Importing Flashcards to a Palm TX

[txUser]

After much experimentation, here is the method that I use to import flashcards.

1. Create flashcard file with //Title and tabbed entries using MS notepad on the PC.
2. Transfer this file to the TX through the Quick Install window of the Palm Desktop software. This creates Filename.PDB of type GTXT on the palm.
3. Open this text file with Word-To-Go, select all text and copy to clipboard.
4. Paste the text to a new memo.
5. Import the flashcards into plecodict as a UTF-8 Memo.

This generally works OK except that the TX clipboard appears to be size limited, so I do multiple cut-paste operations from Word-To-Go to Memo, and that is a bit painful.

What would be nice is if I could import the Filename.PDB (GTXT) directly into Plecodict. But this file is apparently not recognized by PlecoDict. When I try to import as a UTF-8 TextFile, PlecoDict shows me a file path of /Palm/Launcher/flash.txt. Using FILEZ, the directory structure looks flat, so I dont know where this path is supposed to point. In the ImportLists window using TextFile and UTF-8, the Volume box never shows any files. Also, exporting using the TextFile format always fails.

What also would be nice if I could cut-and-paste my PC flashcard file into a Memo using Palm Desktop. But doing this cut and paste converts all chinese characters to question marks. When I upload a working flashcard memo from the Palm, the chinese chars are shown as scrambled chars, but they are recognized by PlecoDict.

Another thing that I have tried without sucess is to open the Filename.PDB (GTXT) with Word-To-Go and save as a PalmDoc. PlecoDict DOES recognize the file as a flashcard file, but the import fails after either no charcters or one character. This method would at least eliminate the multiple cut and paste operations from Documents to Memos. Exporting to a PalmDoc file does appear to work.

So my questions are:

1. Is it possible to import a text file that has been downloaded with QuickLaunch ?
2. Is it possible to make Palm Desktop not strip out the chars and convert them to ??s when pasted into memos ?
3. Why doesn't the GTXT converted to PalmDoc import into PlecoDict ?

 

[mikelove]

The Palm OS file system won't allow you to store actual text files in your TX's internal memory; the only files that can go in there are PDBs and PRCs. So the Text File import screen asks for a path because the only place where it might find a text file is on a memory card (and those do have paths). Text file export is probably failing because your TX doesn't have a memory card, or because there's no /Palm/Launcher directory on it, or because there's already a flash.txt file in that directory.

We've had a number of reports suggest that saving a Word-to-Go file as PalmDoc won't work because it mucks up the text encoding (so PlecoDict can't read the Chinese characters from it). So absent an SD card (and the means to copy text files to/from it), the best suggestion I have for how to conveniently copy flashcards to your Palm is to create a PalmDoc file right on your desktop from the source text; MakeDocW is a good utility for this, just run that on the text file and install the resulting .pdb to your Palm and PlecoDict should be able to import it.