Tucksgurl Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I have an iMac, and I'm seriously considering going with the OLLY program for my lesson planning and records keeping. I've read a fair amount on it. It appears to be buggy, but it literally meets all my needs. The Dropbox storage gives me peace of mind, and I wanted to avoid an online or subscription based tracker. Background info: I began schooling my daughter kindergarten five years ago. My lesson planning has been a joke. We always finish our books. We always complete at least 180 days of school. Beyond that, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants, planning 1 day to 1 week in advance. I'll start out with a paper planner, but I tend to abandon it a few months into the school year. Recently, I've gotten other areas of my life organized and decluttered. Now it's time to tackle school. We'll begin school on the third day of August, so I'm working to having things ready to roll by that date. In addition to planning lessons, keeping record, etc., for this year, I'd like to know if I could work backwards with my record-keeping. I'd like to be able to use OLLY to record the books we used in the past, our past school attendance, and comments. I don't intend to create full-blown lesson plans, obviously. Also, any other information about OLLY that you would like to have known before you began using it? Suggestions and tips are welcomed. I know OLLY isn't flawless, but I'd really like it to work for me if at all possible. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I used OLLY last year. I do NOT recommend it. You will be fighting bugs, dealing with almost nonexistent support, and there is little evidence that for all that money there will be an update to address all of these issues. If you have your kids sync in from their iPads, you have to do it in a certain order or it corrupts. So everyone used a single iPad to stop the corruptions from happening. Not worth the time, money, or frustration. It's very buggy and getting worse by the day. There are workarounds, and the support people are always promising the update is "just around the corner" but it never materializes. I'm using homeschool tracker now. I'm with you. I HATE subscription, web-based software, but I tried it for a single month and really like it. It's everything I had hoped OLLY would be, and the support is superb! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I used OLLY last year. I do NOT recommend it. You will be fighting bugs, dealing with almost nonexistent support, and there is little evidence that for all that money there will be an update to address all of these issues. If you have your kids sync in from their iPads, you have to do it in a certain order or it corrupts. So everyone used a single iPad to stop the corruptions from happening. Not worth the time, money, or frustration. It's very buggy and getting worse by the day. There are workarounds, and the support people are always promising the update is "just around the corner" but it never materializes. I'm using homeschool tracker now. I'm with you. I HATE subscription, web-based software, but I tried it for a single month and really like it. It's everything I had hoped OLLY would be, and the support is superb! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherimoya Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I used OLLY last year. I do NOT recommend it. You will be fighting bugs, dealing with almost nonexistent support, and there is little evidence that for all that money there will be an update to address all of these issues. If you have your kids sync in from their iPads, you have to do it in a certain order or it corrupts. So everyone used a single iPad to stop the corruptions from happening. Not worth the time, money, or frustration. It's very buggy and getting worse by the day. There are workarounds, and the support people are always promising the update is "just around the corner" but it never materializes. I'm using homeschool tracker now. I'm with you. I HATE subscription, web-based software, but I tried it for a single month and really like it. It's everything I had hoped OLLY would be, and the support is superb! Ditto. Same issues for me. I would not recommend. 9/17/13 was the last update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBearsMama Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Yep, buggy as heck. It's a purchase I truly regret wasting my money on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arliemaria Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 We are currently using OLLY trial. I am just adding resources right now, but am VERY sad to hear you all say you do not recommend it. What dear hive mind, do you recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucksgurl Posted July 13, 2015 Author Share Posted July 13, 2015 We are currently using OLLY trial. I am just adding resources right now, but am VERY sad to hear you all say you do not recommend it. What dear hive mind, do you recommend? Ditto! I need to figure something out very soon, but I just haven't found another option I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schsmom Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 I have Olly as well and spent hours on end and loads of money on it.Honestly I should have filed a complaint with my credit card to get my money back as it never from day one worked right. I spent hours putting in info for it to constantly mess up. I too am looking for a new web based planner as I can no longer waste my time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I have mixed feelings about Olly. In the end it wasn't fluid enough for me. I'm a pencil and paper person though. You could use it to do past reading logs. But you could easily do this on a spread sheet (Numbers) as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arliemaria Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Because of all your reviews we decided against OLLY and have started Homeschool Minder. So far it looks VERY promising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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