Palm desktop w/ Outlook 2003?

[ctmagnus]

A guy I know is looking for a cheap PDA strictly for PIM fumctions snd wants to spend no more than $200CAD on it. He already uses Outlook 2003 and is a complete neophyte when it comes to computers. So, how easy would it be to sync Outlook info with Palm desktop/a Palm device, and would it frighten him in any way?

[Janak Parekh]

As long as the Palm device has PocketMirror or some other Outlook sync bundled, you should be fine. Not all Palms have had it bundled, historically, so look carefully -- for others, you can buy it from Chapura (www.chapura.com), but that'll add to the cost.

PocketMirror/Outlook sync on the Palm is pretty easy. There are two issues: fields and categories. Fields have historically been slightly different, so not all fields synced. PalmOne has fixed this on some Palms, but not all. As for categories, well, Palms are much more limited than Outlook/Pocket PC, so you can either choose to "truncate" the Outlook categorization or keep the categorizations between the two different (e.g., Outlook categories stay on the desktop). You do not use the Palm desktop when you're doing the Outlook sync, at all.

Other than that, it should be pretty straightforward. Not as nice as ActiveSync (for a change!) but certainly workable.

--janak