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How to import your Psion agenda in Lotus Organizer
Agenda Dump 2.0 writes all or user selected information in your Psion's Agenda to an ASCII-file, using comma's to separate the fields from each other. It is possible to use this utility to create a file that can be used to import your appointments in the Calender section of Lotus Organizer. Please be aware of the fact that this is a one-way conversion from Psion to Lotus Organizer. Until now I haven't found a way to synchronise appointments between the two programs. On this page you will find step-by-step instructions to get this job done.
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Part A
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Exporting your Agenda to file
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Step 1
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Since Agenda Dump 2.0 comes as a SIS-file, installation is a real piece of cake. Just copy the SIS-file from your computer to your Psion. Then tap twice to install the program. When the installer is finished, you will find Agenda Dump's program icon on the Extra's bar of your Psion.
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Step 2
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Start Agenda Dump by tapping the program's icon. The program shows you it's first screen that allows you to enter information such as the name and location of the source File, Output File, Date Range etc.
(click here for a screenshot (6K)
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Step 3
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On this screen we have to tell the program how and where we want the data to be written to file. You have to use the buttons on the left of the screen to enter the first four fields. You can change the format by tapping the field with your stylus.
- Source File: C:\Documents\Agenda (change this if your Agenda uses another name and/or location )
- Output File: C:\Documents\AgnDump.txt (or any other name or location you choose)
- Date Range: This Month (To start with. Any other option will do also)
- Format: Empty (the 'canned' formats you can choose here can not be directly imported in Organizer. We'll specify the necessary format in step 4)
Next, tap the 'Filter' button on right side of your screen. This opens a dialog box where you can specify which items you want to export to file. Check 'Appointments', leave all other fields blanc
and tap the 'OK' button. This returns you to the previous screen.
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Step 4
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Now we have to specify the way we want Agenda Dump to export our appointments to file. To do this, tap once in the 'Pattern' field and input the following text:
$date $starttime, $date $endtime,"$text"
Remember that comma's are used to separate fields from each other. So the format specified above gives you three fields per record:
- date + starttime of each appointment,
- date + endtime of each appointment
- the text you entered for this appointment
This is the format that can be imported into the Calendar section of Lotus Organizer.
Please note that Lotus needs the startdate + time as well as the enddate + time of each appointment to be in a single field. The Psion Agenda application stores the date only once and remembers the duration of each appointment in hours and minutes.
In the pattern specified above we solved this difference in approach by writing $date in the first field (which is always correct because this is the startdate of the appointment) as well as in the second field (which could give you a problem if you have booked appointments with a duration of more than one day).
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Step 5
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Now tap the 'Generate' button to start the export of your appointments to file. When finished, tap the 'Exit' button to quit the Agenda Dump program. You will find your exported data in the file and folder you specified in step 3.
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Step 6
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Copy the ASCII-file that has been created by Agenda Dump to your OS/2 computer.
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Part B
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Importing your appointments in Lotus Organizer
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Step 1
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Start Lotus Organizer for OS/2. Unless you've specified its behavior differently, it will show you the Calender section. If not, click the 'Calender' tab to go to the Calender section (screenshot (26K))
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Step 2
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Open the 'File' menu and click 'Import' to bring up the Import dialog screen (click here for a screenshot (15K)). On this screen:
- Specify the name of the ASCII-file that holds your data. You can use the 'Drives', 'Directories' and 'Files' boxes to navigate to the right file. (NB: only click once on the filename to mark the correct file. A double click would start the import right away!)
- Check if 'Into section' is set to 'Calender'
- Click the 'Options' button. Activate the 'Ignore duplicate records' checkbox. Make sure that the 'Field names as first record' checkbox is not activated. Leave the 'File translation' to its default setting 'current codepage (no translation)'
- Click 'OK' to return to the import screen
Click the 'Mapping' button to open the Import mapping dialog box
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Step 3
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Each record of your exported Agenda holds three fields. Entries in the Calender section of Lotus Organizer hold some more fields.
In the 'Import mapping' dialog box you can define for each field from the import-file (your Agenda) to which field in the Organizer the information will be copied. You should 'map' fields from your Agenda to the corresponding files in Lotus Organizer as described below:
- First of all: click the 'Clear all' button to remove Organizer's proposed 'one-on-one' import of all fields
- On the left side of the dialog is the list of the three fields available in your import file. Mark the first field called 'FIELD_1'.
- Now find the field 'Start Date Time' in the list on the right side. Click this field once to make the mapping. If you do this, a black line is drawn between the two fields
- Mark 'FIELD_2' on the left side and map it to 'End Date Time' on the right.
- Mark 'FIELD_3' on the left side and map it to the 'Description' field on the right.(see
screenshot (16kb))
- Click the 'OK' button to return to the 'Import' dialog screen.
- Click the 'Import' button to start the import from your data in Lotus Organizer.
After all data is transferred you will return to the Calender section from Organizer. Now the imported data will be available on your computer.
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