Palm Pilot Quickie's are little snippets of info that are meant to be quickly/easily read and hopefully help you become more efficient w/the palm pilot. Some items may be more useful to you than others, but that's OK not all users are created equal. These items vary in content some being general Palm Pilot helpful hints and others being specifically medical in origin. I am open to suggestions and submissions for any ideas or shortcuts that you have found that will make others use of their Palm Device more efficient.

Ever need to quickly send your personal information to a fellow palm user? There is a quick way to do this:

If you haven't already set up your business card follow these simple instructions: enter all your pertinent information in the address book select 'Record' and choose 'select business card' and answer 'yes' to the question. Now your business card is created.

Now any time you want to send this 'Business Card' to someone quickly simply hold down the address button for 2 seconds from any application and it automatically sends the card to the waiting user.

The address book in the Palm OS has many nice functions that allow you to add customized info so that you to see as much or as little as you want. Let's say you have a list of pager numbers you frequently call, but each time you need to call you have to open the particular record. Wouldn't it be nice to just have a list that you could skim and see only the info that you wanted? Here's how:

When you open address book, it begins in the 'list' view. The default in this view is to show home/business # in the right column. If this filed is not used it moves to the next occupied field and displays it. This could be e-mail or any other item depending on how much info you have stored in this person's entry. So, let's change that:

You have already put everyone in their own category i.e. pagers or beepers. Now, you have a list of people that may or may not be showing you the correct info. To change what shows in the list view choose the appropriate record, choose 'edit', then 'details' and in the 'Show in List' field choose 'pager' or whatever filed you wish to have displayed. This needs to be repeated for each user. This allows you to set up each record to display the number you most frequently use to contact that person. You still have the ability to open their full record should you need more information but this allows for quick reference.

Did you know that leaving the beam receive function enabled will increase battery drain? To fix this go to preferences/general and choose beam receive off. You can now beam items but not receive.

Now what do you do when you want to receive something but your beam is turned off? In any text entry field (I use the find function) write the following: shortcut stroke (cursive lowercase L) period i

This is a one-time switch after you receive the item, beam is turned back off.

Did you know that certain pen strokes have built-in functions in the Palm OS.

For example, if you make a stroke from the center bottom of the screen to the top of the screen you will by default get a pop-up screen that will show graffiti help. But what if you don't use graffiti or you are comfortable enough with it that you want to change that stroke to something else?

Go to the preferences menu and choose BUTTONS. Now choose the PEN option and you will see an explanation of this shortcut. You can change it to one of 4 options: graffiti help, backlight, beam data, or turn off and lock.

Choose the one that is most useful for you and stroke away!

Do you find that you write the same things over and over again? Do you often write the same items like the words meeting, call, dinner, appointment, www.coolnewsite.com, etc?

You can cut down on the wear and tear to your hand and the poor graffiti surface by using one of several programs like POP! or magic text that do these items for you OR you can use the built in functions of the Palm OS that you already have.

Here's how:

• Go to preferences and choose SHORTCUTS
• When this loads you will find a set of predefined shortcuts that you can add to or delete.
• To use the shortcuts you simply use your friendly shortcut stroke (lowercase cursive L) followed by the two-letter abbreviation for the text you wish to enter.
• This can be handy for entering www.xyxyx.com or other common daily entries. I have one set as shortcut PP (this gives the output Palm Pilot Quickie).
• Limited to ~44 characters for more flexibility try POP! very versatile and easy to categorize

Missed a feature? Find just the one you are looking for in our back issues collection.

Have an idea for a great Feature? Use our Feature Submission and tell us about it. Who knows, you may see your suggestion on the pdaED.com home page.