To enable keyboard shortcuts, click on the Settings link at the top right of the screen, and click on the "General" tab. Look for the "Keyboard Shortcuts" entry and click on the "Keyboard shortcuts on" radio button.

I am a long-time user and proponent of PDAs with my first being a Casio "Zoomer" PDA way back in 1993.

The Casio Zoomer was an amazing PDA that was unfortunatly overshadowed by the Apple Newton’s popularity. Interestingly, the Zoomer had an optional version of the Graffiti handwriting recognition software which was later incorporated into all PalmOS devices.

In 1996, I next purchased Palm’s original Pilot 1000 sold by US Robotics:

{mosimage}

"In the day" the Pilot 1000 was a stunning, amazing device. Its power through simplicity reigned through quite a number of succeeding Palm’s models. But then something happened: feature overload. Along came color screens, expansion slots, MP3 playback, photo and video capture, video playback, Bluetooth, WiFi, phone integration, internal hard drives…the list goes on.

I then progressed through these PDA’s:

While the added features are certainly high on the cool scale, I consistently find that I’m simply not using most of these extended features. Some features are certainly quite useful, (I find a nice color screen to be nuch more readable than the original monochrome screens) but I find that most are simply not "essentials", and I never use them.

So this got me thinking about what features do I really need, and what features are just "fluff" that serve as nothing but distractions? And that’s important to me, because I find myself very easily distracted "by the device" instead of actually productively "using the device." In trying to achieve more simplicity, I decided to choose a device that would provide the functions I need while providing few extras so as not to be distracted from real productivity. So, I decided to take the plunge and convert from the gee-wiz, feature-laden Palm Tungsten T3 to Palm’s latest "entry level model", the Z22.

{mosimage}

So far, I have no regrets!

I’m not going to review the Z22 here–I’m covering that in greater depth in another article–but I am going to explain how some of the Z22’s features (or lack thereof!) are turning out to be very useful and productive.

Size

The first item of note is the Z22’s size. Wow! This is the smallest PalmOS PDA (save the wristwatch version) and I really find it stunning. Everything is proportioned nicely, and it looks very slick (kind of "iPod-ish".) It fits in my hands very well, and it is very front-pocketable. The simple fact that I can easily pocket the Z22 means that I’m more likely to have it with me, and I’ll be more likely to use it productively. While I was never ashamed of proudly sporting a large, belt-clipped PDA, being able to comfortably pocket the Z22 certainly draws less attention, and really reduces the overall Geek Factor.

Memory

The next item of note is the Z22’s limited memory. While 20MB can certainly hold a lot of data, coming down from a T3 with 58MB of space and my added 256MB SD card was difficult. The Z22’s 20MB seemed, at first glance, paltry. But let’s remember my goal: Simplicity. Over the last decade, I have amassed a large collection of PalmOS applications, so this presented an excellent opportunity to re-assess just what applications would be useful, productive, and non-distracting. The end result is that I now have all of the applications and data that I need with over 3MB free space to spare! I’ll detail my setup below….

Screen

The final item of note is the Z22’s screen. After owning several high-resolution PalmOS PDAs, I thought that reverting back to a 160×160 screen would be huge step backward. It turns out that I was dead wrong. The colors render just fine, and I can very easily view all the information I need to view in any of the installed applications without any problems. No, I won’t be showing off high-resolution photos or videos, but remember the goal of simplicity. I simply don’t a high-resolution screen to be productive with it. My only real complaint is that there is some "bleeding" on the screen, and text is definitely not as sharp as a high-resolution screen, but it is very functional, and surprisingly pleasing to look at.

As a side note, I do want to address PDA "protection". Out of the box, the Z22 comes with no case or screen cover. I’ve always been a proponent of PDA cases, so I purchased Palm’s Air Case. The Air Case is a clear plastic case that completely covers the Z22, and has a "flip" cover on the front. It’s made of the same material from which they make safety glasses, so it offers great protection, especially when in your pocket. You can read a more detailed review of the Air Case <>. This combination really can’t be beat for form and function.

