Converting Psion Agenda & Contacts/Data files

[GoLinux]

Okay, I got my SL-6000L and I have been using a Psion 5mx so far. Any other former (or current....) Psioneer out there able to help me out with figuring how to convert my Agenda, Contacts and Data files into a format the Zaurus PIM applications can understand?

As far as I can see, the only hope seems to be to use Outlook to import the Psion files after I have converted them into a common format (CSV or dBase, for example).
Even that would leave me no option to convert the Agenda file, although luckily that's the least critical of all.

However, I prefer to avoid using Outlook, the Qtopia desktop seems good enough for what I want to do.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[swing]

Any other former (or current....) Psioneer out there able to help me out with figuring how to convert my Agenda, Contacts and Data files into a format the Zaurus PIM applications can understand?

As a new convert to a Zaurus, and still a current netBook user,  the easiest method by far for getting the details into the Zaurus is to sync the Psion with Outlook, and then sync the Zaurus with Outlook.

Once you've got the data into the Zaurus, I guess you could switch to Qtopia Desktop to manage the data.

This will only handle Agenda and Contacts (and ToDos from the Agenda too!) - Data files I've yet to handle - but I suspect converting to .csv for import into your chosen database app is probably the easiest.

[PsionX]

[GoLinux]

Swing,

thanks for confirming what I feared.... seriously, thanks for you reply. I did convert the Data and Contacts file using the conversion utility that comes with PsiWin 2.3 into a dBase 5 file and it imported very well in Outlook. I was hoping I could have done the same with the Agenda file, but there is no conversion filter for it in PsiWin. From what you are saying it seems I have to actually sync the 5mx with Outlook first.

I wanted to avoid to use Intellisync, as it seems to have the tendency to screw things up and certainly is not a model of stability....

[swing]

I wanted to avoid to use Intellisync, as it seems to have the tendency to screw things up and certainly is not a model of stability....

I've found the PsiWin Psion Synchronizer works well (although it was best to only ever modify things on the Psion) - but that's not a problem as you only want a one way transfer into Outlook.  Then use Intellisync for Zaurus (I've found this miles better than the elder Intellisync for Psion (which was very poor)) to get the data into the Zaurus, and then switch to Qtopia Desktop and you should be set.

I have to use Outlook (so haven't done the last step) as I have a couple of desktop apps feeding data into Outlook which I want on the Zaurus.

[GoLinux]

Swing,

I eventually decided to remove the QTopia desktop, install Intellysinc and sync the Zarus with the Contacs I had previously imported in Outloook after converting the Psion back-up file on my computer to dBase 5 format.

It sounds contorted but it worked well....  I think I'll let go the old Psion Agenda file, I just manually re-entered the future appointments and similar stuff in the Zaurus "Calendar" application and sync'd with Outlook.

We do use Outlook as our corporate e-mail system, so that's not the real issue. I use it all the time anyway, although so far I had preferred to ignore the Calendar and Contacyt information (which I kep on the Psion) and use Outlook only for e-mail.

As i mentioned, I was (and still am...) a little biased toward Intellysinc. I'm quite sure it messed up with my XP box at home few months ago when I tried to install and then remove it.  So far it is working okay on my IBM T41 at work (knock on wood....)

There is maybe one last thing you can help me with: after synchronizing my Contact database from Outlook to the Zaurus, all the entries are sorted by first name, not last as I would prefer.

On the Psion,  I was using the Data application rather than Contacts (another old story when I tried to convert my 3c files to the 5mx....)
Since in Data I had only one field , no first and last name, only "name", I used to write the last name first and then the first name, no comma in between.
It seems that both Outlook and the Zaurus are interpreting this the other way around. On the Zaurus it shows as "First name, Last name". Is there any way to sort differently in the Zaurus Contact?

Thanks.

[amrein]

-- Just a note --

As soon as you think about synchronising with Outlook you must be aware that someday you will get into troubles.

