Repligo Allows You To View Most Documents On Your Pocket PC [Archive]

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 02:00 PM

<a href="http://www.cerience.com/products/index.htm">http://www.cerience.com/products/index.htm</a> "RepliGo represents a breakthrough in document conversion technology and mobility. In a matter of seconds, virtually any document you have on your PC can be transferred to your handheld device while maintaining the document’s original look and feel. This includes Microsoft® Office documents, Adobe® PDF files, Web pages and hundreds of other formats. Once on your device, documents can easily be viewed, printed, and shared with others using the supplied RepliGo Viewer." <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20030123-repligo.gif" /> Normal and zoomed mode of an Excel spreadsheet with chart. It supports Word, Excel, Project, Adobe PDF, Visio, MapPoint, Money, Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw and others. Where applicable it will reflow the document for the smaller Pocket PC screen, and can shrink the file up to 50%. It is just a viewer and does require the conversion to happen on the desktop, so files you receive in an email won't work. All Pocket PCs are supported and you need ActiveSync 3.1 or higher on the desktop. 10MB is required on the desktop and about 550K on the Pocket PC. It is $49.95, but if you buy from <a href="http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=51208&optionId=1_2_2&productType=2&catalog=30&txtSearch=repligo§ionId=0&platformId=2">Handango before February 21</a> affiliate link using the promotional code 614A745 you get $10 off. There is a 14 day trial version at the Cerience site. Update: Ok, just installed it. Wow! :crazyeyes: It adds an icon for conversion to Excel, Word and IE, but for all other apps, you simply hit File|Print then pick the Repligo printer. So, as long as your app can print on the desktop, Repligo can "convert" it for viewing on your Pocket PC. Buying a copy today! Look for a full review by next week. Oh, it also includes its own print drivers and will print to IR or any printer mapped to a COM port, like through Bluetooth!

PJE

01-23-2003, 03:49 PM

Hi,

What additional benefit does if have over using the Adobe PDF viewer on my PocketPC? In that way I'm using a industry standard file format.

Granted it removes the need to buy the overly expensive PDF creation software, but it is in itself $50.

My 2c

PJE

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 03:57 PM

Hi,

What additional benefit does if have over using the Adobe PDF viewer on my PocketPC? In that way I'm using a industry standard file format.
If you only want it for PDF, it isn't worth it, but as I said, just about any app on your PC that can print can be Repligo'd to your Pocket PC. PDF is but one of thousands of file formats.

Given the nice free PDF viewer from Adobe, I doubt I'll use Repligo for PDF much, but those that don't want to install the 5MB Adobe Reader may.

PJE

01-23-2003, 04:06 PM

hokie36

01-23-2003, 04:24 PM

I use the Adobe Acrobat option that PJE is talking about. I have the full version of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and you can print anything on your PC to Acrobat Distiller and it will create a PDF document for you. This is just another option that I use all of the time. I never end up keeping paper copies of anything like receipts online, so I just make them into a PDF file and save them on my hard drive.

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 04:38 PM

Ed,

Adobe Acrobat installs two printer drivers when it installs. You can create a PDF from any application by just printing it via the PDFwriter driver in the same way as you describe for RepliGo.

The only advantage that this has is if it were more intelligent in the way it fits things on the smaller screen - although lower cost and smaller reader size are also pluses. I'll give it a whirl to see how well it compares.
Duh! Sorry - hadn't had my coffee when I replied. Now I see what you are talking about.

For those with Adobe on the desktop, ok - a small population, but it works.
Repligo on the Pocket PC is MUCH faster than Adobe Reader 1.0

GadgetMan

01-23-2003, 04:47 PM

Well, there is one HUGE advantage RELIGO has over Adobe Acrobat Reader.

I bought an e-book in Adobe Acrobat format. Although I have a full version of Adobe 5.0, I could not tag it for reflow (so it would be readable on my Pocket PC), due to the security settings imposed by the creator. The same was true for converter that comes with Pocket PC version of Acorbat Reader and normally tags your files when you sync them to your Pocket PC. It could not do that due to security restrictions.

