BigOven

  My PDA shows the Bigoven software downloaded on the PDA, but the PDA will not hot sync the shopping list or recipes.

It sounds like the Palm BigOven conduit (which is the application that is used to transfer data between the PC and the Palm application) most likely did not register successfully on your PC during installation. 

During the installation of the free Palm companion, a DOS box is presented during the conduit registration process -- it takes several seconds to complete.  It may even appear to hang, since it can take up to 15 seconds or so on some PC's.  Many people inadvertently close this DOS box before it has a chance to close on its own.  Please try re-downloading and installing the Palm Conduit again, and make sure you allow the DOS box to close on its own.   (Also, double-check that the BigOvenConduit actually runs after a HotSync by inspecting your Palm's HotSync log text file.)

Thanks for the fast response.  I have downloaded it numerous times without sucess.  I will try it one more time.

Be sure to double-check the HotSync log text file on your PC, and see if "BigOvenConduit" was run.  Also, be sure that your "My BigOven Recipes/Data/Palm" folder exists, and grants you read/write access. 

The BigOven conduit was run.  But I'm not having any luck finding My Big Oven recipes/data/palm folder.  Further I don't know how to look for read/write access.

In the "Publish to Mobile" dialog, are you sure you've clicked ON the "Palm compatible" box?

Doing so should create a subfolder under "Shared Documents/My BigOven Recipes/Data" called "Palm", which is used as the staging area on your PC for all recipes and shopping lists going to your Palm.  You can look for this via Windows Explorer.  And this folder should have read/write access for you -- try to create a text file or a word document in it -- if you cannot, use Windows Explorer to right click on the folder, and grant yourself read/write permissions.

I located a Lakefront Software folder which does not contain a recipe/data/palm folder.  There may be an error in the initial download.  I have also downloaded this several times in the past 2 days.  The first download was the trial.  The second was after purchase when palm would not work.  Do you suggest a total uninstall?  If so help with procedure.

I have found shared documents/my big oven recipes/date, but find no palm folder.  Looking at the properties of these folders are marked read only.  I don't understand your comment on Publish to Mobile dialog...

I located a Lakefront Software folder which does not contain a recipe/data/palm folder.

No, the Lakefront Software folder (under Program Files) is where the application itself is stored, not the user-created data.  The actual user-created data, including the Data/Palm folder, is under "My BigOven Recipes" in the "Shared Documents".  (Please see the post "Where BigOven Looks for Files" to familiarize yourself with where BigOven stores this data.) 

I don't understand your comment on Publish to Mobile dialog...

The "Publish to Mobile" option supports both Palm-compatiable and Windows-Mobile compatible devices.  BigOven needs to know which one you're using, so at the top of the dialog, there's an option to either click "on" the Palm button on click "on" the Windows button.  Be sure the "Palm" icon is clicked (i.e., pressed in).  It should remember it from session to session.

Then, say "Publish".  BigOven will attempt to create a folder called "Palm" under the "Data" subfolder in "My BigOven Recipes", and it will create folders called "recipes" and "shopping list" under that Palm folder. 

However, BigOven will not be able to create these folders if you do not have read/write access to that directory (which you should by default, since it's in your Shared Documents folder on your PC).  Windows Explorer can be used to assign read/write permissions to folders, by right-clicking on the folder themselves and choosing the appropriate settings.

I had to go to the help pages in reference to your posting on Publish to mobile application.  After reading the help section, it appears that these directions are not for the PALM application.  Looking at the original download your instructions are in part one.  Part two is for PALM users and the instructions do not talk about cliking on the palm application.

 Running a search for Activesync on my computer does not give me the box articulated in the help pages.  Finding Microsoft Activesync on my computer does not give me any options.  This operating system is Windows XP Professional.

We are simply talking about the "Publish To Mobile" Dialog, on the File menu.  It sounds like you might not have discovered this yet, which could certainly be an issue.  BigOven does not automatically transfer all recipes to the Palm, since PDA's have limited memory, and BigOven recipe box files can, in theory, be as large as 7 Gb or more.  So, you need to choose the recipes you'd like to publish, then select "Publish to Mobile Device" from the File menu.  (The free Palm Companion was still in development at the time the Help file was written, so admittedly Help is a little sparse on this topic.)

The process for publishing recipes to your Palm is:

1)  Select the recipes you'd like to publish in the result list.  (You can hold down ctrl or shift to select multiple recipes.)

2)  From the File menu, choose "Publish", then "To Mobile Device".

3)  You'll see the dialog below.  Since you're a Palm OS user, make sure you press ON the Palm button, as shown below.

4)  When you're ready, click Publish to Mobile Device

5)  BigOven should copy the appropriate recipes and shopping lists to the My BigOven Recipes\Data\Palm subfolder.  (If one doesn't exist, it will create one.) 

6)  Press the HotSync button

 

I did not realize the application was in the file menu.  I now understand how this must sync and it does work fine.  Long was to here, but we are here and working.

 

Thank you

You're most welcome; we should have caught that this might have been the issue earlier, and of course any issue like this helps us understand better how we need to raise awareness of certain areas of the program that are a bit buried and/or counterintuitive.  Glad you're up and running.  Happy Cooking!