it is easy to add columns to each view. (Note that your changes are not saved in the trial version.) The fields are very freeform--for example, there are "Internet" fields which might hold a web address, an email address, an FTP site, or, really, any text.

Cute Organizer has a text editor for notes (limited to 4K in the trial version) which includes the most basic formatting capabilities--font, bold and underline, and alignment. There is no obvious way to make the note link to or reference a contact, which is a disappointing oversight.

Overall, Cute Organizer does its basic job reasonably well and is a worthwhile tool for those who have basic needs. It has a clean interface (though a few features are hidden, such as creating a new database being part of the "User" menu instead of "File"), and it runs on some pretty old hardware and operating systems, always a plus.

Note: The price given here is converted from Euros to USD as of December 17, 2008. Prices will vary with the exchange rate.

--Ian Harac