Conversions In Hand

Burr Oak Software has just released Version 3.0 of Conversions In Hand (CIH), the perennial winner of Pocket PC Magazine’s Best Software award. Conversions In Hand is a comprehensive unit converter that lets you translate between metric and standard units for area, length, energy, fluid, force, fuel, power, pressure, speed, temperature, volume, weight, and more. CIH sports a clean, easy to read and well-organized graphical user interface (Fig. 1). The type of conversion can be selected from the tabs along the top of the screen, or from a pop-up conversion list accessed from the menu bar along the bottom. The program includes an currency converter, which allows you to edit relative currency values, or download updates from the Web. You can even use CIH to convert between US, UK, European, and Japanese clothing sizes, or create a “custom” conversion of your own. I especially like the fact that all of the program functions can be accessed from the opening screen.

Fig. 1: Colorful, new GUI with VAT support.

What new in 3.0

Along with the newly design GUI, Burr Oak Software has added the following new functions to CIH.

• Area and country codes: You now have the ability to locate any area code or country code, by number or name. (Fig. 2)


Fig. 2: Area Code and Country Code Locator.

• Roman numeral conversions: Convert Roman to Arabic (Fig.3) or Arabic to Roman numerals.


Fig. 3: Convert to and from Roman or Arabic numbers.

• Tip calculator: Enter your meal total, select a tip percentage and the number of people in your party and CIH gives you the bill total and the person total (in case you are splitting the bill). (Fig. 4)


Fig. 4: Useful Tip calculator.

• VAT support: When performing currency conversions you can factor in the Value Added Tax (VAT) into each conversion. CIH has preset VAT percentages for all U.S. states and Canadian Provinces but you can also edit these percentages as needed (Fig 1.).
• Set precision on conversion output: Set the precision between 2 and 5 decimal places.
• New calculator keys: A much-needed backspace key has been added to the calculator, as well as a lock button to prevent accidental calculator to conversion input.
• Computer conversions: Convert a bit, byte, nibble, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte and more—you get the idea.
• Desktop version now included: This is great news for all desktop PC users: now your favorite Pocket PC conversion software is available on your desktop for no additional cost.