I like the hPDA, but can't ever get it too print on my printer correctly, on 3 x 5 cards. Is there a trick to it? I have tried everything. Most of the cards are very useful for the things that I need to track.

I love the hipster! It would be even more useful to me if the line spacing were a little greater.

I seldom use an entire page on Actions or Matrix forms before swapping in a new one. After all, I use the Matrix for lists and 'thinking out loud' and Actions often gets down to a page full of crossed off items except for one or two things. By the time the form is 2/3 full it is usually a good idea to start fresh in order to clear away the completed items.

So, a bit wider spacing would help me jot more clearly and would have little downside as far as page capacity. In my case, at least.

As I had mentioned in my email. Compatibility with the Canon ip4200. It currently cuts of a few pixels on the left side, leaving three sided boxes on checklists and some other weird behavior.

I also vote for greater line spacing.

Thanks,
Thomas

There are two, somewhat-related, impediments to my making more use of the hPDA forms: 1) the decorative layout elements (big black bar, borders, etc) just take up too much real-estate. I like to cram my Hipster cards full. 2) the outside border on the page sets you up for printing failure. Any small problem with printing is immediately obvious, because the borders are so darn close to the edge of the paper.

I'd recommend paring down the layouts to the basics (no black bar), and to consider eliminating the outside border. In many cases you can just rely on the edge of the card to provide that 'this is the edge of me' function.

As an example, for the yearly calendar, the extra blank space at the bottom of the card can just be left as blank. I'll write in it if I need to, but I don't need lines there as a reminder that I can.

The big black bar could be substituted with something lighter: attracts the eye too much and needs lots of ink/toner...

Imagination is intelligence having fun!

I'd like to see the multi-up'd cards available with cropmarks instead of borders, it makes it easier to get a clean edge.

It would also be nice to have a 10-up version, for people with access to business printers and 11x17 cardstock.

I usually set them up by hand at work this way (I work at a copy shop) starting from the 1-up cards, rather than using the 4-up cards. The templates I've made for myself, I always output 10-up with cropmarks.

The version of GhostScript I use to make PDFs can't handle 11x17 so I wind up storing the "print-ready" format in Encapsulated PostScript, however Acrobat Distiller (at work) can convert them to PDFs without problem, provided that it's configured properly.

I've really enjoyed the templates so far, and extending them for my own use has been half the fun! I guess that's sort of the Hipster spirit. Thanks a bunch for creating these.

I have a love hate relationship with the hipster. I love the small size for carrying, but hate the small size for actually writing on. I've reached a compromise based on Bruce's comment to John Norris's Fobster.
(pictures of open and closed).

In other words, I've made up my own size, which is then foldable to hipster size, and unfoldable for easier writing.

Yes, I know I'm weird.

I'd put in a vote for wider spacing, too. Honestly, my great preference is for unlined blank cards, so any card that offers just a little bit of guidance or headings and then lots of blank space would be far better, IMHO, than one with 24 or so thin lines. Any time I find myself struggling to forcefit myself into the form, I balk -- I'd rather have more open space. So basically, I guess, I'd like the forms to be be less form-like.... :)

it would be nice if the titles/headings would flush right, so they don't end up getting punched with holes.

I also vote for crop marks, and to kick out/lighten the big black bar.

I actually like the big black bar. I think it provides a needed visual separation. If I use an extra 3 by 5 card on occassion because of the space it takes up that's ok. My shirt pocket can hold it, and I go to the gym so I can manage the extra weight. The visual styling of the hPDA for me is one of the key attractions. Without it I'd just go back to blank 3 by 5 cards.

Here's another minor comment though. The Day Keeper form. I use it to plan out my day, appointments and tasks that must get done that day etc. The space for appointments is much wider than the space for actions. To me this is backwards. Appointments can be entered with usually a brief word. Actions though are always a phrase at the least, and I have to cram it in the little space allowed.

I have been an avid user of FinePrint (www.fineprint.com) for about a year. This is a program that will let you print out multiple pages on one page. It will only print out multi pages in 2,4 or 8 pages per printed page. 8 pages per sheet is too small and 4 pages per sheet is a little too big with margins.

Just letting you know that there is more than one way to print a page.

Hi Doug,

First of all, thank you very much for your work. Your templates help me so much.

I have no idea how much work that is but a matrix for each month of the years 2006 & 2007 with days in the first column would be put to a good use. Now I manually fill in these dates at the beginning of each row, which is quite tiring because I have to do them 5-10 times every month (I need that many Matrix cards). These matrices contain projects in the columns that have recurring tasks to be done every single day. If you could put empty checkboxes inside the rest of the cells, that would be awesome. Borders could be removed if we have checkboxes. Please remember to leave the first line empty so that project names can be written at the top of the columns.

Thats 2x12 cards (2x3 A4 pages) for the two years, dunno if you have the time to do them. 2006 only is also enough for now.

I offer my help with this if you send me the sources needed to get this done.

Please don't stop supporting the 4up version because many of us can print only the A4 stuff easily (and it makes photocopying possible which is far more cheaper & faster than printing!).

One more thing: I've started experimenting with "folders" made by hand by using a 2xwidth paper. Can't really explain this in English but hopefully you can imagine it, its very basic. I will try to make a photo of them. I used to put "Project" forms inside them. Currently they are made of empty papers but they contain a short "name" (bigger font size) and a multiline "description" (smaller font size) on the front.

Please keep the pages b&w which makes the usage of coloured papers possible.

Thank you so much for your precious time!

Best Regards,
Norbert Mocsnik
http://norbert.mocsnik.hu/

I have spent a lot of time trying to print the templates correctly, but with no success. Neither of the two printers I have will allow me to print a 3x5 card in portrait format, because the guides won't come in close enough to keep the cards straight. I tried using the .png files and I seem to run into no end of problems if I try flipping them to landscape format. I can print cards in that format from another application, GTD Tiddly Wiki. But the Hipster templates never come out right.

I don't have access to a printer that can handle 3x5 cards, but I can manage with 5x7 cards just fine. It's not a big deal, but that's the one thing I don't like about it. I realize it would be impractical to have a version for every conceivable paper size, but I find the 3x5 cards to small to work with. But don't get me wrong. I love this project a lot and love my new PDA! :)

I'd like the ability to get into OO and make a few card templates of my own that would fit into my existing deck. As a software developer, two cards that I want to make for myself are the CRC card and the User Story card.

The user story link is more of a discussion than a decent example, so I'll describe the card as usually landscape oriented, needing a title area, a ruled body area, and a location for estimate, schedule, priority, and risk. Estimate is a number of hours/days/weeks ("5 hours", "4 weeks", etc.). Schedule could be two or three words, and will refer to team events ("April iteration", "next release", "release candidate 1", etc.). The priority and risk areas might be boxes for text (values might be numbers 0-10 or "high"/"med"/"low" text) or they could be "sliders" where a mark was made on a line near the edge of the card (priority to the left, risk to the right). The "slider" approach allows for an analog indication and easy card resorting, but may not be as easy to scratch out and change...

I think the v3 templates are fantastic, and though I like the old layouts with the solid bar okay, I think the newer layouts with the gradient bar and curved ends are very slick and more refined.

Regards,
Ross