In summary, I was unable to read that e-book on my Pocket PC. What a waste of money!

Then came the solution - RELIGO. I printed that Acrobat file from my Adobe 5.0 to RELIO printer, synchronized it to my Pocket PC and RELIGO viewer had no problem at all presenting it in a reflow mode. Finally I can read that e-book on my Pocket PC!

It looks to me that this is a very nice universal viewer than can display documents created in any application you can print from on your desktop.

GadgetMan

01-23-2003, 04:51 PM

[quote=PJE]Ed,

For those with Adobe on the desktop, ok - a small population, but it works.

I am not sure what you mean by "small population". Adobe Acrobat Reader is one of the most popular applications. As long as you download it (for FREE) from Adobe and install on your desktop or notebook, you can print any Acrobat document from it to RELIGO printer and then view it on your Pocket PC (including reflow!).

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 04:53 PM

For those with Adobe on the desktop, ok - a small population, but it works.

I am not sure what you mean by "small population". Adobe Acrobat Reader is one of the most popular applications. As long as you download it (for FREE) from Adobe and install on your desktop or notebook, you can print any Acrobat document from it to RELIGO printer and then view it on your Pocket PC (including reflow!).

You can't create documents with Acrobat Reader, just Acrobat, which is a few hundred bucks. With it you can "print" a PDF file from Excel, Word, or whatever. That is what he was referring to.

PJE

01-23-2003, 04:57 PM

For those with Adobe on the desktop, ok - a small population, but it works.

I am not sure what you mean by "small population". Adobe Acrobat Reader is one of the most popular applications. As long as you download it (for FREE) from Adobe and install on your desktop or notebook, you can print any Acrobat document from it to RELIGO printer and then view it on your Pocket PC (including reflow!).

GadgetMan,

The quote wasn't from me :wink:

Ed means the full Acrobat creation application - which is only used by a small percentage of PDF users.

I've just installed RepliGo and I'm impressed. The file sizes are small, the reader is reasonably sized. My only concern currently is the fuzzy text.

I may even buy it!

PJE

Sven Johannsen

01-23-2003, 05:13 PM

I actually think this might be better with a desktop reader as well. Any chance of that? I too use Acrobat to 'print' a lot of things to a .pdf. Especially usefull if you do a lot of on-line business. I like to keep copies of the screen right before confirmation and just after, but I hated wasting the paper and having it lay around. It just got tossed, when the item arrives. Printing to .pdf works well. Software reg codes shown on screen are good to keep in .pdfs as well. There are some third party "Adobe Printer" apps around, but they cost too. This looks real nice.

If anyone is interested, win2pdf is a program that adds a pdf printer to your printer options. It is $35 on it's own, but it beats buying Acrobat just for the printer.

lynnroth

01-23-2003, 05:14 PM

For those of you without the full version of Acrobat,
Here (http://sector7g.wurzel6-webdesign.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm) is a link to PDFCreator, which does basically the same thing, except it's Free and GPL.

It allows printing to PDF from any application.
I've used it without any issues. Very nice for keeping copies of online receipts etc without wasting paper...

Pony99CA

01-23-2003, 05:53 PM

The one flaw I see in their model is that they charge for the viewer. I doubt their vision of sharing documents with co-workers will come about if the co-workers have to go buy a $50 piece of software just to view a shared document.

I think they should follow the Acrobat model -- give the viewer away to build name recognition and ubiquity, but charge $50 (or more to compensate for the free viewers) for the PC-based components needed to create RepliGo files.

Steve

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 06:16 PM

The one flaw I see in their model is that they charge for the viewer. I doubt their vision of sharing documents with co-workers will come about if the co-workers have to go buy a $50 piece of software just to view a shared document.
Not so sure that is true. If you have the unregistered version on your PPC, there are three options when you use it:
• Continue 14 day trial
• Register
• Continue free non-commercial use

So, I guess it depends on commercial use.

Paul Martin

01-23-2003, 06:33 PM

Not so sure that is true. If you have the unregistered version on your PPC, there are three options when you use it:
• Continue 14 day trial
• Register
• Continue free non-commercial use

So, I guess it depends on commercial use.

