High-Res, OS 5 Ready Docs to Go Included with the Tungsten T
DataViz and Palm, Inc. announced that DataViz's Documents To Go Professional Edition Version 5 will be included with the new Palm Tungsten T. This is the first Palm OS 5 handheld to ship with the ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint compatible files in the box.
"The Palm Tungsten T handheld is the first Palm handheld to ship with Palm OS 5, and we are thrilled that Documents To Go is compatible with this new operating system," said Ken Wirt, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Product Management, Palm, Inc. "We believe Documents To Go continues to be an important piece in providing an unrivaled productivity tool to customers worldwide."
Documents To Go Professional Edition version 5.0 gives Tungsten T handheld users the ability to work with their most crucial files wherever they are, whenever they have a moment. The software is useful across many industries; contracts, proposals, sales presentations, inventory lists, syllabi, and budgets are only a few examples of the kinds of files that are instantly available using a Palm Tungsten T handheld.
"The Palm Tungsten T handheld is a groundbreaking new handheld. Palm continues to innovate new hardware that's encouraging customers to become even more mobile," said Rob Hoxie, DataViz, Inc. "Providing Documents To Go Professional Edition gives Palm's customers the compatibility with MS Office they need to get more done whether they are in or out of the office."
The Documents To Go product family includes three editions. Documents To Go Premium Edition is the flagship product, encompassing the ability to create, synchronize, and edit word processing, spreadsheet and presentation files on the handheld, as well as synchronize e-mail with attachments, Adobe PDF files, pictures, and Excel-like charts all in one package.
Palm includes the Professional Edition with many of their Palm handhelds. The Professional Edition allows users to create, edit and synchronize word processing, spreadsheet and presentation files on the handheld. Customers who own the Professional Edition can upgrade to the Premium Edition for around $29.95.
The Standard Edition allows customers to use Word and Excel files on the handheld; this edition is available from computer retailers in the United States for around $49.95. Sony includes the Standard Edition on many of their CLIE handhelds.
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RE: Killer App
What is really important is to have a flexible zoom option, I think Docs to Go's implementation is pretty good. I would like 1 or 2 more steps though. Small is too small for me to really view with any comfort.
I love being able to view and edit multi-sheet spreadsheets as well.
RE: Killer App
My only serious problem with Sheets To Go is that it always felt like it was a viewer with editing hacked into it. Creating a new spreadsheet and adding new complex functions on my Palm was always a little hit & miss. Quicksheet was just eaiser.
Well, whatever my preference, I'm just glad that Palm is finally bundling an Office Suite of some kind. Let's face it, it's becoming more common for the average Joe to want to be able to sync Word documents out of the box. I honestly think that is one reason the PPC gained marketshare. Good move, Palm!
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James Sorenson
RE: Killer App
RE: Killer App
God bless Jeff Hawkins! (The creator of our beloved palm OS)
ThinkDB/Smartlist is the killer app of Palm OS!
No need to upgrade to the Premium Edition
"Palm supplies VersaMail, a multi-POP3 e-mail client that lets you view attachments like Word and images." http://forums.pdabuzz.net/showthread.php?s=4bb850a919baa39950b05063390f50eb&threadid=43105
...and Infosync's preliminary review:
"VersaMail also supports attachment conversion for certain types of files. MS Word, MS Excel, and MS Powerpoint files can be automatically converted during the HotSync process to and from DataViz Documents To Go format. Documents To Go Professional is included with the device. Other formats are not currently converted, but third party developers can develop plugins to support other file types, such as images" http://www.infosync.no/news/2002/n/2495,3.html
This should be great! Versamail is filling in for some of what the Premium Edition does.
Let's hope this proves to be true. I guess when Ryan/Ed do the review of the T|T they'll test this functionality :) Of course, there will be people who need to see pictures and other attachments, but for an extra $30.00? It all depends...the mission critical ones at least have been covered for now.
Cheers...
FC
RE: No need to upgrade to the Premium Edition
FBN
RE: No need to upgrade to the Premium Edition
Is that possible with the new version, and is it any good.
Zuber
Native formats yet?!
Can version 5.0 use .doc, .xls, etc. files from the memory stick yet?
Doubt it, but hey... Might as well ask! ;-)
Putting on my flame-retardant suit,
jho4thclie
-JWH
RE: Native formats yet?!
One thing to remember is that the actual Docs to Go cannot be stored on VFS. Also, you have to copy the apps to VFS and then delete from internal memory rather than just move them there.
Works a treat and the only space taken on internal memory is approx 475k + files.
Wolvy
RE: Native formats yet?!
As the previous poster said, you can move MOST of the DTG programs to VFS, leaving only the "Documents" program... the one that lets you pick which file to work with.
Chris Scullion
Speed
If there's no spellchecker... then what are the benchmarks?
Roman Pedan
Palm V/Vx
Will get a Palm OS 5 handheld
RE: Speed
ThinkDB/Smartlist is the killer app of Palm OS!
RE: Speed
RE: Speed
Oh well. One point to QuickOffice. I have a spell-checker and thesaurus in QuickWord 6.
Jim
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James Sorenson
What About...?
RE: What About...?
owned: Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Pro, Palm V, IIIc, m505, Sony T615, TUNGSTEN T!!
RE: What About...?
ThinkDB/Smartlist is the killer app of Palm OS!
doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
RE: doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
ThinkDB/Smartlist is the killer app of Palm OS!
RE: doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
Chris Scullion
RE: doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
does DTG standard not provide that functionality?
just curious, if it does it supports the 'NX WAS FIRST@!!!@$!" argument
[:)]
RE: doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
So, Palm is still right... they're the first PALM (brand) device with OS5 and Word, Excel, and Powerpoint support.
