Pocket PowerPoint Editor

Windows CE Handhelds and H/PC Pros are powerful devices, especially useful for business travelers because of their instant-on functionality, long battery life, and mobility. On top of that, all H/PCs come with the essential productivity software built-in and ready to use. For me, one of the most useful of these built-in applications is Microsoft’s Pocket PowerPoint, a scaled down version of Microsoft’s popular presentation program.

The desktop PC version of PowerPoint lets you create, edit and display electronic slide presentations. In the past, mobile professionals have had to lug around laptops, connect them to projectors and use the Windows 95/98 version of PowerPoint to make their presentations. Microsoft decided to include a Pocket version of PowerPoint with its lightweight Handhelds and H/PC Pros to make life easier for mobile professionals.

Pocket PowerPoint lets mobile users give presentations from small and very portable devices. However, the ability to create and edit shows, an integral part of the full version of PowerPoint, is missing in the Pocket version. You can change the order of slides and change the text of the title page, but that’s about all. Microsoft assumed that mobile users would create or edit their presentation on their desktop PC and download it to the H/PC when they traveled. As it turned out, many users wanted the ability to change text, add slides and even create new presentations while they traveled. By itself, Pocket PowerPoint didn’t quite fit the bill.

Pocket PowerPoint Editor

Fortunately, MinhoSoft provides a solution to this problem with Pocket PowerPoint Editor, a simple and relatively inexpensive ($23.95) application for Windows CE 2.0 and above Handhelds and H/PC Pros. (Pocket PowerPoint and the Editor are not available for Palm-size and Pocket PCs.) You can download a free demo version of the application or purchase it online at MinhoSoft’s Web site (www.minhosoft.com).

I purchased Pocket PowerPoint Editor online and MinhoSoft sent me the program attached to an e-mail. The program arrives as a ZIP file and must be unZIPed before installing. It comes with documentation, a traditional setup program and a self-installing “CAB” file (you’ll recognize it as a filename with a .cab extension on the end). You can connect your H/PC to your desktop PC and run a setup utility to install and configure Pocket PowerPoint Editor. But the CAB file lets you bypass this step. Copy the CAB file to the Handheld PC, find it in Windows Explorer and double-tap on it, and the CAB file will automatically install Pocket PowerPoint Editor on your H/PC. In fact, if MinhoSoft e-mailed you the program while you were traveling, you could download the e-mail to your H/PC, unZIP the attachment, and use the CAB file to install the program without ever connecting to your desktop PC.

I really like the CAB file approach to program installation. It’s a big plus for highly mobile users, allowing them to purchase, download and install a program wherever they are, without having to connect to a desktop PC. I think we’ll see a lot more of this in the future.

Choosing your Handheld PC platform

I installed the Pocket PowerPoint Editor on my IBM z50 Handheld PC Pro. The IBM z50 has a near-full-size keyboard for easy text entry, a full VGA color screen for easy viewing, and a built-in VGA-out port for connecting to monitors and projectors. While the z50 is one of the larger Handheld PC Pros, it’s still pretty compact - about the size of a very small notebook PC. With all these features it’s just about a perfect mobile presentation platform. Unfortunately, IBM just discontinued it.

Fortunately, there are similar Handheld PC Pros from Compaq (the Aero 8000; www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/), NEC (the MobilePro 780 and 880, www.neccsd.com), and Hewlett-Packard (the HP Jornada 820; www.hp.com/jornada/). You can usually find “Buy” links on the manufacturer’s Web site. If not, two good online sources in the U.S. for these devices are Handango (www.handango.com/) and Mobile Planet (www.mobileplanet.com).