Applications

So what do I have installed? Remember that my goal was to strip back all of the superfluous stuff that caused me distractions and prevented me from being really productive with my PDA. So, I assessed that I had, and came up with the following list of applications that I find to be functional and useful:

ZLauncher
(Zhangzhe Technology)
While this application could go somewhat against the "simplicity" concept because of its actual complexity, it provides form and function that I really like, and it integrates some essential tools that I find indispensible (notably, file management.) Its rich feature set, though complex, can be tailored down to a fairly minimal view that is functional, pleasing, and doesn’t distract.

Hi-Launcher
(RNS::)
I purchased this popup launcher long, long ago and haven’t used in a while, but on the Z22, I’m finding it to be invaluable! I assigned it to "trigger" when pressing the Contacts (right) hard button, so I now have one-touch access to my most-used apps. No more fumbling with the stylus to launch a quickly-needed app. This really more than makes up for the limited number of hard buttons on the Z22. Regardless of what launcher app you use, I highly recommend this one! UPDATE: This is an essential. I use it daily, and it has proven to be a true gem of an application!

PIM
(Palm)
Surprisingly, I find the native PIM applocations to be exceptionally useful. I have been a long-time user and proponent of Pimlico Software’s DateBk, but I find that the installed PIM applications have evolved into surprisingly robust applications that do almost all I need. For example, the Calendar’s "Agenda" view provides an at-a-glance list of upcoming appointments and pending Tasks which, though concise, looks great on the 160×160 screen.

LifeBalance
(LlamaGraphics)
This is a very interesting application that I am demoing. When I first looked at this program, it was confusing and not very useful to me–I just didn’t get it. But after finally understanding the GTD methods, this application makes total sense. In fact, its execution is really how Palm’s Tasks application should work. I’m still demoing it, so we’ll see where I go with it long-term….UPDATE: I find that though LifeBalance is an excellent application (and I really wish some of its functionality could be rolled into Palm’s PIM) I I reverted to using Tasks and Memos to handle things. The main reason is synchronizing: Having everything sync with Lotus Notes or Outlook keeps things consolidated and simple. Having to maintain data in yet another Windows application reduces my productivity.
.

MyBible
(Laridian)
I installed the KJV and Life Application Notes files, and they take up a HUGE amount of space–over 9MB! But, it is important to me to have this, so I’m willing to devote the space.

mNotes
(Common Time)
mNotes is essential for syncing the Z22 with Lotus Notes at work. For Outlook users, other excellent solutions exist.

Note Studio
(Dogmelon)
I am demoing this application to see if it will be useful for me for taking and maintaining notes. It provides a simple interface with a Wiki-like structure that could me manage notes efficiently. It’s kinda pricy, but its power through simplicity might prove very userful. UPDATE: I decided that maintaining memos works just fine. Though I do Wish that Memos had wiki-like links, in trying to simplify, it’s a level of complexity that I simply don’t find useful at this time.

Other Applications
I also have several other useful applications and some small games to kill time when I’m waiting in a line or trying to fall asleep. (Come on, you have to have some diversion!)

The Benefits

I find two main "features" that will benefit me in moving to the Z22: Design limitiations and size. Accepting the imposed design limitations has made me re-think how I use a PDA. It’s no longer the photo-displaying, video-playing, information grabbing, gameing, wireless data repository behemoth that I used to have. It’s now a lean productivity device that I can use and trust. And because the Z22 is so easily pocketable and easy to use, I’ll have it with me all the time, and I’ll be more likely to use it.

I am hoping that combining these benefits will give me a device that I can truely consider to be my "trusted place" to keep my thoughts, ideas, tasks, actions, etc. You see, one of the key GTD concepts is to get all of that "stuff" you constantly think about, dwell on, and juggle around in your head, out of your head and into a "trusted place" so that you don’t have to waste time and effort keeping track of it all. For me, a solid, simple PDA just might be the technical solution I have been looking for. Of course, being successful with GTD concepts means understanding that the solution is never in the divice or method itself, but how you implement and actually use it.

Conclusion

While I cannot say that the Z22 is the solution to simplification, I can say that in moving to the Z22, my PDA use has become simpler and easier–and I like it. I believe that "power users" should take a step back from time to time to assess just what they really use in their PDAs. I think they would be surprised at what is useful and what is not. And at under $100.00, it’s not that steep a price to pay to try out a Z22.

