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 Home / Issue Archives / Palm Tipsheet 45
Palm Tipsheet 45 - September 2003 CONTENTS Editor's Welcome The summer months have been great for Palm fans. August has been slow on devices, but high on rumors, leaks and new information about upcoming devices. The Sony Clie UX50 looks to be the most promising PDA released in the past six months, maybe year. It’s feature rich and the landscape mode is going to be a huge hit with gaming and multimedia fans. We’ve got two links that you’ll want to investigate if this device is up your alley. On the other side, we’ve got rumors of Palm’s new devices. The Tungsten 3 you probably know about, but they’ve also got two lower-end devices en route. Tapwave is also releasing more information on their gaming machine, but I have little faith in the long-term vitality of this one. I think you’ll like the feature this month. A lot of you have been asking for a comparison between the major players within a software sub-market. This feature takes a look at a group of mobile office products: Quick Office, Documents to Go and iambic Office. While Docs to Go comes with many Palm OS PDAs for free, is it really the best option? So sit back and enjoy…as always send us feedback, info@palmtipsheet.com. Hardware Tapwave has continued to spill news ever so slowly about their new
gaming PDA, Zodiak. I’m not convinced this device will succeed, especially
since the only distribution channel will be through their own web site.
While the founders have experience, I’m a little leery of investing in a
company with no history and no guaranteed future. Brighthand has floated rumors on the new Palm devices a few times now.
Here’s a link with a bit more information on the two lower-end
Palm’s. Over at bargainPDA.com we posted a review of the Tungsten T2. You can
get that and all the latest PDA reviews in one place. Sony has released details on a $300 car mount for their Clie
line. Adama, a senior editor at bargainPDA.com, posted his highly
controversial review of the Clie NX80. If you missed it, it’s definitely a
good read. The Clie UX50 is one of the most anticipated PDAs ever. Sony has
released a video clip of the device that prospective buyers will want to
salivate over. Also check out the second link, an English site made by
Sony Hong Kong with loads of pictures and more information. Palm has decided to brand themselves with the new name palmOne. I think
it’s very dumb, especially when you notice the logo has an extra 1 in it.
Anyway, devices will sport the new moniker early next year. Software Sony has updated the Bluetooth drivers for the NZ90 and TG50 Clie’s.
The catch is that the new driver version takes up 1.3 MB of RAM. Yes, I
said megabytes. That comes out of your normal 11 megabytes or RAM, and no,
you can't store them on a Memory Stick. No, I don't know what they're
thinking. As a matter of fact, I don't believe that they are
thinking! Palm has released drivers to support the use of their Bluetooth card
with the Tungsten W. According to the latest figures by market research firm Gartner, Palm-based handhelds comprised 51.4% of all handhelds shipped worldwide in the second quarter, maintaining a thin absolute majority. Second place was Microsoft's PocketPC/Windows Mobile platform, controlling 35.9% of the market, with the remaining 12.7% occupied by Linux, Symbian, and other. If you have a new Palm OS device with graffiti 2, you may be wondering
how you can go back to the old method. Here’s the path to the enabling
graffiti 1. Details on the new Palm OS 5.3 are coming out. Check out the simulator
here: Tungsten T2 and Zire 71 owners need to grab this security update from
Palm. FEATURE — Palm Office Suite Comparison Matthew Miller is a daily blurb writer and reviewer for PDAGeek.com (http://www.pdageek.com). Feel free to email him, palmsolo@geek.com, with any questions or comments you may have on the review. I have been using Palm and Pocket PC devices since 1996, and have tried several applications that would allow me to work on Microsoft Word and Excel documents on my PDA. Thanks to the recent release of TextMaker and the seriously underrated SpreadCE applications, along with the powerful Pocket Slides program, Pocket PC devices are starting to make headway into this area. TextMaker has so many functions that it could almost replace a desktop application. I don't know if that is what most people really need in a handheld device application, but power users will rejoice. However, these three separate programs do not work together like the desktop Microsoft Office suite, where you can paste Excel spreadsheets into Word or PowerPoint documents, etc. In my opinion, Pocket Word and Excel are also rather weak, and their lack of formatting support confuses the average PDA buyer. After seriously examining and putting the three main Office suites available for Palm OS devices through the paces over the last couple months, I strongly feel that the Palm OS platform offers the best experience with Office document functionality and integration. Features Quickoffice Premier 7.1 Documents To Go Premium Edition 5 iambic Office Installation Installation