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<H3><A NAME="s1">1. Introduction</A></H3>

<P>KOrganizer is a program for doing several things.  It is a
calendar.  It is a program to keep track of your appointments.  It is
a prioritized todo list. It coordinates scheduling between different
people or groups.  In short, it is a program which  tries to help you
keep your life organized, hence the simple, yet appropriate name.  You
may have encountered similar programs for both UNIX and Windows such
as <EM>plan</EM>, <EM>Netscape Calendar</EM>, <EM>Microsoft
Outlook</EM>, and <EM>Ecco Pro</EM>.  All of these programs fall under
the same general category of ``PIM,'' or Personal Information Manager,
and they all more or less try to do the same things, though often with
different angles of approach.
<P>
<H3><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1 vCalendar Portable Data Format</A>
</H3>

<P>KOrganizer is the first free PIM for Unix which implements the
<EM>vCalendar</EM> protocol for personal data interchange.  This
vendor-independent, open standard allows different programs and
devices to share/synchronize appointment and calendar information
without proprietary standards.  The data is stored in ASCII and is
easily human-readable.  While some Windows programs have implemented a
limited import/export ability from their native formats to vCalendar,
KOrganizer's <EM>native</EM> file format on disk is vCalendar, so it
bypasses this middle-step entirely.  It also allows you to easily
access your data without the program itself, in the spirit of other
UNIX programs.
<P>
<H3><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 3COM PalmPilot Support</A>
</H3>

<P>KOrganizer also offers even more convenience if you have a 3COM
PalmPilot or IBM WorkPad in conjunction with KPilot, a set of
pilot-access tools for KDE.  With KPilot working in conjunction with
KOrganizer, you can easily synchronize your desktop and portable
schedules.  
<P>
<P>You will need to have KPilot installed, and have the "todo conduit"
and "vcalendar conduits" configured in order for your Appointments and
To Do items to be synchronized back and forth between KOrganizer and
your Pilot.  However, once this is done, FULL synchronization is
supported, including recurring appointments, alarms, attached notes,
etc.
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