Desktop Software Updates, Palm O/S Herein I primarily cover Desktop 4.1.0, 4.1.4, and 4.2.0 that I've used with the M5xx series and the TX. But I mention version 6 that should be useable with newer models including the TX (and may be required with later models to synch properly). I stuck with 4.2 that shipped with the TX as it seemed version 6 that I downloaded was missing features. I have knowledge of upgrading from the M5xx series to the TX while retaining your data, which I will add later. ** NEWS: Workarounds for Windows 10 added to the Windows section.. TOC Desktop - 4.1.0 - 4.1.4 - 4.2.0 - 6 - Applicability of Desktop - Versions of Windows User Tips Synchronization Time Span of Events Backup Archive data & delete from active Desktop/PDA Upgrading from M5xx to TX Desktop 4.1.0 is an upgrade from what shipped with the Palm 500 - it also suits many other models. (From the file name it appears to be an SP03 sub-version.) Among the changes from 4.0.1 are: - It now displays a manually imported address book (see http://www.keithsketchley.com/palmaddr.txt). - It has a "QuickInstall" feature to put .txt files into either Palm memory or SD card memory. So far in my attempts it won't accept a small text file into the Palm memory section of Desktop's dialogue box and won't synch one into SD card memory because there is no application on the Palm to open it (the card had WordSmith and BackupBuddy). However it did accept and synch a keyboard driver file in .prc file form. - Allows edit of Memos in the RH viewing pane though not as functional as opening the memo (completely different editing operation, with bugs). - Tweaked method of setting of time for events (with inconsistencies in scrolling and perhaps error: isn't noon 12:00AM and midnight 12:00PM, as in Windows 98?). I find the new method less convenient, and flakey in operation. - As well, there is a voice memo function, apparently for Palm models I don't have. (Do note the special instructions for Windows XP and for one of the Palm models beginning with "i", linked from the download page.) - Is providing time in the upper left corner of the main menu new, or have I been blind for a year? (In calendar view that block is the date or range of dates in view.) So far I see five defects: - The installation defaulted to both USB and network synch, thus I received a synch log message that it could not finish setup because it could not find my computer's name and IP address - (you set those synch conduit selections from right-clicking the HotSynch icon in Windows Tray, not from Desktop which shows only traditional serial port connectivity OR MAYBE FROM THE HANDHELD, THERE IS NO RIGHT-CLICK WITH 6.2 UNDER WINDOWS 7 PRO). - 4.1 installs itself in C:Program Files\Palm, as most application software does, whereas 4.0.1 installed itself in C:\Palm, yet 4.1 did not remove those old files. (That caused loss of HotSync capability when I used an Address Book template, as Windows detected HotSynch doing something illegal during synch of Address Book.) - 4.1 seems sensitive to copying from a word processor file into a Memo and to perturbations in Windows such as another application crashing - HotSynch crashes on occasion, a phenomenon I did not see with 4.0x. - The revised event time setting method is unstable and has a fundamental error. - Today's date is highlighted in red at top of Event view when viewing today, when the default color theme is chosen but not in other color themes though it is bolded there and in month calendar to right. COMMENT: While I appreciate the update to Desktop software, I am surprised at the number of errors in implentation of some changes. And Desktop 4.1.4 (may be identified as 4.1.0410) is now available from http://www.palmone.com. Among the changes, most of which are not supported by the Palm 5xx series: - Additional Address Book fields, including birthday with reminder. - Events can cross midnight (if supported by the PDA), have a location, and be color-coded by category. - Tasks can repeat, though Desktop does not stop at the specified end date. (I don't find Tasks to be useful because they must be in split screen - they don't integrate into normal Calendar view. It would be helpful to have a terse list of "do sometime today" items - perhaps I'll develop a flip-open PDA with two screens or a folding single display as that technology is evolving. Perhaps I want the screen size of an Apple Newton - but it won't fit in a pocket, which may be a key reason why they aren't used. Oh - I need a "wearable PC" with eyeglass-mounted display. :-) - Memos can be larger (now limited for me by Palm 500's limit of 4000 characters - I find them useful for reference lists). - Month calendars in event view cover 6 weeks so include the first full week of the next month. - There's a silly bug in Event editing in the main window (which is possible when first creating the event): the Delete key does not work, even though BackSpace can delete the characters that Delete won't. - There is a bug in the Repeat part of Event revision. If you change the starting date of an event but do not want to change the ending date (event duration different) it appears to keep the end date the same but in fact does not. You have to save the starting date change then edit the event again to change the end date back to the original. - Install under Windows 98SE crashed on first attempt leaving installation in limbo, but completed on second attempt and appears to work. - In most cases HotSynch will alert the user when data could not be put in the Palm due its limitations. - I don't have perspective to determine if bugs in 4.10 have been fixed. So far I know that the incorrect use of AM & PM for 12:00 has not, though I have not seen the generally flakey behaviour of event time setting that 4.10 exhibitted. - I can't judge if the combination of it and o/s4.1 is more reliable. I had a major crash of the Palm device but don't see as many lesser problems. Desktop 4.20 Ships with the TX device. Looks like 4.1.4, HotSync log is easier to