of all three suites is performed by running the executable file and following the on-screen prompts. A conduit for each suite is added to the HotSync Manager. In addition, a desktop document manager is installed for each that allows you to specify the documents that will be synced, change the settings for future synchronization, categorize the documents, and perform other document functions. You can open the documents on your desktop from within these document managers. Menus and shortcuts are also added to desktop versions of Office applications to make document conversion quick and easy. Each document manager is slightly different, but performs primarily the same functions. This review will focus on the Palm-based part of each application. Documents can be added to each application using the menu within the Office application, from selecting the document in the document manager, or by dragging and dropping into the document manager's window. iambic Office does have the most detailed and extensive desktop document manager to help ensure document integrity. Field Usage Quickoffice Premier 7.1 Users of Quickoffice have the option of syncing documents between the desktop and PDA, but can also choose to have copies of the documents made when performing a HotSync. At first I did not like this approach, but after syncing a document to two different desktops (home and work) using Documents To Go and losing all the changes I made to this review, I think I actually prefer the Quickoffice method. Quickoffice is targeting mobile professionals who want to ensure that any changes made to documents are captured and not lost in the syncing process. The company does offer a syncing option for those who primarily sync with one desktop, but I do not recommend trying the sync option with two desktops. Word processor I started using the Quickoffice word processor, Quickword, a couple of years ago, and have seen some great improvements in the software. Quickword takes advantage of the full Hi-Res+ display on my CLIÉ NX70 and is easy to navigate. When you first launch Quickword you are taken to the explorer screen that lists the documents currently on your device. In the bottom right corner you will see an icon that can be tapped to change the type of documents shown in the list. You can select to view native Word files (can only be stored on an external storage card due to the Palm requirement for .pdb or .prc files), QW-formatted documents, Palm Doc-formatted documents, or both QW and Doc documents. Documents can be created, deleted, copied, renamed, beamed, printed (if you have associated printing software), and categorized from the explorer display. A significant number of settings and preferences for QW are also accessed from the top pull-down menus. Preferences that can be changed include display options (font, alignment, etc), scrolling options (left-handed bar), document options (global find, compression), and other options (auto accept beam). After opening a document or creating a new one you are taken to the
editing screen, where you will see a bottom toolbar. Almost all of the
primary Word formatting tools are at your disposal, and are quickly
accessed from the menus and toolbar, e.g., text alignment, text formatting
(bold, italics, color), paragraph formatting, etc. You can also access the
Options menu, which allows you to open the thesaurus or spell checker,
toggle the HTML view or toolbar, and access the preferences menus
discussed above. File, edit, and navigation menus are accessed along the
top of the program that allow you to navigate around the document, set
bookmarks, cut, copy, paste, etc. Quickword has the largest number of
settings and preferences of any of the three software packages, and is
very powerful. You can also export QW documents into eBook (DOC) format or
Memo Pad format for reading with other software. Spreadsheet (and charting functionality) Quicksheet was the first Palm spreadsheet program I bought several years ago for my Palm III device, and I continue to use it today because it is so functional and powerful. Access is provided to over 80 functions. I had issues with the beta version, but the new 7.1 version is rock solid and performs extremely well. The main explorer screen is basically the same as the Quickword display, except there is no Palm-formatted spreadsheet format to view. After opening a spreadsheet or creating a new one you are taken to the editing part of the application, where you can select from different font sizes to change how many cells you see on the display. Showing more cells makes the text rather small in portrait mode, but this view can be useful. They are rather small in portrait mode, but this view can be useful. I wish someone would come out with landscape support since it would make spreadsheets so much more usable. The top menus are Book, Edit, Data, and Page. The Book menu manages the
workbooks and saving documents. The Edit menu allows you to perform the
standard functions such as cut, copy, and paste, as well as cell
formatting. The menu also shows you how to perform the functions using
shortcut keys. The Data menu is where you conduct searches and sorting.
