Looking for a program to read .pwi files on XP desktop

[LindaT]

I'm trying to read what was formerly 'Notes' in outlook synched to my
Tilt running WM 6.1. I no longer have outlook, so I'm trying to find
some program that will read a file with .pwi extension. Open office
displays gibberish and I haven't found anything else.

Any suggestions?

I'd also like to synch my address book, calendar and tasks to
Thunderbird/Lightning and am not having much success. Anyone have a
real solution? I've tried FinchSynch and got nowhere. I've also tried
BirdieSynch and it kinda almost works but no calendar.

TIA
LindaT.

[Todd Allcock]

I'm trying to read what was formerly 'Notes' in outlook synched to my Tilt
running WM 6.1. I no longer have outlook, so I'm trying to find some
program that will read a file with .pwi extension. Open office displays
gibberish and I haven't found anything else.

Do you have Microsoft Word? Activesync installs a plug-in on your PC that
allows Word to read .pwi files. (WMDC on Vista doesn't seem to, since they
open as gibberish on my Vista Laptop with both Word '07 and WMDC installed.)
Without Outlook or Word, you're probably stuck. An alternative (not fun, I
know!) would be to individually copy and paste the contents of the notes
from the Notes app into empty .txt files using Word Mobile (or Pocket
Notepad, mentioned below) on the device, so that any text editor (Notepad,
Wordpad, etc.) can read them after you sync.

You can download the excellent, and free, Pocket Notepad from Tillanosoft,
(http://www.tillanosoft.com/ce/pnotepad.html) to compose future notes in
.txt format.

Any suggestions?
I'd also like to synch my address book, calendar and tasks to
Thunderbird/Lightning and am not having much success. Anyone have a real
solution? I've tried FinchSynch and got nowhere. I've also tried
BirdieSynch and it kinda almost works but no calendar.
TIA
LindaT.

[Shahryar]

I keep many notes (.pwi files) on my HTC Mogul with Sprint. On my work
computer (a Dell Optiplex 755), I have windows XP, Microsoft
Activesync version 4.5.0, and Word 2000.

I've noticed if I browse to the .pwi file itself via windows explorer
and double click on it, nothing seems to happen. However, if I open up
Microsoft Word 2000 first and then browse to the .pwi file I want to
see, then I can view the contents.

I sync my PC with my PDA and on my PC after sync, Windows keeps my
notes as .pwi files and my Word Mobile files as either .docx or .doc
files (haven't figured out yet which one if I initiate the file from
the PDA). Fortunately, the Word 2000 doesn't seem to give me any
problems opening the .docx files.

What I would really love is a way for my notes/.pwi files to be synced
with Google Documents so that I could edit them from anywhere, not
just my PDA or the computer that's connected to be synced with my PDA.

I like keeping certain notes in notes/.pwi format because word files
take too long to open on my Mogul.

It'd be even nicer if I could sync all these notes to my Mac's
Entourage (I'm mainly a mac user), but that's not too important for me
right now. Plus, a sync w/ Google Documents would make me not really
need that.

I'm trying to read what was formerly 'Notes' in outlook synched to my Tilt
running WM 6.1.  I no longer have outlook, so I'm trying to find some
program that will read a file with .pwi extension.  Open office displays
gibberish and I haven't found anything else.

Do you have Microsoft Word?  Activesync installs a plug-in on your PC that
allows Word to read .pwi files.  (WMDC on Vista doesn't seem to, since they
open as gibberish on my Vista Laptop with both Word '07 and WMDC installed.)
Without Outlook or Word, you're probably stuck.  An alternative (not fun, I
know!) would be to individually copy and paste the contents of the notes
from the Notes app into empty .txt files using Word Mobile (or Pocket
Notepad, mentioned below) on the device, so that any text editor (Notepad,
Wordpad, etc.) can read them after you sync.
You can download the excellent, and free, Pocket Notepad from Tillanosoft,
(http://www.tillanosoft.com/ce/pnotepad.html) to compose future notes in
.txt format.

