Palm File Converter
Palm File Converter for Macintosh 1.5 is, as you might guess, a partner for PalmPilot database programs. Palm File Converter works with JFile and JTutor by John J. Lehtt. It also works with Mobile DB by Mobile Generation Software. Palm File Converter for Macintosh is an independent development by Robert Tsuk. I'd show you a picture of this no-nonsense utility, but, well, there's not a lot to see. It has two menus. It lets you convert between FileMaker databases and the above PalmPilot databases. As of this writing there were a couple of limitations to these conversions. See the Convertor's web site for details. In addition to FileMaker databases, it also lets you convert between tab-delimited text files and the PalmPilot databases. And that is just about that.

Palm File Converter doesn't request a payment. You can find out more at its web-site: http://www.tsuk.com/pfc/.

ImageViewer
ImageViewer for Macintosh is a plug-in to permit the general-purpose Mac image conversion software GraphicConverter to convert files into the ImageViewer format common on the PalmPilot. In order to use this, you will also need a PalmPilot application which handles this format; there are several. GraphicConvertor, which is shareware, reads and writes a wide variety of image types. Using another convertor called Raw to PDB, you can also convert 160x160x2-bit pixel images into ImageViewer format. Once again, I'd show you a screen shot, but there's not a lot to see.

Make DocDD
The Doc file format is wildly popular with PalmPilot users, and thankfully, one of the several intrepid Japanese Macintosh and PalmPilot software developers has come to the rescue of Macintosh users with MakeDocDD. MakeDocDD is a Macintosh application which converts text files to Doc format, and vice versa. There are many sources of the PalmPilot Doc application itself. It couldn't be easier to use. You setup a panel of conversion options, seen in Figure A, and after that you just drag and drop the files you want to convert. As a special treat, it comes with special features for Japanese text, including stripping one-byte Katakana characters. Trust me, this is nice to have if you read Japanese text files!

FIGURE A


MakeDocDD lets you convert text files to Doc format, and vice versa. Roll over picture for a larger image.

QPaint
Another intrepid Mac and PalmPilot pioneer from Japan is Mikida Yasuda. He has written a painting app for PalmPilots called QPaint, plus a Macintosh companion called QPaint Reader. Using QPaint, you make drawings on the PalmPilot. You HotSync and the drawings appear as a file "Q_Paint.pdb" in your PalmPilot desktop user folder. Drag this PDB file onto the QPaint Reader. It opens a window containing these drawings. You can then save the drawing as a PICT, or use the Copy command in the Edit menu to copy these images to other places on your Mac. There is not much user interface to see, but the About QPaint Reader window is slick, as you can see in Figure B.