PDA Data Conversion

Windows Mobile / Pocket

PC
ActiveSync
from Microsoft, is the control centre for data exchange between
the desktop PC and a Windows Mobile / Pocket PC device. It supports synchronisation of Contacts,
Calendar, Tasks and Notes with MS Outlook.
ActiveSync also handles the following:

• Document

  conversion for Pocket Excel, Pocket Word and Pocket Access

• Synchronisation

  of Email folders between Outlook and Inbox

• Support

  for exchange of Avantgo data

• Exchange

  of Internet favourites (plus cached content)

Palm

OS
Palm

OS solutions for desktop data exchange come in the form of Palm Desktop

and PocketMirror, with options to

exchange data with a dedicated Palm desktop application, or with Microsoft Outlook.

When you perform a HotSync, your Date Book, Address Book, To Do List and Memo

Pad data are exchanged.
Palm Desktop can also do the following:

• Expense

  and Mail data synchronisation

Nokia

Smartphones
With the Nokia PC Suite, you can share information between
a compatible PC and your phone, install software on the phone, configure
phone settings, and make backups of phone files. You can also synchronise
your calendar, contacts and tasks with Microsoft and Lotus applications,
copy and move images on your PC and phone, and copy contacts and
calendar information from another Nokia mobile phone or a Palm device.
Versions are available for the Nokia 9110, Nokia 9210, Nokia 3650,
Nokia 7610, Nokia 6600 and Nokia 7650.

This can be downloaded from the Nokia website. The software for the 3650 and 7650 supports:

• Microsoft

  Outlook 97, 98, 2000 and XP

• Microsoft

  Schedule+

• Lotus

  Notes 4.5, 4.6, 5.0 and 6.0

• Lotus

  Organizer 5.0, 6.0, and 97, 97 GS, 4.0 GS and 4.1

For an alternative,
take a look at Oxygen
II for Symbian Phones

Psion

/ EPOC
PsiWin

is Psion’s PC connectivity product. Supplied free with Psion machines, or available

as a free download from www.mypsionsupport.com,

this package will let you synchronise your Contacts, Agenda and To-do list with

Outlook. It also support Lotus Organizer and Microsoft Schedule+.
PsiWin can

also be used to copy and convert the following data types:

• EPOC

  Word – To MS Word, Plain text, Rich text (RTF), MS Word, Ami Pro,WordPro, Word

  Perfect, MS Works for Windows

• EPOC

  Sheet – MS Excel, Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, MS Works for Windows

• EPOC

  DATA – CSV file, MS Access, dBase, FoxPro

• Email

  synchronisation with Outlook

– This small EPOC program converts vCalendar files to/from Psion EPOC Agenda files.

The program is useful for anyone who wants to move calendar information between

different PC or PDA programs.

If

you’re looking to convert Datebook entries from your Palm or Visor into another

format such as Pocket PC, then going via MS Outlook is probably the best route.

Supplied with your Palm is a program called Pocket Mirror, from Chapura

which lets you synchronise to Outlook. Psion or Pocket PC can then be synchronised

with Outlook. Some other options:

• Dba2Csv – This can be used to convert Palm Desktop .dba files to .csv for Google Calendars or Outlook without the hassle of setting up conduits, synching. etc, which also require access to a Palm device.
  Dba2Csv also preserves all repeats and exceptions, offers multiple options to export that correct other errors seen with other methods (GMT and DST correction), and allows you to preserve the colour coding of Palm Desktop 4.1.4 when moving to Google Calendars.
  
• DIMEX from linkesoft.com – This shareware program can convert datebook appointments to CSV
  format.
• Palm2CSV – a free web-based utility that converts Palm Datebooks to CSV format
• Alternatively, try DatebookCSV
• As a last resort, individual Datebook entries can be exported as vCal entries

  from Palm Desktop, or in some cases can be beamed to another machine.

If

you’re looking to get your Psion diary onto your PC, there are two common options:

1. Synchronise

   your Psion diary to the PC using PsiWin – This lets you keep your diary information

   on your Psion instep with your diary on the PC. You’ll need to be using MS Outlook,

   MS Schedule or Lotus Organiser as your PC diary

2. Consider

   getting the Psion Emulator – a virtual Psion device on your PC. For details of

   this, see our Psion emulators page

The most common solution
is to use PsiWin to synchronise with Outlook. To do this, connect
your Psion to the PC using PsiWin, go to the synchronise, and
add a task. For step-by-step help with this, see the Psion Guide
on synchronisation here.