Any suggestions?
I'd also like to synch my address book, calendar and tasks to
Thunderbird/Lightning and am not having much success.  Anyone have a real
solution?  I've tried FinchSynch and got nowhere.  I've also tried
BirdieSynch and it kinda almost works but no calendar.
TIA
LindaT.

[Shahryar]

I keep many notes (.pwi files) on my HTC Mogul with Sprint. On my work
computer (a Dell Optiplex 755), I have windows XP, Microsoft
Activesync version 4.5.0, and Word 2000.

I've noticed if I browse to the .pwi file itself via windows explorer
and double click on it, nothing seems to happen. However, if I open up
Microsoft Word 2000 first and then browse to the .pwi file I want to
see, then I can view the contents.

I sync my PC with my PDA and on my PC after sync, Windows keeps my
notes as .pwi files and my Word Mobile files as either .docx or .doc
files (haven't figured out yet which one if I initiate the file from
the PDA). Fortunately, the Word 2000 doesn't seem to give me any
problems opening the .docx files.

What I would really love is a way for my notes/.pwi files to be synced
with Google Documents so that I could edit them from anywhere, not
just my PDA or the computer that's connected to be synced with my PDA.

I like keeping certain notes in notes/.pwi format because word files
take too long to open on my Mogul.

It'd be even nicer if I could sync all these notes to my Mac's
Entourage (I'm mainly a mac user), but that's not too important for me
right now. Plus, a sync w/ Google Documents would make me not really
need that.

I'm trying to read what was formerly 'Notes' in outlook synched to my Tilt
running WM 6.1.  I no longer have outlook, so I'm trying to find some
program that will read a file with .pwi extension.  Open office displays
gibberish and I haven't found anything else.

Do you have Microsoft Word?  Activesync installs a plug-in on your PC that
allows Word to read .pwi files.  (WMDC on Vista doesn't seem to, since they
open as gibberish on my Vista Laptop with both Word '07 and WMDC installed.)
Without Outlook or Word, you're probably stuck.  An alternative (not fun, I
know!) would be to individually copy and paste the contents of the notes
from the Notes app into empty .txt files using Word Mobile (or Pocket
Notepad, mentioned below) on the device, so that any text editor (Notepad,
Wordpad, etc.) can read them after you sync.
You can download the excellent, and free, Pocket Notepad from Tillanosoft,
(http://www.tillanosoft.com/ce/pnotepad.html) to compose future notes in
.txt format.

Any suggestions?
I'd also like to synch my address book, calendar and tasks to
Thunderbird/Lightning and am not having much success.  Anyone have a real
solution?  I've tried FinchSynch and got nowhere.  I've also tried
BirdieSynch and it kinda almost works but no calendar.
TIA
LindaT.

[Todd Allcock]

Post by Shahryar
I keep many notes (.pwi files) on my HTC Mogul with Sprint. On my work
computer (a Dell Optiplex 755), I have windows XP, Microsoft
Activesync version 4.5.0, and Word 2000.
I've noticed if I browse to the .pwi file itself via windows explorer
and double click on it, nothing seems to happen. However, if I open up
Microsoft Word 2000 first and then browse to the .pwi file I want to
see, then I can view the contents.

I believe when you install Activesync on a PC, it installs a plug-in to
allow opening a .pwi file in Word.

My XP PC (with Activesync) opens .pwi files in Word 2007, my Vista PC (with
WMDC instead of Activesync) does not.

Post by Shahryar
I sync my PC with my PDA and on my PC after sync, Windows keeps my
notes as .pwi files and my Word Mobile files as either .docx or .doc
files (haven't figured out yet which one if I initiate the file from
the PDA). Fortunately, the Word 2000 doesn't seem to give me any
problems opening the .docx files.

