.KEYWORD pocketmirror0201
.FLYINGHEAD OUTLOOK SYNCHRONIZATION
.TITLE PocketMirror 3.0 Professional offers an attractive collection of enhancements
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Last month, Bob Draper showed you how to synchronize your Palm device with Microsoft Outlook using PocketMirror 3.0 Standard. This month, Bob walks you through PocketMirror 3.0 Professional and the ten new features that aren’t found in the Standard edition.
.AUTHOR Bob Draper
When Chapura released the latest version of PocketMirror last year, they took a two tiered approach, offering both Standard and Professional versions of this useful and innovative package. Last month, when I discussed how to configure PocketMirror 3.0 Standard, I mentioned that PocketMirror 3.0 Professional (at http://www.chapura.com/html/products/pocketmirror/pro.html) offered a number of key enhancements. This month I’ll review those enhancements and discuss whether or not this upgrade is right for you.
If you already own PocketMirror 2.x or PocketMirror 3.0 Standard, then you can upgrade to PocketMirror 3.0 Professional for only $24.95. On the other hand, if you don’t already own a copy, the full version could set you back as much as $57.90, depending on which package you purchase. Ordering information is available at https://www.chapura.com/order.html.
Now that you know what price you’ll need to pay to get your hands on PocketMirror 3.0 Professional, you can let those numbers simmer in the back of your head while I show you what this upgrade has to offer. Specifically, PocketMirror 3.0 Professional offers ten new features that are not found in the Standard edition. I’ll start by discussing general enhancements and then move on to those that are unique to the individual modules.
.H1 General enhancements
The following features are available in all four main modules. First, PocketMirror 3.0 Professional has support for subfolder categories and category filtering. These two features are configured in the familiar "Categories/Folders" topic. However, a quick glance at Figure A shows that this topic has received a serious face-lift.
.FIGPAIR A The enhanced Categories/Folders topic offers a powerful new option.
In addition to the familiar settings, now included under the Single Folder option, you’ll see that PocketMirror 3.0 Professional also gives you the added advantage of using folders, subfolders, and public folders to control your handheld categories. Once you select "Handheld category = Outlook folder" for a particular Outlook module, a subfolder will be created for each of your handheld categories in that module’s root folder during your next HotSync. All unfiled items will remain in the root folder.
As with the custom "PalmPilot Category," you can still use Outlook’s powerful category features without restrictions. Now you can easily sort and view your tasks by category, using subfolders. While this may seem like a neat, though hardly vital feature, those of you who share access to your Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and so forth with coworkers can see why this is a really useful capability. With your categories separated into individual folders, it’s a fairly simple matter to set the permissions on each folder. Now you can tightly control who has access to what information, and your coworkers will only see what applies to them.
Selecting the Advanced button in the lower right corner of this window opens a series of new options, as shown in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B PocketMirror 3.0 Professional lets you create all kinds of links to manage your categories.
In addition to being able to individually manage each of your subfolder categories, you can also create links to public folders, as I’ve done by creating the category Shared Tasks, which is linked to the shared Tasks folder in my organization’s Public Folders. Quite nifty, don’t ya think? And this gets better, too. Notice the last column, Filtered.
By selecting Options on the right side of the Category Links dialog box, you open the dialog box shown in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C Take control of what gets synchronized to your Palm device.
This dialog box’s most exciting feature allows you to filter your information in Outlook by category. Perhaps you have several categories in Outlook that you’d rather not synchronize to your Palm device. This is the place where you can make those choices.
One final note about the Categories/Folders topic and Outlook Calendar. Heed the warning offered in Figure D and take it seriously.
.FIGPAIR D You should be careful when modifying the Calendar’s category settings.
Unless you’re using a third-party handheld date book (or own a Handspring device), you should leave the Calendar’s Categories/Folders topic set to the custom PalmPilot Category.
.H1 Conflict resolution
The Conflict Resolution feature is fairly straightforward. If you often encounter HotSync errors because items have been modified on both platforms (and you have a fairly good idea what’s causing the problem), you might want to look at changing the settings in this topic, as shown in Figure E.
.FIGPAIR E Use the Conflict Resolution setting if you experience HotSync errors.
Although, to be honest, I’d be a bit nervous about using either the "Outlook wins" or "Handheld wins" settings. It can be annoying to go through and clean up the duplicate entries after a HotSync operation, but I’d rather do that than risk losing some vital bit of information.
.H1 Changing the Outlook root folder
Expanding on PocketMirror 3.0 Professional’s ability to work with other folders, the Outlook Root Folder topic, pictured in Figure F, lets you specify a different root folder for your Calendar, Contacts, Task List, or Notes.