Psion Psiwin 2.1 was working well. Then comes new update from MS. Result => bugs.
Psion Psiwin 2.2 was working well. Then comes new update from MS. Result => bugs.
Psion Psiwin 2.21 was working well. Then comes new update from MS. Result => bugs.
Psion Psiwin 2.3 was working well. Then comes new update from MS. Result => bugs.

You can do the same kind of mantra for PalmOS tools. The big difference is that Palm Inc always tried to release a new PalmDesktop as soon as they saw MS changing things. This haven't prevented them from suffering from MS generous updates.

You can also do the same kind of mantra for Intellisync or any other synchronisation tools wanting to work with Outlook. Outlook is a trap. Outlook is what Windows trolls ask for when they want to break Linux PDA business.

At last, their own MS Pocket PC synchronizer could also have issues

So... now... you should understand why this topic doesn't interest a lot of people. The same way people shouldn't use closed proprietay formats for their files (files like MS Excel or MS Word), the same way asking for Outlook synchronisation is evil.

If you want to synchronise your Psion agenda with the Z and you ONLY have outlook, well you will have the joy to mess up with it...

There are applications on Linux for the Z and KDE but at present their maintainers are mostly very bad programmers or they love to mess their code for fun. For Psion, no synchronisatiion software: Epoc / Symbian never have released the marvelous closed proprietary format of their files. You can connect and backup you files thought with the great (and working well) plptools or plptools-kde.

Well... now... I can calm down. Suffered too much from evil MS strategies...

Thanks for your time.

[Zuber]

Not had a Psion 5 for a long time (Never had one actually, but had something called a Geofox that worked the same)

Anyway,

I recall chating with one of our Zaurus C860 buyers that wanted to get their Psion 5 database data into the Zaurus.

Pointed them to Portabase. They seamed quite happy. That is, they were able to get the Psion 5 Data app. data out and then into Portabase and working nicely.

Don't know how they went about it, but thought it worth a mension. I assume they just did an export then an import...

[swing]

There is maybe one last thing you can help me with: after synchronizing my Contact database from Outlook to the Zaurus, all the entries are sorted by first name, not last as I would prefer.

As I used the Contacts app, I not sure I follow your problem (I was lucky - on my 3c I used a third party app to sync with Outlook, which was absolutely fantastic - moving back to PsiWin for the netbook was a real struggle, but that's all history now, as I am rarely (if ever) syncing the netbook with Outlook anymore, and relying upon my Z for these functions).

However, I had already experienced KO/Pi and KA/Pi under Windows, and hence as soon as I got an SD card, these apps were installed.  As a result, I sync Outlook with the DTM apps, and then sync these with the Kx/Pi products, and only use Kx/Pi for viewing and editing my diary and contacts.

I found that KA/Pi had no problem in getting the first name and last name right based on the information it was given from Outlook, and offers the ability to sort on either.

I suspect if the data is being interpreted incorrectly, the only option is to either manually change every record (I had to make a couple of manual changes to every contact within KA/Pi, and it wasn't that much work over a few evenings), or export all the data, swap the information round, and then import it again (not something I would relish).

However, as I said, now you have the information in the Z, you can either remove Intellisync and go back to Qtopia Desktop, or simply not sync at all, and just keep the information on the Z (although do backup occasionally!)...

[GoLinux]

Swing,

thanks for the additional pointers. I'll think this out and decide what to do. If Outlook plus Intellisync starts giving me issues I'll probably go back doing what I was doing before: keep Calendar and Adress Book on the Z as my PIM applications without synchronizing with Outlook, just like I did before with Agenda and Data on the Psion.

Amrein,

I do share your grief, I can't say I'm a fan of MS software (starting with and including their operating systems.....). However, I use my SL-6000L for work also and my company elected to use Outlook as our corporate e-mail software. For many, many years we used CC:Mail from Lotus (no, I don't work for IBM......), but this years we completed the migration to Outlook.

Thanks all for reading my posts and offering suggestions.