newbie 5mx to Outlook problems

[stevethornley]

Thank God for this forum!

I have spent most of the day trying to sort this problem out, and then I found all you lovely people and I'm pretty sure someone can help me out... please.

I've been using a 5mx for about three years now and it is brilliant... love it. Hadn't even tried syncing with Outlook because I didn't need to but a change in our family (plus one... Jonah... 10 months... aahhh) means my wife is working for me from home and could do with my Diary and Contacts on the home PC.

So I try to syn the two and the problems start...

... the main one being that out of my 355 Contacts, only 20, or sometimes 30 end up in Outlook. The diary, as far as I can tell, goes over OK, but I haven't tried changing anything.

Anyway, I've managed to work out some of the problem, I think... I'm using Windows XP with PsiWin 2.3.1 Build 142 and I think there might be a problem here for starters. I am downloading 2.3.3 from psion.com as I type so I guess this is the starting point.

I have also read that I need to run a reg fix, so I have downloaded this and will run it once I've got rid of PsiWin 2.3.1.

But what do I do to Outlook (2000) to get rid of the half sync that I have already done... or do I need to do this?

If anyone can hold my hand on this one I'd be very grateful... I've had a dreadful day trying to get this to work and I'm feeling very vulnerable!

Also, any things that I need to watch re compatibility between the two? Have read that anniversaries don't handle too well.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Steve.

[Jim Cooke]

Steve,

Welcome to the wonderful world of syncing.:) It's really not that bad once you get the hang of it.

First, you must get rid of PsiWin 2.3.1 - that is your main problem right now. Uninstall it, use the registry cleaner, and then install PsiWin 2.3.3. Once you've done so, you've already won most of the battle.

In Outlook, you can go to Contacts and then View, Current View, Phone List. Highlight all the records and then hit delete. You're way better off to start with Outlook completely empty than to try and resync any partial information. If you also had the same thing happen in the calendar or to-do's, you should delete these as well.

Anniversaries are not handled well by Outlook since they are just another untimed repeating event as far as Outlook is concerned. I entered all my birthdays and anniversaries by hand in Outlook and have PsiWin set not to sync anniversaries. I only had about 30 to enter and the few I add (or delete :( ) every year are not enough work to bother about. I also like to categorize the birthdays and anniversaries in Outlook so it's easy to see who I need to send a card to next.

In terms of tips, here are some of the things I'd advise:

1. Set up two separate sync tasks, one for Agenda and one for Contacts. Run each separately the first few times you sync so you isolate what application might be causing a problem.

2. In the master category list in Outlook, add a category that matches each of your to-do lists in Agenda. Make sure the spelling and case match. This prevents an occasional problem where Outlook doesn't correctly categorize a to-do list on the first sync.

3. Set you calendar to sync something like the last 30 and the next 100 days for your first sync. Not starting out with gobs of data makes a first sync likely to suceed. You can expand this date range later if you need to but I wouldn't keep more than year of data in either Agenda or your main Outlook file since it's so easy to archive data and get back to it if you need it.

4. Make sure you've downloaded and installed the contacts syncronization upgrade for the 5mx before you sync. You can find it at http://www.mgmcc.myby.co.uk/ in the 5mx section. This will prevent a lot of contacts syncing problems.

5. Compact your Agenda file and Contacts file before you do your first sync. For Agenda, you can download a compactor at http://www.psionplace.com/software/series5/Compact-2000-06-29-psion-series5.html . This also works for most other file formats as well. You can compress you Contacts file by going to Tools, Contacts Store Info, then hit CTRL+C. Compressing or compacting your files before you sync not only makes them smaller but helps remove any stray corruption that might give you problems when syncing.

6. Read at least the syncing overview in the PsiWin Help file. There's a lot of good information there and some good troubleshooting tips as well.

Have a go once you got everything set up properly. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised at how well things go.

[stevethornley]

Thanks Jim!

I have got up especially early on a wet and windy morning with renewed enthusiasm to beat this!

Your answer, I hope, will prove to be the winning move and I'm very grateful for the time you have taken to give such a detailed answer.

Will report back once I've tried as I know my experience may help others in the same boat.

Cheers

Steve

[stevethornley]

All sorted... a big thank you Jim!

As far as I can tell, everything has gone smoothly and I have tested deleting or modifying entries on either machine and it all tallies up just fine. Superb.

The only things that didn't go quite as planned were:

1. I tried to only sync the past 1 month and future 3, but the whole of my diary seemed to go across from 1999

2. I'm not quite sure how the archive feature works on either Outlook or Agenda so any help in this direction would be great. I did try archiving anything before 2003 in Outlook but it all seems to still be therefore. A little confusing but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Thank you again, and great work on moderating this forum. It is one I shall visit often.

Cheers

Steve

[Jim Cooke]

Steve,

See, I told you it wasn't so bad!:)

I have no idea why your whole diary would have synced if you had the correct date range selected in PsiWin. I've never seen this happen before. Even though I'm sure you think you set this option correctly, I can only think that you made an error and the true range was something like all entries. Best to have a look at that screen again and double check.

As for archiving in Outlook, it should be pretty simple. Go to File, Archive. Choose the Calendar folder and then the date you want to archive from. Make sure that the radio button "Archive all folders according to their AutoArchive settings" isn't selected. The default Auto Archive for the calendar is six months so that's all that will get archived and you won't have a choice of a start date. Assuming that you've done this correctly, Outlook should create a file called Archive.PST that contains all your archived data. I've never seen Outlook leave any data behind except for repeating items that start before the archive date. These have to be left to preserve the repeat pattern. Is this what you're seeing?

Archiving in Agenda is very similar. You go to File, More, Tidy/archive file. Tidied entries should be moved to a new file and you should select "All Entries". Change the date range to what you want - I tend to use calendar years. Give the archive file a name and then choose a folder. Hit CTRL-T and choose what you want to archive. I don't archive anniversaries or to-do's. Hit Enter and Agenda will then create the new archive file. As with Outlook, it will not archive repeating events that start before the archive start date to preserve the repeat pattern.

A word of warning - archive both Agenda and Outlook with exactly the same date range before you sync. Archiving on one platform and then syncing will permanantly erase the data on the other platform. There are ways to recover the data but the best course is to always archive on both platforms first and then sync.

[stevethornley]

Jim,

... you are a star. Thank you. Since I last posted I've done a number of syncs and all have worked fine.

I shall give the archiving another go once I've got some spare time and a crash hat to hand.

Thank you so much for the time you put in to moderating. Judging by the number of views of this thread there will hopefully be a number of others who have been helped by your clear advice...

.... now on to seeing how I hook up a GPS system to my 5Mx... now where is that search facility!

Steve

[Jim Cooke]

Steve,

Thanks very much for the compliments. All the moderators here do a great job volunteering their time and knowledge. I just happen to be the one that knows a bit more about syncing than the others.

I don't have much advice for you on the GPS system but I know it can be done, especially if you just need to track waypoints. We in the US aren't as fortunate as you across the pond in that there are some very good maps for the UK and Europe and almost none for us.

[netBookBabe]

Steve

There's been quite a lot of discussion on the topic of GPS on the forums here, so hopefully a bit of searching should bear fruit.

Feel free to post a fresh thread for this subject if you don't find what you're looking for, however.

Julie

[netBookBabe]

Jazzman

I've moved the posts you added to this discussion into a thread of their own, since they address a slightly different topic.

Julie