Practicing What I PreachBy Rich Hall His desktop PC down, our intrepid editor keeps right on editing this issue for you on his LG Phenom Ultra!The truth is that I (the editor in charge of Handheld PC Magazine) do most of my work on a desktop PC. This includes writing and editing articles; using e-mail to stay in touch with contributors, vendors, manufacturers, and Microsoft; tracking articles in progress; tracking contact information; and researching Windows CE products and services on the Internet. Fortunately, a problem with my desktop PC forced me to do something I've wanted to try for a long time use an H/PC as my primary computer. Until recently, I've avoided this because H/PC keyboards were not suitable for extensive text entry. You can do it, but you'd rather not. My attitude began to change with my reviews of NEC MobilePro 750C (see page 6, Jul/Aug 98) and the Hitachi HPW-200 EC (see page 9, Sep/Oct 98). Both of these H/PCs have relatively large, touch-typeable keyboards. When my desktop PC began acting up in the middle of writing the Phenom Ultra review a few months back, I decided the time was right. This article is based primarily on my experiences with an LG Phenom Ultra, and an NEC MobilePro 750C. I do add some comments about the MobilePro 770 and 800 later on. Most of the points I raise apply to other H/PCs, and even Palm-size PCs. Granted, life is easier on a desktop PC. But the question is, if I was a mobile professional, would any of the larger H/PCs or H/PC Pros do the job, or would I prefer a bigger, more powerful Window 95/98 notebook PC? Below is a task-by-task look at my experiences. Using e-mail to stay in touch with the worldI was able to connect all of the H/PCs I mentioned up to my desktop PC and synchronize, so I did that each morning. I configured ActiveSync Options on my desktop to download e-mail messages from my desktop PC, as well as synchronizing contacts, calendar appointments and tasks. To save space on the H/PC, I configured ActiveSync to download only 50 lines of any message, and to not include attachments. [TIP: Configuring ActiveSync to download e-mail to your H/PC. Access the ActiveSync Options screen from the Mobile Device "Tools" menu. Then make sure the box titled "Message" is checked. To conserve space on your H/PC, limit the messages you download. With "Message" highlighted, click on the "Options" button to bring up the Inbox Synchronization Options screen. From here you can limit the number of lines of a message that will be downloaded to your H/PC. You can also limit download to only that e-mail received in the last few days (you enter the number of days). Finally, you can configure ActiveSync to include or not include file attachments.] I also configured the H/PC to remotely connect to my Internet Service Provider so that I could download e-mail and browse the Web. This process is relatively simple, involving the creation of a new remote connection and physically connecting the H/PC to a phone line. Most of the newer H/PCs come with a built-in modem. If they do not, you can buy a PC or CF modem card. All I had to do was disconnect the line going into the phone and connect it to the built-in phone jack. Then I tapped the icon associated with the new "remote connection" I had configured and I connected without a problem (see sidebar, next page, for more on this process). I read my e-mail using the InBox application. Most of the H/PCs I
tested had 1/2 VGA screens, smaller than my desktop PC's. I had to do
more scrolling to read messages. Still, the H/PC's Inbox is pretty
functional and easy to use. I get three types of messages.
