Support for an independant version of SideKick 14

[mickygriff]

I thought I would start a thread to show how much support there is for either an individual, group or company, to provide a reworked/updated version of Sidekick. Someone surely possesses the skills to do this? Please just reply to give this indication.

 

[jsc1]

I tried Essential Pim 1.8 and C-Org. I was diappointed with both. My 10 year old, 3500 name address file in Sidekick 98, which does NOT look like Outlook, ie, completely different field labels and organization, exists in a 1.5 meg Sidekick file. E-Pim and C-org both blew it up to 16 meg, and wouldn't match my fields at all. Yes, they were sucked in as custom fields, but they weren't ordered the way I wanted them. And C-Org was slower than mud.

Yes, very disappointed with both.

Is there any database program out there that can be configured as easily, and with the totally custom field arrangement that Sidekick had? Please don't suggest something like the bloated overkill of MS Access or the like. I wouldn't trust Access anyway - they have a way of clobbering there file formats every time they "improve" things.

 

[pjo1966]

The Essential PIM is OK, but if there's no way to transfer over my calendar info from SK98, what's the point?

 

[ct412]

I feel lucky that my Starfish 98 is still working after reading much of the above. BUT ... today all the information completely disappeared from my computer. No card files; no calendar. Luckily, I have a recent backup, but has this happened to anyone before? I haven't emptied my trash or restarted my computer since it happened. Anyone got any ideas what happened or where the data went? Curiously, my Earthtime settings did not change. I'm totally puzzled. Thanks for any help.

 

[Frank10]

Your cardfiles (each of them) and your calendar are distinct data files which Sidekick 98 "reads" or loads in, it is very bizarre for them to just "disappear".

Are you fluent with your operating system re: looking at your data files, verifying location re: your "userdata" folder etc? You also should be able to go like in contacts view "file / open cardfile" and navigate around to SEE your prior existing cardfiles (same with opening a calendar file).

Unless something happened with your main program that is making it look to a different default location for your data files, "no" there should not be simply a disappearance of the data. I'd imagine the program is not looking in the correct path for some reason. If you didn't re-load the program, nothing should have changed. Re: Earthtime settings, that's a distinct / different userdata file.

Poke around for your data files and let us know what you see! Frankly though, probably best to start that as a new topic since this topic is hugely long already, on the topic of re-birthing Sidekick and addressing alternative programs. Good luck!

Frank H.

 

[tilltek]

After working with Essential PIM for a week I'm still of the opinion that it is by far the best "next Sidekick" if only because the rest of the offerings are so poor.
I have made a list of some items that Essential PIM should add and will be emailing it to them a suggestions for future releases. Most are so obvious, I can't think why they're not there already.
These are some items I would like to see added to EPIM.

1: Phone dialer with log (like Sidekick)

2: Ability to write a letter in my own word processor and have it recorded or logged.

3: Spell checker, even if only in notes.

4: When pasting from the internet, the site the item came from should be saved (as in OneNote)

5: Ability to turn off tabs "Business", "Notes" and "Pictures" in contacts so show all detail in one screen

8: Groups for contacts like sidekick. Or multiple contacts.
at present there is only one address book and I don't want to mix up friends, business people and etc in on huge book, even with filters. I much prefer Sidekicks many available address books.

10: Ability to cut and paste name and address from the address book, for instance, to address an envelope.

I will persevere a little longer.
Ken F

 

[Zoltan627]

Essential PIM looks interesting and I will add it to the list of SK replacements. I do have one question though, does it work with a Palm PDA? I did not see anything on the site that addresses that question.

Thanks

 

[BowRowser]

(for CT412):
This has happened to me on occassion, and I finally tracked it down to an otherwise pretty handy utility called Registry First Aid, which runs through your entire system looking for broken, outdated or nonfunctional registry entries and then gives you the option to delete, edit etc them. Although in general such house cleaning can greatly improve an operating systems speed and functionaility, caveats are of course in order when messing with the registry; and the only real problem I've noticed is with Sidekick. For some reason, ---and can't remember the precise nature of the problem, but--- the program would find several Sidekick entries as in error, and not only that, but would mark them as safe to fix (it does try to warn you of potentially unsafe changes, but not with Sidekick), but if you accept the default "fix" the next time you open Sidekick you get blank templates for Calendar, Notes etc, and all your data has disappeared.

But not really: as mentioned by Frank10, if you can locate the files on your own hard drive (or on your back up) and just open, then save, them, you should be fine. And if this IS the problem, you should be able to open the WORKING files, not just the BACK-UP (in case your back up didn't include recent data, try to find the working ones first so you don't lose any unbacked up data).

Hope that helps.

 

[ecallan]

jsc1 In relation to exporting your 3500 contacts, I experimented with exporting the addresses to a .csv file. Then using Excel to modify the data to suit the Outlook fields. I also used =CONCATENATE(A1," ",B1) to get the name into a single cell for example. When I was happy that I had the format suitable for Outlook I then selected all the data and then used Copy and Paste Special to change the cell contents from formulae to the value. I then removed any redundant columns and saved the file as an Excel Workbook. This was then correctly importable into Outlook. Its a bit messy but worth it for 10 years of my collected life! I still mourn the demise of Sidekick's functionality.
Hope its useful.

 

[tilltek]

What about the moderator taking this stuff to a new thread.
We are talking here about a replacement for Sidekick.
Ken F

 

[Frank10]

Good point Ken, on that note, the actual "beginning life" of this thread was the hope for an independent version, a "back from the ashes" re-tooled literal Sidekick, that chapter of the book seems to have fully come and gone, "nope", as covered in the 100+ postings above.

Though other threads have been newly started expressing hope for this replacement or that replacement, we probably would be better off with a NEW thread on these topics rather than appending to a 100+ thread on re-birthing Sidekick "as" a new Sidekick, since that topic is now decided and known (unfortunately as "no").

Frank H.

 

[edwardaevans]

Great idea!

An update to Sidekick 99 would be excellent. I am surprised that no one has done it. I would have but don't have the expertise.

I would be pleased to support an effort like this.

eaevans@aldercompany.com

 

[Frank10]

Edward, no disrespect intended, but you must not have read the thread above. Granted it's a huge long thread, but you'd need to read at least a bit of it to have familiarity regarding the original topic of "the wish for Sidekick to be updated". It's a long read, but end result, it ain't gonna happen. Sad but truthful. If you have time, read the thread...

Frank H.

 

[MEdgar7863]

Just felt I had to speak up in defence of C-Organizer and EssentialPIM. The latter is the closest I've seen to the 'look and feel' of Sidekick, but some of the additional functionality people have asked for is in the latest C-Organizer. I haven't had any problems with speed or reliability, but I admit I don't have anything near jsc1's 3500 records. Transferring data may involve renaming fields and/or reordering csv files, but, as ecallan says, this has to be offset against the time invested in collecting the data in the first place.

Apologies to Frank10 and others - I know this really should be in the "suggestions for a Sidekick replacement" thread, but all the discussion seems to be happening here.

 

[Frank10]

Good info MEdgar7863, and you're right that most alternative program info is in this thread, oddly enough it's the original topic of rejuvinating Sidekick "as Sidekick" that is a dead topic, ironic as that is.

Maybe I'll move over to C-Organizer as well now that it allows better template saving and the other nice features the developer added, for now I admit I'm still using Sidekick for contacts (thousands), it's been so stable and such a comfortable old pair of shoes... But that day is coming LOL, I'll have to transition somewhere. Keep us posted on your experiences with those alternatives!

Thanks,

Frank H.