Tips and Tricks

Where’s that darn file? Look at the icon!

The Pocket PC’s built-in Find feature can help you locate the file you are looking for. But ironically, it’s not always clear about where the file is located. For example, let’s say I’m looking for a Word document named “Smith2-11.” Select the Find option for the Start menu and do a search on “smith” and get the results shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 1: The Find function will locate data in internal RAM memory or on an inserted storage card, If your Pocket PC has a flash disk, it will look there also.

You can tell by the icon next to the first item in the Find list that it is a contact. Tap on it and the full view of the item opens in Contacts. No problem there!

The icon next to the second item in the list, as well as the words “Pocket Word” below it, tell you that this is a Word document. Again, tap on it and it opens. However, if you wanted to delete it or copy it, you’d have to go to File Explorer. “No problem,” you say. The Pocket PC stores documents in the My Documents folder. You open File Explorer, go to My Documents, and… it’s not there!

The problem is that if you have a file storage card in your Pocket PC, there can be more than one My Documents folder. It’s easy to figure out where this document is by looking at the icon next to it in the Find list. Fig. 2 shows an enlarged view of the “Smith2-11” entry in the Find list.

Note the rectangular icon with a red triangle in the center, below the Word document icon. This tells you that the file is located on a storage card (or flash disk) and not in internal RAM memory.

Fig. 2: In Find and other Pocket PC applications, the card-shaped icon with the red triangle in the center (below the Word document icon in this screen) tells you that the file or folder is located on a storage card.

Solving IrDA transfer problems

To transfer a contact or file from your Pocket PC to another one via infrared transfer, tap and hold on the desired item and select the Beam option in the pop-up menu.If you are having difficulty beaming information between two IrDA-equipped devices, try the following:

1. Transfer only one file or no more than 25 contacts at a time. If you try to beam too much, the system can hang up.
2. IrDA uses a beam of infrared light to send information. Make sure the IrDA ports can “see” each other, that they are no more than 8-10 inches apart, and that there are no obstacles between them.
3. Some types of room lighting may interfere with the beaming. Try turning off lights or moving to another room.