I also compose messages from scratch and I don't like entering e-mail addresses. I can highlight a name in Pocket Contacts, access the Tools menu and select Send Mail to Contact. I can also Open a new message in Pocket Inbox, access the Compose menu, choose the Address Book option, and find the e-mail address from the contact list. This is just as easy as the options in the desktop version of Outlook. My desktop PC is connected to our ISP using a "T1" line, which is always connected to the Internet. When I hit Send on my desktop, the message is on its way. When I hit Send on the H/PC, it looks like the message is on its way, but it's really in the H/PC's "Outbox" waiting for me to connect to my ISP, or synchronize with my desktop PC. When I do connect, THEN it gets sent. I was wondering why a vendor hadn't responded to a message that I had sent two days previously, when I realized that I hadn't synchronized since "sending" the message. Remember that you have to connect to your ISP first before anything else can happen. Editing and composing articlesI compose and edit articles using desktop and Pocket versions of Microsoft Word. I usually kick the font size up to 14 or 16 points so that I can see the text easily. I'll italicize words where appropriate, and specify titles, subtitles, graphics and captions. If I have an idea about how the layout should look, I'll leave a note in the document to the graphic designer. But I don't do additional formatting of text. If an author sends me a highly-formatted article, the first thing I do, before reading the article, is to strip out all of the formatting. I want to see what it looks like and hear what it sounds like before "improving" it with graphics and formatting. It's easier to find errors in the logical flow of an article, missing transitions, incomplete thoughts, etc., if you're not distracted by fancy fonts and cute icons. Please excuse an editor's tirade. The point is that I don't need sophisticated formatting capabilities, and the version of Pocket Word that comes with H/PCs and H/PC Pros, with the spelling checker, works just fine, thank you. I usually have authors send me documents in Word format, as e-mail attachments. If I receive the document on my desktop PC, it's a simple matter to use Windows CE Service to convert these to Pocket Word format and download them to the H/PC. If I was downloading e-mail directly to my H/PC, I'd ask the author to save the document in .TXT or Rich Text Format (RTF), and send that as an attachment. That way I wouldn't have to convert the Word document to Pocket Word format. Of course, this is no longer a problem with the H/PC Pros. Pocket Word can now open and save documents in the desktop Word format. Project management with Pocket ExcelI use the desktop version of Excel to track the yearly publishing schedule, articles I have in progress and products we've listed from independent vendors. The spreadsheets are very simple, and translate to Pocket Excel format without loosing any information. I had to adjust the column widths so the information would display properly on the the H/PC's screen. I had to make one other change with the spreadsheet that tracked articles in progress. The desktop version of this spreadsheet uses Excel's "Freeze Panes" option to keep the titles and column headings at the top of the display. When I transferred the document to the H/PC and displayed it in Pocket Excel, all that showed was the titles and headings. Even when I scrolled down, they were all I could see. I had to use the "Unfreeze Panes" option in the View menu so that I could view the information in the spreadsheet. Also, the desktop version of Excel lets you change the orientation of the text. In the article progress spreadsheet I had 13 very narrow columns and I used this feature to run the column headings vertically to keep the columns narrow. This feature is not available in Pocket Excel so I had to abbreviate the column titles and make the columns a little wider. While I did not use the ActiveSync file synchronization with Word documents, I did use it with the spreadsheet that tracks the progress of articles. This changed on a daily basis, based mostly on e-mail I receive from the author. I ended up making changes to both the Excel and Pocket Excel documents, and needed to synchronize them. Product research using the WebMuch of my product research is done on the Web. I regularly look at the following Web sites: Microsoft's Windows CE site; OEM sites (manufacturers of H/PCs, Palm-size PCs and Auto PCs); independent producers of software and accessories for Windows CE; Windows CE support sites; on-line sources of shareware and freeware for Windows CE. I also download newsgroup postings related to Windows CE. I had no problem connecting to my ISP and using Pocket Internet Explorer to browse the Web. However, many of the sites I visited are still designed for display on a desktop PC's 640x480-pixel screen. When displayed on and H/PC with a 640x240 screen, I ended up scrolling around more than was comfortable. Fortunately, I'm familiar with most of the sites and knew where to go on the site to get the information I needed. I did get to do a little Web browsing on the MobilePro 800 full screen. It was very nice. Many H/PCs have built-in software modems that don't drain the batteries as much as a PC card or hardware modem. However, you should still connect the H/PC (or any PC Companion) to an AC adapter when you use a modem. The built-in and PC Card modems are reasonably fast (up to 56 kbps in the newer H/PC Pros). However, my desktop PC is connected to the Internet via our company network's direct T1 line. Browsing the Web is much faster on my desktop PC. I'll limit my use of an H/PC for Web browsing. I went to specific sites for specific purposes (i.e., to download product descriptions and check out news announcements). I also went to sites that I knew were formatted for the H/PC's display characteristics (i.e., Microsoft's Windows CE site at www.microsoft.com/windowsce/. Further, I disabled Pocket Internet Explorer's "Show Pictures" feature (open PIE, access the View