The Nokia PC connectivity
software supplied with Nokia smartphones (including the 6680
and 6600) allows import of contacts and
Calendar information from a Nokia mobile phone (via cable or infrared),
from a Nokia 9110 smartphone, or from a Palm OS organiser (via
Hotsync)

Smart
vCal may also be worth a look. This application for Series
60 phones including the Nokia 7650 , Nokia
3650 and Nokia 6600, helps you to
import and export Calendar and To Do information in vCal format.

You may like to look at AIMEX from linkesoft.com
– This shareware program can convert contact entries to CSV format.

• The Nokia PC connectivity
  software supplied with Nokia smartphones (including the 7650
  and 3650) allows import of contacts
  and Calendar information from a Nokia mobile phone (via cable
  or infrared), from a Nokia 9110 smartphone, or from a Palm OS
  organiser (via Hotsync)
• Oxygen
  – A PC application that allows import and export of contact
  information from Nokia phones. A special version is available
  for Symbian OS phones, including the Nokia
  7650 and Nokia 3650. It allows exchange
  of contact information with Outlook, Lotus Notes, plus supports
  CSV and other formats.
• Smart
  vCard – Import and export contact information in the vCard
  (.vcf) format. Versions available for the Nokia
  92xx range, plus Series 60 phones including the Nokia
  7650 and Nokia 3650.

If you’re looking to get
your contacts onto your PC, there are two common options:

1. Synchronise your Psion
   contacts to the PC using PsiWin – This lets you keep your address
   book on your Psion instep with your addresses on the PC. You’ll
   need to be using MS Outlook, MS Schedule or Lotus Organiser
   as your PC diary
2. Consider getting the
   Psion Emulator – a virtual Psion device on your PC. For details
   of this, see our Psion emulators
   page

The most common solution
is to use PsiWin to synchronise with Outlook. To do this, connect
your Psion to the PC using PsiWin, go to the synchronise icon,
and add a task. For step-by-step help with this, see the Psion
Guide on synchronisation here.

If you have a backup of a Nokia Series 60 or Nokia Series 80 Contacts file (contacts.cdb) that you’re trying to read on a PC, sadly this isn’t easy. The CDB file is Symbian’s own Contacts file format, and there’s no direct way to convert this to a form that can be read by a PC address book such as Outlook

• Use a PC Emulator – On the Nokia Developer’s suite, you can download an emulator (intended for developers) that allows you to run a virtual phone on your PC. You can use this to access files in the native Symbian format. Go to Forum Nokia, and look for the Series 60 or Series 80 SDK (Software Developers Kits)
• Try someone else with a Nokia device. If you’re able to send them your CDB file, they should be able to open it and copy off your data to a format that can be read on the PC. If you don’t know anyone with the same phone, try asking if someone in our forum can help – you may be able to mail someone your file for conversion – although they’ll be able to access your personal data
• Check the PC software – Check on the Nokia site to get the latest version of the PC Suite for your phone. It may be that the PC software is able to open or convert a CDB – Not likely to be much help, but you never know

and convert Word files on a Psion itself, and not via a computer running PsiWin, consider nConvert from Neuon.

Available for Series 5 family, Series 7 and Revo family

– is a Linux/Unix based EPOC file converter. It will convert EPOC Word files into

either HTML or plain text. It will also convert Psion Sketch and MBM files to

just about any graphics format you desire.

Psion handheld computers used the EPOC operating system. If you want to get your DATA files converted to another format, you have two options:

• You can use PsiWin on the PC to convert your files to another format. PsiWin supports CSV file, MS Access, dBase, FoxPro. More on PsiWin
• You can export data on the Psion itself – For an example of how to export from Psion DATA to the Pocket PC, see below.

Also, take a look at our Psion Conversion article

From
the Psion Data application menu, select "More | Export as text
file…", name the file using the extension .TXT (e.g. mydata.txt),
and export the data (you may with to change the Export format using
Options, as the default is comma-delimited with Double-quote as
the qualifier). You now have a delimited text file. Copy this file
to your PC.

