Palm OS 5 MemoPad Alternatives That Allow Editing of Synced Notes in Mac OS X?

November 30, 2004 2:34 PM

I don't like the Memos app on my Palm Zire 31. Any suggestions for good -- preferably free -- Palm OS 5 MemoPad alternatives which also allow editing of synced notes in OS X? (I've already tried WikiPad but I the wiki format in the Palm environment just doesn't work for me, and I can't edit synced notes in OS X.)
posted by brownpau to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Just remember that any app you load into a Palm will not be as stable as the resident software. I like iambic's agendus as a contact manager. Documents-To-Go will give you Wordish files...
posted by ParisParamus at 3:20 PM on November 30, 2004

I'm not sure if this will work, as I no longer use my PDA, but you may want to look at Voodoo Pad

It's like WikiPad, but for OSX. Apparently you can export the notes to an iPod without any special tools, so I'm guessing that you can do the same to a PDA. However, I'm not sure if you can then maintain the Wiki with your PDA.

Sorry, not much help, but maybe it'll inspire others.
posted by C.Batt at 3:21 PM on November 30, 2004

What is it about the memopad you don't like? There are various readers of memos on the palm with different interfaces and additions, depending what you want to do with it. You can use PsMemo, for example, which has wonderful incremental search and can combine with pslink to make a wiki structure. If it's the nasty desktop interface (I bet it's not better on OS X than it is on windows) you might want to look into the text editor NoteTab for which exist clips (macros) for exporting and reimporting memos. This is what I am playing with at the moment.

There are also a few palm doc editors like ZDocj, QED or SiEd. Docs can be longer and more formatted, and options for synchronizing them are various, including palmtextsync
posted by suleikacasilda at 4:26 PM on November 30, 2004

I got Pedit when I had a Palm Portable Keyboard because it has excellent keyboard support. Its user interface is rather... eclectic. I still use it instead of the built-in app, but I can't say I recommend it unless you are using a keyboard and need to be able to control it without using the stylus ever.
posted by grouse at 4:58 PM on November 30, 2004

Response by poster: Suleika - it's not so much the PalmOS Memos app as it is Palm Desktop for OS X. It's a clunky, kludgy, buggy piece of PIM software which fails to save settings, hotsyncs only partial information inconsistently, and is generally difficult to look at or use. The less I have to deal with it, the better, which is why I'm looking for something which can manage text/doc/memo files in Palm OS 5 or in OS X, but as far away from Palm Desktop as possible.

I've installed SiEd and am liking it, and am now downloading Palm Doc Converter to be able to edit stuff as text files. Thanks for the tip!
posted by brownpau at 6:05 PM on November 30, 2004

brownpau: Oh. I don't know why we would have gotten that idea. Maybe it's because you said "the Memos app on my Palm Zire 31" and not "the Palm Desktop Memos component on OS X."
posted by grouse at 1:36 AM on December 1, 2004

Response by poster: You're quite correct, grouse, and I apologize for my inconsistency. Actually Palm Memos is fine as it is; it's just these OS X Palm Desktop and HotSync issues which get in the way. Here's the question I should have been asking.
posted by brownpau at 5:54 PM on December 1, 2004

Takes a big man to apologize. Sorry I was so snarky (well by my standards, not MeFi standards). I was just pissed that I had spent time writing an answer that turned out to be useless.
posted by grouse at 2:18 AM on December 2, 2004

Response by poster: By MeFi and my standards, not snarky at all. :D
posted by brownpau at 8:06 AM on December 3, 2004