A new tool for editing Microsoft Office documents on a Palm Pilot does a better job of handling Word and Powerpoint files than Microsoft's own software, the publisher claims.
The latest version of DataViz's Documents To Go allows users of Palm handhelds to download and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on their Palm Pilots, without any loss of file formatting, Dataviz said.
By contrast, Microsoft's software for editing Office documents on the rival PocketPC platform is unable to retain formatting changes.
"There really shouldn't be a downside to making changes," said Scott Thomas, a DataViz product manager. "People should be able to make an edit and not have to pay a price for a loss of functionality."
Microsoft, of course, makes comparable software for it's PocketPC platform, which after years of stagnant sales is finally making a dent in the handheld market once dominated by Palm.
Microsoft's Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Pocket Powerpoint allow handheld users to download and edit Office documents on their PocketPC devices.
But when formatting changes are made, those changes are often lost.
That's because when the files are converted to the Pocket PC format, the dot-DOC or dot-XLS file is converted to Rich Text Format, which loses a lot of the special formatting.
Pocket Word doesn't have tables and Excel lacks charting, so when they are downloaded from a desktop computer, the formatting is removed.
When a user makes changes, saves them, and uploads the file back to the PC, the Word table and Excel charts are gone.
However, DataViz claims Version 4.0 of Documents To Go preserves all the special formatting when Office files are edited on the Palm.
"This certainly goes beyond what Microsoft is doing by being able to maintain the original integrity of the document and make changes in it," said Barney Dewey, a mobile computing analyst with Outlook 4Mobility. "I think it's one of those things that people want to have and may help them choose a platform because of it, even if they only occasionally use it."
Ken Dulaney, an analyst with market research firm Gartner Dataquest, said Documents To Go does preserve formatting but isn't perfect at handling everything in Office files.
For example, Documents To Go can't handle macros, Dulaney said.
"They do a good job for what they do, but they're not 100 percent," he said. "These conversion programs will never be 100 percent compatible with the Windows product because that would mean they have all the functions of Office, which is a multi-megabyte product."
Understandably, Palm Computing is delighted to promote the new software and is bundling Documents To Go with its M500 and M505 handhelds.
Documents To Go 4.0 is available immediately for $30, or free to owners of Palm M500 and M505 handhelds who bought their handheld in the last 30 days.
The software works on Windows and Macintosh computers, although the Mac version doesn't support PowerPoint files.
