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The new DirectSync only seems to sync appointments and tasks. What about memos and contacts?

Support for Memos in Pimlical/Android will appear very shortly, followed immediately by support for syncing memos between Pimlical/Desktop and Pimlical/Android. Syncing of contacts is also planned but will not likely be released until late fall of 2012.

On Trying to Install Pimlical, I get an error that a newer version is already installed.

First double-check you are indeed installing the correct version. If so, just go into Windows control Panel and remove Pimlical there, then re-install. This can happen if you are installing an official release over some prior beta interim preview. There was a hiccough at one time with an early version of 1.4.42 that had an incorrect version number.
 

Pimlical installed, but on launch get error about no such class "Main"

Most likely you are running on 64-bit Win Vista/7 and do not have the 32-bit version of the JVM installed (it is installed by default on almost all machines, but might have been inadvertently removed). Just download the standard 32-bit JVM from: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp
 

I am getting this error: the key ';AlarmAlwaysOnTopInterval' in PimlicalPreferences.def is not a known preference item

This is a benign error condition in the 1.4.42 release due to the inadvertent insertion of a comment into the preference file in a version that did not support comments. To remove the error message, you can edit the file PimlicalPreferences.def in the Pimlical folder and remove the line that starts out ;AlarmAlwaysOnTop... using any Android text editor, or connect phone to Windows and use Notepad.exe to edit that file. If you still see this error message, check the Default.txt file as well and remove it if you see it there....
 

I need to change the UseGoogleExtendedProperties Preference - how do I do this safely? Or - all my Floating Events/Tasks appeared in today's schedule

Because Google's Android sync software trashes the Extended Properties field in Google Calendar, you can not use extended properties if you are syncing P/D to P/A via Google Calendar. The default setting for this preference in both P/A and P/D is now false which is the safe setting, but has the undesirable side effect of having to put all the special tags in the note field (these are hidden in Pimlical of course, but will display in Google, Outlook or any other calendar app as they do not know about those tags. It appears that Google may have fixed this problem in Android 4.0 in which case it would be possible to set both P/D and P/A back to having true as the value of that preference.

HOWEVER, it is very important that if you change this preference, you do it correctly as otherwise, you can run into odd problems (such as all floating events/tasks - even completed one's - appearing in today's schedule etc.). To handle this in a safe manner, change the preference in both applications and before a sync takes place, you need to mark everything in Pimlical/Desktop as having been modified so every item syncs to Google Calendar with the new tag location. To do that, go into Advanced Find, hit Clear, then hit Find, then hit Shift and leave the shift value at 0s - in other words, you are going to shift EVERY event by 0s - which of course leaves it unchanged - but it does set the dirty/sync flag on every item so they will get synced into Google with the new tag format. Alternatively, you could treat this like a first time sync to google (rename and recreate each google calendar, delete the ListOfSyncedUIDs.dat file in the Pimlical folder and then sync to fill the Google Calendars.
 

Accented characters are not displaying properly after DirectSync to other platform

How do I set up WebDAV Server Pro to mount my Android phone as a 'real' windows device?

First install WebDAV Server Pro on your Android phone (it's on Google Play). And launch it so you can see what http://..... address it is using for your phone (you'll need it in step 5 below).
 

Then in windows:

1. Right-click computer and select MAP NETWORK DRIVE

2. Click on link: CONNECT TO A WEB SITE THAT YOU CAN USE TO STORE YOUR DOCUMENTS.....

3. Click on NEXT button in dialog :ADD NETWORK LOCATION

4. Click on NEXT button in dialog WHERE DO YOU WANT TO CREATE THIS NETWORK LOCATION (make sure CHOOSE A CUSTOM NETWORK LOCATION is selected - usually it's the only option).

5. For INTERNET OR NETWORK ADDRESS:, type in the full URL that WebDAV Server Pro displays on your Android phone - for example: http://192.168.1.12:8080 then click on NEXT button.

6. If you entered it correctly, you get a dialog WHAT DO YOU WANT TO NAME THIS LOCATION? type in something you will recognize easily - I usually enter something like HTC Phone 192.168.1.2:8080 - so I know the device and also what path it used (because that might change if you reconfigure the network). Click on NEXT button.

7. Click on FINISH button.

 The phone should then appear as a device in file manager, AND Pimlical should be able to see it too when you select HTC Phone 192.168.1.2:8080 (or whatever the name was you assigned to your phone). you only have to do this setup one time. In future, just start the server on Android and wait some 30s or so until you can see it in windows.
 

Some Dialogs are cut off and don't display properly in Windows

This is a known issue in Java if you change the DPI resolution of the screen to a value other than the default value. To get larger text, rather than change the DPI resolution, go into the screen settings (right-click desktop, select properties) and change the font size of the various UI elements (menu, dialogs, etc.) to make it more readable. A future release of the JVM may address this issue in Windows.
 

How do I set up a separate archive calendar in Pimlical/Desktop that will DirectSync to Android?

