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Ancestry Daily News
5/29/2003 - Archive
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RootsWorks: PDA 2003- Software |
RootsWorks: PDA 2003- Software
Alignment. It means that local and global information make sense
together, that the facts we know match the theory we understand. When we lack
alignment, Stephen Covey says we lose focus and have difficulty succeeding.
The Chinese believe that if your yin and yang are not aligned, your energy won't
flow.
It appears that the same problem happens with handheld computers, and I'm going
to propose an alignment strategy. Palm users and Pocket PC users are in different
markets. The Palm is a tool for organization and portability. The Pocket PC
is a general purpose computer. Certainly a person can use a Palm device as a
general purpose computer, or a Pocket PC as an organizer. There are many millions
of people using handheld computers, and some of them follow different strategies
for alignment in their lives.
One other distinction between the Palm and the Pocket PC is that the Pocket
PC is running a version of Windows. No Pocket PC will sync with a Mac out of
the box, but you can buy sync software for it. I didn't advise Microsoft about
this strategy, so if you are not in favor of it, please send your thoughts to
Microsoft, not me.
Let's look at software for the PDA, and how it might interest genealogists.
The next article will cover genealogy software for the PDA specifically. Let's
start with "office functions."
Office, anyone?
For most people, being able to download documents from your desktop to the Palm
so that they are handy is a valuable feature. For others, putting a few notes,
ideas, or meeting minutes into a document and uploading it is just as important.
In my opinion, updating my calendar, address book, and to-do list while I am
on the run is the most useful feature.
The choice of office software has been made for you in many cases. The Pocket
PC computers (the HP iPaq and the Toshibas, for example) come with Pocket Office
at no extra charge. With the memory expansion cards that these devices support,
you can carry just about everything you can think to pack.
Palm computers, such as Palm and Sony makes, come with Documents to Go (Standard
Edition). Another very good Palm Office program is "Quick Office." A comparison
of all three is online at the PDA Buyer's Guide site, which is located at www.pdabuyersguide.com/software/office.htm.
The basic story on these programs is that you can upload and download word processing
and spreadsheet documents. I use them but I only go one way: I download desktop
documents for reference and create documents on the PDA for subsequent modification
on the desktop. I do not download documents, modify them, and then upload them.
In most cases, if you try this you'll lose your fonts and graphics.
And then what?
It's hard to predict what people will do. What software are people downloading,
buying, and searching for? The PalmGear site, located at www.palmgear.com,
lists its top fifty downloads, and that list is a really jumbled toy box. The
following table lists the top ten, followed by a brief description:
#1 Noah Lite 0.65—English dictionary
#2 SilverScreen 2.9.8 - Program to make palmtop themes
#3 BigClock 2.83—Clock/Calendar
#4 FireViewer Suite 6.3—A very cool graphics program that lets you see pictures
on the PDA
#5 Handyshopper 2.7.5 —Shopping list/to do list
#6 Launcher X 1.0.2 - A replacement application launcher for the PDA
#7 DateBk 4—Another clock/calendar program
#8 Quickoffice 6—Spreadsheet, charting, and word processing suite
#9 PacMan - Game
#10 Billiards—Game
For more information on what people are buying and downloading, check out:
PocketGear.com
www.pocketgear.com/software_browse.asp?type=top10new&top=99
Top ten new applications from the last 20 days—listed by page views.
2002 Handango Yardstick
www.handango.com/pdf/HandangoYardstick_2002.pdf
Lists the top 5 PDAs adding software, as well as the top five programs sold
by platform, which include a number of utility programs, a remote control, a
PowerPoint viewer, and games.
The top five word searches for Pocket PC were: games, themes, dictionary, chess,
and database. For Palm, they were: dictionary, games, bible, outlook, and excel.
One of my favorite uses is GPS (Global Positioning System) use. The GPS Nav
program is good, but mixing maps with PDAs can get you into a space problem.
The maps have to be downloaded to the PDA before you use them, and they can
be really big. I once tried to put a map of Dallas/Ft Worth in my Palm Vx and
it wouldn't fit. But you can easily use it to gather latitude and longitude
readings at ancestral homesites and gravesites.
When it works, what does it do?
When you can look up important information wherever you go, and make a few important
notes and reminders whenever they occur to you, you're getting some benefit
from that PDA purchase. I sometimes take my Palm with me when I go walking.
As I have ideas—people to call, emails to write, things to do—I enter them
in my to-do list, or write emails for sending when I get home.
I often drag those wordy email travel itineraries to my Outlook calendar. Then
all of that verbiage is in my PDA calendar when I go somewhere—confirmation
numbers, rates, flight numbers, all of it.
What else?
Here are a few other suggestions and observations:
One of the biggest differences in PDA use during the past two years is the
capacity to use removable storage—memory sticks, secure digital, compact flash,
all of them. Many PDAs can handle 128MB expansion cards. That's a lot of documents,
spreadsheets, images, and family history data. And since color is affordable,
that really enhances the portable computing experience.
I suggest that you clearly define your "Personal Reference Boundary," the
boundary between the kinds of things you'll never modify on the PDA and the
kinds of things you will. For example, I don't modify documents and spreadsheets
on the PDA. I make new ones, but I don't modify anything that would be diminished
when I put it back on the PC.
Also, I'm careful not to modify a particular contact or appointment on both
my desktop and my PDA between hot-syncs. "One or the other, but not both" is
my rule. Doing so causes the hot-sync program to create duplicate entries.
There is information to supplement this article on the RootsWorks site, at www.rootsworks.com/pda2003.
Next article: PDA 2003 Genealogy Software.
The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for
generic technologies. Beau would like to hear from you. Whether you have something
to add or something to ask, please point your browser to http://www.rootsworks.com/forums
and discuss this or any topic related to the use of technology in family history.
Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual computer problems.
Visit the RootsWorks website at http://www.rootsworks.com
for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule.
Copyright 2003, MyFamily.com.
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