World Time

Using World Time (95LX) (100/200LX)

The World Time feature lets you compare the date and time in cities around the world with that of your home base, or "Local City."

On the HP 95LX

Select Local City -- World Time is found in the Appointment Book application by pressing (F9) (Watch). Use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the Local City field and press (F2) for the City list. Select the desired city and press (ENTER). If the city you want is not in the list, press (F8) (Insert) to add a new city and then press (ENTER). If you change the Local City and the time is different from the current time on your system clock, you will be asked if you want to change the system date and time.
Using World Time -- APPT's Watch screen (F9) displays the Local City and a single World City, along with their current times. To see what time it is in another World City, tab to World City and press (F2) for a list. Highlight the desired city and press (ENTER).

Let's say you need to call a client in Australia, at 9:00 AM Monday morning (his time). You want to know what time in Chicago (your Local City) place the call. Change the World City to Sydney, Australia. You'll see that Sydney is 8 hours earlier, that is, 9:30 AM in Chicago is 1:30 AM in Sydney. Also note that it is the next day in Sydney. So, to figure Chicago's time for 9:00 AM Monday in Sydney, add 8 hours to Sydney's time and subtract one day. In this case, make your call at 5:00 PM on Sunday instead of Monday.

On the HP 100/200LX

Selecting Local City -- The first step is to select a Local City. Press (&...) World Time to display the All Cities screen.

WorldTime All Cities Screen: Graphic

Start typing in the name of your home base (e.g. Chicago). When the highlight bar rests on Chicago, press (F7) to select it as your Local City. If the city you want is not listed press (F2) to add a new city and then press (F7).

When you select a new Local City, you're asked if you want to update the time on the Palmtop's system clock. Yes changes the system clock to match the time of the Local City. No changes the selected city's time to the current system time.

Using World Time -- The All Cities screen displays the Local City and its time at the top of the screen. The world cities are listed alphabetically below, with their current time.

World Time in the 100/200LX has added the Convert function to automate the process of finding the time in your Local City, (Chicago in our example) based on the time in another city (Sydney). Move the cursor to Sydney in the All Cities list, press (F8) (Convert), type in 9:00 am and press (ENTER). Your Local City, Chicago, will display the time -5:00 PM. The negative sign (-) means the day before, so to call Sydney at 9:00 AM Monday, you should set an APPT alarm to call at 5:00 PM Sunday. Press (ESC) to return all the cities to their current times relative to the Local City's current time.

Robert Roney

Editor, The HP Palmtop Paper