Mobile & Wireless UPDATE reader Marcel Hofman reports
that he experienced problems synchronizing his Compaq
iPAQ 3900 with his desktop PC as a "guest." He already
had the latest flash ROM upgrade and ActiveSync build
(as covered in past editions of Mobile & Wireless
UPDATE). After further investigation, he found that
a soft reset appeared to cure the problem. In the Microsoft
article "ActiveSync
Does Not Reconnect After You Log Off and Log On",
the company acknowledges that this synchronization flaw
remains a problem.
As I told Marcel in a follow-up message, a soft reset
is generally benign on a Pocket PC device. It's roughly
equivalent to shutting down and restarting a desktop
PC. First, close all open applications so that you save
any changes you've made. Then, follow the vendor's soft-reset
instructions. Often, a soft reset will clear up an otherwise
intractable problem synchronizing with a desktop PC.
A soft reset can also improve performance by defragmenting
the Pocket PC's memory.
Earlier this week, I met with representatives of
Microsoft's Tablet PC development team. I'll have
more on that meeting in a future column, but in the
meantime, I want to pass on a tip. It's a weird tip,
but I'm told it works.
Handwriting recognition is one of the Tablet PC's
core features. A proper dictionary is crucial to the
success of handwriting recognition (or any other kind
of recognition). If you write a word that isn't in
the Tablet PC dictionary, the Tablet PC won't recognize
it. Instead, the device will use what its dictionary
does contain to take a best guess at the word. This
flaw is irritating at best, and for users in medical
or technical fields that use special vocabularies,
it can render the recognizer essentially useless.
Fortunately, a workaround exists. The Tablet PC folks
have evidently borrowed some of their technology from
Microsoft Word. For speech recognition, the Tablet
PC recognizer uses the same dictionary that Word uses.
So, if you install the speech-recognition feature
in Word, which lets you extend its dictionary, you
automatically obtain the ability to expand the Tablet
PC dictionary.
Can I sync
my Pocket PC device with Lotus Notes?
|
Yes, you can. CommonTime's Cadenza software replicates
Lotus Notes messaging applications to Pocket PC devices.
You can send, receive, and access all your Lotus Notes
mail, contacts, tasks, calendar, and journal information
with the same integrity as if your were at your desk.
Cadenza is available at CommonTime's Web site
on a per-user license basis and provides single user,
workgroup, and enterprisewide mobile computing capabilities
in the same package.
Can I view
Adobe Acrobat files on my Pocket
PC?
|
Yes, Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC gives you two ways
to view Adobe PDF files. The first option is to view
Adobe PDF files exactly as they were intended. The
second option uses tagged Adobe PDF files and provides
the best reading experience on handheld devices because
you can easily reflow text and images to fit on-screen.
The program includes two components that work hand
to hand. The first, ActiveSync filter, runs on the
Windows platform. This component prepares untagged
Adobe PDF files for the Pocket PC and transports them
to the user's handheld device. The second, Acrobat
Reader, is a Pocket PC application that Adobe designed
to accommodate the characteristics of small-screen
devices.
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