Sync pc218 with VCAL files

[persal]

My question was supposed to be about how to get VCAL files into my mc218 calender.
Then i thought that's not really the question.. It´s problably better to have a calender on my PC where i can import VCAL files and then sync that calender with the calender on my mc218.

So my real question is really which is the best calender/organizer to use on my PC (Windows)? With ability to sync with my mc218 of course :)

And also, the calender on my mc218 is it really the best one or is there another better which i can download?

Regards
persal

[Jim Cooke]

Persal,

The two most common PC programs that will exchange vCal files are Lotus Organizer and Microsoft Outlook. Either will sync with your MC218 using EpocSync. Both have their own strong and weak points. Organizer is by far the cheaper of the two if that's an issue.

There has never been, to my knowledge, a replacement program for Agenda. The closest are some add-on programs like Desktop and Control Panel that add some additional funtionality to Agenda like categories and linking. Interestingly, both the Palm and Pocket OS platforms have several complete replacement programs for their calendar programs due the inherent weaknesses of the built-in programs. Agenda just seems to be one of those programs that was well designed from the beginning and I think no developer ever thought there was a market for a complete replacement.

[MartinG]

Erm, I think Jim is mistaken. You can synchronise both MS Outlook and Lotus Organiser with your Psion using PsiWin - not EpocSync (which is for synchronising between 2 different Psions).

Alternatively, down load the freeware program vCal from FreEPOC (www.freepoc.org) which will let you import/export vCal files into/from Agenda.

Best regards,
Martin

[Jim Cooke]

Righto, Martin. I was thinking of the PsiWin version that came with the MC218 but was called...."something Sync". I couldn't remember the correct name, obviously. :) I always hate to refer to Psiwin when users of machines like MC218 and the Mako that renamed Psiwin might just get more confused.

[persal]

Thanks for your advices.
I have now tested Lotus Organizer 6.1 and Outlook 2002.
I found a program (LBE ToolBox) for deleting duplicates in Outlook, a neat little util. Also the synchronization wen really well, so i think i´ll stick with Outlook.
Although Organizer has a lot of functions, it lacks of an appealing Graphical User Interface.

Are there any pitfalls i should look out for when using/sync with Outlook <--> mc218?
I guess there are some security risks that needs to be adressed (caused by viruses/worms/trojans).

[MikeMcC]

Jim, I was thinking of the PsiWin version that came with the MC218 but was called...."something Sync". No, the EPOC bit was correct, it was the 'Sync' bit that wasn't ;)

"EPOC Connect"

[Jim Cooke]

There are a few things to be aware of when using outlook and Psiwin:

1. PsiWin considers the e-mail1 field to be the business address and e-mail3 to be the home e-mail address. You should make sure you add any new contacts with the e-mail addresses in the correct fields.

2. Outlook doesn't do a a good job handling anniversaries. Since there is no category field in PsiWin that gets synced with Outlook, anniversaries will sometimes get synced as untimed events and sometimes as full day events that start at midnight. Unless you have a huge amount of anniversaries, I recommend that you maintain them manually in both Agenda and Outlook since trying to track down what gets changed or deleted with each sync isn't worth the effort. Just untick the Anniversaries option in the PsiWin sync dialog box.

3. OutlookXP (2002) has much better protection against possibly malicious file attachments than previous versions. File formats .PIF, .BAT, and.SCR are automatically stripped out of outlook e-mail messages so you don't even get the chance to open them even if you wanted to. Of course, regardless of the e-mail program you use, you should have a good antivirus program running that automatically scans each mail as it's received or sent.

Outlook has taken a lot of heat as a host for viruses and worms. In some cases, that was deserved. OTOH, as the most popular PIM/E-Mail package in the world, there are bound to be more apparent problems just because it is so common.

[MartinG]

One other minor thing to be aware of. If you set a reminder alarm in Outlook (or someone sends you an appointment with one in), PsiWin always synchronises it with the default 'Chimes' alarm (on English machines anyway). Personally, I like reminder alarms - but always prefer the 'Silent' option.

This was recently discussed in this thread (http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22801) and I've half-developed a program to fix this. However, I've had practically no response from anyone and so I assume that there's little interest. If that's the case then I guess I'll just stop developing it... :(

Martin

[persal]

Jim:
It´s not really the attachments that are the real concern for me, its the automagic executable scripts/code in emails that exploits certain holes.
Maybe this is being taken care of in recent versions of Outlook (or rather IE).
There is a checkbox for not allowing scripts in emails.. maybe this is protection enough?

MartinG:
I agree with you, a feature to decide which track to be the default one would be great.

/persal