About the DOC Format DOC: The standard document format for large text documents on PalmOS is named DOC (given in all caps, here, to distinguish it from similarly-named formats). Rick Bram (rickbram@digitalglyph.com) created that format, and then the original "Doc" reader program (aka "DOC" or "PilotDoc" or "PilotDOC"). Some contributions to the spec and additional utilities also came from Florent Pillet, Mark Pierce, Pat Beirne (patb@corel.com), Harold Bamford, Masatoshi Yoshizawa, and others. I've found a copy of Doc v. 1.44, and have it here (binary only). DOC-file filenames end in extension .prc or .pdb. The data are stored compressed. DOC files contain an internal document-name string. Many e-books have been released in DOC format. Bram turned over development of the no-licence-stated[1] DOC reader to Aportis (http://www.aportis.com/), which has released sundry proprietary binary-only ("shareware") versions. MakeDoc: Bram then collaborated with Pat Beirne and Harold Bamford to create the MakeDoc utility (makedoc7.cpp). Many Web sites (and the Pilot HOWTO) reference it and related documents at Bram's long-vanished http://www.concentric.net/~rbram/ pages. I found a copy of the source code elsewhere, and have it here (licence fixed 2000-12-01 by the author). Converts HTML (stripping tags) or ASCII to DOC format, and converts DOC to ASCII. Berne's final versions of MakeDoc were called MakeDocJ and were coded in Java (available here). I also have Jeffrey A. Krzysztow's (brisk@qni.com) later variant form of MakeDocJ. Later Free-Software / Open Source Tools (almost all available here): o CSpotRun, GPLed DOC reader for PalmOS. Source and PalmOS binary code, in separate archives. http://www.32768.com/bill/palmos/cspotrun/ o Doc Toolkit: Python scripts to convert HTML/ASCII to/from DOC. http://pyrite.linuxave.net/dtk/dtk.html http://purl.oclc.org/net/n9mtb/cq/ o doc2prc.zip: MS-DOS program to convert MS-Word 6.0 format to DOC. http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/amug/files/pilot/pc/ o docname.zip: MS-DOS utility to change the internal name of a DOC file. http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/amug/files/pilot/pc/ o DocReader: Win32 reader for DOC. Delphi4 source code. http://www.crosswinds.net/~mpicker0/DocReader/DocReaderFr.htm o DocReader for Java: Java source and bytecode. http://world.std.com/~cwong/reader/index.html o doctype is a shell script for Unix platforms to tell which PalmOS program can read a .pdb document, and whether a db or .prc file is a document file, a PalmOS application, or a PalmOS Hack extension. Supports DOC among many others. http://freshmeat.net/projects/doctype/ o gPalmDoc is an X11/GTK+ -based HTML-DOC converter. http://users.linuxbox.com/~jiva/ (Site vanished, but the source is preserved in this site's other-os directory.) o makedoc7.zip: MS-DOS port of Beirne's MakeDoc. Converts HTML (stripping tags) or ASCII to DOC, and converts DOC to ASCII. http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/amug/files/pilot/pc/ o MakeDocJ, an LGPLed successor to Beirne's MakeDoc and MakeDocJ, by Jeffrey A. Krzysztow. Converts HTML (stripping tags) or ASCII to DOC, and converts ASCII to DOC. Java source and bytecode. Web page says he got DOC format details at www.RoadCoders.com (which no longer has them). http://www.qni.com/~brisk/PalmPilot/MakeDocJ/ o MakeDocW, Win32 port of MakeDoc, by Mark Pierce. Converts HTML (stripping tags) or ASCII to DOC, and converts DOC to ASCII. http://www.pierce.de/makedocw.html http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/amug/files/pilot/pc/ http://www.robofish.com/download/utils/ o PalmLib is a set of PHP3 functions to on-the-fly convert ASCII or HTML to DOC format, by Pierre Dittgen. http://mmmm.free.fr/palm/ o Pilot Screwdriver: CGI/Perl HTML-to-DOC converter, by Christopher Heschong http://pilot.screwdriver.net/ o ReadDocJ is a DOC reader for any platform with a Java Runtime Environment. By Jeffrey a. Krzysztow. http://www.qni.com/~brisk/PalmPilot/ReadDocJ/ o RichReader