Customer Reviews

Palmpilot: The Ultimate Guide, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

A must buy for any serious user who wants to do more than store phone numbers and keep track of appointments! The native software that comes with the palm organizers is only the beginning. David Pogue explains in practical and enjoyable terms ways to enhance the capabilities of every aspect of your organizer. The CD ROM that accompanies the book is an invaluble source of add on software(freeware, shareware and 3rd party). The book is an excellent resource for troubleshooting and expanding the hardware capabilities as well. I purchased the 1st edition and jumped at the opportunity to get the 2nd edition as the updated information was current and allowed me to take full advantage of new opportunities with my Palm III(with 8Mb of memory thanks to this book). This book has opened my eyes to the full power and potential of the Palm OS. Buying this book is a no brainer!

I bought my Palm IIIx last summer and recently received this book from a girlfriend as a Christmas gift. This book changed my life (even if I still has not read all of 600 pages). I thought Palm Pilot is just an personal organizer containing Address Book, To Do, Date Book and Memo, but Palm Pilot: Ultimate Guide showed me all possibilities of my Palm. With this book my Palm IIIx worth at least twice. I read about many great capabilities of Palm devices I never dreamed about. I checked the CD provided with the book and found many useful programs among 3100 contained on it. Now I use my Palm with spreadsheet utility, music database organizer, remote controller, scientific programmable calculator, e-book, beloved images collection... It also told me how useful Palm modem is so I bought it, too, and now I can surf the web, read news and do e-mail wherever I go. Buy this book and you won't be sorry any cent you spent on your Palm.

The Palm is really easy to use, and the docs included with it definitely help you get started.

However if you want to be a power user, this is absolutely the book for you. It's full of the cogent and intelligent, non-condescending discussions which make O'Reilly books especially successful, and is loaded with data not just about making your Palm a successful mobile computing device, but also trivia and history regarding the machines.

Each chapter has an "executive summary" at the end too -- despite the glib title those summaries cover, quickly and adequately, the contents of the chapter to which they pertain, which makes skimming considerably faster.

This is a superb piece of documentation on working with a Palm -- any one of them -- and the 3000+ programs included on the book's CD don't hurt too bad either.

I get antsy whenever I see a book that describes itself as the "Ultimate" anything. I've picked books like this up and they are usually anything *but* the ultimate. However, Mr. Pogue's book on the Palm Pilot may very well fill the descriptive title.

This is a very intensively researched book full of tips, hints, humorous antedotes and a wealth of information for any Palm Pilot user. It covers the basics of each of the applications on your Palm Pilot as well as many of the excellent freeware and shareware titles that are included with the book. For more advanced users, there are chapters on using your palm pilot to send and receive email, upgrading your palm pilot and how to use the desktop utility more effectively.

Yes, all the shareware/freeware programs are available on the internet for downloading and if you don't have a life and can spend hours and hours of your time searching the web for these gems, then you probably won't need the CD. I doubt that most people will go the former route though.

The book also gives a short "history" of the various models that have come out; from the Palm Pilot 1000/5000 series, Personal and Professional Palm Pilot to the Palm III.

This book will not necessarily "teach" you how to use your Palm Pilot. You've probably taught yourself that in about 15 minutes. However, what this book will do for you is to help you to use your Palm Pilot better and more efficiently.

Even if you don't need any tutoring, the book is entertaining in it's own right for any Palm Pilot fanatic. You get this gigantic book PLUS a CD chock full with 900+ programs for your Pilot. It's like buying the CD and getting the book free.

The writing style of Mr. Pogue is clear and humorous. I would recommend this book highly to anyone who truly values their Palm Pilot.

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.

This is an excellent book, but I think most people who buy Palm Pilots and Visors are technically savvy enough so that learning the basic operation of the device and 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 in to 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" that drives across the screen. (The Palm Pilot's original project 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.

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 hot-sync from the cradle, or by tapping on the hot-sync icon, without the desktop program being launched, another dialog box will pop up, and at that point you must select the correct 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 both units.

The couple of times I encountered this I ended up with all 80 of my utilities and programs scattered around in the wrong menus, or else they all got put into the "unfiled" menu and I had to redo all of them. Also, as my two palms were out of synch by about a week, and unfortunately the unit with the newer information was the one that got over-written, I lost a week's worth of data in my memo pad, datebook, and the other apps. So beware. (For me, this was worth the price of the book just by itself.)

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

I ordered my Palm IIIx and the book at the same time. Care to guess which I received first? Just my luck -- or so I thought. I'm glad they arrived in the order they did. I was prepared to use the Palm without even opening the enclosed manual!

One unexpected delight was the included Palm emulator for Windows. I used it to work along with the book and try applications ahead of time.

I really enjoyed the author's sense of humor and clear writing style. I would highly recommend to any other new Palm user.

My former boss at the computer retailer where I worked was an early adopter of the USRobotics Pilot, as it then was, and I could do little but follow his wise lead. Well, the PalmPilot, or Palm as it now is, has continued to improve and we've both moved on to later models. David Pogue's book is the one I recommended to my customers looking for a book to accompany their PalmPilot purchase. It is comprehensive, well-written, and includes a wonderfully useful CD of add-on software in both free and trial versions. If you own a Palm of any model or version, from the very first 128K Pilot to the latest iterations of the Palm V and VII, you need this book. You especially need this book if you sync your Palm to a Macintosh, as Pogue, Mac enthusiast that he is, is about the only author writing Palm books who has paid much attention to using the Palm with the Macintosh platform.