From Microsoft Excel, create a blank spreadsheet, and from the Tools
menu, select "Get External data | Import text file". Select
your text file, make sure you have the right delimiter (e.g. comma
not tab), then import the text. All of your data should be viewable.
Save the file in Excel format (e.g. mydata.xls), then copy this
new file over to the Pocket PC. You should be able to read the data
with Pocket Excel.

There
is no built-in Pocket PC database application, but there are several
shareware ones available – see www.handango.com.

ActiveSync can convert databases into Pocket Access format (.CDB),
for use with a database application that can handle that format.
If you have installed a Pocket PC database application, and have
a text file that you wish to import, such as a delimited DATA file
as detailed above, you can also import your text file into Access,
then using ActiveSync, copy the Access MDB file over to the Pocket
PC for viewing in Pocket Access format. There’s a step-by-step explanation
of this at the BioHazard
site

If you’re looking for an application that’s compatible with .CDB
files, take a look at Data
On The Run, which can read Pocket Access files, great for use
with Access and ActiveSync on the PC.

For a more powerful application, take a look at Pocket Database from Pocket Innovations
– this caters for import of delimited files, for those without access
to Microsoft Access.

via a PC can be done with PsiWin.
Note that EPOC ER5 only supports single

worksheets within a Sheet file. When an Excel workbook that contains multiple

sheets is converted to EPOC, all of the Excel sheets are copied into a single

EPOC Sheet file. If you want each Excel worksheet to appear as its own Sheet

file, you will need to make each worksheet a workbook (.xls file) which you can

do from Excel’s "Edit | Move or copy sheet".

If you’re looking to read

and convert Excel spreadsheets on a Psion itself, consider nConvert from Neuon.

This handles Microsoft Excel 4.1, 95, 97 and 2000 to Symbian Sheet.

to David Blaikie for submitting this solution for converting Excel to Psion DATA:

1. Save the Excel

   file save as .CSV (comma separated value)

2. Change

   the file extension from .csv to .txt (as Psion doesn’t understand .csv)

3. Import

   the text file into the psion with no conversion (otherwise PsiWin will try to

   convert .txt into a Psion Word document )

4. Set

   up all the correct labels in a blank Psion DATA database

5. Import

   the text file into the database setting up the delimiter as commas

6. Delete

   the first entry, which contains the labels

7. Delete

   any spurious entries

and drop application, pulls text out of EPOC Word and OPL files. It also converts

the carriage return and line-feeds both ways for plain text files.

Word docs into Microsoft Reader (.lit) files by downloading the free "Read

in Microsoft Reader add-in" application from www.microsoft.com/reader.

This creates an extra item on MS Word’s toolbar to convert an open Word document

to the format used in the Reader. Note that you’ll need to have Microsoft’s desktop

version of Reader installed on the PC before document conversion will work.

Microsoft Reader (on both PC and Pocket PC) requires activation, which is used

when viewing documents protected by copyright. Activation isn’t required for viewing

documents you create yourself. There are links to over 1500 free books from the

Microsoft Reader site.

bmconv.exe is a
small DOS application that converts EPOC’s MBM (Multi
bitmap format) to/from PC BMP format (available from here
or here). You
need to run this in a DOS session. From the Windows Start button,
select ‘Run’, then enter CMD. This takes you to a DOS box. Move
to the directory containing BMCONV and enter the path and filename
of the source and target. Here are two examples:

• bmconv /u c:\temp\psionfile.mbm

  c:\temp\windowsfile.bmp

  – converts

  from MBM to BMP

• bmconv

  c:\temp\psionfile.mbm c:\temp\windowsfile.bmp

  – converts from BMP to MBM

More

details can be found in the HTML help file with PsiWin, or by entering BMCONV

and pressing return.

PsiWin v1.0 and v1.1 have built-in converters. No other stand-alone converters

are known to us.

• Psion Series 3: Convert from the Series 3 wve sound format to PC WAV with wav2wve2.zip

  and wve2wav.zip – (available from here)

• Psion Series 5mx RECORD files can be converted to WAV files using PsiWin, or rec2wav (available from www.bioeddie.co.uk/Psion/main/Programs/pc_tools.html)