Windows Phone Thoughts: Make A Plan And Go: Twiddlebit's Pocket Plan Reviewed

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Monday, November 8, 2004

Make A Plan And Go: Twiddlebit's Pocket Plan Reviewed

Posted by Jimmy Dodd in "SOFTWARE" @ 10:00 AM


Exporting tasks to Pocket Outlook
For those who use Pocket Outlook's Task application (or any other application that uses the Pocket Outlook task database) Pocket Plan provides an export function that copies Plan tasks to Task records. Export allows all tasks to be copied at once or allows only currently selected tasks or tasks selected by a filter to be exported. A category for the exported task can be specified (which defaults to "Plan:" followed by the plan's name) and existing tasks in that category can be automatically deleted before exporting takes place. Other options for export include prefacing the task name with the summary task name (if one exists) and setting a reminder for each task.

Synchronization
During installation Pocket Plan registers a file converter with ActiveSync that performs that actual translation of the Pocket Plan files to and from the desktop. Synchronization between Pocket Plan and the desktop can be handled in one of two ways. By default, ActiveSync copies the pln files without conversion. This allows the Twiddlebit's Windows Plan application to share files with a device. If Microsoft Project is used on the desktop then the converter can be configured to synchronize Pocket Plan pln files with Project's mpp, mpd, and mpx file formats on the desktop.

Configuration is performed by opening Options in ActiveSync, selecting the Rules tab, and clicking the Conversion Settings button. This opens the File Conversion Properties dialog box. In the Device To Desktop tab there will be an entry for Pocket Plan Document. Selecting that item and clicking Edit will open an additional dialog box allowing you to select which type of Project format you wish to convert to. In the Desktop To Device tab you select one or more of the Microsoft Project file formats and perform the same steps to specify Pocket Plan document to convert to.

In either configuration, the Plan's Activesync converter works at the file level, so it makes no attempt to merge changes that have been made on both the device and the desktop. Doing so will result in the loss of one of the sets of changes. Also, the conversion process only works on those features that Pocket Plan uses. Features that Project supports but Pocket Plan does not are discarded during the conversion. This can result in a loss of data in the original Microsoft Project file if the file is converted to a Plan file, then converted back to a Project file. Fortunately, Plan supports the most commonly used fields supported by Project, but if you plan on performing "round-trip" synchronization you will be well-advised to verify that all of the data you use is supported on both platforms. The documentation suggests always keeping a backup of the Project file, just in case.

Conclusions
While certainly not as flexible as the full featured Microsoft Project, Pocket Plan does a fine job covering the majority of Project's most used features at a very reasonable price. Making good use of a limited screen size to display the maximum amount of information, and with an interface that is both clean and intuitive, Pocket Plan will probably be a sufficient for most small to medium size project management situations. Coupled with the ability to synchronize data with either Microsoft Project or Twiddlebit's desktop version of Plan, Pocket Plan will let you take project planning to places you never could before.

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