Thursday, March 13, 2003
Take Documents Anywhere: Review of RepliGo v1.0
Posted by John Hung in "SOFTWARE" @ 10:00 AM
I, like many other avid Pocket PC users, would like to use my Pocket PC as often as possible. The ability to carry information in a small and portable device that can be viewed quickly is one of the main reasons why I always carry my Pocket PC on my belt. However, it is not easy to view documents (Word, Excel, or other specially formatted documents) that contain tables or graphs without running the risk of altering the formatting after opening the files on your Pocket PC. Cerience’s RepliGo viewer is a great tool that enables you to view many kinds of documents directly on your Pocket PC without changing the original formatting.
Pocket PCs are wonderful devices, and RepliGo document viewer makes them even better. You want to view PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer pages, or just about any other files on your Pocket PC but not worry about messing up the formatting? Your worries are over because RepliGo can view all the files described above and more. Read on to find out how!
Getting Started
Installing the software is easy and straightforward. RepliGo offers direct integration with the Microsoft Office programs and Internet Explorer, which makes document transfer a cynch. A total of 9.1MB HD space is required to install all the components. I installed the Pocket PC program on the secure digital card to preserve main memory.
Figure 1: Installation Options
The RepliGo desktop has many nice features, especially the amount of material to help you get started, such a user guide, product demo and sample files. I applaud Cerience’s effort in putting together the information to make this program easy to use for both novice and advanced users.
Figure 2: RepliGo Desktop
Let the fun begin
One feature I try to look for in Pocket PC software is ease of use. I consider myself a pretty experienced user, but sometimes I still get frustrated by unintuitive and difficult-to-use software. By comparison, RepliGo is a joy to use. If you are using a program from Microsoft Office, RepliGo is already integrated and ready to go. When you want to view an open document on your Pocket PC, you simply click on the blue/orange right arrow button from the menu or toolbar to send the document to your PDA.
Figure 3: The RepliGo Menu inside Microsoft Word
Figure 4: The RepliGo Toolbar
A popup window appears on your computer and you can choose a name for the file and location where you want to store the file. You can only save the file to your Pocket PC’s main memory, which can quickly fill up with all the files you will want to read with RepliGo. I hope in the next release we will be able to save converted files to storage cards. The conversion process took just a few seconds for each of the files I tested.
Figure 5: Document conversion window
Other non-Microsoft Office programs can also easily be converted by RepliGo. Simply choose to print and you will see RepliGo listed in the printer selection menu.
Figure 6: RepliGo is available as a printer for non-Microsoft Office programs
When you start RepliGo on your Pocket PC, you will see a folder view, similar to that of File Explorer, showing all of the RepliGo files. I converted several documents and saved them on my Pocket PC. However, the folder view does not tell me the file types, which can be confusing if my file names are not indicative of which program generated the file in the first place. RepliGo is designed to be an all-purpose document viewer, capable of converting files from many programs, and hopefully the folks at Cerience will add a tag indicating which program the file came from in their next release. RepliGo files are highly compressed without compromising the original look and feel of the documents. For example, the original spreadsheet file at 82K became a 16K RepliGo file, 91K Word file was compressed down to 15K, and a 185K PowerPoint file was reduced down to 79K.
Figure 7: RepliGo files on the Pocket PC
To view a file, simply tap on the file and you will be taken to the ‘Whole’ page view.
Figure 8: Whole page view
Triangle arrows next the page number (p1) take you to the next or previous page of the document. If you want to view a section of the page, use the stylus to marquee select an area of the document you wish to zoom in on for viewing.
Figure 9: Marquee selection result
The section is now magnified to 43%. You can also tap on the hand symbol and use the stylus to move around the page.
If you want to read the text, you can click on the Flowed tool (wiggly line).
Figure 10: Flowed view
The text is now set to a readable text size, and you are ready to read the whole page. When you are done, simply tap on the Whole page view to see the whole page again.
Shown below are three more examples of Office documents I converted to my Pocket PC as RepliGo files.
Figure 11: Word document in landscape mode
Figure 12: Excel spreadsheet
Figure 13: Microsoft Project
Gotchas
RepliGo is very easy to use and a great program for anyone who wants a way to view documents without risking altering its original format. However, I have four suggestions that I think will make this program even more useful.
RepliGo will install on both desktop and Pocket PCs. On the desktop, any computer faster than 166 MHz running Windows 98SE and ActiveSync 3.1 or later is supported. 32MB of RAM (64MB for Windows 2000 or later) and 10MB of available hard disk space are needed to run the desktop version of RepliGo.
Any Pocket PC devices (including Pocket PC Phone Edition) running Pocket PC or Pocket PC 2002 operating systems are both supported along with 500K of available free space. I installed it on my SD memory card and it runs just fine.
Where To Buy
The software can be downloaded from Handango or purchased for the introductory price of $39.95 (normally $49.95) (affiliate link).
