PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide (First Edition) [Paperback]

David Pogue (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 8, 1998

3Com's PalmPilot is the world's bestselling hand-held PC. In two years, its incarnations as the Pilot, PalmPilot, Palm III, and IBM WorkPad have captured 70 percent of the palmtop market. About the size of a playing card, it's lightweight (5.7 ounces) with a touch-screen display. PalmPilot is elegantly designed and fast.

Dense with previously undocumented information, this bible for PalmPilot users contains hundreds of timesaving tips and surprising tricks, plus a CD-ROM containing over 900 PalmPilot programs. It covers the PalmPilot, PalmPilot Professional, and the new software and features of the 1998 PalmPilot model, the Palm III, as well as OEM models such as the IBM WorkPad.

This book is divided into five sections:

• Section One details every hardware and software aspect of PalmPilot as it comes out of the box: the stylus and the screen, the buttons, and the current line of Pilot models. A tutorial takes the reader through the palmtop's preferences and settings panels, teaches the Graffiti alphabet, and unearths surprising features of the Pilot's eight built-in programs.
• Section Two explains step-by-step how your PalmPilot can work with your PC: how data gets from your Pilot to your desktop computer and then back to Pilot (HotSyncing), as well as what happens to the data when it reaches your PC. Special coverage is given to Pilot Desktop, the Windows or Macintosh program that duplicates the functions of the Pilot (calendar, phone book, to-do list, memo pad, email, and expense tracking) on the PC.
• Section Three takes the reader beyond the built-in Pilot software to the best of the 900 add-on programs included with the book. They include such graphics programs as DinkyPad, PalmDraw, and the amazing ImageViewer (which unlocks the "black-and-white" Pilot screen's grayscale features); electronic texts with the AportisDoc teleprompter/reader program; and music programs that use the Pilot's built-in speaker. A chapter on learning to write software for the Pilot includes a tutorial in using Metrowerks' Code Warrior Lite, a programming kit included exclusively with PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide.
• Section Four takes the Pilot online, where it's ideal for reading and replying to email -- a great time-shifter for anyone who'd otherwise consider plane, train, or automobile time as downtime. Chapters cover the four Pilot Web browsers, paging, faxing, and (on the Palm III) infrared beaming features.
• Section Five explains simple ways to troubleshoot both software and hardware, including HotSync snafus and various software glitches. Special chapters cover Pilot fans' options for upgrading and accessorizing their palmtops.

PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide is the most comprehensive Pilot book yet written. With the cooperation of Palm Computing, 3Com, and Metrowerks, bestselling computer-book author David Pogue succinctly answers every conceivable question, unlocks Pilot features most users never suspected, and radiates the fun, passion, and sense of community shared by Piloteers the world over. The enclosed CD-ROM (which runs in Windows 9x, NT, and the Macintosh includes over 900 programs -- the entire contents of ISO Productions' "Everything PalmPilot" CD-ROM (a $25 value) -- plus Metrowerks' Code Warrior Lite programming kit. PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide is the essential guide for the PalmPilot owner.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

PalmPilots are like good video games: easy to get started with but sufficiently feature-rich that they continue to reward exploration and experimentation for a long time. Best of all, PalmPilots are easy to enhance with software, so there's a steady parade of cool code (most of it free) to play with.

In PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, David Pogue explores the full depth of the Pilot's hooky soul from a user's point of view. He documents the standard features of all the machines in the PalmPilot lineage (including the PalmPilots, the Palm III, and the IBM WorkPad), and then goes into great depth on lots of add-in software that's available.

If you're new to the Pilot cult, this book explains Graffiti and the other basic stuff. If your palm has held a Pilot for some time, Pogue will reveal many things you haven't yet discovered. Plus, there's a great CD-ROM with tons of Pilot software to try. --David Wall

From Library Journal

As of this writing, Pogue's is just about the only book available on Palms, and though it will reward primarily beginners, experienced users can glean plenty of new tips as well. Detailing all the models currently available, the book ranges from Graffiti to web surfing to music composition. The book is well written, the CD-ROM has lots of goodies, and the audience is growing: not only are there many Palm users out there already, but people will want to read this book to decide whether to buy one or not.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Bk&CD-Rom edition (June 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565924207
• ISBN-13: 978-1565924208
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #433,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Pogue is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times. Each week, he contributes a print column, an online column and an online video. His daily blog, "Pogue's Posts," is the Times's most popular blog. David is also an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News and a frequent guest on NPR's "Morning Edition." His trademark comic tech videos appear each Thursday morning on CNBC. With over 3 million books in print, David is one of the world's bestselling how-to authors. He launched his own series of complete, funny computer books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes 60 titles. David graduated summa cum laude from Yale in 1985, with distinction in Music, and he spent ten years conducting and arranging Broadway musicals in New York. He's been profiled on both "48 Hours" and "60 Minutes."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

