Saving an iData Pro Datafile
 
As an iData Mobile Datafile

NOTE: iData Mobile has been discontinued. It has been replaced by iData Mobile Plus, which uses the iData Pro-format datafiles. This menu item has been retained in iData Pro 4 for what is sometimes called "backwards compatibility", but it is recommended that users of iData Mobile upgrade to iData Mobile Plus, which is better -- and free.

iData Mobile uses a datafile format that is very similar to the format used by iData Pro. The main difference is that the iData Mobile equivalent of the Freeform Text Area cannot contain multistyled text, embedded links, images, or music files.

iData Pro 3 and 4 datafiles have a .id3 file name extension, while iData Mobile datafiles have a .idm extension. When saved in iData Mobile format, all Freeform Text Area content will be converted to monostyled text. Any embedded music or image files will be stripped out.

To save a copy of an iData Pro datafile in iData Mobile format:

1. Open the iData Pro datafile.

2. Select Save As iData Mobile Datafile... in the File menu.

3. The default name of the new datafile will be the name of the original datafile with "Mobile" appended. You may change this to anything you like. Because you will have to type in the file name the first time you download the datafile to the iPhone, a short name will be more convenient than a long one.

    However, you must not change or remove the .idm extension. iData Mobile will not recognize files that do not have this extension.

4. Click the Save button to complete the operation. The new datafile will be opened, and the original will be closed.

The resulting datafile will have had any text styling information and any embedded images and sound files stripped out. As a result, it may be significantly smaller than the original datafile.

This process doesn't really "convert" your existing .id3 datafiles. Rather, it saves their modified content in .idm format. Your old .id3 datafiles will remain unchanged.

If, for example, you converted a datafile called MyDatafile.id3, you would now see MyDatafile.idm open in iData Pro 4, but MyDatafile.id3 would still be in your Datafiles folder where it was when you started.

When an iData Mobile datafile is opened in iData Pro, the title of this item in the File menu will be changed to Save As iData Pro Datafile.... As you might expect, it does exactly what the name says.

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