The Page menu is used for navigating in the document. Slideshow Quickoffice also adds the ability to work with PowerPoint documents using the Quickpoint module. Quickpoint is the only Office suite PowerPoint solution that can itself be used directly with a presentation adapter. Quickpoint is also now used for showing photo albums using the new Quickpics module of Quickoffice. You simply drag and drop images on your desktop to the utility and then HotSync your Palm. You can view, reorder, add text or handwritten notes, and even beam the album to other Quickoffice users. When the person you beamed it to performs a HotSync he or she will have a PowerPoint file of your images on his or her desktop. You cannot create new slideshows using Quickpoint, and it serves well as a viewer for Palm devices. Native files will not show anything but text due to current limitations in the Palm operating system and how it handles Windows vector information. However, when combined with properly converted documents and the iGo presentation adapter you can leave your laptop at home. Documents To Go Premium Edition 5 I was fortunate enough to get the Documents To Go Standard Edition on
my CLIÉ NX CD, and it was a low cost to upgrade to the Premium Edition,
which added more viewing modules. After installing DTG you will find an icon that launches an integrated user interface. From here you can select the different document types (Sheets, Word, Slideshow, Pics) using a pull-down list or show all types. There are a couple of menus on this interface for sorting the documents, beaming the documents and the DTG application, and adding and deleting items. Tapping on a document or selecting New takes you to the applicable editing module. Word processor (and PDF viewer) The word processor module is called Word To Go, and can also be used to view PDF files that the desktop conduit converts into the .pdb format. The four menus on the top are File (Save, Preferences, Zoom), Edit (Cut, Copy, Paste, Find), Insert (Page Break, Table, Hyperlink, Bookmark), and Format (Font, Paragraph, Bullets, Indents). Word To Go supports three zoom levels (small, medium, and large) for allowing you to see more or less of the document, and it works very well on my 320x480 display. You can insert tables in Word To Go that will sync to your desktop file. While you cannot insert images into your document, if there were an image synced from your PC then you will actually see the image on your device. This was the only program that kept images and tables with the document when syncing. 8 fonts are supported, and a wide selection of bullets and numbering
styles are available. There are common editing and formatting icons on the
top right and bottom toolbars, as well as the menus previously discussed.
Spreadsheet (and charting functionality) Sheet To Go documents are launched from the global user interface and also support the three zoom levels. Zoom levels are important to me, and the other two applications only have two levels. The top menus are the basically the same as in Word To Go, except the Insert menu allows you to insert functions, rows, columns, and sheets. Formatting also pertains to cells, numbers, and sheets. The bottom toolbar contains the function icon and navigation arrows, as well as the text entry line. The function button will give you access to over 110 functions, which should satisfy most spreadsheet users' requirements. You can switch between sheets using the drop-down in the top right of the display. Charts are created simply by highlighting the cells you want to plot and then tapping the chart icon on the top of the view. A Chart Wizard will then start up where you can select 18 different chart configurations. The second screen allows you to specify the series label, followed by the third screen, where the chart title and axis titles can be specified. The wizard can be stopped at any place and you will see the chart appear. The charting function does not support the 320x480 large display. Three buttons will appear along the bottom of the chart to finish and go back to the spreadsheet, view the details, or view the legend. The chart shows up as a separate sheet when synced to the desktop, and the colors and formatting are well maintained. Slideshow Slideshow To Go synchronizes with PowerPoint files on your desktop computer to allow for practicing and basic editing of your files on the road. You can add slides to your show and even create new slideshows on your device, but they are limited to text-only with no options for changing colors, etc. There are three different views, including notes and slide sorter. I can see this being a handy tool for professionals who want to practice presentations while on the airplane or away from their laptop. DataViz Mail is not a stand-alone e-mail application, but functions to synchronize your desktop e-mail application, similar to the e-mail application of many Palm devices. You can edit, create, or view e-mail messages and their DTG attachments. DTG files can also be attached to outgoing e-mails. I use a couple of Web-based e-mail sites as my primary addresses, so I do not use this functionality to its fullest. It can be great for syncing e-mails to your device, then responding and writing e-mails away from the desktop so that when you return a simple HotSync sends replies and new e-mails on their way. DataViz Mail syncs with Outlook, Outlook Express, and Lotus Notes. Image viewer The image viewer, Pics To Go, has the least amount of features and is very basic. Image and photos can be quickly synced in a number of image formats, and then on your device you can tap one zoom level in or out. There is no panning or rotating the image. PTG can be useful for viewing image attachments synced with DataViz Mail. iambic Office Out of the three primary office suites, iambic Office tends to receive the least amount of coverage, and I think that has to do with the fact that FastWriter is limited. TinySheet has always been a head-to-head competitor with Quicksheet and is still an outstanding program. After conducting my evaluation, I was surprised by the abilities of FastWriter and the power of iambic Mail. Iambic Office does not have a Slideshow viewer/editor, but as I stated before I do not see much value in showing a slideshow on your device display. Similar to the integrated global interface of Documents To Go, iambic offers the iambic Office view on your PDA that shows your inbox in the top half and recently modified documents in the bottom half of the display by default. From this integrated view you can quickly create a new document, workbook, or message, or navigate quickly to each application. Word processor I hadn't even heard about FastWriter until I started this Office suite review, and have to say it is a decent little program that should cover most basic word processing needs. The program does not support the Hires+ display of my CLIÉ NX70V, which is too bad. I found FastWriter to be very fast and responsive to my screen taps, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the software. One of the stated strengths of the program is its efficiency with a portable keyboard, which I do not use and could not test out with the application. Like the other programs, when you launch FastWriter you are presented with an explorer view. FastWriter can read and edit .txt, .htm, .doc, .rtf, .pdb, and Memo records. There are a few preferences that can be changed in this first view, such as the auto scroll type, default font (12 to choose from), etc. Drag & drop deleting, beaming, and filing is supported with the bottom toolbar. Documents can also be sorted by type, name, size, and date. After opening or starting a new document you are taken to the editor.