Update: 2006-04-18

I received an email from Mike Rohde of rohdesign.com , and it seems that moving back to more simpler PDAs just may be a new trend! Check out Mike’s article about how he transitioned from a lost Zire 72 to a Sony Clie N610C.

If anyone has any stories of their own about intentionally moving to simpler PDAs, let em know, and I’ll add a link here to your article!

Update: 2006-12-11

I’m really liking the Z22, and I find that I’m simply not craving the bells and whistles I used to have. Yes, there are times when I miss my Clie’s camera. Yes, I sometimes miss the Tungsten C’s keyboard. Yes, I miss the SD card memory expansion. And yes, I do wish it had a high-resolution screen. But you know, the Z22 really gives me what I need, and I don’t find its simplicity limiting. And I’m still amazed by its excellent pocketablilty.

In this tip, I will briefly explain how to enable Gmail’s new Rich formatting features, but first, I need to get right to the heart of the matter.

One thing that has bugged me all along with Gmail is how it handles the forwarding of richly formatted (HTML) messages. Whenever I received an email from an AOL user or an Outlook user, more often than not, it would contain rich formatting like different fonts, inline images, etc. The problem was that while Gmail would display the message perfectly while reading, when I went to reply to or forward the message, Gmail would convert everything to plain text, completely mangling the message. All formatting, inline images, and anything else that was not plain text was efficiently removed and forever lost. Needless to say, the end result was FAR from what was really sent to me. My biggest gripe was that if I receive a message, I should be able to reply to or forward it without its basic structure and formatting being altered.

Well that has all changed! By adding the Rich formatting editor, Gmail can now handle forwarding as it should. Kuddos to the Gmail developers!

OK, that said, here’s the tip: If you receive a message and reply to or forward it with the plain text editor, all formatting will be stripped and the message will be sent as plain text. That much is the same. There may be cases where you might want to do this, bit not too oftern. If you have the Rich formatting editor enabled, when you reply to or forward the message, Gmail retains all the formatting for you and you can reply to and forward the message with the assurance that it will be received as it was received by you.

To ensure that the Rich editor is enabled, just click on the “Compose mail” link or press “C” if you have Keyboard Shortcuts enabled. Just below the “Attach a file” link, and above the main text entry space, there will be a “Rich formatting >>” link. Click on it, and the Rich formatting tools will display. Next, just discard the message. Gmail will remember your setting between sessions. If you watnt to revert back to Plain Text, just click on the “<< Plain text" link to the right of the Rich formatting tools.

For a list of all the tools and their functions, go to this link where you will see a summary.

So not only do we get a very nice, fast, WYSIWYG editor, with the addition of this feature, Gmail, in my opinion, raises the bar significantly. Before, I simply could not recommend Gmail to anyone other than tech-savvy people, because forwarding some messages was simply too diffucult. People like my parents simply would have been confused and intimidated by the original design because handling such messages took significant effort. But that has all changed. It looks like this may be the answer to open the door to the masses!

With features like Labels, comprehensive Search, Rich formatting, unobtrusive, yet targete ads, and a gig of storage, I now feel that Gmail could be used by basically anyone, and now stands far above the competition.

Gmail now offers a “basic HTML view” that lets you access Gmail from almost any computer running almost any Web browser. Mozilla users and Safari users will certainly appreciate this one. According to the Gmail Help site, if you log into Gmail using a non-supported browser, Gmail will automatically revert to the basic HTML view. Just be aware that several features cannot be accessed from the basic HTML view, only the “full view”. From Gmail’s help page:

“Since your browser isn’t fully supported, you might notice that some of your favorite features aren?t available in the current view, including the following:

-Filter creation
-Settings
-Spell checker
-Keyboard shortcuts
-Address auto-complete“

Now to see if the basic HTML view works with my PDA…

Moxi’s very powerful and useful "Search by Title" and "Search by Keyword" screens provide an easy to navigate on-screen keyboard to enter search keywords. It’s pretty obvious that when you want to enter a character in the on-screen keyboards, you just move the cursor around with the arrow keys and press the [ OK ] button to select the letter. Pretty simple.