202 of 203 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Palm guide, with super CD of Palm software., November 4, 1999

By 

Nathan Smith "Photographer" (Lincoln, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Palmpilot: The Ultimate Guide, 2nd Edition

I bought the 2nd edition the week it came out, and although I am on my second Palm (a IIIx), the first being a III, and consider myself to be a Palm guru of sorts, David's book is invaluable. For the novice, you won't find a better or more enjoyable tour through the Palm and it's features. For the accomplished user, you are sure to find many secret undocumented features that will enhance your Palm usage. The nicest prize, in addition to the book, is the new CD, which has over 3100 programs on it, just for the Palm. Yes, all the programs are available from PalmCentral, and individually from other places on the internet, but David includes a screenshot of almost all the programs, as well as a description of the program, and just by clicking an "Install" button, most of the programs are automatically placed in your Install folder. Finally, there is a link to the web site of each program developer's web site, so even months down the road, if you like a program, you can shoot directly to the internet, making sure you have the latest version of each program. This CD will be valuable for a long time, not to mention the ease and speed of browsing, which even my DSL connection cannot match.

88 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful book, August 12, 2000

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Palmpilot: The Ultimate Guide, 2nd Edition

Since there are lots of good general reviews already here of this book, I thought I would add a few comments I didn't see elsewhere.

Although this is an excellent book, I think most people who buy Palm Pilots and Visors are technically savvy enough so that learning the basic operation of the device or the built-in apps is not much of a problem, which is what most of the book is about.

That being the case, I think the best way for most owners to use this book is to do the following. The book has hundreds of undocumented tips and tricks that are worth the price of the book just by themselves. I would just go through each chapter and read these first, and not worry too much about the rest of the text for now. Then later, if you want to go back and read the full description of one of the applications or some other topic, you could do it then.

The tips and tricks are set off on each page with a little picture of an owl, so they're not hard to find. I actually read the whole book before this occurred to me, which was fine, but since then I have dipped back into many of the chapters just to refresh my memory on all the great tips and tricks, and I've found this to be a good way to pick up more time-saving short-cuts, or just new, fun ways to use the device.

In addition to all the tips and tricks there are several special sections I have to mention just because they're so much fun. These are the descriptions of how to access all the hidden "Easter eggs." There are more of these than I realized. You can learn how to bring up all of them, including the "dancing palm tree," and the little "taxi cab." (The Palm's original project code name was "Taxi"). Since there are several places in the text where these appear, the best way to locate them is to just look up "Easter eggs" in the book index.

There is one chapter, however, that I would read all the way through. This is the chapter on hot-synching. There is some good info here, especially on some of the more technical aspects of hot-synching, but perhaps most importantly, on how to avoid some of the pitfalls.

If you're an experienced Palm or Visor user, you may have noticed that this process isn't always as straightforward as the regular manual says, and sometimes it does some unexpected or even weird things.

Since we're on the topic, I have to mention one of these here. If you're one of those people who have two (or more) Palms or Visors, here is the most important thing you can learn about hot-synching. I experienced this problem before I encountered the explanation and fix for it in this book. (This was worth the price of the book just by itself.)

If you have two units and you hot-sync to the same machine or computer, you must give each of the them a separate name in the Palm Desktop software. You do this by clicking on the "User" box in the top-right of the Palm Desktop software program and selecting "edit users." Give the second Palm a different name from the first. Then always use the correct name with each Palm or Visor each time you hot-sync.

There is one more gotcha here. In the desktop program you can pre-select the name of which unit is to be hot-synched. However, if you do this from the cradle without the desktop program being launched, it will pop up another dialog box, and at that point you can select which name to use. If you just click on "okay" assuming that the desktop program knows which one you're using, you can still get into trouble.

If you fail to give different units different names, and furthermore, to select the correct one each time you hot-sync, the desktop software can become confused, and, as Pogue points out, may hopelessly thrash the information on one or both units. So beware.

All in all a useful book for any Palm or Visor owner.

76 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book just saved me hours of re-entering data!, December 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Palmpilot: The Ultimate Guide, 2nd Edition

The software CD that comes with the book is great! That's why I bought it. But once you start reading it...your realize the real value is the INFORMATION in the book. There is more in the first 3 chapters than in the entire user's guide that came with your Palm. I really feel like I'm getting the most out of my purchase. My Palm V froze up. I was about to do a "hard reset", erasing everything, but checked this book first. Sure enough, it contained a trick that saved me hours or re-entering games, hacks, freeware and other data.(The semisoft reset is not mentioned in the factory Palm Manual!) This book is well written, friendly, entertaining, and at 600 pages it's thorough. Get it!