Most Palm OS users find the Blazer browser pretty good at viewing websites and find it very easy to use. However, over time, we tend to build a decent sized bookmark of favorite sites and will eventually want to transfer it to somewhere else whether it be the computer, another device, etc. Unfortunately, it seems that transferring the file isn’t as easy as we’d hope since the .pdb format isn’t easily viewable without a lot of gibberish showing up. Also, unlike a lot of other .pdb files which are mainly ebook formats, the Blazer Bookmarks .pdb file is not set in the same format. Therefore, you can’t simply “open” the Palm Blazer Bookmarks file with other pdb viewers like eReader or others.

So what do we do when we need to access them on anything other than our Palm OS devices? How can we first at least be able to “view” them, extract the data and be able to transfer it to our computer or other device for further manipulation or usage? Read on for more details.

There are a few methods of extracting the blazer bookmarks and transferring them to another device.

Solution 1: Manually Copy and Paste Individual bookmarks to Memo or Text Based Program

Solution 2: Copy Blazer Bookmarks and Open with Text Based Program and Manually Edit Entries

Solution 3: Open With PDB Converter and Edit and Save in Different Format

Keep in mind that the “best” solution is still going to take a bit of manual editing but compared to the other solutions, it seems to require much less manual work. If you know of a better or different solution, please leave a comment below and share it with the rest of us! Thanks!

Solution 1: Manually Copy and Paste Individual bookmarks to Memo or Text Based Program

Well, the first and most obvious method is to manually go into the Blazer bookmarks and copy and paste them into either the Memo pad application or a text based program or whatever program in our Palm device. Then transfer it to the other device. Depending on how many bookmarks you need to transfer, it can be very time consuming and frustrating. Let’s remember that our Palm OS devices do not support multi-tasking, so that adds extra time to exit out of Blazer and open the Memo or note pad program and do the paste and go back to Blazer, copy the url and repeat the process. At least with this process, you will be able to get the url exactly the way it is without extra characters or gibberish with it.

Again, this is an obvious method, although, it works, but very time consuming and manually intensive.

Solution 2: Copy Blazer Bookmarks and Open with Text Based Program and Manually Edit Entries

The second method is to copy the bookmarks file from your Palm OS device and open it up with a text based program. Again, this *seems* simple enough but again, this will be another time consuming and manually intensive method. Unfortunately, for most of us, this is the only known method.

I am going to demonstate and step through the procedure using the freeware file manager program FileZ. The process may be somewhat different on another file manager program.

The procedure may be slightly different from how some people do it but the general procedure is like this:

I. Copy the Blazer Bookmark (BlBk) file.

Select the Blazer Bookmarks file

Copy the Blazer Bookmarks file to your expansion memory card:

Go to Menu (top left hand corner or press hardware Menu button). Select Copy

Specify the folder and destination you wish to copy to.

Send or transfer the Blazer Bookmarks file to your computer or other device:

Via infrared:

Align the infrared port of your Palm device with the infrared port of your target device or computer.

Select the Blazer Bookmarks file

Go to Menu (top left hand corner or press hardware Menu button). Select Send.

Or, tap on the Send button at the bottom right corner of the screen.

Select Send with: Beam

Via bluetooth:

Ensure that bluetooth is turned on for both the Palm OS device and target device or computer.

Select the Blazer Bookmarks file

Go to Menu (top left hand corner or press hardware Menu button). Select Send.

Or, tap on the Send button at the bottom right corner of the screen.

Select Send With: Bluetooth

Via card reader:

Copy the file as indicated in #1. Remove the expansion memory card and insert in card reader and plug into computer’s USB port or hub. Copy or move the file via Windows Explorer or your typical method of accessing the memory card with card reader.

Via card reader software like Softick’s Card Export II or Mobile Stream’s Card Reader:

Ensure that the USB charging and data (Hotsync) cable is connected to both the Palm device and computer. Launch the card reader software on your Palm device. Tap on the Connect button on the screen. Access the file via your typical method of accessing the memory card with this card reader software.

II. Open the Blazer Bookmarks file with a Text based program

If you saved it on the expansion card and wish to view it on the Palm device, open it up directly with a Text based program like SiEd.

If you have transferred the pdb file to your computer, you can open it up with Notepad.

As you can see, viewing the Blazer Bookmarks pdb file in Palm gives much more gibberish than in Notepad but there’s still a lot of manual “cleaning up” required to make the file viewable.

You will likely need to do a lot of Search and Replace plus a lot of manual deleting of characters in the file in order to be able to find individual bookmark url entries in the file.

Solution 3: Open With PDB Converter and Edit and Save in Different Format

This third solution involves a third party software called PDB Converter. It is still available as a freeware via Softonic (I’m not sure how long they will keep it around) but the developer now sells the PDB Converter Pro version for $49 on his website. So, I’d grab it now if I were you and keep a backup of this great software just in case.

You’ll need to install the program first and then run it.

A. Go to File. Open PDB. Locate the Blazer Bookmarks file that you have copied and transferred to your computer via the methods previously discussed.

This is a screenshot of what it may look like once you open up the Blazer Bookmarks file with PDB Converter. Although there’s still some gibberish, compared to other methods, most of the links are neatly arranged and the tedious process of searching and deleting a lot of gibberish and characters is no longer an issue. Whew!

B. Make the necessary changes to the database to make it easier for viewing later. You can delete columns, rows (see screenshots).

You can move cells by dragging and dropping to where you want them.

Here, we have selected a range of cells, or even some columns in the bookmark file.

We can delete the columns or rows simply by making the selection and then going into the Menu. Edit. Delete Row or Edit. Delete Column

We can also easily move or copy individual cells or group of cells around. Select the individual cell or group or cells. Drag and drop them into the space you wish.

Now, the individual cell contents have been moved to a new location. You can keep doing this until everything is arranged in the order you wish.

C. Save the file in the format you desire.

You have the choice of saving the pdb file into either another pdb file for viewing on the Palm or a different format file for viewing in Windows.

Save as pdb file

If you want to save a copy of the pdb into another pdb file for your Palm, (keep in mind that your Palm device may not necessarily be able to open it since the formatting has changed), go to File. Save PDB. And select from the various choices available.

Save as CSV, TXT, HTM file

If you want to save a copy of the newly edited bookmark pdb file, go to File. Save PC Databse. Select from amongst the various choices available. The likely choices include tab delimited text, as quoted CSV record, as Web Page with Table.

Here are some screenshots of the resultant files:

Although the resulting file isn’t nearly as perfect as we would like, it is at least, still workable. Once the file has been converted into a different format, it will be somewhat easier to manipulate further.

I hope you enjoyed this How to Series on Extracting Palm Blazer Bookmarks and converting them into CSV, TXT or HTM files. If you have a better idea or solution to this process, please share with the rest of us by commenting below! Thanks!

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