The Futility of Built-in Applications21 April 2003 On paper -- okay, phosphor -- it seems like a good idea. The Pocket PC gives you pocket versions of so many applications that you're familiar with on the desktop that it really is like having a little laptop in your pocket. You get scaled down versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, etc. For the average business user -- admittedly, more Microsoft's target demographic than us prickly writer types -- that's probably more than sufficient. For writers, on the other hand, there's generally better solutions for each of the built-ins. Here's a few that I use and why. Pocket Word: As I've mentioned several times in this column, Pocket Word is fine for most business writing, but sorely lacking for serious composition. I prefer TextMaker for just about all my writing needs. Unlike Word, it handles styles, footnotes, headers, tables, images, etc. 'Nuff said. Pocket Outlook (Calendar, Contacts and Tasks): The built-in PIM apps are actually pretty good, arguably better than the stock PalmOS versions. There's something intriguing in their simplicity, and I keep trying to return to them to save space on my 36.5MB ViewSonic (somehow my chosen devices always fall short of 64MB of memory). Every time I do, I end up reinstalling one of the Pocket PC SuperPIMs. The built-ins are fine, I suppose, but I really need more integration between my tasks (things I have to do) and appointments (places I have to be). This need for integration led me to PalmOS solutions like Agendus and DateBk5, where I could see all my daily commitments on one screen. On the Pocket PC, I tend to bounce back and forth between Pocket Informant, Agenda Fusion and the Today screen integration of Dashboard. No matter what I use, I need the ability to not only see tasks and appointments together, but easily convert an item from one type to the other. Tasks get done more often if you convert them to alarmed appointments and block out time to actually do them. Pocket Outlook (Notes): Both Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion provide a feature called Alarm Notes. These notes can be the free-form scribbles or recordings that most people use the stock Notes app for, but they can also handle rich text formatting, date and time stamps and alarms. This last feature is particularly useful because what what good is jotting down a quick note unless it helps you remember what you're jotting? Pocket Outlook (Inbox): Pocket Outlook's Inbox application is good. It's one of the things I couldn't do without if I tried to move back to PalmOS. As good as it is, WebIS's @Mail is better. @Mail provides better integration with the rest of your Pocket Outlook data -- like the ability to create a task to remind you to follow up on an email -- and gives you a tree-based view of such data that mirrors what you have in the desktop version of Outlook. It gives you the ability to read HTML email, where the default Inbox app can't read some HTML messages and strips out all formatting from the ones it can read. It also has great filtering features like the ability to show you just your unread mail. Windows Media Player: I don't watch videos on my Pocket PC. They take up too much storage space and how many times can you watch a movie trailer before it gets old? I do listen to music, and love to keep a few CDs-worth on my device for mood music while I'm writing. I used to use Windows Media Player for this, and loved it for the ability to use the space saving WMA format instead of MP3. Then I discovered Ogg Vorbis. Oggs are files based on a new open source audio codec that provides all the advantages of WMA or MP3Pro without any of the annoying licensing aftertaste. Even better, a 48kbps Ogg sounds about as good as a 128kbps MP3 or a 96kbps WMA, allowing me to pack an entire CD into less than 20MB. More music in the same space. Woo! For listening to Oggs, I use the freeware WinAMPaq, a WinAMP clone for the Pocket PC (it can even use WinAMP 2 skin files). Playlist management is lightyears ahead of WMP, and my music has never sounded better or been smaller. File Explorer: File management is part of writing, and a writer without a good file system is a writer that can't find or track his work. I made extensive use of File Explorer to organize my stuff, but I've since replaced it with DEXplor. Rather than the space-wasting panes of other third party file explorers, DEXplor uses an unique tree view, and adds so many features over File Explorer that I've lost count. It shows full file extensions, gives you access to all a file's properties, allows you gzip compress or encrypt files, treats zip files as folders and includes both a registry editor and running process manager. Well worth the $13 to register. Pocket Internet Explorer: For real web browsing, NetFront and Thunderhawk both do a better job of rendering websites than Pocket Internet Explorer. NetFront fully supports XHTML and CSS and Thunderhawk uses Bitstream's font technology to render a readable "virtual VGA" page on the Pocket PC's QVGA screen. Then there's ftxPBrowser, a freeware program that makes use of Pocket IE's rendering engine but adds tabbed browsing, full-screen views and flawless "fit to page" functionality. I do most of my reading offline, and I use ftxPBrowser for reading AvantGo content. I've found that µBook is much more enjoyable than Pocket IE for reading web pages saved to my device from the PC, my preferred way of reading web-based discussion threads. Microsoft Reader: Speaking of µBook, I don't have a single .lit file on my device. I much prefer to convert my .lit files to HTML and read them in µBook. The typography's better (I can read in Georgia, which I find preferable to Reader's Frutiger Linotype) and µBook is faster than Reader. I also tend to use Audible's Audible Player app for audiobooks instead of Reader since I can control it with the jog wheel on my V35 while Reader's Audible interface requires me to interact with the screen (which I usually have turned off to save battery life while I'm listening). Pocket Excel: I don't really use Excel at all, but if I did -- and I should, for keeping track of things like submissions, royalty payments, etc. -- I'd be better off using SpreadCE. This $20 shareware application is to Pocket Excel what TextMaker is to Pocket Word. It supports functions that Pocket Excel doesn't and edits Excel's .xls files directly without conversion. In short, there goes one of my biggest arguments in favor of the Pocket PC over PalmOS for mobile writers. I've got my Pocket PC just as loaded up with third party software as I had on my Clié, just because I insist on having the best tool for the job. Jeff Kirvin Jeff Kirvin is available for consulting on mobile technology. Email me today! |