Q: How to transport much of my desktop HD contents for viewing on PPC?

[ChrisF]

Greetings PPCThoughts gurus:

Carrying a laptop with me is not doable or preferable, but my HP2215 with 1GB CF card goes with me everywhere.

I've got about 500 MB of documents on my desktop hard drive that I'd love to be able to take with me and refer to from my HP2215. I don't need to edit/update the originals from the HP2215, just retrieve and view the info while out of the office, and perhaps occasionally paste some of it into an email, etc.

What mechanisms do you use to accomplish this? Most of these files are Word or Excel documents. Would you use ActiveSync? RepliGo? I'm not sure I trust these mechanisms to diddle with my main desktop storage folder, but working from an occasional mirror or copy might work. I'd be grateful for any descriptions of how the rest of you accomplish this.

Thanks!

ChrisF

[dmacburry2003]

Do you want access to your files remotely, or do you just want them to be syncronized when needed?

[Brad Adrian]

If you really only want to view the documents, Repligo might be a good choice. The files it creates are much smaller than PDFs. They're static files, though, so you won't be able to edit them.

[ChrisF]

Dmacburry: I want to have the files on the PPC (or a storage peripheral/card), not have to access the home computer

Brad: RepliGo might be worth looking at. I use it occasionally now, but didn't think it had the ability to convert files in batch - as in "here, take this big nested folder of mixed word and excel files and convert if for me."

Is anyone using ActiveSynch to carry several hundred MB of files with them in this way?

ChrisF

[dmacburry2003]

Why not just get a 20$ card reader from Radio Shack? :idea: You could plug it into your laptop and transfer speedy speedy (I would not recommend to transfer directly through the Pocket PC or you will be... waiting :wink: )
Heck if you got all that money for a 1GB CF... :mrgreen: (envy)

Or you could set up like a synced file folder or something with ActiveSync.

[ChrisF]

Right, card reader might be faster than syncing through the PPC. But before I dump to the card reader, I've got to convert the files into a form the PPC can read, either with repligo, ActiveSink or whatever (I think)...

[PetiteFlower]

Transferring large amounts of data via activesync can be sketchy, and it's definitely SLOOOOW. I agree with the card reader suggestion, and a nice size storage card.

I don't know anything about Repligo though, so I can't comment on whether that would work.

[dmacburry2003]

I do see how you are stuck in a ditch, however, did you know that Pocket PC's can read/write .doc and .xls? (sometimes if you do a bit of editing it takes a while to save, but viewing no)

Or, you can buy a 20$ set of viewers for the PPC to view the .doc/.xls files without touching them from the storage card. I prefer Westtek's (1 t or 2?) ClearVue suite. Don't know if that one's twenty, it might be forty. I got it free with my 1935.

Otherwise, the free adobe viewer can open PDF, plenty of free imaging apps open a variety of pic file types, some cheapo database software might be good for viewing database files.

So, 20$ for the card reader, 20$-40$ for the viewers (unless they came free with the 2215) and your all set.