Chris Scullion
RE: doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
Scott
RE: doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
RE: doesn't clie nx have doc to go & os5?
ThinkDB/Smartlist is the killer app of Palm OS!
I just hope...
Also I wich old features of the 4 version of Word To Go(like hyperlinks, tables of content and support for cirylic charaters) are brought back.
D2G Highs and Lows
The lows to be aware of:
#1 Hotsyncing is unstable and SD card support is suspect. My m505 and v4 or v5 of D2G cannot consistently hotsync files to RAM and SD. Connection is lost about 50-75% of the time forcing a re-sync. This is NOT a localized problem and even their Tech support gave up and said the software is limited and offered a refund. I know others with this exact glitch. Had I not desperately needed D2G, this would be too much.
#2 Word2Go cannot Copy/Cut & paste to other applications or even documents! Yep, what's there is there to stay and not be shared.
#3 Hotsyncing 20-50 documents is just flat out Tyrannasaurus-Rex SLOW! Even when only 1 or 2 docs has been modified, the overhead of checking all of them adds minutes to the hotsync. I know, you can disable/enable D2G in hotsync, but this is another headache.
Overall this is a great product, but even v5 has some serious issue that need attention.
Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: D2G Highs and Lows
#4 - DTG word processor cannot keep up with my typing on an attached keyboard. I actually have to keep Wordsmith around to create new documents or to make major modifications to existing documents. I hope this gets fixed soon.
Chris Scullion
RE: D2G Highs and Lows
Are you experiences similar, or are there other Hotsync-ing issues I have not yet seen?
RE: D2G Highs and Lows
DataViz Response - RE: D2G Highs and Lows
Scott Thomas
DataViz, Inc.
////////////////////////////////////////////////
#1 Hotsyncing is unstable and SD card support is suspect. My m505 and v4 or v5 of D2G cannot consistently hotsync files to RAM and SD. Connection is lost about 50-75% of the time forcing a re-sync. This is NOT a localized problem and even their Tech support gave up and said the software is limited and offered a refund. I know others with this exact glitch. Had I not desperately needed D2G, this would be too much. ////////////////////////////////////////////////
We would argue that Documents To Go has one of the most complete, most useful implementations when it comes to expansion card support. It is certainly still the only Office companion app that can synchronize documents stored on expansion cards. We have extensively tested this and feel confident that it works as advertised, although environmental issues with specific PCs can affect operation, especially with USB.
You didn't mention if you were on a Mac or a PC. We have found Mac support of Expansion cards via HotSync to be less reliable than on Windows. Also, there is a known bug in HotSync for Windows where you cannot synchronize files stored on expansion cards when doing a network HotSync. These timeout problems stem from USB driver issues related to reading large amounts of data from the cards during a HotSync, an area few conduits make use of.
Another poster suggested making sure you are using the latest version of HotSync, always a good idea.
////////////////////////////////////////////////
#2 Word2Go cannot Copy/Cut & paste to other applications or even documents! Yep, what's there is there to stay and not be shared. ////////////////////////////////////////////////
This is not true, you can copy WordToGo data to any other app on the handheld that supports text, like MemoPad. There is a size limit, but that is true of all applications that use the system clipboard, and no formatting will be retained.
You can also copy between WordToGo documents and formatting will be retained in this case because we use our own custom clipboard. You can also copy more text than is supported on the System clipboard.
////////////////////////////////////////////////
#3 Hotsyncing 20-50 documents is just flat out Tyrannasaurus-Rex SLOW! Even when only 1 or 2 docs has been modified, the overhead of checking all of them adds minutes to the hotsync. I know, you can disable/enable D2G in hotsync, but this is another headache. ////////////////////////////////////////////////
There is much room for improvement in synchronization speed, especially when you have many documents in your list. We intend to address this issue in future versions.
////////////////////////////////////////////////
#4 - DTG word processor cannot keep up with my typing on an attached keyboard. I actually have to keep Wordsmith around to create new documents or to make major modifications to existing documents. I hope this gets fixed soon. ////////////////////////////////////////////////
We have done a lot of optimization on this in our latest version and believe that it should be able to keep up with 70-80 WPM typing based on our testing on m500 series devices for example.
This depends on if you're in the middle of a paragraph versus typing at the end of a paragraph (at the end will be faster), and if a table is present on screen. It should not really be affected much by the overall size of the document. There can be some lag, but you should not be able to notice too much. If you are a very fast typist, the app should be able to keep up with you, but may not display characters as smoothly. Faster devices help with this as well.
We'd be interested in feedback if this is not the case.
RE: D2G Highs and Lows
Chris Scullion
RE: DataViz Response - RE: D2G Highs and Lows
Thanks for the responses from Dataviz. I use an m505 USB with Win XPm, hotsync v4.1.0 & Intel PIII & 324mb memory:
#1 Maybe the statement expansion card support is not correct. The main problem is that the hotsync times-out repeatedly. D2G v3 did not do this without expansion support. This m505 and a colleagues m515 have the same crash problem. We both have stopped syncing until we decided to update docs.
This is a hassle and any ideas that you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
#2 Oops, I stand corrected. D2G v5 WILL copy out to other apps. My problem, was that I am, using CLIPHack which allows huge cutting & pasting in Palm, OS. This is an invaluable system hack, but it looks like I'll have to send them a mail concerning this conflict w/ D2G. Disabling the hack fixed it, but of course the cut/paste size is limited again. Thanks
#3 That will be much appreciated. It seems like a different protocol of verifying updated docs could really speed this. God forbid itm, but PPC has areal advantage here.
#4 v5 Works great on my keyboard. Better than v4 and leaps & bounds better than v3.
Thanks again. Your reply on the sync problem, is much desired.
Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
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