Making the most of your Palm - Revised ~ teknologi

Posted on Wed - January 18, 2006

Making the most of your Palm - Revised

By now you know I use DateBk5 and PhoneMagic. Here are a few tips to capitalize on how these programs work together.

I live in a remote area, aside from groceries and some immediate items, I have to order practically everything I use. That means the web mostly.

With Phone Magic, you can enable phone lookup from any other application. It does take a bit of practice and a slightly different format. In the other applications, John Q. Public would have to show as <"John Q." Public> spelled exactly the same as the address entry. If I hadn't included an initial in his first name field, I could do <John Public>. Since there are two words, I need to include the quotes for that field. Likewise, a company with more than one word in it's name also show quotations, <"CDW Corporation">.

Of course, anyone I do business with has an address entry.

Orders are a bit more involved. I start by making a To Do from DateBk5 on my Palm with a low priority and a due date of when the order is supposed to arrive.

<"CDW Corporation"> order #1111111 - this is what I name the To Do

Then I click on note and put a word or two on the note.

Then I HotSync. On Palm Desktop, I find the To Do and click on memo attached to it (it will be named "Handheld Note : To Do"). I don't rename the memo. I don't change the date or time. I don't change the categories. And I don't change that first line of text that looks like gibberish, this is the formating information that DateBk5 uses. That way, the memo stays attached to the To Do on my Palm. I hit return twice after the last character on the first line. Then I copy/paste the order information from the confirmation page or email. I definitely include the contact name in <brackets>. I attach it to the Address so I know what I am expecting from that company.

Once the order arrives, I use DateBk5 to convert the To Do to a floating appointment, and then I change the appointment for the time when I got the package and mark it done. Order information is still attached so I have a record of when it arrived. After HotSyncing, I lose the attached Address information, but since the item is already here, only the pending orders show linked to the contact's card.

Specific and unusual one shot shopping items usually get their own To Do entries, and if I know where I am getting them I put the contact name in <brackets>.

Regular shopping is a bit more complicated. Each of my regular stores and a "general" one has an appointment template saved, along with a shopping list attached as a memo. When I know I am going to the store, I use the template to make an appointment for today. Then I go to the pantry, open up the memo attached to the appointment, and delete the items I don't need to pick up.

DateBk5 is set to integrate my To Do list and my appointments on the same page. So I always know what I am expecting or what I need to pick up.

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