Would like to switch from 680 to PRO but??

[dhummm]

Hi All,
   I really want to pull the trigger on a new phone and it is between the Treo PRO, HTC Tilt 2 and the iPhone (preference in that order).  I have had a palm for many years, various Treos and have hundreds of contacts with many details filled in.  I currently have a Treo 680 and it is really slow with everything on it plus wanting wifi, etc...  I also probably have a thousand note pad files (the palm memo program) that are very important to me.  My life is in this thing between home, work and hobbies there is an amazing amount of information in it.  Now the question is will any of these three allow me to import my note pad info and or my contacts?  The thought of manipulating this info manually is just awful…  The note pad is most important as this has the most information and it is all categorized by cars, movies, music, projects, etc…  I could go on listing for days here the amount of info in there.  Every day I basically enter info into this thing and I can find anything in seconds.  My understanding is the PRO only comes with active sync and I am guessing I can’t save anything.  I am hoping I am wrong here.  If any one of these three phones can allow me to save my info, I will buy it-If I can’t save anything I will probably not go with Palm (sorry dudes if they drop me, I drop them).

Please help-
    Ralph-

[Robin24k]

The Treo Pro and the Tilt 2 are both Windows Mobile, I would say go with the HTC Tilt 2. The Treo Pro is old and expensive, and Palm has dropped Windows Mobile support.

If you sync your 680 to Outlook, your data will get transferred to Windows Mobile without problem. If you sync your 680 to Palm Desktop, you can switch the conduit over to Outlook and it will still work that way.

[dhummm]

Thanks Robin24K,
   I have never used Outlook.  Do I install Outlook and Active Sync or something else on the PC I have Palm desktop on?  Will this back up other things like my phone book and memo’s?  I assumed that Outlook would be just for mail.  Sorry for the questions just out of my area I guess.  I don’t use any mail programs currently, so nothing is on my Palm for mail.  I just use yahoo mail through the web.

  I am going to check out the Tilt 2.  AT&T has them so I plan to check one out.  My concern with the Tilt is having to open it to do simple stuff.  I assume you can do a lot without opening the keyboard.  It looks nice and a bigger keyboard will be nice when you do significant typing.

Thanks so much for the help,
                                                     Ralph

[docgwen]

For the memos- if you currently are syncing to palm desktop  select all memos  or do this by category and under the file menu select export   you can choose from several options  including .txt   and comma or tab delimited (excel can import those)   IF htc has docs to go, which it probably does you can transfer them that way.

There might be other conversion programs out there
one comes to mind is cardtxt -  that program will open files and export into some interesting computer languages including unix.   I also think it will do txt.

You might want to search  convert palm os memos to windows mobile 

  all the best

[Robin24k]

Basically, Outlook handles calendar, contacts, notes, tasks, and email. It is what Windows Mobile syncs to. You'll need ActiveSync if you're using XP. Vista and 7 has the Windows Mobile Device Center, which is part of the OS. All you need to do is just connect the device and WMDC will detect it.

Outlook is included with Office Professional. If you have a consumer version of Office, you'll need to download the trial of it. You can get it from here:

http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/

[docgwen]

Hey robin there is a similar question on searching calendar does outlook do that too?  You might wanna chime in on that one too

[Robin24k]

Not sure what you are talking about?

[docgwen]

there was a thread about a centro user wanting to search appointments for her contacts that are in calendar- said something about used to do it on an older unit.   I'm trying to refind the thread, but I'm on my tablet pc as my video card decided to quit on my main!   

[Robin24k]

Oh ok, I see...

[docgwen]

you are of course the expert are you not?

LOL  oh gotta run my tablet is running low  takes longer to boot than the battery life 

[Robin24k]

I'm not an expert at digging through threads...

All right, let's not hijack this thread anymore...

[dhummm]

Thanks so much Docqwen,

 I did as you suggested and a quick search shows there are multiple programs that will copy the Palm Desktop: Address Book, Date Book, To Do List and Memo Pad records into Outlook Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes.  Time to become an Outlook expert!  This isn't so bad; I can back everything up and not be tied to Palm desktop.   This has been bugging me for a while, looks pretty straight forward.  I will report back on how I did!-

Robin 24k,
 I will look into direct with active sync as well.  One of the PC's around probably has office Pro.

Ralph-

[Robin24k]

There is no need to get an extra program. The conversion process is basically through the Treo.

[dhummm]

Ya, that's what I assumed you ment and it sounds easy.  If it pulls everything off it's a breeze and the backup plan would be a conversion program only if needed.  I had started the reply to docquen and last came up so I added to it.

Thanks,
   R-

[Robin24k]

Ah, ok. Before you switch the conduit to Outlook, backup your device using a program like NVBackup just in case.