.FIGPAIR F PocketMirror 3.0 Professional offers a number of ways to control your Outlook folders.
If you want to change the root folder, PocketMirror 3.0 Professional provides an easy to follow wizard to step you through the process.
.H1 Outlook Calendar
PocketMirror 3.0 Professional offers an additional enhancement for the Calendar. With the Transfer Alarms function, you can choose whether you want alarms to carry over between your handheld and Outlook, as shown in Figure G.
.FIGPAIR G PocketMirror 3.0 Professional let’s you pick which platform will notify you of upcoming events.
This can be useful, but as with Conflict Resolution, I’d be inclined to keep the default setting.
.H1 Outlook Contacts
PocketMirror 3.0 Professional also offers an extra capability in Contacts. The Address Topic, pictured in Figure H, allows you to specify which of Outlook’s three address fields is transferred to your Palm device.
.FIGPAIR H Take control of Outlook’s multiple address fields right here, right now.
At first glance, this may seem like a truly pointless topic. After all, as the note states, "Selecting ‘Mailing Address’ will ensure that at least one address will be maintained on your handheld." The implication is clear–choosing one of the other settings could result in a contact being transferred to your Palm device without any address.
However, let’s say that you’re using PocketMirror’s Custom Fields topic to synchronize the Home Address to one of your handheld’s custom fields. In that case, selecting either Business Address or Other Address in the Address topic will prevent the Home Address from being duplicated on your handheld for those contacts whose Home Address is set as the Mailing Address.
.H1 Outlook Task List
PocketMirror 3.0 Professional’s offerings really shine in the Task List, which has three significant improvements over the Standard edition.
.H2 Additional Handheld Priority options
If you’re bothered by the fact that Outlook only offers three Task List priority settings, you’re really going to like the Handheld Priority topic pictured in Figure I.
.FIGPAIR I Now Outlook and your Palm device can agree on your priorities.
With PocketMirror 3.0 Professional, you can create a custom field named "Palm Priority," which supports all five handheld priority settings. Now Outlook can display the priority shown on your Palm device.
Well, almost. You see, there’s no link between the Outlook Task List priority you see when you open a Task and the custom "Palm Priority" field. In fact, PocketMirror reset all my Outlook Task List priorities to Normal after I started using the custom "Palm Priority" field.
This may not be a problem for many. However, if you use Outlook to share Tasks with coworkers, you may need to maintain your task priorities in both locations.
Actually, I was quite surprised by this disconnect, since most of the features in PocketMirror 3.0 Professional are designed to make working with Outlook and your Palm device in a workgroup environment easier. I would have hoped that PocketMirror 3.0 Professional would both synchronize the handheld priority to the custom field, and translate it to a comparable Outlook priority. That way you could see the priority as it’s set on your Palm device, and your coworkers could see an equivalent Outlook priority, as well.
.H2 Additional Task Filter options
In addition to letting you filter information by category, PocketMirror 3.0 Professional also lets you specifically filter Task List items using two new criteria, as you can see in Figure J.
.FIGPAIR J PocketMirror 3.0 Professional lets you keep your Palm device tidy by only synchronizing your current tasks.
This topic lets you keep your Palm device clear of clutter by filtering out completed (but not yet deleted) tasks in Outlook, as well as those tasks that are assigned to coworkers.
.H1 Configuring Outlook Notes
Unlike the PocketMirror 3.0 Standard, PocketMirror 3.0 Professional offers a unique topic for the Notes module: New Note Color.
The New Note Color topic, pictured in Figure K, is a simple organizational tool. It lets you track which notes are created in Outook by assigning a color.
.FIGPAIR K Now you can tell at a glance where your notes were created.
.H1 Now to wrap it all up
PocketMirror 3.0 Professional offers an attractive collection of enhancements (admittedly, some are more attractive than others), which can make synchronizing with Microsoft outlook easier and more efficient. This is especially true if you use Outlook extensively to manage your daily schedule and responsibilities, and your office takes full advantage of Outlook’s workgroup features. The many filtering options and category features particularly impressed me.
Of course, PocketMirror 3.0 Professional isn’t for everyone. If you only synchronize with one or two modules in Outlook and use Palm Desktop for the rest, you likely won’t consider this to be a compelling upgrade. But for those of you who do use Outlook extensively, either by choice or by circumstance, PocketMirror 3.0 Professional’s added features may be exactly what you need to maximize the benefits of Palm device ownership.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on PocketMirror 3.0 Professional, visit http://www.chapura.com/html/products/pocketmirror/pro.html.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Bob Draper is a technical writer at Westar Corporations U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground office. He is the father of two beautiful children, and he loves them very much, despite the fact that one of them destroyed his original Palm III. He can be reached at palmguy@mac.com.
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6efae
