Rapid Data Entry - Getting to the Bird -- No issue is more important than this one. The software should have a variety of methods to get to the species you want to record, and should allow you to get to those birds with a minimum of clicks or keystrokes. Considering that you could be working with thousands of species (as a world birder), or hundreds (as a North America birder), your success and satisfaction in using birding software will be tied directly to this factor. If it takes an hour to enter your sightings from an outing, either you are not going to do it, or you will be very unhappy (and tired) in the long run. You need crisp, snappy, easy data entry processes which make data entry fun, not a burden. In 18 years of development, refinement, and enhancement of AviSys, we've focused on this most important issue. As a result, data entry in AviSys is an order of magnitude faster and easier than with other software.
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Birder's Diary |
BirdBase |
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| Find bird by fragment of common name or fragment(s) of Latin genus and specific names. |
|
Yes, but for Latin names, only a single fragment. Clunky and incomplete in 3.5 | Yes, but, for Latin names, requires starting fragments of both names |
| Band Code Find - four letters to get to any bird (select from a "collision" list in some cases). |
A snap to learn, by the way -- intuitive and unambiguous. |
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| Jump Tables - one click to get to any of hundreds of bird families. |
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| Hot Keys - one keystroke to get to major N.A. bird families. | Yes | No | No |
| Number of species displayed at a time - font used to display - minimum time to scroll full world list. |
44 species shown
- |
16 species shown
- |
26 species shown
- |
Note: AviSys' Find, Band Code, and Jump Table facilities work as well for world-wide birds as they do for North America birds. AviSys' data entry for world-wide birds, as well as North America birds, is stupendously faster than the competition.
Documentation -- A comprehensive, fully illustrated, printed user's guide is absolutely vital to your ability to use and grow with the software. It is also vital in helping you plan and establish a data recording strategy that meets your unique requirements. Additionally, illustrated, context-sensitive, on-line help is a necessity.
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Birder's Diary |
BirdBase |
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| Printed User's Guide | Yes, 136 pages, fully illustrated, coil bound, lays flat. Color cover, 6-3/4" x 9" |
None! That's right, None! Same 3.5 | Yes,
56 pages, not
illustrated, stapled. 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" |
| On Line Help | Yes, fully illustrated, context sensitive. Plus "tool tips" at the mouse pointer (you can eliminate them). | Yes,
virtually not illustrated,
context sensitive. No tool tips. Much Improved in 3.5 |
No Windows Help. Consists of ~330 lines of text on one memo page, not illustrated, not context sensitive, available only at the introduction screen, Tool tips. |
Output Quality -- font selection, column count flexibility, and quality typography are vital to attractive, easy to read, and professional looking reports and listings. You want to be proud when you show your reports to friends, and you deserve the personal satisfaction of quality results from your data entry efforts and software investment. (AviSys starts with a default set of quality typography and format choices, requiring no input from you until you need it.) In other words, are the results — the output — of the birding software professional looking or amateurish?
|
Birder's Diary |
BirdBase |
|
| Fonts available for printed
reports and listings. Font size choice. |
Unlimited, your choice from your font list... 1 to 24 points. |
One
font, no choice. No size choice. Fixed in 3.5 |
Clunky
typewriter font only, no choice. No size choice. |
| Number of columns available in checklist style reports (such as "What birds have I seen in New Jersey?") and the maximum number of species per page. (Portrait page) | Unlimited - (for practical purposes, 1 to 12 columns),
your choice; up to ~840 species per page. |
2 or
3 columns only, user choice; up to ~306 species per page. Fixed in 3.5 |
1 column
only, no choice; ~46 species per page! |
| Typography - use of bold and italic type style. | Yes, your choice of bold/italic for family names, and italics for optional Latin names. | Yes, but no user choice. | No choice, type styles not available. |
| Two-sided printing capability. |
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| Special issues. | AviSys output is simply beautiful! | Thayer copyright notice on every page of your reports and listings!! | No
page numbers. No WYSIWYG print preview. No option to not clutter up with Latin names. |
AviSys provides the ability to send reports and listings to text file. This allows you to literally pour report data into word processors, databases and spreadsheet programs, as well as including the data in, or attaching it to, EMail messages. AviSys spreadsheets can be poured into commercial spreadsheet programs such as Excel or 123. AviSys sighitng data can be exported in a comma-delimited exchange format for use in virtually any commercial software or for scientific use.
Data Backup -- to keep your precious birding data safe from catastrophic equipment failure, you need a quick, easy way to back up your data. This is absolutely vital! Accept no less than complete backup capability!
|
Birder's Diary |
BirdBase |
|
| Built-in Backup facility. | Yes
~ Unlimited Backup to diskette, ZIP-type drive, CD, DVD, CF (Compact Flash), SD or hard drive in a few seconds. Backup data compressed in safe industry-standard PKZIP 2.04g format that can be extracted even by Windows. Automatically spans to second diskette after about 125,000 sighting records. |
Yes
~ but limited Backup to diskette, ZIP-type drive, CD, DVD, CF (Compact Flash), SD or hard drive. Data not compressed. Can't span to additional diskettes - backup aborts with about 11,700 sighting records, (not a large number for an active birder -- what would you do then?) We're still trying to figure this out for 3.5 - developer recommends copying to a CD via Windows Explorer. |
No backup facility of any kind! |
Long Term Taxonomy Support: What happens if the author/business-owner of your birding software is run over by a truck, or for other reasons goes out of business? Will you be stuck with the old taxonomy? Or will ongoing "community" support be available to ensure that your birding software won't become obsolete?
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Birder's Diary |
BirdBase |
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| Recent Taxonomy Support: Updated to the latest Clements Fifth Edition 2005 taxonomy | Yes, free download from the AviSys web site. Automatic update, no utility required. | None!
That's right,
None!
In 3.5 charges for any taxonomies, even NA, and for any updates. |
Yes, for a charge. |
| Long Term Taxonomy Support | Yes, free, fully open, powerful, and easy to use taxonomy edit facility allows major or minor changes by anybody -- provides community support indefinitely. Look | None! That's right, None! Taxonomy can be changed only by publisher. | Yes, edit facility available for a charge. |
Performance -- you don't want to sit around for minutes waiting for a report to run when it should take just seconds. For performance benchmarks Click Here
Continuing Enhancement - AviSys is constantly being enhanced and improved, and AviSys 4.x and 5.x updates are always available free of charge on this web site. You don't go out of date with AviSys. For a history of version 4.x enhancement, Click Here
Regular, automatic, taxonomy updates are provided free of charge on our web site. A facility built into AviSys automates the update process. For example, the update to Clements' Fifth Edition (2002) taxonomy is there now!
There are many other important features in birding software. Check the other pages on this web site, looking for the many "Another AviSys Exclusive" markers. See "Things to Ask" for more product difference information. See what AviSys users have to say Click Here.