Ron,

On #1: The SOHO Syncs with both the iCal and AB programs, and note follow over as well.
#2 Have not seen the duplicate contact feature, though does have multiple addresses for the same contact.
#3: Tag do export and import -- atleast they did for me.
#4: Copy Contact which is essential for what I do. Also the label program needs work.

Terry

FYI everyone -- I have found the claendar with SOHO a bit quirky -- so I am trying the BusyCal program for 30 day to stand alone. Will report back later. Terry

Still thinking of migrating to SOHO for contacts. Saw this on their website:

11) Perfect Migration. Achieving a perfect migration of data between the Now Software products and SOHO Organizer will be next to impossible for a couple of reasons. First, it would require that Chronos have access to Now Software's database formats so we could read the data directly and try and preserve everything. In the absence of the ability to read the data directly, we would need Now Software to export their data in an xml format that preserves all fields including link fields. Second, the data in SOHO Organizer and the Now Software products do not match up perfectly. When the data fields don't match up perfectly, it means data either is lost or stuffed somewhere that doesn't make perfect sense. Chronos chose from the beginning to make our data model match Apple's so users wouldn't have to deal with syncing ambiguities. Now Software did not adopt this philosophy so there will be problems with data matching up to Apple's data models and consequently SOHO Organizer's data model.

John Wallace, how about letting Chronos see your database formats, or providing an XML export function as a thank-you to your loyal users? Even if there is data that doesn't match up to SOHO's model maybe with some help from you we could at least get that data dumped to an extra text field in SOHO??

I second that request. Some help from NOW would be appreciated...

Hello all,

I have been away for several months and just getting back to report how the BusyCal and SOHO are working.

1) BusyCal is a great stand alone calendar program that is close to the NOW UTD was, though just does not beat what it could do for the owner when changed to one's own needs and desires from a calendar program. OK for the time and continue looking for a replacement.

2) SOHO as a contact manager is just an Apple Address Book on some steroids. SOHO limits how you can set up you data fields, limits how the user can print on pre-printed forms or envelops, and limits what get passed from my NUDC file that I still keep current. (I'm praying that John Wallace finds the white knight with lots of cash that wants to be the best in the contact and time management recorded business -- Yes John, we still love your product). I am syncing SOHO through Mobile Me with Address Book and my one iPhone, and it seems to work fine and not lose any information. The detail and data trail is not as robust as I would like to see it.

On commenting on the above migration with Chronos, I am not a tech person, so if someone can formally simply the database issue with the formatting ease that NOW provided for all of NOW users, we would have a great model to move forward on.

Thanks all and comments and suggestion are always welcomed.

Terry

PS: I just learned about Unyk.com -- which is PC / Web based, not really ready for iCal syncing as I see it -- does any one else know any thing about it? Also -- it seems with Google as the syncing agent, we might have a way to use this effectively with the Apple / Mac side of the world -- comments welcomed.

I have just had a note from a colleague using Daylite and who is so far very happy with it. Works well over the net to his server and even one troglodyte is using it and therefore sharing information.
Any comments from anyone? Please?

Any news re NUTDC -> Daylite?

>In the absence of the ability to read the data directly, we would need Now Software
>to export their data in an xml format that preserves all fields including link fields.

The best way forward is to use the support built into Now X. Have Now X import the NUDC files and sync those to iCal and Address Book through Sync Services. Another path would be importing your NUDC data into Now X and having Now X export the data in iCalendar format, although exporting some forms of repeating events has some bugs.

Us providing our formats isn't possible at this time because of working through things with the courts. Even if it were possible, it's unlikely to be helpful at least as far as NUDC is concerned. The NUDC format is complex and doesn't map easily to iCalendar format. It took many manmonths of effort for us to implement the import code from NUDC -> Now X and it would likely take far more time for a third party to do the same since they aren't familiar with the NUDC format or code base. The NowX format, OTOH, is implemented in a standard SQL database and maps well to iCalendar format. It seems likely that a third party could reliably pull data from that database with only 2-3 manmonths of effort.

Using Now X as the conduit between NUDC and other products is your best bet at this time. The Now X registration servers are offline, so you can download and run Now X without having to enter registration information or any kind of serial number.

Yes, to echo everyone else, we certainly do want a revival, white-knight salvation of NowX.

BusyCal is just fine as a calendar app, slightly better than iCal.

But it's the dearth of a good contact app that's troubling me. I tried Contactizer Pro, Daylite, and Soho and found them all loaded with stuff I don't need, not so intuitive for handling contacts and groups of contacts, and just buggy. Settled, for now, with syncing Now with AB and Bento, which at least provides a tabular list but is feature-poor in the extreme! Can't get no satisfaction, and know with system upgrades Now will go from balky to unusable sooner than later.

John, have you considered approaching the BusyCal guys about collaboration? Don't think Chronos would be a good partner for you. Best of luck!

I've also finally settled on Address Book and Bento 3, at least they're stable, and I can massage my data to get most of what I need. The one BIG piece I haven't been able to crack is getting the "tags" exported from NowX (so I can get them into Address Book/Bento). NowX exports the "categories", but the tags are what I depend on, and would hate to start from scratch with over 2000 contacts. Ideas?