Complete Idiot's Guide to PalmPilot & Palm III (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

I own a PalmPilot, and this book is great for mastering every part of your Palm. Although many people don't like the Graffiti language, the chart in the front of the book with the Graffiti shortcuts has helped me with inserting text into my PalmPilot. Also, there are some useful applications that are on a CD that comes with the book that can help you with everyday stuff, like travel information, keeping track of your investments and some games. One minor detail is that most of the information is for the newer Palm III series of PalmPilots, so my old PalmPilot can not do all of the features mentioned in the book. If you have a newer Palm, it's a great book. All in all, this Idiot's Guide is much better than any Palm manual I know of, and it will definetly help you get started with your new Palm, whether you're an idiot or not.

Preston Gralla does it again! I got my Palm III last spring but had been unable to take full advantage of the many "high-tech" features it contains: until, of course, I bought this book! Whereas before my experiences with the Palm III were filled with frustration and a deep, abiding sense of inadequacy, now I feel I can use the device with my head held high. As the recently-canceled television character Buddy Farro, Private Eye said "That's what they're buying baby, Confidence, Style." (BTW Buddy Farro was based, I think, on a book by Elmore Leonard. Like Gralla, Leonard is a good writer, though he tends toward fiction.) I found the enclosed disk of Palm III software to be especially useful. I looked for days for this sort of thing on the internet, but was unable to find any. Its this type of thing (Collecting shareware aplets for a PDA and putting them on a disk included with a book on using the very same PDA) that is the real "Value Added" (As they say in Info-Tech) proposition. The next time Gralla writes on computers, you can be sure I'll be standing in line to get the book, even if I don't own the "hardware" or "software" on which he is writing. He's that good.

I have had my Palm IIIx for a few months now and am still discovering great hints and tricks to get the most out of it. This book is an invaluable reference, easy and fun to read. The table of contents and index are great- you don't have to read the whole thing to answer your questions. A hundred times better than the pretty useless manual that came with my Palm!I would highly recommend this book not only to anyone who wants a good Palm reference, but to anyone who really wants to get organized and change their life. The Palm is so much more than just a replacement for the paper planners we all used to lug around. It really helps you see how beneficial the Palm can be to all areas of your life- handling/tracking expenses, making sure you have all the reference material you need for meetings, keeping track of all those things you have to do, etc. Please note that this book is not designed to tell you how to program your Palm, but it is perfect for the other 99.9 percent of us who just want to get the most out of it that we can. I think that this is the best of the Palm books out there- give it a try and I am sure you will be pleased.PS If you are looking at this book and still have not made the decision to get a Palm Pilot, get one now!! I have always been a very busy person, and I honestly feel for the first time in my life that I am on top of things and more in control than I ever have been before.