KeySuite reviewed

I’ve been using Chapura‘s PocketMirror to sync my Palm with Outlook for a while. It has worked well without being obtrusive. Last year I added their KeyContacts application, which replaces the Palm address book with an Outlook-compatible application that understands (and can use) all of the Outlook fields. It’s worked well also, even though the current version doesn’t support direct dialing on the Kyocera 7135.
A couple of weeks ago I got mail from Chapura: as a purchaser of both PocketMirror and KeyContacts, I was eligible to get a free copy of their new KeySuite, which has Outlook-compatible task, calendar, and notes/memo-pad modules. I downloaded it and installed it to give it a try; I’ve been using Pimlico Software‘s insanely great DateBk application for a long time. This isn’t a full review; consider it to be my impressions after using KeySuite for a week or so.
First, a warning: KeySuite doesn’t work right with the beta versions of Outlook 2003. They know about the problem and have promised to fix it, but that’s no consolation for me; instead of using my spiffy laptop with a USB cable, I’m stuck with a serial cradle, which is slower than dirt. Bah.
Next, let me briefly mention the look and feel: Chapura has deliberately made these apps resemble the default appearance of Outlook XP. If you like the yellow calendar background, you’re in luck. Fortunately you can customize the color settings, which I’m still in the process of experimenting with.
Synchronization “just works”. I’ve been very pleased with how seamless it is, and by how faithful KeySuite is at swapping even obscure Outlook fields between Outlook and the handheld.
I’ve spent most of my time using KeyDates, so most of my comments concern it:

1. If you change a recurring appointment in DateBk5, you can choose whether the change applies to all instances of the event, only the current instance, or only future instances. This is very useful. KeyDates only allows you the Outlook-style choices: change the current instance or all instances in the series.
2. The KeySuite applications don’t allow you to set the default category for newly created items. If most of the items you create are in one category, get used to tapping the selector to set them.
3. KeyDates doesn’t support time zones, at least as far as I can tell. Since many of my appointments are meetings or concalls with people in other time zones, this is a mildly serious omission, especially in light of DateBk5’s ability to show the event time in both my time zone and the other one simultaneously.
4. DateBk5 has a very useful two-column view that condenses two work weeks of events into a single screen. KeyDates doesn’t.
5. KeyDates has a spiffy Options | Font command. Unfortunately, all of the standard and tiny fonts have the same 11-point size, so I can’t actually use the smaller fonts. The Large and Large Bold fonts are larger, but that’s the opposite of what I actually want. It’s possible that this is because of some quirk of the 7135.
6. You can’t turn off delete confirmation dialogs. Maybe Chapura thinks this is a feature.