Some people use their Handheld or Pocket PC as nothing more than an expensive contact manager, ignoring the Handheld and Pocket PC's ability to store and access large amounts of information. With each successive upgrade to the Windows CE operating system, we've seen an increase in the capacity of the internal memory of Windows Powered devices. Add to that the storage capacity available with some of the newer CF and PC Cards, and you have the ability to carry a huge reference library with you wherever you go.

I'm a history and philosophy buff. On my Pocket PC you'll find The Complete Letters of Thomas Jefferson, an entire Dictionary of Philosophy, the Internet Movie Database, the entire four-volume set of John Calvin's mega-opus Institutes of the Christian Religion, the Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-1789), and thousands of other neatly-grouped history documents. All this is possible thanks to the data storage capacity of the Pocket PC and to an electronic eBook viewer called TomeRaider.

More than an electronic book reader

Long available for EPOC and Palm OS handheld users, TomeRaider was recently updated to work with the Pocket PC 2002. More than an ordinary electronic book viewer, TomeRaider is a powerful text reader application with database-like capabilities, including excellent compression of data, good indexing, fast navigation, and searching. Other eBook viewers, including MS Reader, are great for "start to finish" reading. But they don't do as well when you're wading through massive amounts of reference data trying to find something. For example, using most eBook viewers to search for specific text within a document can bring your Pocket PC to a virtual standstill. However, the process is fast and easy with TomeRaider. TomeRaider combines the best elements of a traditional eBook viewer with lightning-fast database-like navigation capabilities. TomeRaider opens the Pocket PC up to the realm of the encyclopedia and large dictionary.

TomeRaider's user interface also aids in this fast and streamlined navigation. You can get bogged down in the complexity of other eBook viewers, which can make even the simplest search painfully cumbersome. TomeRaider's interface is simple, letting you open documents and quickly narrow down searches to bring up the data you are interested in.

TomeRaider's file format does not support Digital Rights Management technology, which means you won't find any current commercial titles. However, there is plenty of TomeRaider content available at MemoWare ( www.memoware.com ), the official distributor of TomeRaider documents. There are currently nearly 2,000 free TomeRaider-formatted documents available on the MemoWare Web site. Versions of TomeRaider are available for Windows, Pocket PC, Palm, and EPOC operating systems, and the same TR document file can be viewed on any of these devices.

Using TomeRaider

Download TomeRaider ( www.handango.com ) and install it from your desktop PC to your Pocket PC. When you open TomeRaider on your Pocket PC, it will display a list of all TomeRaider documents found on your Pocket PC in a My Documents folder, whether the folder is in internal memory or on a storage card. Tap on the desired document to open it in TomeRaider.

After you have opened a TomeRaider document, you will be presented with a list of "subjects" in the document and a short "preview" of each subject (see Screen 1). The Subject column lists the sections in the document. The Preview column displays a small sample of what the corresponding subject contains. This screen also has a Quickfind option at the bottom right of the screen. Simply enter the first few letters of the subject you are seeking and TomeRaider will almost instantaneously highlight the sought-after subject (see Screen 1). You can also use the scroll button on the side of your Pocket PC, or the navigation pad at the bottom, to advance rapidly through the various subjects. Tap a subject heading to load it and the corresponding page of the document is displayed (see Screen 2). To get back to the subject list from the document, tap on the OK button in the upper right of the screen.