Quick Tips& PC Companion TricksThanks go to all the people who have written tips for, and shared their knowledge of the Handheld PC, Palm-size PC and Windows CE. This includes the folks at Microsoft, manufacturers of the H/PCs, and members of online forums supporting users of the PC Companions. Based in part on these sources, all tips are written by Rich Hall (unless otherwise specified). Special thanks to Jim Christian, Sysop on CompuServe's WinCE Peripherals Forum, for help on the first tip and for contributing two additional tips. Clean up desktop and arrange desktop iconsWe've published tips about keeping the H/PC desktop uncluttered by deleting the icons of programs and folders you don't use regularly. If an application like Pocket Excel or Word can be launched by a hardware button on your H/PC, then you don't need an icon on the desktop. Taking the icon off the desktop may speed up screen refresh. Shortening the icon names on the Desktop names may also speed up screen refresh. You should organize what's left in some meaningful way. For example, you could put the icons of your most used applications and folders on the left side of the screen, and the others on the right. This would make it easier and quicker to launch Or you could group the applications by type (i.e. Pocket Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in the upper right of the screen, the Pocket Outlook applications in the top center, etc.). I use a combination of those two methods (see Screen 1). There's even a third-party application called CeAppBar (www.queenimage.com/) that adds an application-launch button bar to your H/PC (see Screen 2). The point is, clean things up and organize the desktop icons in a way that is meaningful to you. "Patch" fixes Palm-size PC Find functionSome Palm-size PC users have reported a problem with the Find function on their devices. The problem occurs only on some devices and is limited to scenarios where Find is used to search through Contacts data. However, when the problem does occur, the device usually "hangs," requiring users to reboot to resume normal operation. Microsoft has found that under certain circumstances, importing data into Outlook on the desktop computer can cause the data to become stored in an incompatible format. Once this data has been synchronized to the Palm-size PC, it causes the Find function to fail. The data is never corrupted or lost; it is simply stored in an incompatible way. If you experience this problem, correct it by downloading the Microsoft Patch and installing it on your Palm-size PC. Look for the "Palm-size PC Find Patch" at www.microsoft.com/windowsce/down loads/pccompanions/default.asp Tom Gibson Newton Keyboard on HP 660LX palmtop PCThe small Newton keyboard works near flawlessly with my HP 660LX H/PC. You need to find a keyboard somewhere (try any of the Newton newsgroups). It will cost you around $50. A cable can be purchased from PDA Concepts for around $20 (Web: www.pda-concepts.com, phone: 801-965-9141). Finally, you'll need to download a free driver from www.tt.rim. Some points:
This will work on most HPCs, and I've received reports that it also works with Palm-size PCs. A full-size keyboard for around $70. Not bad! Jim Christian Enter Contacts and Appointments ASAP!This advice goes for any PDA or desktop personal information organizer. Now is almost always the best time to enter an appointment or contact information. Maybe you have to wait until you get back to the office. Fine! But do it then. The longer you put it off, the less likely it will happen. As soon as you enter the contact information, throw away the note or business card (or write "entered" on the card and file it away somewhere). Then, immediately, synchronize your PC Companion with your desktop PC so you have a backup copy of your contact information. Finally, if it is even remotely possible that you'll need information again, save it on your PC Companion. For example, the last time I was at the Des Moines airport, I got the phone number of the local American Airlines desk. I don't fly frequently, but when I do, it's out of Des Moines (over two hours from where I live). I always call the local desk and ask them what the weather is like in Des Moines before I leave for the airport. Keep spares on handIf you frequently travel on multi-day business trips, you should buy a spare A/C adapter/recharger and, maybe, a spare synch cable for your notebook PC. Although you can synchronize a notebook PC and a PC Companion using an Infra-red (IrDA) connection, you may find that the placement of the IrDA transceivers of your two systems is more cumbersome than simply plugging in synch cables to the two serial ports. Why travel with both a notebook PC and a PC Companion? You may use a PC Companion during the day for data retrieval and note taking but still need a notebook for heavy typing and number crunching in the evening. Todd Ogasawara, Computing Central Forum Manager Adjust Contact's main screen to save timeContacts displays two views: the main view that lists all your contacts, and the individual contact view, that shows you a "card" for each individual. To save time, adjust the main view so it displays as much important information as possible. Then you don't have to go looking through the card views for information. Here are a couple of Hints to help. 1. Customize your columns to display the information that is important to you. Contacts' main screen, by default, displays the individuals name (File As), Company, Work Telephone and Home Telephone. But what if the person's pager number and e-mail address is more important to you? In Contacts, got to the Tools menu, select Customize Columns and add those to Contacts' main screen view (or whatever piece of information is important to you). If you don't need the Home Telephone displayed, remove it (see Screen 3). 2. Adjust the columns displayed so you can see more information. Now that you have the data you want on the main screen, adjust the columns so that it displays properly. Go to Contacts' main screen and drag the column headers around until they are in the order you want. Tap and hold down on the edge of a column header and drag to resize the columns to optimize the information displayed (see Screen 4). You can also go to the Tool menus "Options" selection and select another font or change the font size to display more information. If you do this right, the information you need will be displayed on the main screen and you won't have to spend time opening cards and tabs. Jim Christian Switching between
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