converter source code for *ix (ConverterSource.zip). Contains a "modified version" of makedoc7.cpp. Converts among RTF, HTML, PDF, and DOC. All included converters are either open source or freely distributable source code of some type (e.g., the makedoc7.cpp variant). From the creator of the RichReader DOC reader. Available here. http://users.rcn.com/arenamk/RichReader.html o Sitescooper: HTML-to-DOC conversion scripts, by Justin Mason. Preconfigured for popular Web-based news sites. http://sitescooper.org/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/sitescooper/ o txt2pdbdoc utilities. Freely distributable source code. Contains: txt2pdbdoc: ASCII to DOC converter. html2pdbtxt: HTML to DOC. pdbtxt2html: DOC to HTML. http://www.best.com/~pjl/software.html ftp://shell3.ba.best.com/pub/pjl/software/txt2pdbdoc-1.2.1.tar.gz http://homepage.mac.com/pauljlucas/software.html o Z-DOC, a GPLed DOC reader for PalmOS. Source and PalmOS binary code. Pretty buggy, when I last tried it. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/7689/pilot.html o ZDOCm is mizotec's revision/update of Z-DOC. Source and PalmOS binary code. Still a bit buggy. http://member.nifty.ne.jp/mizotec/ Later Proprietary Tools: o ActiveX Controls for PalmPilot DOC Conversion. Based on Beirne's MakeDoc. http://www.pierce.de/controls.html o AportisDoc Professional, AportisDoc Mobile Edition. AportisDoc PDF Converter for Win32. DOC readers/utilities. http://www.aportis.com/ o Avigo Doc Viewer is a DOC-reader for the TI Avigo. Licence unstated. http://www.pmssystem.de/avigo/pcbased.htm o BigDOC DOC-editor for Win32. http://www.visionary2000.com/bigdoc/ o BookViewer reader for MS-WindowsCE. http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/3533/palm_sw2.html#docs o BookWormie is a DOC-reader for PalmOS (?) http://www.ipda-asia.com/index.htm o ClipSync data-transfer/converter utility. Can output DOC format. http://www.goclipsync.com/ o DocInOut Win32 converter/editor for DOC and other formats, by Skip Bremer. http://www.dco.net/go/wps/download/docinout.zip http://www.handbase.com/files/docinout26.zip http://www.zdnet.co.uk/software/free/pilot/docs/sw11.html o DOCit Win32 DOC viewer/editor http://www.gacel.de/docit.htm o Doc On Demand ASCII-to-DOC converter. Perl script accessible via CGI. http://www.poormojo.org/dod.html o Documents To Go editor/converter for Win32 and MacOS. Can output DOC. http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/jump/dxtg_jump.html o DocRead is a binary-only, freely distributable DOC reader for HP 100LX / HP 200LX. http://www.tuug.org/~hysky/ o DOCView / DOCViewH32 / DOCViewHPC reader for MS-WindowsCE. http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/3533/palm_sw2.html#docs o EasyDOC Viewer for Win32. http://www.pilotyid.com/easydoc.html o EBook is a DOC-reader for EPOC/Psion. http://www.geocities.com/ebookepoc/ o HandDoc Editpad: Editor/viewer. http://www.palmedata.com.au/ o iambic Reader (formerly DocVis) DOC reader. Also supports HTML. http://www.iambic.com/pilot/reader/ o InstallBuddy: Document-converter for Win32 that does DOC. http://www.backupbuddy.com/ib/prod_installbuddy_details.html o iSilo / iSilo Web / iSilo Maker / iSilo free: Reader/utilities for DOC or HTML. (Formerly ToGo.) http://www.isilo.com/ o J-DOC reader. Most-recent versions are Japanese-language-only. http://www.tt.rim.or.jp/~tatsushi/palmware.html#jdoc o Mac Palm Doc: Conversion utility for MacOS. http://www.plumisland.com/macpalmdoc/index.html o MakeIt: Converts HTML to DOC. Win32. http://xyz.com.mx/pilot/makeit.html o Makedoc8.exe: DOS port of Beirne's makedoc8.cpp. http://www.memoware.com/makedoc8.exe o MakeDocBatch: HTML-to-DOC converter for Win32. http://www.tomcheng.com/comp/ o MakeDocDD, MacOS port of MakeDoc. Gratis-usage. Converts HTML (stripping tags) or ASCII to DOC, and converts DOC to ASCII. http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~yoz/PilotSoft-e.html o MakeTeal. HTML to DOC converter for Win32. http://www.io.com/~bryce/maketeal.html o