.KEYWORD sharesync
.FLYINGHEAD MULTI-USER PALM
.TITLE How to share your Palm Desktop among multiple users
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Want to learn how to share your Palm Desktop among multiple users? Perhaps you’ve longed for a way to have an assistant make appointment entry in your Palm Desktop. In this important article by Senior Technical Editor Claire Pieterek, we’ll show you some ways you can make this possible on your network.
.AUTHOR Claire Pieterek
There seem to be two types of Palm device users: those who keep their own schedules and those who have others maintain their schedules. This is the first of a multiple-part series of articles on how people who need to share can perform HotSync operations.
.H1 When synching up is hard to do
Palm Desktop is admittedly, not the right tool for the job if you need to share your schedule on a network. The following procedure is for those on a low budget who have some knowledge of their network operating system (i.e., you understand the concepts of sharing or mapping network drives and setting permissions or granting rights). Given the plethora of network operating systems available–from Novell NetWare versions 2.2 to 5.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT versions 3.51 and 4.0–instruction on network operating system (NOS) commands is outside the scope of this article. You’ll also need to be comfortable using RegEdit, the registry editing tool available on most Windows OS releases.
.H1 Forewarned is forearmed
There’s a possible pitfall of this procedure. Without the right care, multiple network users can make changes at the same time, which could lead to data corruption or just plain bad information. The best practice here would be to grant rights to a single person delegated to make changes and write to the files. This can generally be done through the NOS.
.H1 Faint hearts need not apply
First, install Palm Desktop on each user’s PC.
Next, we’re going to put the user files that will be shared on a network drive. This assumes that you know how to map or share a drive on your particular network operating system, and have the network rights to do so.
Now, move all user data files from the Pilot directory to the network directory, and move the users.dat file to that directory. Let’s use the P: drive as an example. If I were to move my user files to the P: drive, I would move the PieterC folder from C:\Palm\PieterC to P:\Palm\PieterC, and move the C:\Palm\users.dat file to P:\Pilot\users.dat. This move can be accomplished by using DOS commands such as XCOPY or MOVE, Filer on a Novell 2.x-3.x network, or through Windows Explorer.
.CALLOUT I strongly recommend making a backup copy of your registry before you make any changes.
Once your user files are moved, the path setting must be changed on each computer. For Windows 95 or 98 users, choose Run from the Start menu, type RegEdit in the box and press Enter.
I strongly recommend making a backup copy of your registry before you make any changes. To backup your registry, choose Export Registry File from the Registry menu. Select the backup copy’s location by pulling down the Save in box and clicking on the appropriate drive (I usually choose C:). Give your registry backup a name by typing "REGBACK" or something equally recognizable in the File Name box. Under Export Range, make sure the All radio button is checked, then click Save.
Once your registry is backed up, let’s make the fateful change. The registry is arranged in a heirarchy, like folders in Windows Explorer. You’ll need to drill down through this heirarchy (by clicking on the plus signs) until you find the path of the Palm desktop.
Navigate through the registry by clicking the plus sign next to the following items (in order):
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET HKEY_CURRENT_USER
.BULLET Software
.BULLET U.S. Robotics
.BULLET Pilot Desktop
.END_LIST
Now click on the folder called Core. You’ll see a number of Registry entries like those shown in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Change the path from the local hard drive to the shared hard drive by "hacking" your Registry.
Finally, move to the right pane, click in the editing area for the Path entry and change "C:" to "P:". Most people have their Palm files located at the root level of their volumes. In the illustration included with this article, the Palm desktop files are located in the Program Files directory. Just be sure to adjust your path so that it matches what’s on your machine and puts your data on the networked drive.
.H1 Alternatives
There are alternatives to this rather Byzantine process. One of these is Eliott R.D. Mitchelmore’s Groupsync. This nifty utility will let you sync DateBook records among Palm Desktop users performing HotSync operations to the same desktop machine, by using a replacement conduit for the DateBook. DateBk3 or Action Names users can import others’ DateBook information into a category on their own Palm devices. The built-in DateBook doesn’t support categories, but you can tag imported records to indicate to whom they belong.
If you have Internet access, it might be possible to use Yahoo Calendar with a single user ID to share calendar information among many Palm device users. Yahoo Calendar is a web-based utility that can be synchronized with your Palm device using TrueSync. You can use the Calendar Sharing feature to allow co-workers, friends, customers or others to see a read-only version of your calendar from the Internet. A published calendar makes it easier for others to schedule meetings with you.
WeSync (at http://www.wesync.com) might be another possibility, but the product won’t be available until fall 1999.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
GroupSync can be found at http://www.groupsync.co.uk.
DateBk3 is located at http://www.gorilla-haven.org/pimlico.
Action Names is at http://www.iambic.com.
Yahoo Calendar is at http://www.yahoo.com.
For more information about WeSync, visit http://www.wesync.com.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6d17e
