General PDA Tips and Tricks

Many of us use PDAs to help us keep our busy lives a little more sane. I have compiled a list of eleven tips for Palm-OS based devices.

The following tips and tricks can be used by anyone using a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Some of these tips and tricks can also be applied to specific medical/clinical applications:

1. Change the main menu display to "List" to see more programs on the main screen:

• Main screen > Menu > Options > Preferences/Display Options > View By List

2. Use categories for organizing information (Contacts; Memos; Tasks):

• Maximum of 15 categories
• Upper right corner > All > Edit Categories

3. Copy and paste from your desktop files or the web into Memo on your Palm Desktop software.

4. Hotsync (transfer information between the handheld and computer) regularly.

5. If you have problems, perform a “soft reset” so you will not lose data:

• Poke the reset hole on back of device w/ stylus or paperclip

6. Use the digitizer if tapping on the screen is not working well:

• Main screen > Prefs icon > Digitizer/Touchscreen

7. To find out how much memory you have on your PDA:

• Main screen > Menu > App > Info

8. To find out your OS version:

• Main screen > Menu > App > Info > Version button

9. To find out how to delete programs:

• Main screen > Menu > App > Delete

10. To learn how to use your PDA as an alarm clock:

• Set an appt on your calendar (“wake up”)
• Details > Check (P) Alarm
• Main screen > Prefs icon > Sounds & Alarms > Alarm Sound > High

11. To re-program your buttons at the bottom of your PDA:

• Main screen > Prefs icon > Buttons