But, if you are familiar with text messaging on a cellular phone, then you will be right at home! Take a look at the keypad on your remote. Above the numbers are printed alpha characters just like on a phone keypad. When the on-screen keyboard is displayed on the Search screens, pressing the number key on the keypad cycles you through the corresponding letters on the screen. As you press the keys, the on-screen cursor moves to the selected key. For example, if you want to enter the text "the", just press the [ 8 ] key once, the [ 4 ] key twice, and the [ 3 ] key twice.

If you pause after entering a key, then the current character "locks in" and you move to the next letter. If you keep pressing the same key, it will just cycle through the available letters until you stop pressing. For example, if you want to spell "monk", press the [ 6 ] key once, pause, press the [ 6 ] key three times, pause, press the [ 6 ] key twice, and then press the [ 5 ] key twice. All text is case insensitive.

To clear an entire entry, press the [CLEAR] button. To add a space, press [ 0 ] twice. To backspace one letter, press [ 1 ] twice to highlight backspace, and then press [ OK ].

I personally do absolutely no text messaging, but have found that this is certainly an easy way to enter text!

The Google Deskbar is a little Google search tool for Windows taskbar. It can do most of the Google searches using shortcut keys too. (See the link for a picture.) It also include Google’s “Minibrowser” which is fast and cute. If you press Ctrl-Alt-G?by default, you can turn it off?you’ll go right to the bar. Typing a search, by default, will open in the mini browser?again you can turn it off if you want or have it use your default browser (Firefox, etc).

So here’s the tip: Go to Options > Customized Searches > Add. Name it “Gmail” and put in the url: http://gmail.google.com/gmail. For the shortcut I used Ctrl M. So if I press Ctrl alt G, then Ctrl M, instant GMail window in the Google Minibrowser! Awesome.

(Google Desktop isn’t included in the default searches either. (Yet!) But you can also add it in the customize dialogue to search your desktop just as easily. Since the minibrowser vanishes automatically it’s tres convenient to find a file!)

Thanks “Sketchee” for the tip!

Hopefully, you are familiar with Moxi’s “navigation” controls. You should be able to bring up the Moxi menu, scroll left and right through the different categories, and scroll up and down through the different category choices. In addition to the “Channels” list, you should see several categories like “Sports”, “Movies”, “Kids”, etc. These are the groupings that Moxi uses to give you quick access browse through these basic categories of shows. Like the “Channels” list, these categories show you what is currently airing now using a format similar to the “Channels” list including the “On Next” pane. Because these screens are more for “browsing”, it can be tedious to find a specific show, especially if it is not airing now. To do more targeted searching, Moxi offers three simple, yet powerful tools: “Find By Title”, “Find By Keyword”, and “Find By Category”. Each has its specific use, so here’s a brief rundown of Moxi’s various search tools:

The first thing you need to do is to navigate to moxi’s “Find & Record” section. Press the Moxi button to bring up the Moxi menu. Scroll left or right until the “Find & Record” category is highlighted. From there, scroll up or down to highlight any of the following choices:

Find By Title
This first method of searching is pretty simple. Say you know the title you are looking for, but just don’t know when it’s airing. Selecting “Find By Title” brings up an on-screen keyboard on the left side of the screen. You use the remote to enter the letters either by moving around the keyboard with the arrows and pressing OK on each letter, or you can use the remote number pad to enter the letters directly “phone pad” style. (Pressing “0″ (zero) twice adds a space, and pressing “1″ and “OK” backspaces.) Don’t worry about case.

As you enter the letters of the title, Moxi displays the search results in the pane on the left of the screen, narrowing down the list as each letter is typed. If the show you are looking for is in the current channel guide data, which holds about two weeks of upcoming shows, the show will display in the left pane. Press the left arrow to move over to the left pane and scroll up or down to highlight the desired show. Pressing OK will bring up the standard controls to either watch the show if it’s currently airing, or record the current or upcoming shows.

“Find By Title” is an excellent way to find a specific show or to select a bunch of episodes to record without having to set up a series recording.

Find By Keyword
This second method of searching takes the “Find By Title” concept a bit farther by letting you search through not only the titles, but the cast members, and words in the show’s descriptions. For example, say you can’t remember the title of a movie, but you remembered that “HARRISON FORD” was in it. Just select “Find By Keyword” and like the “Find By Title” screen, a keyboard will display on the right side of the screen. Enter the keywords you want to search for, in this case, HARRISON FORD. When finished, press the left arrow to close the keyboard and highlight the results pane. Unlike “Find By Title”, this is not an “as-you-type” search. There will be a brief pause as Moxi searches through all its data for your keywords. Once the search is complete, you can scroll through any results and view or schedule upcoming shows to record.

