The HP Palmtop makes me a walking reference library. I have a Dictionary, Thesaurus, Spanish/English Dictionary, the Bible with a concordance, 5000 quotations, a guide to thousands of movies, and several great novels in my pocket!
In most cases, electronic reference works are superior to clunky paper references. Finding related information is fast and easy, and many general, as well as profession-specific reference works have been written for DOS computers. That makes them candidates for the HP Palmtop, if you have a Flashdisk card large enough to carry them with you.
In this issue we describe how to use an electronic dictionary to quickly find the definition of a word, even if you don't know the word's exact spelling, and look up synonyms or a second word contained in the definition of the first. You'll read how you can instantly access any Bible verse and find out what movie won best picture in 1958.
You'll also discover ways to use the built-in applications to for reference purposes. Most of us already depend on the Palmtop's reference capabilities: our Palmtop PhoneBook references names and addresses; our Appointment Book organizes our schedule and ToDo lists; we press (F1) if we need to find out how to use a Palmtop feature. In addition, we use World Time application to find area codes, relative time, longitude and latitude; and we consult HP Calc for currency, length, area, temperature, and volume conversion information.
Many of us take things a step further, creating DataBase and NoteTaker reference files. Palmtop subscriber Lanny Staton describes how he stores Spanish vocabulary in DataBase to learn the language. Ed Keefe describes and provides a number of DataBase tools for programmers. CFO Michael Allgood describes in his user profile his use of Quicken to store travel expenses, and DataBase to store critical company information.
The ability to instantly access electronic reference material is a boon. Having all this information available to you when you need it, in your Palmtop, dramatically increases the information's value and your productivity.
Hal Goldstein
Publisher
Palmtop Paper