There is a bottom toolbar with font formatting, paragraph alignment, font
color, and highlighting icons. The toolbar can also be hidden with a
single tap. A top menu can be activated which has main menu headings of
File (Save, New, Close, Beam, etc), Edit (Cut, Copy, Paste), Format (same
as icons on bottom toolbar), and View (auto scroll, navigating the
document, and Preferences). Spreadsheet As I stated before, TinySheet has always been a major contender in the spreadsheet market, and continues to have a dedicated following. Since I am having so many issues with the new Quicksheet Premier version, I have been using TinySheet quite a bit more, and am pleased with its functionality and performance. TinySheet 4 supports the Hires+ display on my CLIÉ. There is only one small Tool menu in the explorer view of TinySheet to set preferences and to import and convert spreadsheets created with older versions of TinySheet. Tapping New or opening an existing document launches takes you into editing mode. Along the top are the Book (workbook management, Details, Find), Edit (Cut, Copy, Paste, Insert column/row ), Cell (Format, Freeze, Chart, navigation), and Tools (Preferences, Sort, Fill series ) menus. There are several icons along the bottom for some of the primary functions, i.e., details, paste functions, cut, copy, paste, font color, and highlighting. You can view the workbooks in standard mode and in high resolution mode (tiny, but includes many cells). I like the sheet management at the bottom where you can insert new, delete, rename, or edit sheets, and quickly jump between multiple sheets in a workbook much like the desktop version of Excel. Charts are much simpler than in Quicksheet, and actually use the full 320x480 display. There are 6 chart types (column, line, bar, pie, scatter, and cylinder) and several sub-types of each of those. No other program has as many chart types. Icons on the bottom of the chart provide quick formatting access. TinySheet also supports the most cells and workbooks, so if you are a power spreadsheet user I recommend TinySheet. Unlike the DataViz Mail program, iambic Mail can be used as a stand-alone e-mail program to use with a wireless connection or as an application to sync with your Windows desktop computer e-mail programs. Separate accounts (IMAP or POP3) can be established and managed. You cannot add custom folders for filing your e-mail, but most other standard functions are supported. The full 320x480 display of my NX70 is supported on the mail inbox view, but not for reading individual e-mails. iambic Mail also serves as an SMS application, and supports HTML e-mail. You will need a device with the necessary SMS libraries, such as a Treo Communicator. E-mail through Bluetooth, IR, etc., is supported, but I couldn't figure out how to get SMS working on my NX device. Although you cannot view all e-mail attachments, you can send and receive them with an external storage card. This program would be perfect if it supported multiple custom folders, which I think would be a fairly easy feature to add in the future. It only takes 200 KB of memory, and is a solid performer, even as a stand-alone application. Troubleshooting/Help Each of the three suites includes a decent manual that is viewable on your desktop and may be viewable on your device. I have found all three developers to be responsive to my e-mail requests, and feel the customer service has been top notch. Conclusions As you can see, there are some powerful applications available for the Palm OS platform in the office document category. Each application and suite has its strengths and weaknesses, and the one that you decide on will be dictated by the type of functionality you are looking for. As an engineer and a project manager I was looking for a balanced package that would give me charting capability and require the least amount of effort to keep documents in sync. iGo and iambic have powerful spreadsheet applications, but Documents To Go had a couple of other views and menus that I preferred, as well as the integrated user interface where all documents can be quickly accessed. It is really a toss-up for converted documents between DTG and Quickoffice, but the native file support of Quickoffice has real advantages for users and may be the better choice if you are using primarily Word and Excel files. Quickoffice also comes with a full version of Printboy, which gives you document printing capability. You can also buy Printboy separately, and it will work with Documents To Go for mobile printing. Documents To Go is also the only application that works with the Macintosh platform. However, the DocSync technology does not function with the Macintosh, although users can create Documents To