About a year ago I wrote a review of the excellent Documents To Go Premium Edition 7.0 from DataViz. I recently got an opportunity to take a look at their newer version.

Like the previous version, 8.0 has a very well-designed and functional desktop application that lets you select files to download to your Palm device, and support to allow you to view and edit files from Word, Excel, and Powerpoint as well as the ability to view JPG and BMP files on your Palm. As I said in my earlier review, Documents to Go does these functions remarkably well and will allow you to do all of the common editing functions on these files and can save them in native format, which means that a Word file remains a Word file even after you edit it, allowing you to share it back to your desktop with changes and open it back up in Word.  Documents to Go is simply the best solution for working with Office files.

Read our full review of Documents to Go Premium Edition 8.0

Passwords.  Yuck.  You?ve got to hate them.  I mean, yes, we all know how important security is and, yes, having unique, strong passwords for every single secure site and account you have is the only way to be safe, but how in the world are you supposed to remember the dozens of passwords and account names you have?  You could use the same user name and password for virtually everything that allows you to make up your own, but that?s pretty much the worst possible solution ? anyone who cracks one account has access to every account you have.  Besides, there are still a lot of accounts that give you the password, username, or both, and those passwords are usually the ones that are pure gibberish and impossible to remember.  Or you could result to the sticky note on your monitor (or far worse, what a relative of mine does, a Word document on his desktop ? talk about an invitation to hackers) but while the sticky note approach is immune to online thievery, it?s kind of like writing the combination to your safe on the safe door.  No, you need the strong, unique passwords and you really need to keep them either in your head or stored somewhere that?s safe from intrusions into your system or anyone who can read a sticky note. 

For many people their Palm device is their primary way to access data when away from the desktop.  Part of the beauty of a PDA is the constant availability of addresses, phone numbers, and important appointments or reminders wherever you go.  This is even more significant when you have a wirelessly connected device where you can keep your device constantly in sync with changes.  But the default software doesn?t give you any way to keep copies of critical documents, spreadsheets, or presentations with you on your PDA.

My wife’s definition of a movie buff is anyone who remembers who directed a film, and cares.  Guys like Hitchcock and Speilberg kind of muddy the water on this rule, since the marketing machines have used those names as part of the advertising, but it’s basically a fair assessment.  If you know who Howard Hawks is, you’re probably a movie buff.  If you listen to the dialog in The Thing From Another World and suspect the director, or at least the person who wrote the dialog, was probably really Hawks, you’re definitely a movie buff.

At first when I looked at riteMail, I thought it looked like a solution looking for a problem.  The way I looked at it newer Palm’s have the notepad that allows doodling or handwritten notes, wireless devices already had a satisfactory mail solution, and you can always send mail when you sync using the mail software that comes with the Palm.  And all of those are free, while riteMail not only costs twenty-five bucks to buy, but has a subscription charge (after the first year) as well if you want to continue to send mail.

I recently got the opportunity to try out a few of the game offerings from Astraware. Astraware offers a variety of games, many of which are Palm OS implementations of Pop Cap games that may already be familiar to you.

This release of Quickoffice features an entirely revamped version of the Quickword word processor, including full text formatting capabilities and a first-of-its-kind feature that enables advanced users to edit documents using standard HTML tags. Users can select from a number of fonts and specify sizes and bold, italics, and underlined typefaces.

As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for tools to improve the time I spend writing, whether it’s a Stowaway foldable keyboard, a Hackmaster extension like MagicText or a powerful word processor like WordSmith. In this month’s feature article I’ll explore WordSmith’s features, capabilities and explain why I think it has established a new standard for Palm OS word processors.

When a user HotSyncs BlueSync will make a back up of the card on the PC. BlueSync will also synchronize items stored on both the Palm card and the PC, allowing users to copy files into a PC directory, HotSync, and automatically transfer the files to a Palm card.