How to do Everything with Your Zire Handheld

226 Pages·2003·4.654 MB·English

by  Broida, Rick, Johnson, Dave

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Zire
Handheld
Dave Johnson
Rick Broida
McGraw-Hill/Osborne
New York Chicago San Francisco
Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City
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Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
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For Matt Hoef, who honors me with his friendship.
—Rick
For everyone who secretly believes that The Velvet Underground’s “I’ll Be Your
Mirror” is really about them.
—Dave
About the Authors
Dave Johnsonis the editor of Handheld Computing Mobility magazine; he also writes about
digital photography for PC World magazine. In addition, he’s the author of two dozen books
includingBuild Your Own Combat Robot,How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera,
How to Do Everything with MP3 and Digital Music(written with Rick Broida),andHow to Use
Digital Video.His short story for early readers,The Wild Cookie, has been transformed into an
interactive storybook on CD-ROM. In his spare time, Dave is a scuba instructor and wildlife
photographer.
Rick Broidahas written about computers and technology for more than a decade. A regular
contributor to CNET andComputer Shopper, he specializes in mobile technology. In 1997,
recognizing the unparalleled popularity of Palm handhelds and the need for a printed resource for
users, he foundedHandheld Computing(formerlyTap Magazine). He currently serves as editor
of that magazine, which now includes all handheld platforms and devices. Rick also provides
handheld-computing training seminars for corporate users and educators. He lives in Michigan
with his wife and two children.
About the Technical Editor
Denny Atkinhas been writing about technology since 1987, and about handheld computers
since the Newton’s release in 1993. After working with such pioneering technology magazines as
Compute!andOmni, he’s now editorial director ofHandheld ComputingandMobility Magazine.
Atkin lives with his wife, son, and giant Maine Coon cat in Vermont, a state where PDAs are
nearly as popular as maple syrup.
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Contents
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
CHAPTER 1 Welcome to Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A Brief History of Handhelds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What Makes Handheld PCs So Great? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Zire 101: The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 2 Get to Know Your Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A Guided Tour of the Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Using Your Zire for the First Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Getting to Know the Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Setting Zire Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
An Introduction to Palm Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
CHAPTER 3 Getting Set Up with Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Plugging It All In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Installing the Desktop Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Your First HotSync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
HotSync as a Way of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
CHAPTER 4 Getting Information In and Out of Your Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Three Ways to Enter Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Getting to Know Graffiti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Beaming Data Between PDAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Installing New Software on Your Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER 5 The Date Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
View Your Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Manage Your Day from the Agenda View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Create New Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Work with Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Work with the Palm Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
The Windows Date Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Using Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
CHAPTER 6 The Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
View Your Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Create New Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Assign Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Edit and Delete Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Create and Beam Your Business Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Work with the Palm Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
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Contents
CHAPTER 7 The To Do List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
View the To Do List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Create a To Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Work with the List View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Delete Old To Dos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Share Your To Dos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Work with the Palm Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Using Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
CHAPTER 8 The Memo Pad and Note Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Where’s the Memo Pad Button? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Viewing the Memo Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Creating New Memos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Arranging Memos in the Memo List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Working with Your Memos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Working with Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Working in the Palm Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
The Windows Note Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Using Outlook with the Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
CHAPTER 9 The Rest of the Palm OS Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Zire Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
The Find Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
The Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
All About Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Alternatives to Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
CHAPTER 10 The Internet in Your Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Channel Surf with AvantGo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Vindigo: A Concierge in Your Pocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
CHAPTER 11 Throw Away Your PC! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Building the Perfect Beast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
The Wonderful World of E-Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Creating and Editing Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Printing from Your Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
CHAPTER 12 Games and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Turn Your Zire into a Game Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Sketch and Draw on Your Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Collaborate on a Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Make Music on Your Zire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
CHAPTER 13 Graffiti Enhancements and Other Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
X-Master and the Wonderful World of “Hacks” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Other Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Organize Icons with a Launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Graffiti Enhancements and Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
CHAPTER 14 Problems and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Cure Zire Problems with a Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Avoid Battery Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Fix Scratched Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
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HowtoDoEverythingwithYourZireHandheld
Fix a Screen That No Longer Responds Properly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Reclaim Memory for Software and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Resolve Hack Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Fix a Zire that Won’t “Wake Up” for Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Beaming Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Deal with a Zire that Will No Longer HotSync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Manage Multiple Zires or PCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Where to Find Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
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Acknowledgments
This book was great fun to write, due in no small part to the great team at Osborne. Our thanks as
always to Jane Brownlow, Tana Allen, Elizabeth Seymour, and Lyssa Wald. We’d especially like
to thank tech editor Denny Atkin, who corrected the wildly inaccurate things we wrote.
Rick would also like to think Dave for staying on his meds long enough to write semi-lucid
chapters. See, pal? Modern medicine works!
Dave would like to applaud Rick for finally getting his equivalency diploma—and just
months before completing his sentence. Way to go, dude! Don’t forget: you can keep reading
even now that you no longer have access to the prison library.
Finally, thanks as always to our amazingly supportive families, who give us the time and
space we need to get the work done, without so much as a single complaint.
Introduction
Zire handhelds are such neat little devices that any book about them runs the risk of reading like
a promotional brochure. We’ve written thousands of pages about the Windows platform, and half
of it always seems to be apologetic. “Computer locked up again? You need to reboot and send
$94 in cash to Microsoft. . . .” Books about computers are often more about getting it to work in
the first place or explaining why it doesn’t work right than about telling you what you can
actually accomplish.
Not the Zire, though. It’s one of the most forgiving, user-friendly, and non-crashable
computers ever created. And because it suffers from so few technical glitches, we were able to
devote this book to work and play—accomplishing stuff while making your life more fun and
efficient.
The book starts at the beginning (unlike those that start around, say, the midway point). First,
we give you some of the history of handheld computers like the Zire. From there, you get a
guided tour of your Zire and the accompanying desktop software. We teach you to navigate the
core software, to input data, and to share information with your PC as well as other handheld
devices.
Next, we show you the Zire’s core applications and then tell you stuff you’d never think
of—like how to get the most out of your Zire when you go on a business trip. Think your new
handheld can’t take the place of a laptop computer? Think again (and read Chapter 11).
vii
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HowtoDoEverythingwithYourZireHandheld
The remainder of the book goes “beyond the box,” and that’s where things really get
interesting. Read those chapters and you’ll learn how to download Web pages to your Zire,
manage your finances, track your stocks, and balance your checkbook. We also delve into the
arts, with chapters on painting pictures and playing music. You might not think there’s a lot to
say about playing games, but a whole world of entertainment awaits you—and we show you how
to tap into it (pun intended). In fact, you might throw away your Game Boy after reading Chapter
12. And, yes, we said people rarely have trouble with their Zires, but it does happen occasionally.
We have that covered as well.
We wrote this book so you could sit down and read it through like a novel. But if you’re
looking for specific information, we made it easy to find. Plus, you can find special elements to
help you get the most out of the book:
■
How to… These special boxes explain, in a nutshell, how to accomplish key tasks.
Read them to discover key points covered in each chapter.
■
Notes These provide extra information that’s often very important to gain
understanding of a particular topic.
■
Tips These tell you how to do something smarter or faster.
■
Sidebars Here we address related—and, sometimes, unrelated—topics. Sidebars can
be pretty interesting, if only to see us bicker like an old married couple.
Can’t get enough of our witty banter? See the back page of Handheld Computing Magazine,
where we continue our lively Head2Head column. You can also send questions and comments to
us [email protected]@broida.com. Thanks, and enjoy reading the book!
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