MegaDoc. Reader for DOC, ASCII, HTML, RTF, and unspecified versions of Microsoft Word. http://megasoft2000.tripod.com/ o Mobile LinkDoc. DOC reader. http://www.mobilegeneration.com/products/linkdoc/ o MobiPocket Reader / MobiBook Reader: Reader bundled with e-books. Versions for PalmOS, EPOC/Psion, MS-WindowsCE, and PocketPC. Company also offers DOC-publishing software. http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp o Newt's Cape PilotDOC plug-in is DOC reader code for Apple's Newton. http://members.bellatlantic.net/~sweyer/newton/newtscape/pilotdoc.html o PalmBuddy: Utility for MacOS that converts DOC. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fpillet/ o PanaRead. DOC reader. http://www.panamedia.com/ o PDF2Doc. Win32 PDF to DOC converter. http://tinystocks.com/pdf2doc.html o PalmDocs: MS-Word - DOC converter for Win32. http://www.visionary2000.com/palmdocs/ o PeanutReader. DOC reader. Packaged with "e-books". http://www.peanutpress.com/ o pedit / pedit32 / peditPro / peditLight: Win32 DOC editor/converter. http://home.columbus.rr.com/nevai/palm/ o PeekABook reader for MS-WindowsCE. http://www.oopdreams.com/ce/peekabook/ o Primer PDF-to-DOC converter for Win32, and PalmOS DOC-viewer. http://www.ansyr.com/products/primerpalm.asp o QED: DOC reader and editor. http://www.visionary2000.com/qed/ o QEX: DOC-converter for Win32. http://www.visionary2000.com/qed/qex.htm o Qvadis Express Reader DX, Qvadis Express Reader GT, Qvadis Express Reader Pro. DOC readers, etc. http://www.qvadis.com/expressreader/support.html o QuickWord (formerly SmartDoc). Reader and editor. Portions are for Win32, portions for PalmOS. http://www.cesinc.com/quickword/ o RichReader. Reader for DOC, but also PDF, RTF, or HTML files that have been run through the provider converter utilities (also listed separately). Formerly HTML2D, WRTF2Doc, and RTF2Doc. http://users.rcn.com/arenamk/RichReader.html o Smoothy. Reader for DOC. http://www.handwave.com/ o Starbuck DOC reader for MS-WindowsCE. http://www.thumbsupsoft.com/maphtm/starbuck.html o TakeNote. DOC editor/reader. http://www.landware.com/products/takenote/ o TealAgent: HTML/DOC-converter and PalmOS viewer for Win32 and MacOS. http://www.tealpoint.com/softagnt.htm o TealDoc. DOC reader. http://www.tealpoint.com/softdoc.htm o TomeRaider: DOC reader for PalmOS, Win32, EPOC/Psion, and PocketPC. http://www.tomeraider.com/ o TWord: DOC-creator for Win32. http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/System/2633/pilot.htm o VReader5 is a DOC-reader for EPOC/Psion. http://members.maxonline.at/Five4U/techworld/home.html o Web2Doc is an HTML-DOC converter for Win32. http://home.netvigator.com/~clarenho/Web2Doc/ o Word To Doc. MS-Word - DOC converter for Win32. http://www.geocities.com/dilemma_design/DOCMain.htm o WordSmith. Editor, using RTF as native format. http://www.bluenomad.com/ Other Resources: o Listings of document readers for PalmOS. http://www.handheldnews.com/file.asp?ObjectID=5733 o Comparative review of 15 DOC readers. http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/docreaders-review.html o Memoware's "Making Document Files" page. http://www.memoware.com/mw-helpm.htm o Jim Thompson's "Wordprocessing" (on PalmOS) page. http://www.jimthompson.net/pilot/wordproc.htm o How to Generate DOC Files for Handheld Devices Using Lotus Notes http://www.dominopower.com/issuesprint/issue199904/dompalm.html [1] Source code (lawfully) released to the public without an explicit licence is technically _proprietary_ software, as recipients have (under USA law, at least) only the implied right to download, compile, use, and modify it, and to distribute modifications as patches -- but not to further distribute the original code, or modified versions thereof. As the saying goes, no licence means unlicensed. But programmers should beware of the no-licence issue: All the claims you see of such code being "freely distributable" or "public domain" (just because they lack an explicit licence) are, strictly speaking, factually in error.