Syncing both a TX and Alphasmart to the same machine?

[Hook]

This is a more focused question than my previous thread. I know we have few people using Alphasmart Danas here and I don't know if any have a TX, but I'm trying to figure out how complicated this gets.

The question is, if one has a TX (Palm OS5) and an Alphasmart Dana (Palm OS 4.1.X), how would one sync them both on the same machine?

One is a general Palm OS question. Can you sync an older device to a newer desktop (different username, of course). I think the answer to this is yes but don't know.

The second part is DANA-specific. I believe alphaword, based on Wordsmith, has its own conduit. Is it tied in with the desktop or is it separate. To get it, would I install the DANAs older desktop and then install the TX desktop on top of it, or does the conduit install separately.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Hook]

Well, here is one answer...

[RedFox]

This is a more focused question than my previous thread. I know we have few people using Alphasmart Danas here and I don't know if any have a TX, but I'm trying to figure out how complicated this gets.

I have a Dana and a Treo 680 - not much difference apart from having a phone instead of WiFi

The question is, if one has a TX (Palm OS5) and an Alphasmart Dana (Palm OS 4.1.X), how would one sync them both on the same machine?

One is a general Palm OS question. Can you sync an older device to a newer desktop (different username, of course). I think the answer to this is yes but don't know.

Yes. I had to rename my Dana after I bought the Treo, as I wanted to use most of my existing registered Palm apps on the latter (games and stuff), but I got the registration code for Wordsmith changed so I could use it on the renamed Dana. Since I only use the Dana for writing, I just gave it a hard reset and renamed it when I synced (having made a backup copy of the old sync folder in case I wanted to retrieve anything).

The second part is DANA-specific. I believe alphaword, based on Wordsmith, has its own conduit. Is it tied in with the desktop or is it separate. To get it, would I install the DANAs older desktop and then install the TX desktop on top of it, or does the conduit install separately.

Any help would be appreciated.

I would have to look at the CD, but usually conduits are separate from the desktop itself - you should just be able to install the conduit if you already have a Palm desktop set up.

As I bought my Treo after the Dana, I installed the Dana's version of Palm Desktop first, synced the Dana just to be sure it was working, then installed the Treo's Palm Desktop (which OS X treated as an upgrade, IIRC). All works just fine and dandy

The area where you might get confusion is DocsToGo: the Dana comes with version 6 preinstalled - I don't know if the TX has DTG, but it will be a newer version. Anyway, DTG files intended for the TX might not work properly on the Dana, so unless you have a pressing need to use DTG on both devices you may find it easier to turn off DTG synchronization for one of them - and be careful that the DTG desktop app is trying to sync to the right one!

Myself, I prefer Wordsmith as it's far more powerful than Alphaword and is a heck of a lot faster than DTG, esp on the Dana - I had been using Wordsmith on various Palms for years, and since it uses Palm shortcuts (Ctrl-P instead of Ctrl-V to paste) it integrates better with the Dana than Alphaword does, IMHO. Also, Blue Nomad did a nice job of supporting a range of desktop OSes, even providing Linux utilities for file conversion in lieu of a conduit, which is more than most companies can be bothered to do.

[Hook]

Thanks for the info. That clears a lot up. Alphasmart gave me a bunch of hedged answers that came down to "yes, it should work, but we may not be able to support you if it goes wrong."

So you actually use Wordsmith on thee Dana. Does it use the full screen width?

[RedFox]

Thanks for the info. That clears a lot up. Alphasmart gave me a bunch of hedged answers that came down to "yes, it should work, but we may not be able to support you if it goes wrong."

No-one likes supporting an issue involving another company's product - it requires expertise not covered by standard training (assuming the company even bothers with training beyond "Here's your script - good luck!" *lol*). Luckily there's a wealth of free expertise here to draw on

So you actually use Wordsmith on the Dana. Does it use the full screen width?

Yes it does - I wouldn't use it otherwise.

[Hook]

So you actually use Wordsmith on thee Dana. Does it use the full screen width?