Conclusions
I have really enjoyed using RepliGo over the past couple of weeks, and I am certain it will become one of my software staples used on a daily basis. The program is suitable for everyone, novice and advanced users alike. At $39.95, it is a bit pricey, but for all the convenience this program brings, I highly recommend RepliGo.
Pocket PCs are wonderful devices, and RepliGo document viewer makes them even better. You want to view PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer pages, or just about any other files on your Pocket PC but not worry about messing up the formatting? Your worries are over because RepliGo can view all the files described above and more. Read on to find out how!
Getting Started
Installing the software is easy and straightforward. RepliGo offers direct integration with the Microsoft Office programs and Internet Explorer, which makes document transfer a cynch. A total of 9.1MB HD space is required to install all the components. I installed the Pocket PC program on the secure digital card to preserve main memory.
Figure 1: Installation Options
The RepliGo desktop has many nice features, especially the amount of material to help you get started, such a user guide, product demo and sample files. I applaud Cerience’s effort in putting together the information to make this program easy to use for both novice and advanced users.
Figure 2: RepliGo Desktop
Let the fun begin
One feature I try to look for in Pocket PC software is ease of use. I consider myself a pretty experienced user, but sometimes I still get frustrated by unintuitive and difficult-to-use software. By comparison, RepliGo is a joy to use. If you are using a program from Microsoft Office, RepliGo is already integrated and ready to go. When you want to view an open document on your Pocket PC, you simply click on the blue/orange right arrow button from the menu or toolbar to send the document to your PDA.
Figure 3: The RepliGo Menu inside Microsoft Word
Figure 4: The RepliGo Toolbar
A popup window appears on your computer and you can choose a name for the file and location where you want to store the file. You can only save the file to your Pocket PC’s main memory, which can quickly fill up with all the files you will want to read with RepliGo. I hope in the next release we will be able to save converted files to storage cards. The conversion process took just a few seconds for each of the files I tested.
Figure 5: Document conversion window
Other non-Microsoft Office programs can also easily be converted by RepliGo. Simply choose to print and you will see RepliGo listed in the printer selection menu.
Figure 6: RepliGo is available as a printer for non-Microsoft Office programs
When you start RepliGo on your Pocket PC, you will see a folder view, similar to that of File Explorer, showing all of the RepliGo files. I converted several documents and saved them on my Pocket PC. However, the folder view does not tell me the file types, which can be confusing if my file names are not indicative of which program generated the file in the first place. RepliGo is designed to be an all-purpose document viewer, capable of converting files from many programs, and hopefully the folks at Cerience will add a tag indicating which program the file came from in their next release. RepliGo files are highly compressed without compromising the original look and feel of the documents. For example, the original spreadsheet file at 82K became a 16K RepliGo file, 91K Word file was compressed down to 15K, and a 185K PowerPoint file was reduced down to 79K.
Figure 7: RepliGo files on the Pocket PC
To view a file, simply tap on the file and you will be taken to the ‘Whole’ page view.
Figure 8: Whole page view
Triangle arrows next the page number (p1) take you to the next or previous page of the document. If you want to view a section of the page, use the stylus to marquee select an area of the document you wish to zoom in on for viewing.
Figure 9: Marquee selection result
The section is now magnified to 43%. You can also tap on the hand symbol and use the stylus to move around the page.
If you want to read the text, you can click on the Flowed tool (wiggly line).
Figure 10: Flowed view
The text is now set to a readable text size, and you are ready to read the whole page. When you are done, simply tap on the Whole page view to see the whole page again.
Shown below are three more examples of Office documents I converted to my Pocket PC as RepliGo files.
Figure 11: Word document in landscape mode
Figure 12: Excel spreadsheet
Figure 13: Microsoft Project
Gotchas
RepliGo is very easy to use and a great program for anyone who wants a way to view documents without risking altering its original format. However, I have four suggestions that I think will make this program even more useful.
- Option to save converted files to storage cards
- Indicate RepliGo files’ original file types, ie: Word, Excel, etc.
- In Flowed view, the ability to see pictures along with text
- The ability to convert files already on the Pocket PC into viewable RepliGo files
RepliGo will install on both desktop and Pocket PCs. On the desktop, any computer faster than 166 MHz running Windows 98SE and ActiveSync 3.1 or later is supported. 32MB of RAM (64MB for Windows 2000 or later) and 10MB of available hard disk space are needed to run the desktop version of RepliGo.
Any Pocket PC devices (including Pocket PC Phone Edition) running Pocket PC or Pocket PC 2002 operating systems are both supported along with 500K of available free space. I installed it on my SD memory card and it runs just fine.
Where To Buy
The software can be downloaded from Handango or purchased for the introductory price of $39.95 (normally $49.95) (affiliate link).
Conclusions
I have really enjoyed using RepliGo over the past couple of weeks, and I am certain it will become one of my software staples used on a daily basis. The program is suitable for everyone, novice and advanced users alike. At $39.95, it is a bit pricey, but for all the convenience this program brings, I highly recommend RepliGo.
