Using TE with Windows XP and multiple users - advice requested

[rfcoll]

My wife and I both upgraded our palms to the TE. We both use our palms for work and home.

The palm instructions caution it may be necessary to install the palm desktop twice (once for each user) in separate folders (ie: pilot\user1; pilot\user2). Is this necessary? What problems will we encounter if we don't do this? what are the advantages or disadvantages of setting up each way?

The one problem we did encounter was when we installed the new palm desktop software and did the first hotsync (with my palm) all the applications were installed. When my wife then hotsynced the applications did not get installed (calculator, photo, etc).

Thoughts?

[CML]

Originally posted by rfcoll
When my wife then hotsynced the applications did not get installed (calculator, photo, etc).

All those applications are on the CD that came with the Palm - you should just be able to log in as her, pop in the CD and install what you need to, or install more goodies.

[sjweise]

Unless you and your wife use different user profiles on your home PC (my wife and I don't) you wouldn't need to worry about having the desktop installed in different folders. You need to make sure both hot sync user IDs are in the shared desktop (or shared outlook...) and when installing new files remeber to check to see which user id the files will be installed onto. My wife and I share one palm desktop running on windows XP (we have m515s) and we have had no probelms that are out od the ordinary (well, I have had corrupted conduits, as had she- but that's all and who knows what caused that?)

[nchokie]

When syncing with two users, one desktop, TE. Will my calander
entries, contacts ect become available on the other users?

My wife and I would like to share calander entries so that we will not schedule conflicting meetings ect. will the hot sync one desk to muliple users accomplish this?

sorry for the duplicaiton

R.D.

[rfcoll]

Thanks for the replies. We finally did get both TEs loaded with the programs. Although the desktop will still only run from one XP user account.

The palm desktop will not let you share each others appointments (this is something we wanted to do also). The one thing the TEs will let you do is beam appts, etc to each other if you set things up properly. We use this to setup "family" appts by categorizing them appropriately then beaming a category to each other. This helps some but doesn't do exactly what you want to do. There is a third party company called Wesync that has software to allow viewing of multiple users appts, but last I checked you had to sync your calendar to their website and then the other person(s) would do the same and the calendars could be shared.

[MarsGuy]

In DateBk5, you can use Saved Views and Category Formats to share, but clearly seperate your calendars on your Palms. All you have to do is use the beam category/ies feature and change the DateBk5 BeamRcv settings to put everything your receive in a category for your wife's schedule.

Be warned that it is both a simple and complicated program to use and is a very powerful datebook manager. Make sure that you read the manual. I have been using DateBk5 for a year and I am still discovering new features. I don't think I would use my Palm half as much without DateBk5.

[neon_duke]

Originally posted by rfcoll
The palm desktop will not let you share each others appointments (this is something we wanted to do also). The one thing the TEs will let you do is beam appts, etc to each other if you set things up properly. We use this to setup "family" appts by categorizing them appropriately then beaming a category to each other. This helps some but doesn't do exactly what you want to do.

rfcoll: Here is what my wife and I do (did). This used to work brilliantly but we have encountered some problems lately that I do NOT think are related, but DO interfere with this method.

We designated my wife's calendar as the "main" calendar. All appointments are entered there, including a category for each of us, and each kid, and one for "Entire Family". She syncs her handheld with that, and just has the preferences set not to show her ToDos in the Calendar view on the desktop.

Then, I Export her Datebook items on a regular basis, and Import them into my Datebook. This brings all the appointments in to my calendar, and if it finds an existing identical appointment, it does not create duplicates. So the only the new ones are added, and since we only sync with our own calendars, all of our To Dos and things do not cross-pollinate.

It worked great for years on our old IIXEs. However, since upgrading to the TEs and Palm Desktop Mac (4.1), something has been happening where her Datebook gets corrupted. For some reason it will not export any future items beyond the current date, which is next to useless. As I said I don't believe this is caused by the Export/Import cycle, but it prevents us from using this method.

[rfarrah]

Just FYI, Wesync is dead for new users and won't work on OS5 at all. I've been looking for some kind of replacement, but haven't found anything good,yet. PalmOne has a app called Dualdate, but it's not quite what I'm looking for either. The search goes on......

R