Yes it does - I wouldn't use it otherwise.

Very nice. I like the DANA more and more.

One last pesky question. Does using wordsmith lose spell checking on the Dana (not a high priority, but handy).

[dmccunney]

Very nice. I like the DANA more and more.

One last pesky question. Does using wordsmith lose spell checking on the Dana (not a high priority, but handy).

I see no reason why it should.

Spell checking in Wordsmith is provided by SpellSmith, a seperate application called from within Wordsmith. Wordsmith comes with several default dictionaries, and which you install depends upon how much RAM you wish to use. The large dictionary file is 1.1MB. WordSmtih will also let you use user defined custom dictionaries. in addition to the main one, where you can place specialized words you might need.
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Dennis

[dmccunney]

I would have to look at the CD, but usually conduits are separate from the desktop itself - you should just be able to install the conduit if you already have a Palm desktop set up.

If you do a Custom install of the desktop, you ought to be able to specify the conduits.

I had to do that here, as I have a Tapwave Zodiac 2 and needed to sync my SO's Visor Pro as well. The Tapwave Desktop removes the standard Palm USB driver, making sync with other devices impossible.

My solution was to copy the Tapwave USB driver to a floppy, then install the Palm Desktop, and then do a custom install of the Tapwave Desktop, installing only the Tapwave Hotsync Manager. This preserved the Palm USB driver. When I synced the Zodiac, Windows saw it, asked for the driver, and I pointed at the floppy. The Tapwave USB driver installed alongside the Palm driver, and all was well.

The Zodiac needed to see the Tapwave Hotsync Manager, which was a later version than the default Palm copy, but the Pro didn't care.

Myself, I prefer Wordsmith as it's far more powerful than Alphaword and is a heck of a lot faster than DTG, esp on the Dana - I had been using Wordsmith on various Palms for years, and since it uses Palm shortcuts (Ctrl-P instead of Ctrl-V to paste) it integrates better with the Dana than Alphaword does, IMHO.

I have DTG v8 installed on my Zodiac, but use WordSmith by preference. Its the best solution I've found for creating text on the PDA. DTG is mostly there to handle Excel spreadsheets and view occasional Word documents. I don't try to create text with it. (And the last I knew, Word to Go had problems keeping up with input from a keyboard. WordSmith has superb keyboard support.)

Also, Blue Nomad did a nice job of supporting a range of desktop OSes, even providing Linux utilities for file conversion in lieu of a conduit, which is more than most companies can be bothered to do.

Bobby Genest from Blue Nomad support just put the Linux converter in the Files area for the Yahoo WordSmith group, with apologies for not having done so before. It's no longer available through their website. Nice to see Blue Nomad still monitors the group, even though Wordsmith isn't a priority for them these days.

I use the DOS command line converter. I keep a copy on my SD card in the /Palm/Programs/WordSmith directory. When I need to work on a file in WordSmith, I save it as an RTF file to the card with a USB reader, then run the converter from the card to convert the RTF file to the format WordSmith uses. Pop the card out of the reader and into the PDA, and away I go, with no need for the Wordsmith desktop conduit to be installed on the PC I'm using.
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Dennis

[RedFox]

I see no reason why it should.

Spell checking in Wordsmith is provided by SpellSmith, a seperate application called from within Wordsmith. Wordsmith comes with several default dictionaries, and which you install depends upon how much RAM you wish to use. The large dictionary file is 1.1MB. WordSmtih will also let you use user defined custom dictionaries. in addition to the main one, where you can place specialized words you might need.

Dennis beat me to it!

Wordsmith also comes with a Thesaurus, if you're into that kind of thing.

Oh, and to install spellcheck and/or thesaurus on the Dana, first you have to install the full package from the website, then you have to install the latest version of Wordsmith.prc (2.2.27, I think) over the top (or instead of the .prc in the package) - the package hasn't been updated, and the old version of Wordsmith doesn't support Dana's widescreen.