Special CompuServe Palmtop Forum edition

Special thanks for this issue's tips goes to Jim Christian, one of the founding Windows CE Sysops with CompuServe's recently upgraded PALMTOP Forum. Jim has been helping CompuServe members select and trouble shoot palmtops for nearly 10 years.

Quick Tips
& PC Companion Tricks

Keep Important Information on your PC Companion in case you get hurt

I have 30+ Contacts within a newly created Category of "JIM HURT." If I ever get hurt, disabled or die, my wife can sort on this Category and find out important things like: Life Insurance information; Bills Due; Who to call at Work; Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds, etc.; IRS info; Private Papers; A personal letter to her; Location of our Will; Savings; Mortgage stuff, etc. (see Screen 1).

Bank online from your H/PC

I use Bank of America's Home Banking online services when I travel to bank on-line from their Web site. I can pay bills, get balances, transfer funds, etc. It is one of the few banks that allows it from a Windows CE device, due to the smaller encryption code length. I pay $2.00/month for the above Home Banking transactions and plus Versatel, due to the minimum balance I keep. I signed up for Home Banking services @ www.bankofa.com and then accessed it from my H/PC's Pocket Internet Explorer Web browser (see Screen 2).

Seeing more Contact information

The fewer taps you have to make to get Contact information, the less work you have to do. Set up Contacts so that the main list screen shows as much important information as possible (see tip in Jan/Feb 99 issue). I always use lowercase letters when entering names, addresses, and other Contact data. It allows a few more characters in the main list view, and it's less likely that I'll have to tap the screen again to view additional screens of data.

If you have a few capital letters in Contacts, it's probably not worth the time going through and changing things. But if you've entered EVERYTHING IN CAPS, you might want to fix things. You should also get out of the habit of typing everything in caps. Not only does it take up more space, it's harder to read words, phrases and sentences where every letter is capitalized.

You can also display more information by adjusting the font and font size in Contacts. From the main screen, tap Tools, Options, Choose Font. Times New Roman is a compact font, designed to put a lot of characters in a small space. It gets a little hard to read if you select an 8 pt font size. If you're going to go that small you might want to select Arial as your font. It's not quite as compact as Times New Roman, but some find it easier to read.

Be creative: use Pocket Outlook your way

Pocket Outlook was designed by Microsoft software engineers to work a certain way, but there's no law that says you can't "do it your way." For example, I've adjusted the columns displayed in Contact's main list view to display the following fields:

File As, Work Tel, Work Fax, Home Tel, Email1

Since I don't normally enter Home Tel information for work Contacts, I use it for other data, including Passwords, Customer Numbers, Registration Numbers, etc. You can use the two "Other" fields in the Business and Home tabs for all sorts of information. And the Notes tab can store a lot of text.

My Tasks list grows faster than my ability to complete the items in it. That's because every time I have an idea about something that I should do, it goes in there. I may not be able to get to it right away, but I want it there, for the future. I have a lot of these "someday" Tasks, so I enter them with a future start data, depending on when I want to be reminded about them. When they come due, I take another look at them, and decide what I want to do about the idea (delete it, put it off again, or do it).

I use Calendar for TV programs, online chat sessions, and other events that happen at a particular date and time. If I see an announcement for a TV program I want to watch, it goes in Calendar with an alarm. If a special discussion is going to take place in one of our Windows CE chat rooms, it goes in Calendar. Shows or events that happen regularly are entered as recurring appointments. My HP 660LX sits on the end table at night to remind me.

Travelers: save time and money by using ISPs with Toll-Free 800 Numbers

I travel a lot and to check e-mail and browse the Web I used to spend a lot on long distance calls to my Internet Service Provider. Some ISPs had local numbers in various major cities, but it still required that I keep track of all these numbers. Then I got smart and found an ISP with an 800. The monthly service charge is a little more, but I saved time and energy on the road. I've tested and found acceptable the following ISPs:

CompuServe (www.compuserve.com)

IBM Net (www.ibm.net)

Earthlink Net (www.earthlink.net)

Sprynet (www.sprynet.com)

All have at least one toll free U.S. 800 number, have WinCE setup help, and have a lot of international telephone numbers.

In the U.S., you have to dial a '1' before an 800 number. And in some hotels and businesses you have to dial an '8' or '9' to get an outside line. When you set up a new "Dial-Up Connection" one of the screens lets you enter the phone number. For a U.S. 800 number, enter '1' in Country field, '800' in the Area field, and the rest of the number in the Telephone number field. Then check the box labeled "Force long distance."

The first time you try to use this Dial-Up Connection you'll be asked to configure it further, entering your ISP User Name, Password, and other information. If you've already used a Dial-Up Connection, you can modify this information from the Communications application in the Control Panel. This process will eventually get you to the Dialing Patterns dialog box. The second line, titled 'For Long Distance calls dial:' needs a different set of characters in it, depending on the location you are dialing from. (The comma between the characters inserts a short pause in the dialing pattern.)

Dial from Characters

Direct dial phone line 1FG

Dial 9 to access outside line 9,FG

Dial 8 to access outside line 8,FG

Instead of modifying this dialing string each time you change locations, the easiest thing to do is to set up a different Dial-Up Connection for each case.