One small caveat about “Find By Keyword” is that you cannot save the search results nor can you schedule recordings based on keywords. You can only record shows that display in the results pane. For most users, this is a non-issue, but if you are ReplayTV (and possibly TiVo) user, this is a missed feature. None-the-less, “Find By Keyword” searching can be very powerful.

Find By Category
This last search method is for those times when you are looking for something to record, but don’t specifically know the title or show details. It’s similar to the Category browsing described above, but it goes much deeper. Selecting “Find By Category” brings up a horizontal group of major categories like “Movies”, Sports”, etc. with the individual shows displayed vertically under the highlighted category. Again, this is similar to Categories described above, but with two main differences:

First, the shows that are listed are not just those shows airing now, but all shows in that particular category airing in the next two weeks listed alphabetically. Again, this is designed so that you really don’t need to be concerned with when the show is airing, just that it is airing. Select the show to record, and when it airs, it will record.

The second difference is that in each vertical list, there is an entry labeled “More”. Select this, and Moxi displays more detailed sub-categories on the horizontal. You can drill down into these very specific categories to further narrow down those shows to browse.

ReplayTV “Zones” users will be at home here, but again, be aware that you cannot set up recordings based on these categories like you could with Zones, just record the individual shows or show series.

I hope that you find these search tools useful. Moxi, like most DVR’s, offers pwerful tools that the casual user may not know exist. So have fun and start finding shows!!

Just press Alt+Del to change Handedness.
Maybe it works with other keyboards too, try it.

Paulo Stockinger
pstock@palmpoint.com.br

By default, the Virtual Graffiti area on the Tungsten T3 displays the “standard” Graffiti entry area surrounded by four “buttons”. Did you know that you can change the look and function of the Virtual Graffiti area? You probably know that the “arrow” icon on the lower right of the Status Bar controls whether the Virtual Graffiti area is visible or not. This allows you ro “expand” the screen area as needed for those applications that are full-screen compliant. But, did you know that if you tap-and-hold the arrow, a small “popup” will display giving you the option of selecting among three input area styles? This includes the “standard” layout, an on-screen keyboard, and an “enhanced” layout.

We all know what the Standard layout is, and you should be familiar with the On-screen Keyboard layout, but what about this “Enhanced” layout? Well, it divides the Graffiti entry area into three sections: “lowercase”, “uppercase”, and “numeric”. In the Standard entry area, you write letters on the left and numbers on the right. Letters are in lowercase. If you write your letters OVER the line separating the two sections, the letters will be in uppercase. Sometimes, this can be confusing and prone to errors. The Enhanced input area segregates the three areas, each tuned for its type of input. This makes uppercase and lowercase entry more reliable. The only down side is that you lose the four user-definable application “buttons”. It’s a trade-off, but a good example of some of the enhanced built-in flexibility.

The main difficulty with WonderSilk Skin development is that there are no set “rules” as to what or how things are defined, specifically with regard to buttons that launch other apps. Unfortunatly, many of the skins I developed were just evolutions or modifications of prior skins, so they may not all be consistent in design. I may go back and tweak them to make them more consistent, but after reading this tip, it may not be necessary.

Buttons in WonderSilk generally fall into one of three categories: “WonderSilk Action Buttons”, “Silk Buttons” and “User-definable Launcher Buttons”

The first kind, “WonderSilk Action Buttons”, are buttons that perform WonderSilk-specific actions or actions that don’t launch other programs. For example, there is a “keyboard” button, a Backlight button, a Hide/Show Graffiti Area button, Cut, Paste, MP3 controls, etc. These buttons are defined at development time and are limited to the functions included in the WonderMaker program. They are more “gadget-like” and typically perform specific functions within the WonderSilk skin itself.

