Documents To Go Premium 6.0

Rating:
Summary: unsuable
Review: documents to go compresses my power point slides to the level where the graphics and text are literally unreadable. space on my memory stick is not tight so I would rather have the raw data, but i found no way to change this. a 15 meg document is compressed down to 580k, of course the quality is terrible.

Rating:
Summary: unsuable
Review: documents to go compresses my power point slides to the level where the graphics and text are literally unreadable. space on my memory stick is not tight so I would rather have the raw data, but i found no way to change this. a 15 meg document is compressed down to 580k, of course the quality is terrible.

Rating:
Summary: Beware of versions!!!
Review: I recently bought a Palm Zire 71 and found it to be everything I could ever want out a PDA, except for the fact that it lacked the proper software to load Microsoft Word Documents. Happily, I found the DataViz website, downloaded a trial copy of Documents To Go Premium 6.0, and all was well... until the trial period ended.

Not wanting to make a transaction over the net (they only accept credit cards on the site!) I had to find a local vendor that sold the software. And thus, the nightmare started. This product isn't easy find. It took me months to find a store that actually sold the dang thing, but when I finally purchased it, I found that it turned out to be version 5.0!!! Now, here is where things go horribly wrong...

Version 5.0 is a mess. There were multiple times when my Palm had to be reset, and there was even an occasion when the document I was working on simply vanished. Add to that, there's no such thing as a BOOKMARK even on that older version!

So be careful when you make the purchase. Better to just buy it here at Amazon.com and save yourself the trouble that I had to endure.

My advice; Palm better think VERY carefully about shipping any PDA without Documents To Go 6.0

Looking back, I could have saved myself a lot of pain, by buying a Pocket PC instead!

Rating:
Summary: Avoid the demo at least
Review: I tried the demo v.6.005 on my Treo 600. Very impressive for the most part, but unlike the free bundled viewer it crashed very badly on an e-mailed native Word doc attachment. I actually had to do a hard reset and reinstall all my apps and data from scratch. This is a very impressive piece of software, but hard crashes like these (which I subsequently re-tested and found repeatable) aren't really acceptable. Verdict: don't use this if you plan to travel away from your hotsync PC for any length of time!

Rating:
Summary: 2 Must Have's - Security and Native Files!
Review: I've been a Docs To Go user since version #4, and it's a program I wouldn't want to live without. I recently upgraded to the Palm Tungsten T-3, and Docs To Go #6 Premium looks great on the high resolution color screen - especially when viewed on the wider horizontal format when my T-3's slide-out cover is fully extended.

I originally didn't buy the Premium Edition of Docs To Go #6, but I upgraded as soon as I learned that it had two new features - both of which I had always longed to have!

The first is SECURITY. In MS Word, one can save documents that are openable only with a password. (When saving a document, use "save as" and then click "options.") This security feature carries over when the files are transferred via Docs To Go #6 Premium. To activate this feature on my Palm, I need simply to tap on the "Options" tab in the upper menu bar on my screen, followed by "Security," and then "Hide Records."

The second essential feature is Docs To Go #6's ability to save documents in NATIVE MS WORD format - which means that the file can be opened directly in MS Word! I can now save a document on my Palm's SD card - and then open it straight away on my PC in Word - without having to sync my Palm using Docs To Go before hand. This enables me to work remotely on my Palm (using my ultra-portable Stowaway Palm keyboard) and then open, edit and print the document on any computer that has MS Word. (To facilitate this, I carry a USB SD Card reader with me, which is plug-and-play for all Windows XP computers.)

Since a Word file is much larger than a Palm Memo file, this allows me to take notes in a long meeting - which I can then edit on my PC and distribute almost immediately to my other team members via email! (Before Docs To Go #6 Premium, I would take notes in Memo, and then cut-and-paste the text into a Word document - after I had transferred the Memo file to my home PC by syncing. What a pain!) Also, taking notes during a meeting using a Palm + keyboard is still kind of cool - whereas doing the same using a laptop isn't even close!

As another useful tool, I've also installed the latest version of BtPrint from ISComplete on my Palm, which allows me to print wirelessly to the infrared (IR) or Bluetooth (Bt) capable printers available to me at my home and in my office. MS Word documents printed via BtPrint look almost letter quality. For work, since my new company wouldn't provide me with a desktop printer, I went ahead and purchased a very used HP 990 cxi (which has IR) - along with a hardly used Bluetooth print adapter - both from eBay, which put me into business very inexpensively.

(As a final pair of tips, if you search very carefully using Google, you can even find the HP website which will send you a print driver disc for $10, which makes trying to bypass your company's firewall to download the software unnecessary. I've also installed PrintBoy 6.0 available from Bachmann software on my Palm which will print my To Do list -- by category -- which makes me look super-organized! Hey, in times like these, it's important to have every possible advantage, right?)

With the Security and Native MS file saving capabilities of Docs To Go #6 Premium, my Palm is even more indispensable than ever. This is one program I definitely couldn't do without! Why should you?


Rating:
Summary: This program kicks butt!
Review: If you want to bring your Office documents around on your you Palm or Sony handheld, this is the product for you. Sweet new user interface that gives all file info, allows for selective syncing of documents, easy SD card management.