From SK Calendar to Outlook 2003 XP via Lotus Organizer

Like many very happy Sidekick users, I am concerned that at some point, it will no longer work with a new version of Windows and what cold be more than 20 years of calendar data will be orphaned. It is logical to move to Outlook but MS doesn't provide conversion from Sidekick to Outlook 2003 and hasn't since Outlook 1997.

It is possible to move to Outlook but not directly and the interim step describe below needs software that is already out of date (Lotus Organizer 5.x).

I propose the following steps that have worked for me:

1) Acquire a Lotus Smartsuite Disk with Organizer 5.x (6.x won't work) that also has the EXTRA files (the Millenium 9.5 edition is ok). Just downloading Organizer 5.x won't provide the EXTRA files needed to convert the SK data.

2) Install Organizer along with EXTRA - ORGANIZE - UPGRADE - SETUP.

3) Let Organizer convert your SK calendar file. (Slow process). The resulting file can be opened in Organizer BUT a glitch in the Lotus Conversion utility (that you got from EXTRA) mishandles the appointment ending times (my appointments were all 14 hours long, many going into the next day).

Exporting the Lotus calendar into Excel to fix the end times at this point didn't work for me because it gives complex cells with both date and time that are hard to manipulate. However, it is an opportunity to view the entire Sidekick calendar for corrupted data that can be corrected (in the Sidekick Calendar, not on the spreadsheet) in which case, Step 3, above, needs to be repeated.

4) Save the Lotus Organizer file (*.or5).

5) IMPORT that file into Outlook. You should have your entire calendar in Outlook, but again, the ending times will be wrong.

6) EXPORT the Outlook calendar into Excel where each variable now has its own column.

7) Set the ending day equal to the starting day. Set the ending time equal to the starting time plue 1/2 hour (30/1440) and reformat to Time from General. Reimport into Outlook making sure that Description ends up in the Subject field and you should have your Sidekick calendar functioning in Outlook and ready to roll.

Good luck.

Peter