Simplest way to handle setting up an archive in Pimlical is this:

1. In Pimlical Desktop, go into advanced find, hit clear, then pick a start date of 1-jan-1900 and an end date of say 31-dec-2009 and hit ok
2. Click on CHANGE and specify a category of ARCHIVE (create that category if necessary) and click on OK
3. Set the preference ApptCategoriesToSync to only include the Archive category.
4. Create an archive calendar on the handheld called say PimlicalArchive.dat - you can easily create that by just duplicating PimlicalLocalCalendar.dat under that name so that both PimlicalLocalCalendar.dat and PimlicalArchive.dat are in the PimlicalCalendars folder.
5. Do a sync overwrite from desktop to PimlicalArchive.dat (ApptCategoriesToSync will only copy the Archive category).
6. Change ApptCategoriesToSync to include ALL categories, EXCEPT "Archive"
7. Sync normally now from desktop to PimlicalLocalCalendar.dat

On the desktop, you can see all your events by just displaying all categories. In Pimlical/Android, to view the archived items, you would go into menu | Select Local Calendar and select the Archive calendar to look at (and then do that again to return to viewing the regular calendar).
 

I am in an unusual timezone and get an error: ERROR: TimeZone Problem.....

If you see an error message like: ERROR: TimeZone Problem, Home, Current or Creation Timezone Specified in Preference database is not in correct format or references an undefined Timezone or DST Rule, this most likely means that your particular timezone has not been defined in the Worldtimezones.txt database. If this is the case, you need to add a line to the Worldtimezones.txt file that is in the Pimlical folder on the phone (use either an Android text editor like Jota, or connect phone to PC and use notepad.exe to edit the file). Add the line in this format (this example is for Saskatchewan that uses Central time, but no DST rule):

-06:00 Canada/East-Saskatchewan[Sask]

The first character is - for timezones West of GMT and + for timezones East of GMT. This is followed by the Offset from GTM in HH and MM. If there is a DST rule, there is a single letter after the GMT offset (See Pimlical Reference Manual for details on how to setup DST rules). This is then followed by the Olsen database name for the timezone. Try and locate the name in the Olsen Database which lists all the Olsen names for timezones. If it's not there, try and at least locate a timezone with the same attributes (GMT offset and DST rule) - if not, make one up (it's ok for Pimlical, but if you sync to Google, Google needs a valid Olsen name). At the end put in the abbreviation for the timezone in brackets (this is arbitrary, so you can use whatever you like there). Close out the Worldtimezones.txt file. Launch Pimlical, go into Menu | Change Time Zone and click the button Restore Original Settings - you should then see the new timezone displayed in the timezone lists.
 

I am using non-Roman fonts (Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc.) and fonts aren’t displaying properly in Pimlical

You have to set up windows/java to properly handle non-Roman languages. Then you need to go into the Display Fonts section of preferences and setup all the non-Roman fonts.  An Asian user provided this comment which you may find useful in getting things setup:

I have a window 7 Starter English on my netbook, normally under Control

Panel>Region & Languages> Format, I set it as english (US). It is the same

for my XP Home desktop.

For window 7 only, if I change the Format to Chinese, all the NEW

appointments, contacts, and memo in Palm Desktop will display correctly. I

create NEW appointment in Chinese from handheld, Palm Desktop and Pimlico

Desktop. I saved them. I have the NEW appointment sync to all platform. I

re-opened the Palm Desktop and Pimlico Desktop. All the characters were

displayed correctly.

Unfortunately, those OLD appointment with font already changed to "?" cannot

be reverted back to its original font. I have to do a sync from handheld to

overwrite all the data on the PC to have the data display correctly.

If I do a change on the format again, ie back to English(US). All the font

will become "?". As a result, I have to do a sync overwrite from handheld to

PC to correct it. Therefore, for any non-Roman font users, if they want to

have some of their appointments, contacts or memos in their local language

on window 7 platform. They have to set the Format, under Region & Languages,

to their respective local language and do not change it again.

I use a proxy server and am having problems connecting to Google Calendar

You can setup access via a temporary proxy server  with authentication. This is supported with a runtime option that provides either just the proxy server name and port, or the proxy server name, port, user name and password. Just make a copy of the Pimlical launch icon, right-click and select properties and add this run-time option: -proxy:{proxyServer},{proxyPort} or -proxy:{proxyServer},{proxyPort},{proxyUser},{proxyPassword}. As with any command option in Windows, be sure to enclose the entire string in quotes if any spaces are present.

If that does not work, or you always go through a proxy server, look at the useful information on this web page: http://www.java.com/en/download/help/proxy_setup.xml which covers setting up Java network access via a proxy server.

My Google calendar looks corrupt and I want to overwrite it from Pimlical/Desktop - how do I do that?

1. Exit Pimlical

2. Rename or delete the Google calendar you want to overwrite

3. Re-create the Google calendar under the original name (so it is now empty)

4. Go into the Pimlical folder on the desktop, and if you see this file: ListOfSyncedUIDs.dat - delete it

5. Launch Pimlical and sync. It will then upload everything into Google calendar.
 

When syncing with Google Calendar get error: Google Batch Operation Failures: # 1 failed with calendar item:........(The event with given ID already exists.)

This error can occur if Pimlical syncs with Google calendar just seconds after an item in both calendars was deleted in google calendar. It's a race condition because Google Calendar has not actually finished the deletion. Just wait and repeat the operation later and the error message should not occur. If it still occurs, rename the google calendar, wait 30s or so and then re-create the calendar under the original name. Then delete the file: ListOfSyncedUIDs.dat in the Pimlical folder, launch Pimlical and sync to restore that google calendar from Pimlical's category and that should clear that error condition.
 

Copyright © 2011 Pimlico Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

Last Updated 2013-05-15 14:33:57