Save time: don't double-enter expense reports

I have to use a company-designed form to submit travel expenses. And while dedicated expense tracking programs are nice, I ended up double entering data from the expense tracker into the company document. It's true that packages like bTRACK (www.bsquare.com) and Expense Force (www.ruksun.com/wince/) will let you customize reports and, in the case of bTRACK, integrate with company expense tracking systems.

But my company's system is a simple Word document template. It's much easier for me to copy it over to my H/PC and keep it there as a template. Whenever I go on a trip, I open it up, fill it out, save it, and send it in. I save it with a name indicating the trip it is associated with. For example, expenses for the Week Ending Jan 2, 1999 were saved as WE1-2-99. I keep these files in a folder labeled 'Expense Accnt.'

Plenty of templates out there: modify them and make them your own

Templates are wonderful ways to save time and money. Whenever you find yourself recreating text or formatting for a Pocket Word or Excel document, you should save it as a template so you won't have to do it again.

The best news is that you don't have to start from scratch. Computer users have been creating and saving templates for desktop PC versions of Word and Excel for quite a while. Many of them can be used as is, or simplified to work on the H/PC. When you transfer an Excel or Word document from a desktop PC to an H/PC, Windows CE Services converts it to Pocket Word and Pocket Excel format. The newer H/PC Pros have versions of Pocket Word and Excel that can open desktop versions of the documents without the conversion process (although some features and formatting will be lost).

Here are some places online where you can download Word and Excel templates:

Microsoft Word templates

(http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/

downloadCatalog/dldWord.htm.

Microsoft Excel templates

(http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/

downloadCatalog/dldExcel.htm)

CompuServe -- CSI subscribers can access hundreds of templates on the Word or Excel forums. Type GO MSWORD and GO MSEXCEL at CSI's opening screen.\.

Lotus Web site -- Lotus's Web site has tons of 1-2-3 templates. You can import them into the desktop version of Excel or Word, save them and convert them to Pocket Excel or Word. (http://www.support.lotus. com/homeframe.nsf)

Many other forums, Web sites, and newsgroups have templates related to their specific focus. For example, I've seen hundreds of templates for medicine, finance, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, recipes, and more. Remember that Pocket Word and Excel don't have all the features of their big brothers. When you select a desktop PC template to download, the simpler the better.

Who says you can't see an H/PC's color screen in outside daylight?

Color screens were incorporated into H/PCs to make the display more interesting and easier to see. Most of the screens show up fine in roomlight, but are a little difficult to see in outside daylight, and very difficult to see in direct sunlight. Here are some things you can do to improve the situation outside.

* Take your sunglasses off ­ the polarizing effect reduces visibility.

* Crank up the screen contrast.

* Find shade to view in, or hold your hand above as a sunshade.

* Twist the screen to an angle that maximizes its viewing ease.

* Turn off the Automatic Dimming Control, if you have one.

* Make sure you have freshly charged batteries.

One problem with the H/PCs is that the majority have touchscreens. A touch-sensitive layer has to be built into the screen, and this reduces visibility. Hewlett-Packard and Samsung are coming out with H/PC Pros without touchscreens, and perhaps their screen visibility will be better. But bright outdoor-readable screens require a lot of electrical current to power them and the existing battery technology is just not there yet. Most laptops have the same problem.

Scan and copy important documents for desktop to H/PC

You never know when you need them, so I carry all my important documents with me wherever I go, on my H/PC. These include my Will, Car Insurance, documents from work, things I get in the mail, and more. Unfortunately, many of them were not originally in electronic format. I use my desktop PC, a flatbed scanner, and Xerox's TextBridge OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to put all of my important documents into text files. Then I copy them to my H/PC.

For example, my will was created years ago and recently I wanted to make some changes to it. I only had a paper copy of it, so I scanned it, used Textbridge to convert it to a text file, opened the text file in Word (on my desktop PC), corrected a few errors the OCR software made reading it, and saved it as a Word document. Finally, I used Windows CE Services to copy it to my H/PC. I had it with me wherever I went, and could look it over and edit it before I met with my lawyer. As a precaution, I also kept with me a floppy disk with a duplicate of the original Word document.

A reasonable scanner, on sale, can be purchased for as low as $75. The Textbridge OCR software was less than $100 (with rebates) at Frys here in Los Angeles. Xerox has a free demo of their software available at www.textbridge.com.

Extra insurance in case your 'restore' doesn't work

I have owned and tested over 30 palmtops and most of them have crashed at least once, with a complete loss of data. That's why we back up regularly, right? Well, backing up is good, but restoring the data is better. And at least five times last year I was not able to restore backed up data to my Windows CE device. The problems were caused by Outlook 98 crashing on my desktop, and a host of other unexplained events. I was either notified that I couldn't connect to my desktop, or that my backup data was corrupted. Here is some of the 'extra insurance' I have developed to guard against this nightmare.

* Print out everything in your H/PC. Yes, I mean an old fashion hard copy. If the worst ever happened and you couldn't Restore your data, you could always type everything back in...heaven forbid. The easiest way to do this is to copy everything over to your desktop PC and print it out from there. Synchronize Pocket Outlook data with the desktop and print it out from the desktop.

