Palm stuff on Linux

[tamaranth]

I'm thinking of switching to Linux. Is the Palm support any good? (I have a TX) WillI be able to synch? Is there an app that converts text into PDBs? Is there a Plucker-equivalent? Is there a docs-to-go clone? (And, come to think of it, is there a WP app for Linux that functions better* than OpenOffice?)

I have Googled, but there's a lot of conflicting (and out-of-date) information ...


*for values of 'better' including, but not limited to, 'more like Word 97' and / or 'compatible with MS Word'

Comments

[reddragdiva]

OpenOffice is about as good as it gets (KOffice and AbiWord are way behind on actual compatibility of document interchange). What's failed to be compatible?

I used jPilot. The GNOME one, gPilot, I hated. The KDE one, KPilot, I tolerated. jPilot is actually really nice, to the point where I looked for a PayPal button on the developer's site to chuck him a few quid and was annoyed I couldn't find one.

For document conversion, look for "text2pdb" or "txt2pdb".

A possibly useful series of articles.

[drplokta]

The Plucker-equivalent is Plucker, which runs happily on Linux. There are plenty of DOC converters, and you could also check out iSilo. There's no equivalent of Documents to Go, as far as I know. You could check out AbiWord as a WP, or just use Google Writely. But full Word compatibility is basically impossible -- even Microsoft can't always manage it.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Compatibility failures include:
- highlighting
- commenting
- passwording
(all of which I need to be able to co-author). I'm happy without the majority of Word 03's 'useful' functions -- but I do miss the basic functionality-level of Word 97 when I'm using OpenOffice.

At least OpenOffice2 can count a subset of words-in-document -- which was really annoying me with 1.9!

Thanks for that link -- looks good ...

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I don't want full compatibility, just the bits I use! <g> Inability to highlight and annotate in any compatible fashion is a bit of a pain.

I'll certainly have a look at Writely, though: it may solve some or all of my problems, and I hadn't been aware of it. Cheers!

(NB my WP of choice is still notetab, for which I am very grateful to you. But sometimes highlighting is a necessity.)

[reddragdiva]

In that case, I strongly suggest Wine and a copy of Microsoft Office — so you can run the real thing without having to deal with Windows being flaky shite.

If you have a few bucks to throw at it, buy Crossover Office (a commercial polished version of Wine) as it actively supports MS Office on Leegnux.

[reddragdiva]

"Inability to highlight and annotate in any compatible fashion is a bit of a pain."

This is one of those areas where Microsoft has trouble being compatible with itself, so anyone else is on a hiding to nothing. If there's a real professional use for it, use Wine (or Crossover) and an actual copy of MS Office.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Docs to Go version 7 and up can read/write Microsoft Word and Excel files on the TX's SD card. I've given up using the balky Docs to Go app on my Macbook and just synchronize a document tree directly.

I haven't explored Fedora 4's palm support even though I've got it on my Toshiba Portege, but you've got JPilot, the KDE Palm interface stuff, a whole bunch of very mature Palm synch tools (pilot-link et al), AbiWord can apparently read and write Aportis Doc files natively, and I suspect the Missing Sync plugin that gives your TX the equivalent of a Lifedrive's Drive Mode should work with Linux as well as Mac OS/X.