menu, select the Options screen and uncheck "Show Pictures" box). My use of the Calendar and Task features is rather straightforward and unsophisticated. I tend to track tasks associated with specific articles in the Excel spreadsheet I mentioned above. I'm in the habit of keeping other Tasks and Calendar appointments on the H/PC. It synchronizes with the desktop PC, but I rarely consult the desktop version of Outlook for this information. The verdict!I was surprised that I could almost use the 1/2 VGA H/PCs with larger keyboards as my only computer. It fulfilled my writing, editing, contact management, basic e-mail, and project management needs almost completely. Once I got used to the spacing of the keys, I could type quickly and easily. I carry the H/PCs with me in a fabric tote bag and I never got the low-battery warning. Still, I don't like downloading e-mail with large attachments to the H/PC, especially articles with embedded graphics files. I would prefer to do this on a faster desktop PC with a greater file storage capacity. I also would rather do my Web browsing on my desktop PC with a fast Internet connection. Pros better for a mobile editorMy experience with the MobilePro 800 was even better. Its full-size color screen and fast 56 kbps makes it even easier (and more fun) to browse the Web. Pocket Word and Excel can now open and save in formats for desktop Word and Excel. This makes it easier to send and receive documents. Also, I find it much easier to edit a document if I can see more of it. I don't have to scroll around as much to find things. Finally, I like Pocket Access. We keep a very comprehensive Access database containing information about 3rd party vendors and the products they develop. It was very easy to drag that over to the MobilePro 800 and open it up in Pocket Access. If I had to live on the road, and needed a lot of computing power, I might consider a regular notebook PC. But as long as my journeys are a couple days to a week long, I'd prefer a low-maintenance, light-weight Handheld PC. A full-screen H/PC Pro is better in my line of work, but I could get by pretty well with a 1/2 screen model. For my needs, H/PC Pros are definitely "Notebook Killers." *
Screen 1: I used Windows CE Services to copy the Excel spreadsheet with the yearly publishing schedule over to the Phenom Ultra. I changed the width of some of the columns and used the Zoom option in the View menu to adjust the display of the spreadsheet on the H/PC.
Screen 2: I copied my "Articles in Progress" spreadsheet to the H/PC. I use this to track articles for upcoming issues of Handheld PC Magazine. I deactivated the "Freeze Panes" option, adjusted column widths and abbreviated text on this spreadsheet. Screen 3: New to the H/PC Pro is Pocket Access. Users can create custom databases on the H/PC Pro, or download desktop Access databases. Shown here is a portion of our 3rd Party products database in Pocket Access. Create a New Remote Connection and Connect to Your ISP!This tip describes the process I followed in creating a remote connection and accessing my Internet Service Provider. It will probably work in most cases, but if you have difficulties you'll have to talk with your ISP or MIS support person. Follow these steps: 1. From the Start menu select Programs, Communications, Remote Networking. Then double tap on the icon labeled "Make New Connection." 2. At the screen labeled "Make New Up Connection" give the new connection a name, select the option button labeled "Dial-Up Connection" and tap the button labeled "Next." 3. At the screen labeled "Make New Dial-Up Connection" select the modem you are using from the drop-down list (for the Phenom Ultra I selected "Internal Modem on COM5"). 4. I did NOT tap the button labeled "Configure" to access the "Device Properties" screen. I went with the defaults. 5. I tapped the button labeled "TCP/IP Settings" and selected the tab labeled "Name Servers." I unchecked the box labeled "Server-assigned addresses" and filled in the Primary and Secondary DNS numbers (given to me by my Internet Service Provider). I then tapped "OK" to return to the screen labeled "Make New Dial-Up Connection." 6. I tapped the button labeled "Next." Then I filled in my Internet Service Provider's phone number (country code, area code and telephone number). I did NOT check the boxes labeled "Force long distance" or "Force local." To complete the configuration I tapped the button labeled "Finish." 7. This creates an icon in your Remote Networking folder. Physically connect your H/PC or H/PC Pro to a phone line using a modem and then double-tap on this new icon. You are presented with a screen labeled "Dial-Up Connection." Fill in your User Name and Password (and Domain if necessary, contact your ISP). Check the box labeled "Save password" and you won't have to fill in this information again. Then tap the button labeled "Connect." You'll hear the modem dial and you should connect to your ISP. Mail Service DefinitionAt this point, you'll be able to start Pocket Internet Explorer and browse the Web. But there's one other thing you have to do to download e-mail: install Internet Mail service on your H/PC. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Open Pocket Inbox and select Options from the Compose menu. Select the tab labeled "Services" and tap the button labeled "Add." 2. Give the e-mail service you are creating a name and tap OK. A screen labeled "Service Definition (1/3)" will pop up. 3. Fill in the information requested on the screen. If you don't know it, ask your Internet Service Provider or MIS person. 4. You have the option of filling out two additional preference screens, but I accepted their default values and tapped the button labeled "Finish." I tapped OK to get out of the Options screen. Now you're set to get mail. If you are already connected to your Internet Service Provider and launch Pocket Inbox, it will connect up to your ISP's mail server and get your e-mail (and download any messages you've composed and "sent"). If you're not connected to your ISP when you launch Inbox, it will ask you if you want to connect. |
