# Gimme a little help with Palm Pilots and PDAs for a second. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 22, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014 "2002-08-22T00:40:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/1 "2002-08-22T00:40:27Z")
In the past few days, I’ve done a little research and made a decision to leap across the technologically-geeky divide. I’m taking on two other offices at work, and this sticky note method I have isn’t going to work anymore if I’m floating between three offices. So, I hauled off and bought an HP Jornada 567. I did a little [digging on the boards](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128660) and saw a thread or two that helped, but I did have a few questions: [list=1] [li] **Do I have to match programs to my PDAs operating system?** Kinda like back in the day, when you had to run DOS programs on IBM machines, Apple programs on an Apple, Mac on Mac, etc. . . Furthermore, what kinda programs and files can I download onto it, anything?[/li][li] **Theoretically, should my PDA work with different versions of Windows on two different computers?** My home computer has Windows 98, my jobby-job computer uses Windows 2k. Is this going to cause problems?[/li][li] **How did you like yours?** I guess it’s a little late now, but what did you think of yours? Any problems I should be aware of?[/li][/list=1] I swear, the Army should do a study on me. With all the other toys I own, I’ve just completed my own [_Land Warrior_](http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/photos/Oct1999/mout.jpg) for all of about $2500 bucks. 😃 Tripler 21st Century Digial Boy. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/2 "2002-08-22T01:31:02Z")
Trippler, do you mind a little hijack? Hope not… I really have no idea what PDAs do, so…how much would I have to pay to get one that can read either text or word documents? I don’t even need to alter them, just read them. If I could buy a machine I could carry around with me for not much $ and be able to read friends’ stories, it might be worth my looking into these mysterous machines. ---
**Author:** ![JustPlainBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/3 "2002-08-22T01:51:28Z")
You made a good choice, Tripler. The Jornada 567 would be my choice in PDAs. I work in inbound sales at [MobilePlanet](http://www.mobileplanet.com), and I deal in PocketPCs day in and day out, so I can answer your questions: > [@](#): > > **Do I have to match programs to my PDAs operating system?** Yes. You need to find programs that are compatible with the PocketPC 2002 OS. This [link](http://www.handango.com/mobileplanet/PlatformHome.jsp?jid=2F172FF31AFDC784DB34936X168589FD&platformId=2&siteId=31&zsortParams=true) should help you in finding programs. > [@](#): > > **Theoretically, should my PDA work with different versions of Windows on two different computers?** Yes. You need to install Activesync on the computers in question in order to sync, but Activesync works on Windows 9x, 2000, ME, and XP. > [@](#): > > **How did you like yours?** I don’t own one, but I’m constantly being trained on the latest products. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/4 "2002-08-22T02:06:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > \*\*Trippler, do you mind a little hijack? Hope not… > > I really have no idea what PDAs do, so…how much would I have to pay to get one that can read either text or word documents? I don’t even need to alter them, just read them. If I could buy a machine I could carry around with me for not much $ and be able to read friends’ stories, it might be worth my looking into these mysterous machines. \*\* I read full books on my Palm V, which is several years old now. I have some free software I use to do it, but if you had to, you could just copy stuff into your memo pad. IOW, the cheapest one out there should do the job just fine. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/5 "2002-08-22T02:09:40Z")
To read text documents, get CSpotRun for the Palm – it’s free and a pretty good reader overall. You will also have to get a utility to convert ASCII text files to the PDA format, but there are various free utilities around to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/6 "2002-08-22T04:07:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JustPlainBryan \* > \*\*You made a good choice, Tripler. The Jornada 567 would be my choice in PDAs. \*\* Aw sweet, that’s the one thing that did concern me. I haven’t played around with too many, but I saw one on display in an Office Max and then checked out the HP website. I’m glad I did - I saved $50! **RealityChuck** , you raise the point of ASCII text pages into PDA format. Won’t a text document work fine as a simple text document, or do I _have_ to convert it? Maybe I should just wait for it to get here, and then start playing with it. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by myself . . . \* > **21st Century Digial Boy.** Yeah, great. Can this PDA also automatically run a spell check for me? Tripler Ironically, the next line in the song is \* “I don’t know how to read but I got a lot of toys. . .”\* ---
**Author:** ![JustPlainBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/7 "2002-08-22T13:39:48Z")
> [@](#): > > RealityChuck, you raise the point of ASCII text pages into PDA format. Won’t a text document work fine as a simple text document, or do I have to convert it? **Tripler** , **Reality Chuck** is referring to a program for the Palm OS. You have a PocketPC, which already comes with Pocket Word. When you transfer .doc or .txt files from your computer to your PDA, Activesync will automatically convert those files into Pocket Word format. > [@](#): > > Yeah, great. Can this PDA also automatically run a spell check for me? Yes. Check out PocketWord and look in the Tools menu of the program. ---
**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gimme-a-little-help-with-palm-pilots-and-pdas-for-a-second/125014/8 "2002-08-22T13:49:10Z")
"Can this PDA also automatically run a spell check for me? " I don’t know about Pocket PC software programs, but I just bought a Sony Clie and it has Documents To Go on it, which means I have a mid-point interface that allows me to use Word files- so all the functionality of Word, then ship it to your PDA. Other than that, there are a bunch of text readers, and they each have ttheir ups and downs. But they have to be in their format- which you can get converters for like Doc to go, but it sucks when trying to download things off of the net from different places. [www.memoware.com](http://www.memoware.com) has documents to download, and an FAQ which has this to say for Pocket PC readers: ``` • AportisDoc Mobile comes in a PocketPC/WindowsCE flavor as well. • MobiPocket also offers a DOC publisher program as well. Note that MobiPocket Publisher is not 100% DOC-compliant, so if you use that program to create a DOC file, the resulting DOC file will include some "junk" that will be visible to those PDA users that use a DOC reader other than MobiPocket. • peekabook also handles standard Text files • Starbuck also handles Text, HTML, and bReady files ``` As for how I like mine- I love it! I use it everyday to keep organized, read stuff and play games when bored. Handy things, definitely. -Tcat