I believe when you install Activesync on a PC, it installs a plug-in to
allow opening a .pwi file in Word. If you can view .docx files in Word 2000
you must have installed the "Office 2007 Compatibility Pack" somewhere along
the way-
<http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=DC101298101033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100444731033>

Post by Shahryar
What I would really love is a way for my notes/.pwi files to be synced
with Google Documents so that I could edit them from anywhere, not
just my PDA or the computer that's connected to be synced with my PDA.

I doubt that's going to happen- the Google Docs viewer can't read the
proprietary .pwi format, and even if Google allowed you to upload them for
"storage" (but they don't, since they don't let you upload unrecognized
filetypes), you couldn't download them willy-nilly to any PC you like- only
PCs equipped with both Word and Activesync could view them anyway.

Post by Shahryar
I like keeping certain notes in notes/.pwi format because word files
take too long to open on my Mogul.

How long are these "Notes"? Big .doc files (>1MB) take forever to load on
my devices, but short "notes" type files (<100kb) always seem to load
quickly, in either .doc or .txt format on my WinMo phones. I sort of miss
the old "Pocket Word" format- those loaded much quicker, at the expense of
lousy formatting, but had similar compatibility problems with (desktop)
Word-equipped PCs that didn't have Activesync installed.

Converting your notes to .txt would seem to be the way to go if you want
compatibility with Google and/or any PC. Unfortunately I don't know of any
good way to convert them except individually in Word on your desktop- open
each .pwi and save in .txt or .doc format, so the sooner you get started...
;-)

Post by Shahryar
It'd be even nicer if I could sync all these notes to my Mac's
Entourage (I'm mainly a mac user), but that's not too important for me
right now. Plus, a sync w/ Google Documents would make me not really
need that.

If you're willing to use .txt format from now on, you might consider
installing the freeware utility "Pocket Notepad" from Tillanosoft:
http://www.tillanosoft.com/ce/pnotepad.html. Like the name suggests, it's a
very basic pocket version of the "Notepad" program on every Windows PC.
It's small, fast, and a functional equivalent of Notepad without a lot of
unnecessary fluff in the way.

[Todd Allcock]

Post by LindaT
I'd also like to synch my address book, calendar and tasks to
Thunderbird/Lightning and am not having much success. Anyone have a real
solution? I've tried FinchSynch and got nowhere. I've also tried
BirdieSynch and it kinda almost works but no calendar.

Ooops- I forgot to address the second half of your post, sorry.

If you don't have a hangup about your PIM data being stored in the "cloud",
you can use SyncML, a universal contacts/calendar sync solution for
various PIM programs and mobile devices.

Funambol, an open source SyncML project at www.funambol.com offers a Windows
Mobile client and a plug-in for Thunderbird
(https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/8616)

You can install the Funambol server on your PC if you really don't want your
data on a third party server, or you can use a free hosted server
(I use www.scheduleworld.com, or you can use http://my.funambol.com) to
provide an Exchange-like over-the-air PIM sync.

As far as a straight desktop Activesync replacement that will work with
Thunderbird, I don't know of any other that what you've already tried.

Good luck!

[LindaT]

Thanks, Todd. I'll look into your suggestions.

LT

Post by Todd Allcock

Post by LindaT
I'd also like to synch my address book, calendar and tasks to
Thunderbird/Lightning and am not having much success. Anyone have a
real solution? I've tried FinchSynch and got nowhere. I've also
tried BirdieSynch and it kinda almost works but no calendar.

Ooops- I forgot to address the second half of your post, sorry.
If you don't have a hangup about your PIM data being stored in the
"cloud", you can use SyncML, a universal contacts/calendar sync solution
for
various PIM programs and mobile devices.
Funambol, an open source SyncML project at www.funambol.com offers a
Windows Mobile client and a plug-in for Thunderbird
(https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/8616)
You can install the Funambol server on your PC if you really don't want
your data on a third party server, or you can use a free hosted server
(I use www.scheduleworld.com, or you can use http://my.funambol.com) to
provide an Exchange-like over-the-air PIM sync.
As far as a straight desktop Activesync replacement that will work with
Thunderbird, I don't know of any other that what you've already tried.
Good luck!