Ed,

I've looked at their site but could find no info on the "free" use. I've not installed it yet...does it give you option #3 at some point?

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 06:41 PM

I've looked at their site but could find no info on the "free" use. I've not installed it yet...does it give you option #3 at some point?
When you install it on the PPC.

Paul Martin

01-23-2003, 06:52 PM

Thanks, Ed. I'm downloading it now.

Paul

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 06:52 PM

And it prints to IR printers! Very COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shawnc

01-23-2003, 07:42 PM

I'm going to take this dicussion in a different direction since I'm not very concerned about the Adobe functionality. As a non-technical end-user, I simply want a product that allows me to transfer Word/Excel files from my desktop (without losing ANY formatting in Word), make changes to the document/spreadsheet on my PPC, and transfer thoses changes back to my desktop (again, without losing any formatting). It is AMAZING to me that I can not do this with the installed applications on my PPC, but that is another rant for another day :twisted: !

If this software allows me to do that in a simple manner (ie, I don't need to be a systems expert and go through multiple "conversion steps"), then I will be 1st in line to purchase (with affiliate link, of course :D ). Next to a keyboard (if Dell EVER sends it), this software will be the BEST investment I can make in my PPC.

I just read the info from their website and it looks as though it will do what I need. Ed, if you can share your expertise in regards to Word/Excel conversion/functionality, I would appreciate it.

Update - I just took the on-line tour and this product looks GREAT! I'm going to wait a few days to read comments on this thread, but this looks like exactly what I'm looking for at a very reasonable price.

Update #2 - Nevermind :oops: . After reading another post/thread, it looks as though this software will only convert from desktop to PPC to allow for VIEWING files. Updating and transferring back to my desktop does not appear to be possible. Oh well........the search continues.

Thanx,

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

01-23-2003, 08:01 PM

Very cool!! I can already see though how much value this viewer can provide. I mean, there are so many types of docs that I'd love to be able to view on my PPC as reference-like material.... MSProject files, Visio files, formatted Lotus Notes emails, web pages that would never display correctly over a PPC, etc. There really are a ton of possibilities. The ability to print to a IR printer is some HUGE icing on the cake!!

Definitely need to check this out!!

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 08:12 PM

I'm Update #2 - Nevermind :oops: . After reading another post/thread, it looks as though this software will only convert from desktop to PPC to allow for VIEWING files.

Heh - "Once on your device, documents can easily be viewed, printed, and shared with others using the supplied RepliGo Viewer" in the first post of this thread. It is just a viewer. An awesome one though.

shawnc

01-23-2003, 08:18 PM

Heh - "Once on your device, documents can easily be viewed, printed, and shared with others using the supplied RepliGo Viewer" in the first post of this thread. It is just a viewer. An awesome one though.

Ed,

Don't know how I missed that :oops: , I think my enthusiasm simply got the best of me :D . I'm currently in grad school and I NEED this type of product in the worst way. I found out the hard way (when getting the bright idea that I could take a term paper to the library and work on it using my PPC) that even though I've got a "Word" icon on my PPC, that it isn't REALLY Word (if THAT makes any sense).

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 08:45 PM

I found out the hard way (when getting the bright idea that I could take a term paper to the library and work on it using my PPC) that even though I've got a "Word" icon on my PPC, that it isn't REALLY Word (if THAT makes any sense).
Perfect sense. It is Pocket Word, not Word. You can try Textmaker. It is a full featured word processor for the Pocket PC.

GadgetMan

01-23-2003, 09:06 PM

shawnc

01-23-2003, 09:07 PM

Perfect sense. It is Pocket Word, not Word. You can try Textmaker. It is a full featured word processor for the Pocket PC.

