Archived from groups: microsoft.public.pocketpc (More info?)

OK, one more kick at the cat. I'm actually doing this in a separate
thread for the benefit of anyone who has to go through this migration
thing in the future; Hey Y'all! Hope the new title will come up in the
search engines of the dark and misty future world.....
 
The previous thread is viewable here:
http://groups-beta.google.com/grou [...] f5a89c0632
 
After the last few messages, I got to thinking a bit, and tried a new
approach to export my Palm Desktop Contacts and Calendar to Outlook
2002. The Contacts were fairly straightforward, because the Palm
Desktop will produce comma delimited files that the Outlook importer
will take, with a bit of massaging. So, this is how I did it:
 
1. Create a new contact in Palm Desktop.
2. Type the NAME of the field into each blank, for instance, in the
"Last Name" field type in "last name", in the "Work Number" field, type
"work#". Do this for every field available; make sure to get all the
tabs - eg. work/home/other address tabs.
3. Export the contacts to a comma-delimited file - File > export >
export as "Comma delimited (.csv, .txt)". Make sure to check "Range:
all" so that they're all exported. Go through the "Specify export
fields" dialog, and un-check any fields that you don't ever use, or
don't want.
4. Import the file into Outlook; go to File > Import and Export >
Import from another program or file > comma separated values (DOS) [NOT
windows!] and choose the file to import. Select "contacts" as the
destination folder.
5. Click the box beside "Import <filename>.csv into folder: contacts";
then click "Map custom fields". You'll get the "Map custom fields"
dialog.
6. Use the previous and next buttons in the lower left corner to move
through your contacts until you find the one that you typed in all the
field names. You'll have to go back and forth several times, for some
reason it skips over contacts off and on.
7. Drag the field names into the proper fields in Outlook; the little +
signs are for expanding the choices. Custom names are not well
supported here, I put a couple of mine into the "user 1, user 2"
fields.
8. Click "OK" and it's done.
 
Note that the custom fields don't import well, because of the very
different way Outlook handles these. I think that the "private" field
is a 0 or 1; you may have to experiment some.
 
Calendar was a lot more difficult, because the Palm Desktop won't
produce comma-delimited calendar files. So:
 
1. Export your Palm calendar to a *.dba format Date Book Archive.
2. Sign up for a free account at Yahoo; it'll come with a calendar for
syncing on the web:
http://login.yahoo.com/config/logi [...] ahoo.com/?
3. Once you're signed up, go to "Calendar > options", and select
"import/export > Import from Palm Desktop" and browse to your *.dba
file; import it into Yahoo.
4. Then, select the "Export" button at "Export to Outlook"; save the
resulting comma delimited file to your computer.
5. Open Outlook, go to "file > import/export > import from another
program or file > comma separated values (Windows)" and select your
file. Don't use the "comma separated values (DOS)" file type; it'll
look like it worked but it causes a real mess.
6. Hit next, then select destination folder "Calendar" and click the
box beside "Import <filename>.csv into folder: Calendar" and then check
that the fields are all in the right places; adjust the mapping if
necessary.
7. Hit "Finish" et voila, c'est fini!
 
One problem is that all the appointment titles will have a comma after
them; it's better than typing them in all at once, IMO. Doesn't seem to
cause any difficulties, otherwise.
 
Anyways, I hope this helps; I know it's long-winded. It actually took
me a bit longer to write this email than it did to export the data,
once I finally figured it out. After I synced, all my precious contacts
and appointments from the last 5 years are securely in my new PPC; now,
of course, I have to figure out how to use it....  
 
ECM