Two computers, a Palm and Entourage 2004

G

Gary Brower

I have two laptops (an iBook and a PowerBook G4), one at home, and one
at work. They are both set up with Entourage 2004.

I would like the Entourage data to be the same on all three devices
(well, with the exception of the email). I would like to use the Palm
(Tungsten T2) to be the go-between.

In general this works. I know that categories don't work well between
Palm and Entourage (in the Calendar/Date Book). But the data seems to
sync. Same with the Memos/Notes and the Address info.

But the Tasks/ToDos don't seem to work. In other words, I can modify
the list on one laptop and sync it with the Palm -- all is fine. But
when I sync the Palm with the other laptop, the changes don't show up.

Also, if I share Projects (using my .Mac iDisk), the Tasks get updated
via the sharing process, and are duplicated when I sync.

Any suggestions/fixes?

Thanks!

Gary Brower
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

I have two laptops (an iBook and a PowerBook G4), one at home, and one
at work. They are both set up with Entourage 2004.

I would like the Entourage data to be the same on all three devices
(well, with the exception of the email). I would like to use the Palm
(Tungsten T2) to be the go-between.

In general this works. I know that categories don't work well between
Palm and Entourage (in the Calendar/Date Book). But the data seems to
sync. Same with the Memos/Notes and the Address info.

But the Tasks/ToDos don't seem to work. In other words, I can modify
the list on one laptop and sync it with the Palm -- all is fine. But
when I sync the Palm with the other laptop, the changes don't show up.

Also, if I share Projects (using my .Mac iDisk), the Tasks get updated
via the sharing process, and are duplicated when I sync.

Any suggestions/fixes?
Click to expand...

You are not supposed to use the Palm with more than one computer or
identity. It can lead to serious trouble and corruption. Instead, sync the
Palm to just one of the computers. The easiest way to sync from one computer
to the other, and back again, is to copy and burn your identity folder from
here:

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/Main Identity [or
named]

or the whole Office 2004 Identities if you prefer, to CD or DVD, then
replace the equivalent identity folder on the other computer. The will keep
everything (including mail) up-to-date. It requires that you have the same
mail accounts on both,


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
G

Gary Brower

Paul,

Thanks for responding, but I've gotten contradictory information (and
experience) elsewhere about Palms and more than one computer.

I've personally used my Palm with my two computers, as well as with one of
them and my secretary's (using Palm Desktop's application for the calendar)
So I know that using one PDA with multiple computers isn't a problem (unless
using iSync). Also, a Google check points one to:

http://www.jimthompson.net/palmpda/TwoDesktops.htm

That webpage confirmed my experience that the critical issue is the identity
on the Palm, not the number of computers that you're syncing with.

So, then, my question simply becomes one of syncing/updating the
Tasks/ToDos, as there doesn't seem to be any problem with the other
applications. Again, with mail, I simply access the servers from both
computers, and do manual deletes. I work from both home and the office, so
I need to keep things synced more often than burning CD's might allow.

Gary Brower


I have two laptops (an iBook and a PowerBook G4), one at home, and one
at work. They are both set up with Entourage 2004.

I would like the Entourage data to be the same on all three devices
(well, with the exception of the email). I would like to use the Palm
(Tungsten T2) to be the go-between.

In general this works. I know that categories don't work well between
Palm and Entourage (in the Calendar/Date Book). But the data seems to
sync. Same with the Memos/Notes and the Address info.

But the Tasks/ToDos don't seem to work. In other words, I can modify
the list on one laptop and sync it with the Palm -- all is fine. But
when I sync the Palm with the other laptop, the changes don't show up.

Also, if I share Projects (using my .Mac iDisk), the Tasks get updated
via the sharing process, and are duplicated when I sync.

Any suggestions/fixes?
Click to expand...

