Quick Tips & Handheld PC Tricks

All tips from Tom Gibson, Technical Editor, Handheld PC Magazine, unless otherwise specified.

Improving Handwriting Recognition

Templates save time, ensure consistent format

Make more file storage memory available

Easy way to move documents and other files

Delete shortcuts to speed up your H/PC

Do your on-line trading from a desktop PC

Change the folder that Pocket Word saves documents to

Make your H/PC unique

You can personalize your H/PC by renaming the "My Handheld PC" icon on the desktop. Highlight the icon, then tap the text once to rename. You might type in "Tom's HPC," or "My Casio," or "Jim-Bob." Press "Enter." Be creative, you can call it anything you want and it will still like you.

Improving Handwriting Recognition

One of the great things about Handheld PCs is the ability to add handwriting recognition to the unit through various add-on programs. Some of the handwriting recognition packages do things a little bit differently, i.e., some will recognize cursive writing and some will not, some are smaller while others are big, and some are fast while others are slow. The products available for the H/PC are as follows:

CalliGrapher -- lets you use cursive, print, or mixed styles. The program does not require you to learn a new way of writing and includes a spell checker (see Screen 1). Contact ParaGraph International; Phone: 800-810-0055; Web: www.paragraph.com.

Screen1: Calligrapher built-in spell checker lets you correct mistakes quickly.

Jot -- combines a natural character set with a patented user interface. It supports both U.S. and Western European characters. Jot is built into the new Palm PCs. Jot also comes with a "soft keyboard" displayed on the screen, letting you tap on keys to enter characters . Contact: Communications Intelligence Corporation; Phone: 800-888-8242; Email: sales@cic.com; Web: www.cic.com.

SmARTwriter CE PLUS -- provides handwriting recognition on the H/PC (see Screen 3, next page). The package comes with a drawing program and an "ink" notepad. Contact: Advanced Recognition Technologies; Phone: 818-678-3999; Email: sales@artcomp.com; Web: www.artcomp.com.

Find the handwriting recognition software that fits into your budget, available space and style and then get ready to practice, practice, practice.

Know what to do by the sound

The calendar application on your H/PC lets you know that you have an appointment by sounding an alarm, flashing the screen and flashing the light on the side of the case. While it is nice to know that you have an appointment, you still have to open the H/PC to see what it is. Here is a way to let your H/PC tell you what appointment you have without opening it up. Set up different alarm sounds for the different repeating events so that when the alarm goes off, you know exactly what it means without having to look (Screen 4).

Here's how to set up different alarm sounds

Open Calendar and insert a new appointment. Tap on the General Tab and insert the name for your appointment. Make sure that the Remind Me check box is checked and tap on options. (Windows CE 2.0 users tap on the alarm icon to the right of the Reminder check box. Then tap on Reminder Options). Make sure that Sound is checked and tap on the scroll window and select an alarm sound. As you select a new alarm sound, the H/PC will preview the sound for you. Find the one you like and use it for that appointment. Select OK and OK again to get back to the appointment view. If you want to change the alarm sound on an existing appointment, double tap the appointment and follow the same procedure.

One thing you can do is always use the same sound for the same type of appointment. For example, Alarm 2 sounds like a phone ringing. I use that for appointments where I am supposed to call someone, or they are supposed to call me. I don't know who to call, but I always know that I have to make a call.

Experiment with different sounds, develop a system and then stick to it. When an alarm rings, you'll know what it's about without having to look.

Screen 4: From the individual Appointment screen of Calendar you can specify the alarm sound you want to associate with the appointment.

Templates save time, ensure consistent format

If you are like me, you use the same 2 or 3 document formats when you use Pocket Word and Excel. For example, I use Pocket Word mainly to write in-company memos, letters, and to take notes at meetings. I use Pocket Excel to track mileage and gas on trips, and keep lists of documents I'm working on for Handheld PC Magazine.

The format for each of these documents doesn't change much, so I created templates for each type of document. Whenever I want to write a memo, I call up the memo template, write the memo and save it under a different name. Whenever I go on a trip, I call up the mileage template, use it to track mileage-related expenses and save it under a new name. It saves a lot of time.

Pocket Word Templates

Pocket Word for Windows CE 2.0 comes with the ability to save a document as a template. Open Pocket Word and create the document format you want. Then select the Save As option in the File menu. The pull-down menu in the lower-right of the Save As dialog box list 4 options. Select Pocket Word Template, give the document a name you'll recognize later on (i.e., "Memo") and tap OK. Next time you want to write a memo, tap File, New, Document from Template and double tap on the Memo document. Write your memo and save it under a new name.

The first version of Pocket Word that came with the Windows CE 1.0 doesn't have the ability to save Pocket Word templates. In this case, create a new document that has everything you need in it and save it with a name that distinguishes it from your other documents. For example, you might save your Memo template as TempMemo.doc. When you want to use that style of document, select File Open, select your template and write your memo. When you are finished, save the document with a new name, keeping the original document clean for use again as a template.

Pocket Excel Templates

Pocket Excel that comes with the Windows CE 2.0 devices has the ability to save Pocket Excel templates. Create the workbook you want to use as a template then select File Save As... name your workbook and tap on the Type scroll bar in the lower right corner of the Save As window. Select Pocket Excel Template and tap OK. When you need to use the template, tap on File, New, Workbook from Template. Double tap on the template you need for the current workbook, add the new data and save it under a new name.