read. Desktop 6.2 Downloadable, should work with TX that shipped with 4.2.0, may be required to get correct synch with models later than TX. I tested it briefly with the TX, and found it did not have some of the settings that 4.1.4 does, such as defining when the Desktop over-rides the handheld or vice versa rather than normal synchronization (I understand that is important after having done a hard reset to clear a problem on the device). So I am wary of it. However, now I am using 6.2.2 with Windows 10, same omission as well as no choice of display colours (Preferences in Tools does not work). Problem however is that your data may disappear if computer shuts down without you first closing Palm Desktop. Fixes are: - if just Media and Install are displayed, right-click on Palm Desktop icon on Windows Desktop and command Run As Administrator, magic will occur. Applicability of Desktop It appears to be a common program for many Palm models, with features not usable on some. Palm caution that some models have extra conduits not provided by the upgrade installation files and that work-arounds are required with Windows XP. My experience using 4.1.4 with a Palm 500 and o/s 4.1.0 is that error messages are given in the synch log for some unsupported features and in other cases a data item simply doesn't show up in the Palm. OTOH, DejaVuePC may be a worthwhile alternative, and perhaps related versions for transitioning to PDA-like functions on smartphones running Android o/s.. As for versions of Windows, from Palm and HP pages I expect that: - Desktop 4.1.4 will run under Vista32 but there may be problems installing some things on the device. For newer Palm models a third-party version is offered, for older models some workarounds were offered. - Desktop 6.2 was designed for XP32 and Vista32. Users have reported success on Windows 7, but USB sync was not supported with the 64-bit version (Bluetooth sync works). - 64-bit drivers for Vista, 7, 8 and 10 are now available, via http://forums.hpwebos.com/t5/Windows-HotSync/64-Bit-Palm-Desktop-Drivers-are-HERE/td-p/337516 (which has some advice and links to http://aceeca.com/index.php?option=com_maqmahelpdesk&Itemid=5&id_workgroup=1&task=downloads_category&id=8). I do know about 64-bit version of Windows XP, which is probably rare. - Rebooting is a good practice, weekly or oftener, I find latest versions of Windrows10Pro stop accepting sync after a while. Shut Desktop down before shutting Windows down. - You should start Desktop using Run As Administrator command (right-click on Desktop icon), otherwise you maynot be able to view your memos. Even then you may get a surprising view but click on Menus to view them (hopefully). yApple I believe there is support for Mac o/s, I know nothing else about that. User Tips PDAs are limited in ability to display large enough to plan your calendar over a week or month. Desktop is somewhat better: - roll the cursor over a day in the month list at top right to see the day's events - select Month view as reasonably readable compared to on the Palm itself > and Print, check range in dialogue box, and print that view and a day-by-day summary for that month - similarly Week view is more usable in Desktop than on the Palm - you can maximize width of the calendar by dragging the RH border over until only one month is in view at top right (apparently you cannot eliminate the month + task panes from the Calendar view, unlike other views in which you can show only one thing) - you can slim the left column of buttons by dragging the border, but cannot slim the time column within the calendar pane despite its width being excessive - what is really needed is ability to show only two or three days, as you often want to move appointments among only a few adjacent days. However, you can drag an event from the today view to another day in the calendar view at top right. - then you can lay printouts of weeks/months side by side on the desk or put them in a paper binder (um, that suggestion really shows the shortcomings of PDAs? ;-). - I'd be optimistic that if you are using Outlook that its global views can be used & printed - As with most application software, experimenting may reveal shortcuts. For example, I just discovered that I can change the time duration of an event in Desktop's day view by clicking on it to highlight it then dragging the arrow on the bottom of it. Much quicker than commanding Edit Event and changing the start/end times. (You can also drag the event to earlier or late time by click-and-hold anywhere except the arrow, though in both cases granularity is a half hour - that gets close in the big picture.) Prior to that I had discovered that when changing start/end times you can highlight part of the time such as hour or AM and arrow up or down to increase or decrease the value, or delete the value and type a new one in. - Apparently in Desktop 4.20 you can categorize events when entering them, to view business and personal separately. The Categories pulldown is used, otherwise you want to set to All. Colour-coding by category is a choice under Tools|Preferences. Synchronization If you've had to reset your handheld, or lost the data in Desktop, you should set the synchronization options under HotSync|Custom before synchronizing. For most items you have a choice of Desktop over-riding Handheld, vice-versa, or do nothing. After successful synchronization, remember to set those options back to Synchronize (some will revert automatically but not all). The over-ride option also helps recover accidentally deleted information if you haven't changed several things since last synch. Occasionally I get an error message to the effect that the disk is full, which obviously cannot literally be the case. Repeating synch appears to solve the problem. Recently I've had a few failures of cable sync but IR works (if I set it in two places), later the cable sync works again. It may be a USB port controller problem on my computer, but IR sync is worth trying as backup and a fix (generally I find it