You are not supposed to use the Palm with more than one computer or
identity. It can lead to serious trouble and corruption. Instead, sync the
Palm to just one of the computers. The easiest way to sync from one computer
to the other, and back again, is to copy and burn your identity folder from
here:

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/Main Identity [or
named]

or the whole Office 2004 Identities if you prefer, to CD or DVD, then
replace the equivalent identity folder on the other computer. The will keep
everything (including mail) up-to-date. It requires that you have the same
mail accounts on both,
Click to expand...
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

So, then, my question simply becomes one of syncing/updating the
Tasks/ToDos, as there doesn't seem to be any problem with the other
applications. Again, with mail, I simply access the servers from both
computers, and do manual deletes. I work from both home and the office, so
I need to keep things synced more often than burning CD's might allow.
Click to expand...

In that case you could try my shareware Export-Import Entourage X scripts
(they work also with 2004). Read also the "Synchronizing.rtf" document that
comes with it. If you're doing only one type of item (Tasks), it becomes
much simpler than it sounds there and will take you only a few seconds.

I still believe you'll eventually have trouble with Palm synching to two
computers, since each computer will have a different "Entourage Storage"
file which keeps track of modification dates and which app's items need to
be modified. If that starts to happen, you can remove the "Entourage
Storage" file and do a slow sync and/or you might want to use the scripts
for syncing the other items too.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
H

Hoff

Paul Berkowitz said:
In that case you could try my shareware Export-Import Entourage X scripts
(they work also with 2004). Read also the "Synchronizing.rtf" document that
comes with it. If you're doing only one type of item (Tasks), it becomes
much simpler than it sounds there and will take you only a few seconds.

I still believe you'll eventually have trouble with Palm synching to two
computers, since each computer will have a different "Entourage Storage"
file which keeps track of modification dates and which app's items need to
be modified. If that starts to happen, you can remove the "Entourage
Storage" file and do a slow sync and/or you might want to use the scripts
for syncing the other items too.
Click to expand...

I will need to do something similar (am just getting set up with
Entourage 2004, OS 10.3.5, desktop G4, Powerbook G4, Clie), so I'd like
to get an advance heads up (and maybe not run into familiar problems).
Shouldn't it work like this:

1) Sync machine A to palm; records in both A and palm set to "state 1"
2) Sync palm to machine B; records in both palm and B set to "state 2"
3) Sync palm back to machine A; records in both set to "state 3" etc.?

I don't see why either machine cares -why- records are changed when they
sync with the palm, they only care that there have been changes (new
"state"), right?

In the case where a record has been changed in both places you run into
problems. In other programs when there is a conflict you get some sort
of warning that effectively asks "Both records are changed since the
last time you sync'ed, which one do you want to keep?" I don't think you
get that option with via the palm hotsync software, so a duplicate
record is generated, right? How does this work with Entourage 2004 and
either the Palm Hotsync, or MarkSpace's Missing Sync?

I've run into problems with other software if I try to sync to a palm
device, and then sync the two machines directly (such as with copying
the Identity folder). such as:

1) Sync machine A to palm
2) Sync machine A to machine B (i.e. copy Identity folders)
3) sync palm with machine B

When I have tried this in the past, in step 3 the entire database was
duplicated. It seems that in copying the data in step 2, some flag was
set that treated the newly copied database as entirely new data. Is this
what happens with Entourage 2004 and palm devices now?

If that is the case, then as long as you only sync between 2 of the 3
possible relationships (A<->palm, B<->palm, A<->B) then everything
should be fine, right? That is, syncing A<->palm and B<->palm, but not
A<->B; or syncing A<->palm and A<->B, but not B<->palm, etc. Am I off
base here?

Ultimately, I too would like the following:
I. all three devices have the same information - at least as much
information as they can each carry (on machines A and B that would be
email - same messages and organization, contacts, calendar, tasks,
projects, files, etc.; and on the palm device only contacts, calendar,
tasks, notes - I can do without email)
II. That this happen somewhat automatically - the ideal being that I hit
1 "sync" button and everything happens.
III. That this happen without duplicating - or deleting - data that
shouldn't be.

I would think that this is essentially what everyone is looking for. So
far, it seems like there are solutions for each type of data, between
each pair of devices, but no way to do it all together. I was hoping
that Entourage 2004 would be pretty close to accomplishing that - since
so much of this happens in the same program. How close do we get so far?
Would setting up a server on the network connecting the machines help or
hinder?

Whoops - this got too long. Sorry about that - maybe what I'm after is
too much of a holy grail?

Larry Hoffman
 
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