Pocket Excel that came with the Windows CE 1.0 doesn't have the ability to save Pocket Excel templates. In this case, create a new workbook that has everything you need in it and save it with a name that distinguishes it. For example, you might save a mileage log template as TmpMile.PXL. When you want to use that style of workbook, select File, Open, and select TmpMile. Enter your mileage data and save the workbook under a new name, keeping the original workbook clean for use again as a template.

Make lists easily

I make a lot of lists. I have lists of what I need to get at the store, lists of stuff my children want for birthdays or Christmas, lists of what to take with me on trips, etc. With Pocket Word 1.0 that came with the Windows CE 1.0 devices, you had to manually number lists. However, list numbering is built into Pocket Word 2.0, so you can make lists quickly and easily. To enable list numbering, tap on Format, Paragraph, and select the Numbered radio button. Select the type of numbering you prefer from the pull-down menu (i.e., 1., 2., 3.; (1), (2), (3); etc.). Tap OK when you're finished. As you type in your list and hit ENTER at the end of each line, the next number is inserted for you.

Make more file storage memory available

Memory is one of the precious commodities on your H/PC. Most of us are spoiled by the large hard drives we have in our desktop PCs, but we have very limited space available to us on our H/PCs and need to be careful using it. One way to save memory is to turn off the Recycle Bin. Alt+Tap the Recycle Bin, tap on Properties, and check "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin, remove immediately on delete". Beware of this solution. Files will no longer be sent to the Recycle Bin when you delete them, and instead will be permanently deleted. You will not be able to get them back. But you will free up the file storage space that would otherwise have been taken up by files in the Recycle Bin.. If you want to then change back to using the Recycle Bin, repeat the process and uncheck the "Do not move files..." box.

You can save a little bit more of the precious storage space available on your H/PC by deleting the Samples folder under My Documents. All the files are contained in ROM and stored in the \windows directory, so you can get them back later if you want to. To delete the folder, tap on Start Programs Windows Explorer and go to the My Documents folder. Highlight the Samples folder and hit Delete.

Easy way to move documents and other files

The whole purpose of having an H/PC is to stay organized. Occasionally, you may want to move things around. There is an easy way to move documents and other files between folders.

Tap Start, Explore, and go to the folder to which you want to move your file. Once there, tap on the My Documents button on the taskbar to minimize the screen.
Again, tap Start, Explore, to open another My Document screen. Go to the folder that has the file you wish to move.
With your stylus, press down on the icon of the file you wish to move (it should highlight) and keep pressing down (Screen 5). Keep pressing down, without letting up, until the very end of step 4 below)
Drag the file to the My Document button on the taskbar representing the folder you want to move the file to (Screen 6). Hold the file there until the folder maximizes on the screen. Then, drag the file onto the maximized screen and then let up. The file will appear on the screen.

Screen 5: An easy way to move a document is to open two Explore sessions. Press and hold down on the document you wish to move. The document icon will highlight as shown here.

Screen 6: Drag the file to the taskbar button representing the folder you want to move the file to. Hold the file there until the folder maximizes on the screen. Then drag the file onto the maximized screen and let up.

Quick way to remove a file

To remove a program from your H/PC without using the Remove Program control panel, tap Run on the Start menu, or press Winkey+R, and then type the command "unload filename". For example, if you wanted to remove the program ABC, you would tap Start Run and type in "unload ABC".

Delete shortcuts to speed up your H/PC

Creating a shortcut puts an icon on the opening desktop screen, making it easy to open an application. But every time the desktop appears, the H/PC has to load all the icons on the screen. If you have a lot of shortcuts, it takes a long time to for the desktop to display. Deleting unused shortcuts will speed up the operation of your H/PC.

To delete a shortcut, hold the ALT key down while tapping the icon and select Delete. You can get them back at any time, but your screen will re-draw faster with fewer shortcuts on the screen. To get a shortcut back, tap Start, Explore, and browse to the application or document you want the shortcut for and tap File, Desktop Shortcut or ALT-tap the icon, and then tap "Desktop Shortcut" on the Shortcut menu.

Do your on-line trading from a desktop PC

Internet security has become more prevalent recently, and many brokerage houses are offering on-line trading of securities. This would be a wonderful thing for a Handheld PC user, but it will not work at the present time. While Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) has 40-bit security built into it, it is not the full-blown 128-bit security needed by these secure sites. 40-bit security is available worldwide, but, by law, 128 bit security is not exportable out of the USA.

So for the time being, we will be forced to do our on-line trading via our desktop PC and not our H/PC.

Change the folder that Pocket Word saves documents to

The default location for saving and opening files in Pocket Word is the My Documents folder. Every time you save a document, you can specify another location, but that takes time and there's no feature to change the default location.

A work around is to open Word, create a dummy document, and save it in the desired folder. Then minimize the document -- don't quit Pocket Word! (You can save it under the name 'dummy' so you can easily recognize it on the taskbar.) As long as you leave the dummy file on the taskbar, the new folder acts as the default. When you save a document, it saves it there. When you tap File, Open, it looks there. It's a bit clumsy but it works.

Paul Berghege
berghege@euronet.nl