Give yourself a hand

Learn the ins and outs of your palmtop computer.

by Ward Lowe and Marty Kramer   Who has time for thick user manuals? Follow these quick, easy tips to improve your handheld experience.

Graffiti that works every time

Palm’s Graffiti system easily recognizes most of the alphabet, but can be maddeningly picky and unforgiving with certain letters, notably b, y, v, and g. Try these tips and eliminate the frustration of re-entering letters:

• For b, write a 3 in the letter area.
• For y, write an 8 in the letter area.
• For v, write a v from right to left in the letter area.
• For g, write a 6 in the letter area.

The tale of the tape

Your Palm’s built-in calculator (the basic version for models that have advanced and basic calculators) emulates an adding machine, allowing you to review your last round of calculations on screen. After you’ve finished figuring out your latest commission or a client’s mortgage payment, tap the pull-down menu icon (located at the bottom-left next to the Graffiti writing area) and select Options > Recent Calculations. The Palm will display a record of your calculations that resembles an adding-machine tape. The program saves this record until you clear the calculator. To change between the basic and advanced calculators, tap the pull-down menu icon and select Options > Change Mode.

Quick conversions

If your handheld includes an advanced calculator, you can rely on it to convert measurements. Simply tap in the amount and symbol for a particular measurement, then tap the key for the measurement you want to convert to. The pull-down menu on the left side of the screen just below the number display gives you choices for weight, temperature, length, area, and volume.

Customize your stroke

Take your stylus and drag it across your Palm’s screen from bottom to top. This action launches a Graffiti-help screen. However, just as you can personalize the quick-launch buttons at the bottom of your Palm to activate different applications, you can select different features to access with your stylus.

• Choose the Preferences application from the Palm’s main menu.
• Select the Pen option at the bottom of the screen.
• Tap the words Graffiti Help for a list of options that you can activate by dragging your stylus from the writing area to the top of the screen.
• Choose an option and tap OK to save it.

Now you can instantly access the Palm feature of your choice with a stroke of your stylus.

What time is it?

Palm’s Date Book shows today’s date and a clear overview of your schedule, but fails to display the current time. If you’d like to see how much time you have to get to your next meeting, tap and hold the stylus on the date in the upper-left corner of the screen. The date will change to the time and remains there until you slide the stylus down off the date field and remove it from the screen. Be sure to maintain contact with the screen as you move the stylus. If you pick up the stylus from the display, the program’s pull-down menus will pop up, obscuring the date and time.

More-convenient rescheduling

When rescheduling an appointment you’ve already entered in your date book, you need not delete the original appointment and re-enter all the information in the new time slot. Simply tap Details, enter the new time and date, and tap OK. All the information you filled in the first time will show up in the space for the new appointment time. You can also change an appointment from the week-view screen by "dragging and dropping" it to the new time slot.

Look for daylight

Ever need to know sunrise and sunset times? If your handheld came with the City Time application, tap the pull-down menu icon and select Utilities > Sun Rise/Set. If your city is not among those listed, you can add it by going to Options > Edit Cities. You will need to know the coordinates of the city, which you can find online at www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer. You can also use this application’s main function to find the current time for any major city.

Beam me back up

Turning off the beam-receive option saves battery life. You may have occasion to receive beamed information now and then, though. A quick way to turn this feature back on is to hold down the Address Book button (phone icon) for a few seconds until the beam function engages. Tap Cancel, and when the on-screen message asks if you want to turn the beam-receive option on, tap Yes. This tip will work only if you have set up your business card.

Organize your memos

To reorder the list of memos in Memo Pad, you need only tap an entry and "drag" it to the spot you want.

Zero in on a list item

In many applications that include long lists, you can save time by type-selecting—entering a letter to jump to entries beginning with that letter. You may have mastered type-selecting in your address book, but you can also use this technique when viewing your applications screen and long pull-down menus. You also can enter more than one letter to further pinpoint what you want to select.

Pick your personal preferences

If your settings don’t quite suit you, you can tailor many features to your liking by changing the preferences. First, tap the Prefs icon from your applications screen. Here you will find settings for how long your handheld stays on before automatically turning off; volume controls; and date, time, and number formats. You can assign different applications to the buttons on the bottom of the handheld. This is also the place to create shortcuts: two- or three-letter entries that automatically insert longer text entries when you invoke the shortcut stroke (formed by performing a kind of cursive lower-case L). You can find additional preferences settings in many applications.

Load up on applications

The applications that come loaded on your handheld make it a powerful tool. But its utility expands considerably when you download new applications targeted to your needs and interests. You can find mapping software, language translators, mortgage calculators, city guides, word processors, dictionaries, contact managers, and thousands of others. Here are a few sources for Palm OS-based applications:

• Palm.com
• Handspring.com
• Download.com
• Tucows.com

You will see how add-on applications can substantially expand the utility of your handheld.

Photo © PictureQuest.

home   current issue    top 10    resources 

discussions   contact us   search

Buyers & sellers, visit www.texasrealestate.com.
REALTORS®, visit www.texasrealtors.com.