Product Reviews

Mamut Home advanced calendar software tries to bring order to the chaos of our busy lives. Unfortunately, it's less easy to use than similar programs. For example, when you use the calendar in Microsoft Outlook, double-clicking a date opens a new entry. In Mamut Home you have to click a tiny button to open a new calendar entry, and it always opens with today's details rather than those of the day you want.

Mamut Home falls short of Outlook in many other ways. For example, the boxes you type information

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into have a limited number of spaces, so if you type too many letters in an entry it won't appear in full.

While it's not that user-friendly, it does have some useful sections, including the ability to log all the relevant information about your cars or motorbikes. However, many superfluous sections have been added to flesh it out. How many people have bothered to calculate the gross surface area and living surface area in their homes? Home users are also unlikely to be tempted by the additional functions in Mamut Home Standard. The extra sections on diet, fitness, travel and leisure are likely to be covered by a user's diary entries anyway.

If you have a broadband connection you can use the constantly updated Mamut Information Desk, which offers tips and news on a single page. However, we found the service slow to update even over a very fast internet connection. The content is also business oriented, making it less useful for home users.

Until the interface has been improved and the information better tailored to its intended audience, this is one to avoid.