Respectfully disagree. It may make perfect sense to you, but when the average user see's that icon on his/her PPC that looks exactly like the icon on his/her desktop, they will likely make the assumption that syncing between the two devices means just that. I don't think it will ever even occur to someone that basic functionality will be lost. While I am at the low end of the technical scale compared to most users who post on this site, I am probably closer to the high-end for most of my fellow Finance geeks. You should have heard the conversation I just had with a co-worker who saw my Dell docked and was asking me about Word/Excel functionality. She had a look of puzzlement not often seen on CPA's. I don't expect to be able to create and modify my pivot tables and macro's in Excel, but I am floored (and was very much surprised) by the loss of very basic formatting in Pocket Word

I had considered Textmaker, but for the price I was hoping to get both Word and Excel functionality. I'll keep searching. Thanx anyway.

shawnc

01-23-2003, 09:18 PM

shawnc,

I am afraid the only way you can get this functionality (editing richly formatted MS Office documents on your handheld and then synchronizing them back with desktop version with all formatting preserved) is if you switch to Palm.

Two products have been long available for Palm Platform (one is called "Documents to Go" and the other "Quick Office" or something like that) that allow you to put fully formatted and complex Word or Excel document on Palm, then edit it and then sync it back with all the changes - and formatting preserved.

These two third party products put Microsoft to shame. Two small companies have better programmers and much better products that huge Microsoft could ever come up with. It is especially embarrasing to Microsft that they were able to achieve this functionality using MS' own technology (OLE). MS programmers who wrote that rudimentarly notepad thing (misleadingly called Pocket Word), or that joke of a spreadsheet called Pocket Excel (yea, I wonder what they think they excel in, as programming it ain't) should really move into pizza delivery field, as that profession is more in line with their programmig skills...

Cheers,

Gadgetman,

Let me start by saying that I am a HUGE microsoft fan who loves most of their products. But you make my point much better than I could have. No one will EVER be able to convince me that there is any logical reason other than arrogance or indifference on MS's part that my co-workers with a Palm can sync Word/Excel files better than I can (or that somehow I should have known this when deciding on this platform). It really gall's me when I hear about all the great things MS is preparing to do with the PPC (wireless, etc). They seem to have a habit of promising to take their technology/software to the next level and ignoring the current issues. The talk of wireless is nice, but geez guys, give me AT LEAST the same level of functionality that my Palm co-workers have with MS Office products.

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 09:32 PM

Let me start by saying that I am a HUGE microsoft fan who loves most of their products. But you make my point much better than I could have. No one will EVER be able to convince me that there is any logical reason other than arrogance or indifference on MS's part that my co-workers with a Palm can sync Word/Excel files better than I can
So, in 2000, MS introduces Pocket Word and Pocket Excel on the Pocket PC and Palm basically has nothing. Then, third parties start writing apps on the Palm and their functionality has surpassed Pocket Word/Excel (none of which has anything to do with Palm) and Palm is a hero and MS is arrogant? Okey dokey.

Gator5000e

01-23-2003, 09:35 PM

Isn't there a product that will allow you to view all file types on your PPC without having to transfer to the desktop and then back to the PPC? To be able to view any and all attachments to e-mail directly from Inbox? This is what I think PPC needs, and not just for MS or Adobe products. I lot of people I work with still use WordPerfect and thus a lot of attachments are in WPs format. I would love something to read these files on the PPC - Like a PPC version of QuicklView. Anyone know of anything like this out there?

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

01-23-2003, 09:41 PM

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

01-23-2003, 09:48 PM

I've been giving this program a test run with some Visio, Internet Explorer, and Project files and so far this viewer is impressing me BIG TIME.

The PPC viewer itself could use some more flexibility in its configurations (especially the default views when opening a new file) but it's definitely very usable as it is.

Despite my current efforts to save $$, I'm going to have a difficult time ignoring this one. Thanks for the heads up Ed!! As someone constantly on the go, this could be just huge!

GadgetMan

01-23-2003, 10:11 PM

Ed,

So, in 2000, MS introduces Pocket Word and Pocket Excel on the Pocket PC and Palm basically has nothing. Then, third parties start writing apps on the Palm and their functionality has surpassed Pocket Word/Excel (none of which has anything to do with Palm) and Palm is a hero and MS is arrogant? Okey dokey.

EXACTLY! Microsoft had two years to make both Pocket Word and Pocket Excel decent useable applications that really integrate with desktop Office. They have far more resources to do that and for crying out loud we are talking about utizing technology they themselves invented (OLE).

