converting Palm address to spreadsheet....
David Lesher
I love my Handspring, but hate the default OSX desktop.
I need to export my screwed-up [many dups, lots of entries to
delete..] Palm db to something where I can use tools on it.
I try to export as TSV and open with OO. No joy; despite a .tsv suffix,
it opens it as a text file.
What other tools can I use to get the data into a more tool-rich
environment?
--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
Harold Fuchs
"David Lesher" <wb8...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:gvvje3$3hq$1...@reader1.panix.com...
> OSX
>
> I love my Handspring, but hate the default OSX desktop.
>
> I need to export my screwed-up [many dups, lots of entries to
> delete..] Palm db to something where I can use tools on it.
>
> I try to export as TSV and open with OO. No joy; despite a .tsv suffix,
> it opens it as a text file.
>
> What other tools can I use to get the data into a more tool-rich
> environment?
If by "OO" you mean OpenOffice.org, the free office suite based originally
on Sun's StarOffice, then Calc will import .csv (Comma Separated Values)
files so export the data in that format. The export should put double
quotation marks (") around at least those fields that contain commas so that
those commas don't get interpreted as field separators. I assume you are
using Palm Desktop. My Palm Desktop on Win XP Pro supports exporting as .csv
so I have to assume yours does too.
Oh, you should run Calc explicitly, go to menu File>Open and then choose the
right file format from the drop down list of available file types.
If your "OO" is something else, please say what.
--
Harold Fuchs
London, England
Please do *not* reply to my personal e-mail address.
Harold Fuchs
"Harold Fuchs" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:eGMUl.328429$0V4....@newsfe25.ams2...
Sorry to reply to my own post but it occurred to me that there might be an
easier way. OO's Calc lets you choose the delimiter(s) for .csv files so
just rename your existing .tsv to .csv, open it in Calc and choose tab as
the only delimiter.
David Lesher
>> What other tools can I use to get the data into a more tool-rich
>> environment?
>If by "OO" you mean OpenOffice.org, the free office suite based originally
>on Sun's StarOffice, then Calc will import .csv (Comma Separated Values)
>files so export the data in that format. The export should put double
>quotation marks (") around at least those fields that contain commas so that
>those commas don't get interpreted as field separators. I assume you are
>using Palm Desktop. My Palm Desktop on Win XP Pro supports exporting as .csv
>so I have to assume yours does too.
Mac Palm desktop offers me Palm, "Tab and Return" and Vcard.
>Oh, you should run Calc explicitly, go to menu File>Open and then choose the
>right file format from the drop down list of available file types.
I have a spreadsheet open.
I choose Open, and the palmout.tsv file.
90 seconds later; Open Office opens the file as a document, not a
spreadsheet.
kron...@gmail.com
suffix, so renaming it, as Harold suggested, should make OO use calc.
And it should offer you a screen, as harold said, where you can
specify the separator.
It is frustrating that you are IN calc, and it still doesn't do what
you want!
Dan
On Jun 1, 9:20 am, David Lesher <wb8...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> Mac Palm desktop offers me Palm, "Tab and Return" and Vcard.
>
>
Harold Fuchs
> "Harold Fuchs" <m...@privacy.net> writes:
>
>>> What other tools can I use to get the data into a more tool-rich
>>> environment?
>
>>If by "OO" you mean OpenOffice.org, the free office suite based originally
>>on Sun's StarOffice, then Calc will import .csv (Comma Separated Values)
>>files so export the data in that format. The export should put double
>>quotation marks (") around at least those fields that contain commas so
>>that
>>those commas don't get interpreted as field separators. I assume you are
>>using Palm Desktop. My Palm Desktop on Win XP Pro supports exporting as
>>.csv
>>so I have to assume yours does too.
>
>
> Mac Palm desktop offers me Palm, "Tab and Return" and Vcard.
>
>
>>Oh, you should run Calc explicitly, go to menu File>Open and then choose
>>the
>>right file format from the drop down list of available file types.
>
> I have a spreadsheet open.
>
> I choose Open, and the palmout.tsv file.
>
> 90 seconds later; Open Office opens the file as a document, not a
> spreadsheet.
Yes but did you choose "text CSV (*.csv;*.txt;*.xls)" from the drop down
list of file *types*?
Calc's Open dialog has *three* boxes. From the top they are labelled:
a) "File name"
b) "Files of type"
c) "Version"
You need to choose "text CSV (*.csv;*.txt;*.xls)" in (b), which is a
drop-down list *as well as* naming the file in (a). This is a *necessary*
step.
David Lesher
>You need to choose "text CSV (*.csv;*.txt;*.xls)" in (b), which is a
>drop-down list *as well as* naming the file in (a). This is a *necessary*
>step.
Ahhh. I thought that (b) was just a mask as to which file types you could
see to select.
After I renamed the file to .txt so I *could* select it; it does load
into the spreadsheet. Thank you for your help.
Daniel James
wrote:
> I assume you are using Palm Desktop. My Palm Desktop on Win XP Pro
Last time I tried exporting contact data from Palm Desktop the main
problem was that contact telephone numbers
are simply output in the
order in which they appear in the Palm Address application ...
regardless of the label associated with that field on the Palm
As the Palm application allows you to label the first phone number as
"Home" and the second as "Work" in one record, and the first as "Work"
and the second as "Fax" in another record, this is not ideally useful.
Apart from that it's easy enough to achieve the transfer.
Cheers,
Daniel.
David Lesher
Update:
I can import the data into OO using the method mentioned.
Then I clean it up in the spreadsheet.
I then export it back out as CSV.
I found I needed to then clean it up with an editor for
two reasons: remove the quotes, and change the EOL.
Then I could import the dataset back into the Palm desktop.
David Lesher
>Last time I tried exporting contact data from Palm Desktop the main
>problem was that contact telephone numbers are simply output in the
>order in which they appear in the Palm Address application ...
>regardless of the label associated with that field on the Palm
This is true. But my goal was to sort through records, selecting
those I wanted to keep vs remove, etc.