• In most Palm apps you can just start writing text or numbers to create a new appointment, task, or memo. You don't have to hit the button.
• You can turn on your device and launch the selected app by pressing the hardware buttons on the front. You don't have to turn the device on first.
• You can change the function of these hard buttons to launch 3rd party software instead. For example, you could map the date book button to "Datebk5" or Agendus. To do this go into the "Prefs" app and select "Buttons" from the drop down list in the upper right corner.
• To adjust the backlight on newer palmOne and CLIE PDA's, tap the brightness icon in the Graffiti area or tap on the clock in the status bar. For older devices, you trigger the backlight by holding down the on/off switch for a couple seconds.
• If you travel a lot, you can purchase a travel cable so you don't have to lug around the desktop cradle. You can also synchronize through infrared if you have time to mess around with getting it to work.
• You can setup a business card to beam whenever you press and hold the hard contact button on the Palm. To do this, select the address card you want, pull up the menu, and tap "Select Business Card".
• The Palm Find function searches through all Palm databases, but it starts with the one used by the current application. To speed up your search when you know what database the information you need is in, launch that app first. For example, if you are looking for an appointment then launch Datebook before you hit the Find button.

Ways to Reset Your Handheld

There are three different ways to reset your Palm OS handheld. If you encounter problems or your device crashes, try these in order to try to fix the problem. The first two do NOT result in data loss. The second option is a great trick that many people are not familiar with.

1. Soft Reset - Just hit the reset pin in the back and the Palm reboots. However, all software patches, drivers, etc. are loaded just as before. It can "fix" certain issues similar to rebooting your PC.

2. Non-Notify Reset - Hold the UP button while hitting the reset pin. This reboots the Palm but does NOT load software patches and drivers. You won't be able to use your SD card or bluetooth or anything. You will NOT lose any data. This is similar to booting Windows in "safe" mode.

3. Hard Reset - Hold the POWER button while hitting the reset pin. Then press the UP button when prompted to ERASE all data. This is like reformatting your entire hard drive except for the operating system itself.

4. "Zero Out" Reset (Tungsten T5/Treo 650 Only) - If you want or need to reset your Tungsten T5 to its factory state, then you need to perform this special reset. This special reset is needed because of the special persistent (non-volatile) memory on the T5. The easy way is to make sure you have a PASSWORD set on your device and then perform a normal Hard Reset above. If you want to perform this reset manually without assigning a password, then read this palmOne knowledge-base article.

More Tips

• Digital World has a good article on the 10 most common Palm issues and how to resolve them. It includes hotsync problems, palm lockups, etc.

Published on: 2006-07-04 (51069 reads)
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