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Travelite Magazine : Winter 2000-2001:
Why Get a PDA? | Four Basics | Travel-Worthy | Picks | Shop Around

The Four Basics

The Palm PDA has four applications that serve as its cornerstone. You can easily find these applications by pressing on the four buttons along the bottom of your PDA.

Date Book

Schedule appointments and reminders easily with the Date Book. Instead of writing down appointments in several places in your schedule book (one in the day page, one in the week page, another in the month page), you enter your appointment once, then see it in multiple views. You can remind yourself of appointments by setting an alarm clock, and even attach a note to an appointment.

Everyday use: Don't limit yourself to listing office meetings for work in your Date Book. Are you the one who keeps track of everybody's schedules in your home? Track soccer games, music lessons, doctor's appointments, and grocery shopping days, days that bills, rents, and mortgages are due.

Travel use: List your travel schedule, including flights (arrival/departure), when you are going to be in which cities, what days you are staying at your hotels, when you plan on visiting museums, amusement parks or other destination site. Use the notes feature to keep a travel journal.

Address Book

The Address Book, which you select by pressing on the second from the left button, lets you keep names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of your friends and family. And because you can update their information at any time, your Address Book entries won't be filled with line-outs or white-outs like a regular paper address book. Just as with a Date Book entry, you can attach a note to a person's entry so you can write down extra information (such as the names of children).

Everyday use: Since the Address Book allows you to organize each entry into categories you set up, you can have a category for co-workers, another for relatives and so on. Create a category for all of the take-out or delivery places nearby, so you can give them a quick call when you don't feel like cooking.

Travel use: Create categories for airlines, hotels, car rental agencies and other contact information. Use the attachable note to write down hours of operation, confirmation numbers, directions and other pertinent data. Once you visit these places, write thoughts or reviews about them on an attachable note.

To Do List

To D0 List is the second from the right button on your Palm. It lets you easily create and maintain a list of to-do items. You can set the priority of each to-do item (1 - 5), file them in categories you create, and give them due dates. You can even sort your lists based on your own preference (priority, category or due date). As you check off each item, they become invisible -- leaving you with just those items you will need to do. [It is easy to go back and look at those you've checked off, though]

Everyday use: Create lists for all types of things, such as household chores, shopping lists, work-related tasks, meeting agenda, or party preparation checklists.

Travel use: As you do your research, create To Do List entries for Web sites you should visit (and attaching notes to them as you get information from them), travel agencies you call, travel packages you can choose from. Create packing lists of things you need to take, and chore lists of things you should do before you leave for your trip.

Memo Pad

The Memo Pad is your place to write free-floating notes on whatever you wish. As with the To Do List, you can create categories for your memos. When you look at the summary view for your categories, each memo is numbered, and the first few words of your memo are shown as "titles" of your memos. [For this reason, the first few words of your memo should be descriptive and serve as titles.]

Everyday use: What you do with the Memo Pad is really up to you. Recipes, directions, ideas... just about anything could fit in the Memo Pad.

Travel use: Keep a list of souvenir ideas for folks back home, instructions for how to deal with customs, using a local train, information about vaccination shots you had to take for your overseas trip, etc.

Up the Sleeve

In addition to the four basics, your Palm comes with a few other helpful things.

Calculator: Your Palm has a built-in calculator. It's a nice way to figure out tips or convert currency.

Expense: Keep track of your travel costs with a built-in application called Expense. Expense is very intuitive and easy to use. Enter a new expense and you can choose from several categories (including many travel-related categories such as Lodging, Subway, Airfare, Bus, Hotel and Car Rental) for which to list your monetary expense. Select Mileage and you are prompted to write down information in miles. You can create categories for your expenses, so you can separate them based on work travel, vacation, or even different legs of your trip. Go into the Receipt Details view, and jot down form of payment, currency used, and even who attended (you can do look-up of names from your Address Book!).

Beaming: Your Palm is equipped with a little infrared eye that allows your Palm to speak to other Palm OS PDAs. Since Handspring Visors use the Palm OS for example, I can beam my address to your Palm! You do need to be close (no more than three feet), but it works like a charm.

HotSync: You can back up the information on your PDA by saving the data to your PC or Mac. Most models of Palm OS PDAs come with a HotSync cradle. Set your PDA on your cradle, and press a button on the cradle. Your PDA's information is automatically transferred (and saved) on your PC. You can change the settings on your HotSync to save the PDA data on your desktop, download new stuff from your PC to your PDA, reinstall everything onto your PDA using back-up data saved on your PC, or synchronize the PC and PDA so both keep the same updated data.

Palm Desktop: You can enter information directly into your PDA using its stylus, or you can enter data on your PC and then transfer the information later. Perform the latter by using your Palm Desktop, which is PC software that comes with your PDA. You can use your Palm Desktop as your primary organizer on your PC, using your PDA as a portable satellite device you take with you when you are away from your PC. You get the same applications on your Palm Desktop as you do on your PDA, so you can type in all of your schedules, notes, addresses and others.

Next section: Travel-Worthy