Syncing an Outlook Replacement w/ Pocket Outlook?

Rick the Red asks: "I'm using Windows ME, Office 2000, and a Pocket PC, but I'm trying to break free (pun intended). To begin my migration, I've decided to replace Office 2000 with OpenOffice.org on Windows, then move to Linux (dual-boot; I've still got the games issue) once that conversion is complete. My concern is the Pocket PC. I'd love to go cold-turkey and replace my Jornada with a Sharp Zaurus, but that's not in the budget right now. OpenOffice.org provides XMerge, which covers Word and Excel, but what about Outlook? What email reader/contact list/calendar apps (for Windows) do you recommend to replace Outlook -and- sync with Pocket Outlook? Any success stories to share?"

Comments

Beware of what you're doing!

[jpsst34]

I moved to a linux desktop with openoffice.org about a year ago, and I used Evolution in place of Outlook. I thought it was great - or least that's what I kept telling myself. What I really found was that it was great to feel like I was cool for using those things, but in all honesty, it sucked. Nothing worked well together. I couldn't copy text in one app and paste it into another. Evolution didn't allow me to change my email font - it required changing the default HTML view of Gnome. What's more, sadly, much of the world is still using MS Office. Sure, openoffice.org can open and even save in documents in office format, but they're not perfect. Formatting gets all screwed up and this causes big problems for things like, say, resumes.

Re:Beware of what you're doing!

[Rick the Red]

I understand what you're saying, but I'm not really interested in sharing files with other desktop MS Office users, only in sharing files with my Pocket PC. And I always send plain-text emails, so "fonts" and "colors" in email are foreign concepts for me. Evolution looks great, but there's no Windows port, and I'm not ready to change both OS and apps at once.

I don't care if the calendar app won't talk to the email app, only that they each talk to their respective parts of Pocket Outlook. I don't email appointments, but my wife and I do exchange Pocket PC appointments. The contacts list is the only thing that needs to interoperate, but so far every one I've seen falls short of what I want -- especially Outlooks -- so I'll go with whatever comes with the email app.

Re:Beware of what you're doing!

[ajs]

Bottom line: stay tuned to Ximian.com for the release of the Ximian Desktop 2.0, and when it comes out of beta, grab yourself a copy of Red Hat 9, and then install Ximian over it. I think you'll be pleased with the results....

I moved to a linux desktop with openoffice.org about a year ago, and I used Evolution in place of Outlook

About a year ago, things were in pretty good shape, but still not perfect. I find your conerns to be most heartening though, and while I'm sorry it was tough for you, I'm glad that you were having problems of the sort you were rather than the ones that you would have had 2 years ago.

I thought it was great - or least that's what I kept telling myself. What I really found was that it was great to feel like I was cool for using those things, but in all honesty, it sucked. Nothing worked well together

My mailer, Web browser, calendar, contact manager, task manager and command-line terminal all work well together with minor problems caused almost exclusively by the fact that I run a poorly integrated development-version desktop rather than a more stable, if older, version from a vendor who has the done the integration work (e.g. Ximian or Red Hat).

When it comes to office applications, I mostly don't bother. Folks who send me resumes in a proprietary format can suffer with what a conversion program does to them when trying to extract text. If they don't like that, they should offer a text version of their resume.

I couldn't copy text in one app and paste it into another

Pasted from terminal: 1526 Oct 30 12:39 x.html
Pasted from mailer: To: ajs@ajs.com
Pasted from calendar: Boston.pm

That's about all I really need....

Evolution didn't allow me to change my email font - it required changing the default HTML view of Gnome

Tools->Settings->Font Preferences

What's more, sadly, much of the world is still using MS Office. Sure, openoffice.org can open and even save in documents in office format, but they're not perfect.

Perfect is a relative term when you're talking about handling unspecified formats. Converting to text is about your best bet. Another approach would be to convert to a neutral XML format that lets anyone read it.

If it really bothers you, you should send people a reply and ask them to send you HTML or plain text, both of which are quite possible from Word.

Re:Beware of what you're doing!

[Clover_Kicker]

>Sure, openoffice.org can open and even save in documents in office
>format, but they're not perfect. Formatting gets all screwed up and this
>causes big problems for things like, say, resumes.

Ever considered sending your resume as a PDF?

Re:Beware of what you're doing!

[jpsst34]

Actually, when I was job hunting that's exactly what I did. I'd written my resume in AbiWord and converted it to StarOffice 5.2 (OO.org 1.0 wasn't released yet). From both of those, I would print to a .ps file, then use a command line tool, I don't remember which (ps2pdf, I think), to convert to PDF. I sent out many resumes as PDF, for none of which did I receive a response. But I blame that on being a relatively inexperienced software developer in the dead city, Pittsburgh, not on the fact that I was sending PDF's.

At the time I sent a submission to Ask /. asking all the HR folk & hiring managers out there how they felt about recieving resumes in PDF format instead of the oft-requested MS Word. Someone from /. replied to me saying that they would posted, but wanted to make sure of what I was asking. I confirmed, and they never posted it.

One observation for when the budget appears

[biglig2]

...don't assume that the Zarus is the best solution for Linux syncing just because it runs Linux itself. People have been grappling with syncing PalmOS devices to Linux for a lot longer and they have some solid solutions now.

The Zarus is a nice machine, but I still maintain that PalmOs is the best solution for PDA usage.

BTW, can you put Linux on the jornada? I've heard of it on the Ipaq, but I'm a little out of date on PPC.

Observations

[Rick the Red]

First, thanks for the replies!

Second - OT - why so few? My profile tells Slashdot to show me all stories. Period. But this one was never on my front page. Hmmm. I also notice that the sidebar on my front page shows "Ask Slashdot" was last updated on April 20. Odd. I guess I can't trust that I'm seeing all stories after all. And with so few replies, I guess few others saw it, either.

Anyway, back to the subject: After much research came up empty I thought I'd Ask Slashdot, and /. has come up empty also. There's just no good Outlook replacement, amazing as that sounds. So, I've decided to forgo email on my PDA (I don't use it much anyway) and forgo a calendar on my desktop. That solves the Outlook sync problem by avoiding it. Now that I'm free of the Outlook sync constraint, anyone care to jump into the flame war of which mailer is best? :-)

Thanks again for your help.

Palm It If You Hate Pocket PCs...

[goog]

Cripes. If you're so dead set against Microsoft products, why don't you just get a Palm and a Mac? Of course, you'll be paying a premium for both of those products...but if money's no object to you go right ahead. My first suggestion if you want to stay with your Pocket PC and have issues with your other MS products is that you look into a) upgrading from Windows ME, which is the biggest POS that Microsoft ever shipped or b) seriously getting a Mac and using PocketMac for synching...