Yet they chose to do NOTHING. We are stuck with little barely useable applets that should not even have the words "Word" and "Excel" in their names as they give us so minimalistic integration with real "Word" and "Excel" that it is really sad.

Seeing other much smaller companies being much more innovative and ingenous should have prompted MS long ago to develop and distrubte better syc tools (either as desktop Office add-ons or as XIP upgrades to ROM applest, or both). Instead they kept and continue sitting on their useless hands.

Indifference, arrogance, stupidity.. Why not call it for what it is. Typical MS attitude...

BTW, we are not talking here about Palm company, so whether someone considers them heroes or not is irrelevant. We are taking about Microsoft.

shawnc

01-23-2003, 10:13 PM

So, in 2000, MS introduces Pocket Word and Pocket Excel on the Pocket PC and Palm basically has nothing. Then, third parties start writing apps on the Palm and their functionality has surpassed Pocket Word/Excel (none of which has anything to do with Palm) and Palm is a hero and MS is arrogant? Okey dokey.

Ed,

I don't mean to sound "flip", but let me clarify. I didn't say MS was arrogant, the choice was between arrogance and indifference. Pick one. Secondly, and I could be wrong on this, but the Palm products referenced earlier were out PRIOR to PPC 2002. So yeah, in my mind MS should have upgraded their 2002 product to AT LEAST be on par with what the Palm folks have. It's all MS for cryin out loud. Lastly, I NEVER said Palm was a hero. I try to avoid the Palm vs MS debates (I'm always amazed at how emotional those discussions become).

Again, understand that most of the users of this site are at the high end of the technology spectrum. They have a clear understanding that Pocket Word means "Word-lite". Many folks are like myself, we are not important enough to need a PDA for PIM. So we avoid the Palm. Then MS releases a product and hails about how it will work with Excel/Word, and we think, "OK, maybe this is worth a try". Only to find that this really isn't what it is cranked up to be. And 3 generations later (I had a jornada w/ce unit), and the Word/Excel functionality is no better now than it was back then.

The folks at MS are WAY to smart to consider this an unsolvable problem. So IMO, it comes back to either arrogance or indifference.

Ed Hansberry

01-23-2003, 11:17 PM

The folks at MS are WAY to smart to consider this an unsolvable problem. So IMO, it comes back to either arrogance or indifference.

MS gets shot either way. They make a superior product that kills a third party market and people cry foul. They make an inferior product and a third party vendor doesn't step up and people cry foul.

Have you seen SpreadCE by the way? Far more powerful than Pocket Excel.

dcho99

01-23-2003, 11:26 PM

I am with the company and would like to help clarify the pricing and licensing confusion with the Viewer.

The RepliGo Viewer is essentially free since it will continue to work after the 14-day trial period for personal use for as long as you like. By personal, this means you the user can use the Viewer after the 14-day trial without limitation. However, be aware that if the Viewer has not been registered, it will continue to display the registration screen once a day.

We have a volume licensing plan for workplace, government, or educational organizations.

The ability to convert documents expires after the trial period.

I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I can help further.

Thanks.

RepliGo Support

Peseta

01-24-2003, 12:19 AM

I don't know what all the excitement is about.

I would be really impressed by this product if it was able to view all those files directly on my ppc, like Quick View Plus [which I quite often use on my PC].
There also exists a PPC/CE version of Quick View Plus, with quite a few supported formats : http://www.stellent.com/groups/mkt/documents/nativepage/p2000453.pdf.
I already had QVP 1.0 on my Compaq Aero 1520 in 2000, which worked very well. The only drawback was the quite large size of the application if you wanted to be able to view all formats [with only 16 MB available on my Aero], however you could ballance between used memory and amount of supported formats yourself.

And I can't believe QVP for CE would cost $50 because it came free with the Aero series and also f.i. with the Jornada 54x series, if I remember it well.

shawnc

01-24-2003, 12:38 AM

MS gets shot either way. They make a superior product that kills a third party market and people cry foul.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I will NEVER nail MS or anyone else for making a superior product.