* If you consider your data irreplaceable, as I do, consider backing up on a daily basis, using multiple backup programs. I use the following:

1) The backup utility built into the HP 620/660LX;

2) Regular, daily synchronization with my desktop PC's Outlook 98 program;

3) Windows CE Services' Backup program;

4) The outstanding HPC dbExplorer 1.3 available from Phatware (www.phatware.com);

5) Database Backup Utility available at (http://members.aol.com/pdcjons).

* Don't use third-party programs if they don't make provisions to back up their data files. There are a lot of nice productivity programs out there, but if you can't easily back up their data, you're in trouble.

* Backup your PC Companion when you are connected to your AC adapter. Backing up while on batteries can take longer, and if the batteries run out in the middle of the backup, your PC Companion will power down and you might corrupt the data.

* Consider using a PC or CompactFlash memory card for backing up your data. In fact, consider buying two cards for use on alternating days. And remember to take them out of your PC Companion immediately after you backup. If it's in the card slot, and you loose your H/PC, you loose your backup!

* Users of Hewlett-Packard's HP 360/620/660 and Jornada 820 H/PCs can download limited Calendar, Contacts, and Notes to the REX card (www.franklin.com/rex/). Downloading this information is a one-way process. You can't restore information from the REX to the HP, and the information on the REX is abbreviated.

* Only two programs will do a complete system backup of your PC Companion (including software programs you have installed, the registry and configuration files) These programs are: Windows CE Services and bSQUARE's new bUSEFUL Backup Plus utility (see review, page 22, or contact www.bsquare.com). Other backup utilities only back up the data files.

* Back up your desktop PC daily. You synchronize Pocket Outlook with your desktop PIM every day (hopefully). And you store your H/PC backup files on the desktop. If your desktop PC's hard drive 'goes South,' all your precautions are for nothing. Back up your desktop PC. If you're in an office, talk to your MIS person and arrange to have it backed up to the network. If you have a standalone desktop PC, you might want to look into getting a tape backup drive. If you're using Outlook on your desktop, you can export Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks data and print it out as a backup. For example, open Outlook on your desktop PC, go to Contacts, and select File, Import/Export, Export To A File. Outlook will let you export the data to a number of different file formats. I export my data to Comma Separated Values (.csv) and then import it into Excel to print out.

Synchronize with beta versions of Office 2000 and Outlook 2000

It works! I have been doing it for over a month and all is well. I'm using the latest version of Microsoft's Windows CE Services (2.2) and an HP 660LX H/PC. I can't vouch for other versions.

Get your Windows CE questions answered on the CompuServe Forums ... by guys like me!

CompuServe has been around longer than most worldwide Internet Providers and is noted for its active Forums. A Forum is like a newsgroup where you post and reply to questions, make comments, and download programs and other information related to the focus of the forum. Forums have people called "SYSOPS" who manage the forum and answer questions. Most Forums have very knowledgeable and active members. Most, if not all of the questions get answered, and this is especially true of CompuServe's Palmtop Forum (see Screen 3, type GO PALMTOP at CSI's opening prompt). Forums are divided up into "Libraries," or sub categories. Below, I've listed the Libraries of the Palmtop Forum.

The (GO) PALMTOP Library sections for you are:

1. Forum Help and Info

2. WinCE Handheld PCs

3. WinCE Palmsized PCs

4. WinCE Accessing CSi

5. WinCE Software

6. WinCE Sync/Comm/Net

7. WinCE Peripherals

8. 3COM PalmPilot

9. Sharp Zaurus

10. Nokia Communicator

11. Sharp Orgnzers/PDAs

12. Sharp WinCE Mobilon

13. RuppSoft

14. REX

15. Organizers/PDAs

16. News/Reviews/Shows

17. Miscellaneous Files

18. DOS Palmtops

19. General Magic

21. GEOS Organizers/PDAs

23. Utilities (DOS/Win)

CompuServe has a separate Hewlett-Packard handheld Forum (GO HPHAND), and Psion Forum (GO PSION) and a Palm Pilot Forum (GO PILOT). In fact, CompuServe has nearly 1,000 Forums on many different subjects. The only downside is that, at present, you can't access CompuServe Forums from Windows CE devices. You have to do your browsing from your desktop PC. CompuServe costs as low as $10 per month (for 5 hours service) and offers a 30-day free trial. For more information, visit CompuServe's Web site at www.csi.com or call 800-394-1481 for a free CD.

Screen 1: You can create a special category in Contacts that can be selected to display vital information for your business associate, wife, or husband, in case of an emergency.

Screen 2: You can access Bank of America's Home Banking online services from your H/PC or Palm-size PC to conduct financial transactions. The PC Companion must have a modem. H/PC users can use the built-in Pocket Internet Explorer to connect. Palm-size PC users need a third-party Web browser to connect.

Screen 3: CompuServe's Palmtop Forum opening screen. The Forum supports users of Windows CE Handheld PCs, H/PC Pros and Palm-size PCs. Information on a number of other PDAs is also found in this forum.