Data on the Today Screen

[Heavy Eddie]

I'm trying to find an easy way to have some data always on my today screen. They are really some simple metrics that I use daily while on the job. Any suggestions are appreciated, of course. Below are a few of my initial ideas on how to do it, but I'm not sure if any of the tools exist.

First of all, my data is currently dumped from an Excel spreadsheet that queries some SQL servers for the appropriate data and creates the metrics/graphs.

Scenario #1
Save my spreadsheets as small html pages and have them display in today screen plugin that displays web pages. I've searched, and haven't found such a plugin.

Scenario #2
Save data/graphs as images and use an image plugin to display the info. This actually kind of works, but the utility I have found really doesn't do a good job for this purpose since it scews the graphs a lot. I tried the free utility from PHM called "PHM My Pictures (http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/Plus/#PHMtPics)"

[Vincent M Ferrari]

Instead of turning the Excel chart into a graphic, why not make the graphic (take a screen cap or something) a Theme?

Try this out and see how it works for you:

MS Theme Generator (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/downloads/themegenerator.mspx)

[Heavy Eddie]

A good idea, but I don't think there is anyway to automate the process. This spreadsheet updates every hour.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

Ahhhh... I see what you're saying... Sorry 'bout that ;-)

[surur]

Is this to use while connected to a desktop?

If that is the case you could generate the graphics on your desktop and then use the "my pictures" screen-saver to display them. Jut place it in your synchronised folder and let activesync copy it over.

Alternatively, using eVB or similar you could write a simple pocketcandy plugin screen-saver to display your spreadsheet.

Surur

[Heavy Eddie]

I think I have found a pretty decent solution for now. I am exporting my spreadsheets as web pages and syncing them to the pda. The two products that will display the html on the today screen is ActiveToday (http://www.pocketfacelift.com/activetoday.html) and todays html (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=5070). Neither are perfect, but they do work fairly well. When I get it all worked out I will put a screen shot up here to see how it turns out.

I think it is interesting that the PPC has been around for so many years and still doesn't have a real solution for this type of problem. Surely, I'm not the only person that needs something like this.... maybe I am?