Go-formatted documents using the Mac. A Mac-compatible version of Quickoffice is planned for the future. There is also an "Office" suite that Handango sells that is not an integrated solution from one company like the three suites evaluated in this review. The Handango Silver Edition Office Suite combines WordSmith (word processor), TinySheet (spreadsheet application from iambic discussed above), the free Adobe PDF viewer, and the free BigClock application for US$49.95. The Gold Edition adds HandDBase (database application) for $79.95, and the Platinum version adds PalmPrint (printing software) to the Gold Edition for $99.95. Ratings Defense Quickoffice Premier 7.1 earns 4.5 Geekheads for Quality because the latest version is stable, supports native Office documents, and has tons of options. I still keep getting registration key issues when trying to load it on external media, although the Help files clearly state this is not officially supported. Quickoffice Premier 7.1 earns the full 5 Geekheads for Geekness because it is the only program that supports native files and thus is extremely useful for business customers who are e-mailed Word and Excel documents. iGo's recent update to version 7.1 fixed all the issues I had with the last beta version, and even went beyond that with new features, bumping my ratings of Quickoffice up considerably and earning it a Geek.com Pick! Documents To Go Premium Edition 5 earns 5 Geekheads for Quality because the documents always sync correctly, and DTG maintains the best formatting on the Palm. I also like the integrated user interface for quickly accessing all my documents, and I can always count on DTG working every time. It also earns 5 Geekheads for Geekness because it works so well and is rock solid. The program also includes the most modules for viewing documents and files of several types. This is my pick as Office Suite "King of the Hill," and gets a definitive Geek.com Pick! iambic Office earns 3.5 Geekheads for Quality because the word processing program is fast, although it may be limited. TinySheet is a powerful, stable program that is an excellent stand-alone program. Iambic Mail is a powerful e-mail application that can be used to sync or as a stand-alone application. It earns 4.5 Geekheads for Geekness because it is a full office suite with a powerful e-mail program, but just falls a bit short in word processing. Many thanks to PDAGeek.com for helping us out by allowing the
reproduction of this in-depth and extremely valuable article. To check out
the HTML version with screenshots, check out this URL: Next month look for a feature I’ll write about my use of the HP iPAQ h2215 for a month. My Palm friends, the grass is not greener on the other side…for the most part.
SplashPhoto 4.0 has been released, the preeminent photo viewer for Palm
PDAs. Astraware has updated the favorite Palm game for many, Bejeweled. The
biggest improvement is added support for their new audio system. Symantec has released anti-virus applications for Palm. I wouldn’t
worry about viruses, but if you’re concerned, here’s more info on the
release. Astraware has also released a new game, Tip Top for the Palm OS. One
cool feature, not of the game but of the installer, is that all Palm users
install the same PRC which auto-detects the proper game version for your
PDA. Handmark has released a Palm version of Yahtzee. It’s very well done,
but costly at $20. Handgun is a very basic tank type game that appears to be only in
monochrome. However, it’s free, so what do you want? Speaking of free, Cave Run 2 is a fun little side scrolling game. According to most definitions, almost everyone in America is
overweight. Now you can see by just how much, for free. Thanks again to PalmSolo for contributing; the PTS is an informative publication because of people like him. I encourage you to send email with any thoughts you have. I answer everything I get, so please feel free to reach out. info@palmtipsheet.com. Subscribe Visit http://www.palmtipsheet.com to subscribe. Look for the Subscribe Today box on the left-side of the site.***Copyright 1998-2003 (C) PalmTipSheet.com. All rights reserved. There is no guarantee of accuracy in articles. The mention of a product or service does not imply an endorsement. Company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. This document is freeware and may be redistributed freely without modification by written permission. No portion of this document may be altered, reprinted, or sold to any person or entity without written permission of Brian Beeler. This copyright applies to all versions of the Palm Tipsheet, in any language, in plain text, HTML, AvantGo, Palm doc, iSilo or Plucker formats. Back to Top | Issue Archives | Home Page |