Keep your keyboard clean!
With all the external keyboards being announced for the Pocket PCs,
it's time to reiterate the classic keyboard tip keep them clean! Dust
can get under the keys and screw things up quickly. You can turn any
keyboard upside down and tap on the back to shake dust out. You can even
use a can of compressed air to give it a light blast of air. Hold the
keyboard upside down when you do this, so the debris will drop down and
away from the unit when it's blown out. You should be able to get a can of
compressed air at a computer or office supply store. Oh yes, keep liquids
(coffee, Coke, etc.) far away from keyboards. It will take more than
compressed air to clean up a spill. This advice is good for Handheld PCs,
external keyboards, or your desktop PC's keyboard.
Does your synchronizing freeze up?
This might mean you have a corrupt Task, Appointment, or Contact entry.
You have to find the culprit and delete it. Here's one way to home-in on
the problem.
Open ActiveSync, go to the Tools menu and select Options. De-select
everything but Calendar and try synchronizing data. If that works,
de-select everything but Contacts, and try again. Do this until you find
the application that's giving you problems. Then, look through the
individual entries of that application until you see strange characters in
an entry. For example, Bill Smith's name in Contacts might look like, Bill
Sm($*. Delete the entry and try synchronizing again. If you have your data
backed up, or have been synchronizing regularly, you can delete all the
data from that application and restore it.
Sizing Web pages to fit Pocket Internet Explorer's screen
Because most Web pages are designed for larger desktop PC displays,
you'll find Web surfing with Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) on either the
Pocket PC or the 1/2 VGA screen Handheld PCs a bit difficult without the
"Make Page Fit" option activated (see Screens 1 & 2).
Screens 1 & 2: Pocket Internet Explorer's Fit-to-Screen feature automatically reformats Web content for display on the smaller Pocket PC screen.
On an H/PC, open PIE, select the View menu, select Options and check
the box labeled "Make Page Fit" window. On a Pocket PC, open PIE, select the View menu and select the Fit to Screen option. You can also configure the devices to display text (and speed up page downloads) by unchecking the box labeled "Show pictures."
Free faxing for mobile users
E-FAX's free faxing service (www.efax.com) gives users a free personal fax number. Faxes can be sent to this number and when received it immediately sends you the fax via email as a .tif file. Using a .tif viewer, you can view the faxes. Neat, huh? Now, receiving a fax is as easy as receiving an email with an attachment.
Need to view .tif files? A viewing program is included in the free Microsoft Plus Pack for CE at their Web site www.microsoft.com/windowsce/products/download/plus.asp Use the Image
Viewer program to see .gif files, .jpg files, .bmp files, .xbm files, .png files & .tif files. .tif files are generated by many fax services.
Inexpensive electronic wallets: Pocket Word and Excel
Electronic wallets are programs used to store and organize the kind of
information you keep on cards in your wallet. I've tried them all and
prefer Pocket Word and Excel! That's right, the built-in Microsoft
applications do a fine job at organizing that kind of information. Use
Pocket Word for storing information in simple text documents. You might
keep lists, in Word documents, of things to pack when you're traveling, of
credit cards and their ID and PIN numbers, insurance policies and the
like. You could keep the same information well-organized in Pocket Excel
(see Screen 3).
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