The second button type, the “Silk Buttons” mimic the function of the StandardInput Silk area (typically, the Home, Menu, Calc, and Search buttons.) These buttons have pre-defined standard functions except for one button: the Calc button. By default, the Calc button will launch the standard Calc app, but this can be changed. To change the definition of the Calc button, launch the standard Prefs app and select “Buttons” from the drop-down. The button on the lower right defines the Calc button. Just tap on the DropDown and select whatever app you want the Calc button to launch. This is the standard method of assigning apps to the “Hard” buttons as well (DateBook, Address, Memo, ToDo), but is also used to re-define the Calc button. The app you assign could be Calc, powerOne Finance, QuickSheet, whatever. It doesn’t have to be a calculator app either–it could be any favorite app, but I recommend to keep it a mathematical or number-related app because the button graphic typically assigned is “Calc-related”, and isn’t the point of most of these skins to make things easy to remember and intuitive?

The third button type is a user-definable button to launch a user-defined app. This is defined in the Kinu-Maru app included in the WonderSilk distribution. This is where things can get a bit tricky because there are no hard and fast rules to determine which on-screen button corresponds to which numbered function. And, I admit that I wasn’t always consistent in my button assignments. I tried to lay them out logically, but it didn’t always happen. That said, there are two specific ways to define these buttons:

1. Through the Kinu-Maru app
This method lets the user define apps to buttons in one nice screen. Launch the Kinu-Maru app, open the menu, and select “Launcher Info. Manage…” This is where you define your specific buttons. Just tap on an entry and select an app from the drop-down list. The only difficulty with this method is that the the button definitions are numbered 1-8 in the Kinu-Maru app, but there is no way for the user to intuitivly know the specific button on the Skin. To further complicate matters, not all buttons may be included in a particular Skin, and they may or may not be layed out in a logical order. This may take some trial-and-error, but you should be able to get it.

2. “On-the-fly”
This is actually the easier method that almost guarantees that you will get apps defined to the proper buttons the first time. First, we want to clear out all button definitions. Launch the Kinu-Maru app, open the menu, and select “Launcher Info. Manage…” as above. Check the checkboxes for all entries that have an app assigned. Next, tap on the “Delete Info” button and tap “OK”. This erases the button definitions. Tap “Done” and open your favorite program Launcher.

No comes the fun part. Launch an app that you want to assign to a button. Once launched, display the Virtual Silk area if it is not already visible. Next, tap on the button that you with to assign to the running app. The message “Save App Info !!” will briefly display and then disappear. The running app is now assigned to the button you tapped! The next time you tap the button, the assigned app will launch. Simple! If you make a mistake, just re-launch the Kinu-Maru app and delete the entry and try it again.

WonderSilk is a powerfull app, and though it is free, it does come at a cost: To use it well, you have to spend some time to understand all it can do. Unfortunatly, there is no way to pre-defin buttons “out of the box”, but then again, part of its power is its flexibility and customizability.

If you like WonderSilk, please email the author and tell him. If you like the WonderSilk Skins that I have developed, simply enjoy them.

As always, all my information is free, but if you like what you see and would like to help support JimsTips.com, please click on the “Donate” button. Your financial support, no matter how large or small, helps keep this site alive and kicking.

Problem is that none of the hard buttons are exposed in Tablet mode, and if you are like me, you keep the Virtual Graffiti area hidden. I just hate pulling out the stylus to launch an app, so how do you activate McPhling without having to make unnecessary taps? Assign it to the “Capture” button on the side of the NX!

1. Launch McPhling and tap the “Avtivation” button.
2. Uncheck the “Swipe” box and check the “Button/keyboard” box
3. Tap on the dropdown next to “Apps:” and select “Custom…”
4. When prompted, press the Capture button on the side of the NX
5. Tap on the dropdown next to “Back:” and select “Disabled”
6. Tap on “OK and then select your favorites.

So now, when you press the capture button, it launches McPhling and you can choose whatever app you have defined. Use the Jog Dial to scroll through the list, and press the Jog Dial to launch the selected app. Pressing the Capture button again will dismiss the popup list. To preserve (or actually extend) functionality, be sure to assign the “Clie Camera”, “Movie Rec”, and “Voice Rec” apps.

The only down side to assigning the Capture button is that you lose the ability to press the Capture button to actually take the picture/start the recording, so you have to press the on-screen capture/record button to do that. But to me, that’s a small price to pay to have fingertip access to my favorite apps!