Features

TPGGTR, Part 2: Setup & Data Conversion

September 12, 2001

I’ve had a couple of days now to get everything set up on the iPaq, and I have to admit that it wasn’t nearly as painful as I feared that it would be. The first thing I did was HotSync my m505 to make sure that I had the most recent data on my PC. I made two copies of my c:\Palm\username directory, just to be sure- one at another location on my hard drive, and a second on my portable hard drive (an Archos Jokebox 6000, in case you’re curious). I simply can’t stress the importance of this step enough— it is critical to ensuring the safety of your data!!’

The next step was getting the software foundation down for the PocketPC. That meant installing Outlook 2000 (it was included in the box) and setting it up as a stand alone program- I didn’t want to use it as a mail reader. Next I had to download the latest version of ActiveSync from the Microsoft web site, as the program is up to 3.5 now and version 3.1 was included with the PocketPC. This step depends on the actual device that you have, as the PocketPC 2002 OS requires the latest version of ActiveSync.

The last step in the process involved installing Pocket Mirror and using it to get my Palm data out of the Palm Desktop and into Microsoft Outlook. This was actually the scary part- I synced my Palm one more time, and all of my appointments, to dos, contacts, and memos magically appeared on Outlook. Then I attached the iPaq cradle to my computer, and I was prompted to start a “partnership” with the device or to connect as a guest. This is actually quite useful, as I can choose to sync all data or just to copy over a couple of files to my friend’s computer. I started a partnership, and all of my data was synced over from Outlook to the iPaq within a minute. Pretty impressive, as I have about 400 contacts, 200 to do items, and lots of appointments and notes.

Not everything came over perfectly, but I was surprised at how few problems there were. The main issue was that I had to recategorize my contacts, which took about half an hour. Everything else worked great. Then I spent some time copying over some Word and Excel files that I wanted to have on my device, and I also installed HanDBase for the PocketPC. Since I use it so much on the Palm, it was very important to be able to carry over all of that data- some of those files represent hours and hours of work. I was amazed that no conversion was required- all I had to do was find the files in my c:\Palm\username\backup directory (I use BackUp Buddy) and then copy them to the PocketPC My Documents folder on the desktop. And though I haven’t tried it yet, HanDBase files are supposed to be beamable between Palm OS devices and PocketPCs so that everyone can share data on the go, regardless of the handheld OS they’re using.

So how am I doing as a Palm user trying to cope in a PocketPC world? Not bad at all. I’ve been playing around with the iPaq for a few days now, and there are some things I love, and some things I’m not so crazy about. Stay tuned for the next installment in the “Pocket Goddess Goes to Redmond” series to see what I mean.

All content copyright 2001 - 2007 PocketGoddess.com
XHTML | CSS | RSS | 508