They make an inferior product and a third party vendor doesn't step up and people cry foul.

You got that right! Three generations of an inferior product while waiting for someone else to fill the void will definitely cause me to cry foul. BTW, I'm not referring to the PPC, just the ability to sync with Word. I liked my Ipaq and love my Dell.

Have you seen SpreadCE by the way? Far more powerful than Pocket Excel.

I haven't seen it, though I think I have heard of it. I would rather find one product that will work with both Word and Excel. If I have to choose between one or the other, I will probably by a package for Word.

Thanx for the dialogue.

Ed Hansberry

01-24-2003, 12:54 AM

MS gets shot either way. They make a superior product that kills a third party market and people cry foul.

Can't speak for anyone else, but I will NEVER nail MS or anyone else for making a superior product.
Heh heh. Check out some of the events with MS, the DOJ and competitors crying foul that MS is including technology with Windows that they want left alone for third parties to do. IE, WMP, networking, etc.

shawnc

01-24-2003, 01:04 AM

Heh heh. Check out some of the events with MS, the DOJ and competitors crying foul that MS is including technology with Windows that they want left alone for third parties to do. IE, WMP, networking, etc.

Yeah, I knew that's where you were going with that one :wink: .

CESkins

01-24-2003, 03:34 AM

I had considered Textmaker, but for the price I was hoping to get both Word and Excel functionality. I'll keep searching. Thanx anyway.
What I'm hearing is about Textmaker is that it's a PPC app capable of Word-calibur word processing, BUT it's not an app that you can use interchangeably with PC Word (the PC version of Textmaker works best for synchronizing formatted files with PPC Textmaker).

Trust me when I say you can save your time searching for another alternative... when a suitable Pocket Word/Excel replacement comes, it will be HUGE news everywhere!! Textmaker was heavily discussed on all the major PPC sites for several months before it was finally released.

Textmaker reads and saves to Word 200x format so that you can open the files in MS Word. Of course, Word XP has feature overkill and there will be some formatting that Textmaker will not properly handle if opening a Word XP doc in Textmaker. For the most part, Textmaker has all the features I need on a PocPC including the ability to display tables and graphics (the way they were intended to be). I do basic science research and can easily see using Textmaker to assemble a manuscript for publication. :)

Regarding RepliGo, it seems that it can only print to HP printers. What if one has a non-HP IF printer. Is all hope lost there? Has anyone tried using an IR adapter with a HP laser printer and gotten Repligo to print to it?

Brad Adrian

01-24-2003, 04:42 AM

Well, for my money, this is a great application. Sure, you can view and work with Excel and Word files without Repligo, but it really shines when it comes to PowerPoint and Web pages. This is absolutely the best, fastest way to quickly grab a shot/page and download it. I think it'll be a great tool for practicing my PowerPoint presentations and I'll use it to easily take things like online maps or pictures with me.

Brad Adrian

03-11-2003, 03:16 AM

I just did a couple of comparisons between PDF and RGO (Repligo) files, mostly because I like to convert PDF files to the much more compact Repligo format. I took the 95-page, 1.5MB PDF user manual for my T68i phone and converted it to RGO. In the new format it takes up only 395k and opens on my Pocket PC in less than 10 seconds!

Usually, I'll agree with EdH on most stuff just because he's my hero and I want to be more like him. In this case, though, I agree with Ed's assessment of Repligo because it really does what I need it to do.

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

03-11-2003, 01:49 PM

I'll chime in and say that I've registered Repligo and found it to be quite an invaluable addition to my library.

It's especially handy when I'm in a hurry and need to get some information I'm seeing or reading into my handheld. I'll do a quick print to Repligo and it copies directly to my PPC (assuming I have an AS connection going of course).

TMAN

03-11-2003, 06:37 PM

Ed Hansberry

03-11-2003, 06:58 PM

I just made my purchase. What a great application.

The only problem I see with this application is that you need to use file synchronization to efficiently get the files onto your device. This is my only complaint because I do not do file synchronization on my office computer and don't have any desire to.
Well, you should still be able to generate the .RGO file and manually move it or email it to yourself if you don't want to use file sync.