flakey). Soft reset often fixes problems. But do first check for fluff or paper between the connectors. If you get an error message that not all of your data could be synched and that your disk may be full, just try again. And I'm now in the habit of synching twice in succession, as I do not trust Palm's sync to sync all data. PLUS... I was chasing my tail troubleshooting failure to sync, until I figured out that the problem was the cable to TX connector, which had a piece of tissue paper caught in it, blocking electrical contact with one or more pins. Um, Keith, isn't there an old expression about checking connections first? (Holding the cable hard to the Palm helps diagnose, as does tilting it a bit. The TX' connector seems sensitive, I glue a piece of hard plastic on the bottom of cables that don't have a cradle, to stablilize somewhat. AND... I had a case of a Memo going empty when being used, and the Custom option in the Hotsync pulldown grayed out so I could not restore it by synching with handheld overwriting desktop. After two reboots the option was again available and the override worked. Time span of events On occasion Desktop 4.1.4 malfunctions and resets the ending time to beyond midnight, which the M5xx cannot cope with. (You might cause that by changing the start time to pm and not changing the end time to pm - sometimes both fields change when one is changed, sometimes not - however it does happen without your complicity (another defect in Palm software) or it may occur when you set an end date for a recurring event.) Simply correcting the event parameters in Desktop may not fix it. Instead, after synching, which will generate an error message if the Palm device cannot handle events spanning midnight, correct it on the Palm device and in Desktop, synch again - which should result in duplication of the event, then delete the event from Desktop, and synch again. (Deleting it from the PDA won't work. Worst case you may have to delete all instances from both devices and create it again.) Backup Which you of course do regularly in case the foregoing happens? You have to figure out how to backup your Palm. Among the potential ways: - synchronizing creates backup files, but those will be overwritten the next time you synch and you may not realize data is missing until after subsequent synchs - you can copy the directory for each user in C:\Program Files\PalmOne or such. For example, for user Keith Sketchley the directory is named SketchK. I also copy any files dated since last installation (as those contain settings) plus any scripts I wrote (such as to import contacts). Archive data and delete from active Desktop/PDA - Export of the calendar/datebook seems inappropriate in Palm Desktop, as a test .csv file looked incomplete, whereas in Microsoft Outlook that is a good way to backup data. In any case the calendar/datebook can only be exported in .dba formats. (I do not know the difference between "calendar" and "datebook", but it matters to the Palm2CSV web service which cannot handle calendar format of the file. My first test of their conversion service extracted only recurring events, I will do more testing.) - You can Purge Events with "Archive Deleted Records" checked in Tools|Options, then save the data files somewhere (doing so before you hotsynch!). Purge gives you a choice of how far back to keep Events active, one month is the maximum. First though, you have to find the Purge command. It is not in the Help index, and only briefly covered in Help|Find. (Do software coders ever try to be like users?) So I'll tell you - display the Calendar and there it is in the context-sensitive Tools menu. I recommend Purging every few months as the database can get large and more easily corrupted. The Palm datebook/calendar .dba file can be opened in Windows Notepad, or perhaps other simple text editors, and searched for specific information. However the date information seems to be encoded. Importing addresses from another database Refer to Palm solution ID 2136 "Fields used by the Calendar (Address Book)", and 2597 "Custom Template". You can slide fields to match, per on-screen instructions, but will have to do that each time you update the import (if you are using another database tool as the master). OTOH, if you take the time to create a custom template, you can automatically match fields on import, and define field names (expecially useful for custom fields). Basically you create a .tpa file per instructions in the referenced Palm documents. You may have to test and tinker to fully understand format. Upgrading from M5xx to TX Import Calendar/datebook limited to .dba and vcf (Vcal). Contacts and memos can be imported in various formats including VCard and the various comma/tab separated simple formats. (I regularly import contacts in .csv file I've exported from an uncommon address book program, but find Palm's address book inferior as search capability is limited.) I put my notes in a separate file, http://www.keithsketchley.com/5xxtxupg.htm, which in general may be useful for other upgrade combinations if you want to include some data from your previous Palm device in your new one. My page PDA: A WORTHWHILE TOOL FOR YOU? at http://www.keithsketchley.com/pda.txt has some specific mentions of Palm PDAs. Comment: Palm's software is no better than Microsoft's, which may be one reason they haven't done well recently. (Lack of clear product vision put into funding, and thorough design of the UI, are probably big factors as well.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright Keith Sketchley 2023.10.05 Legalities detailed on http://www.keithsketchley.com/ apply. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To return to my main PDA page copy http://www.keithsketchley.com/pda.txt into your browser's URL window. To go to my Palm general page copy http://www.keithsketchley.com/palmgnl.htm into your browser's URL window. To go to my Palm contacts import page copy http://www.keithsketchley.com/palmaddr.txt into your browser's URL window.