Many PalmOS users are unaware that their little organizer can be a useful tool for carrying and reading all sorts of ready reference data conveniently. The trick is knowing how to get all that information into the Palm.

One of the most glaring limitations of the otherwise extremely well designed Palm line of PDAs is the built-in Notepad application. It is acceptable for jotting down a quick memo but it can't really do much more than that due to a design limitation-it can only hold four kilobytes of data per note. This amounts to, at most three or four pages of text. Obviously, this won't do if you want to carry reference materials of any size. Fortunately for us piloteers, a very workable solution has been developed, the doc reader. The basic idea behind a doc reader is simple enough, get around the Notepad's memory limitation and allow the display of any size document, up to the physical limit of the machine's memory.

There are many different doc readers available. All of them can be downloaded from the Internet. At the very least, all can display long documents. That is where their similarity ends though. Some readers have advanced feature sets, some allow editing of documents on the Palm, some are commercial (read you have to pay for them), while others are completely free. What follows is a description of the ones I have tried along with my impressions. Almost all of them can be downloaded from PalmGear.

File Conversion-Unless otherwise noted, documents on your main computer must be converted to a format that a doc reader can handle. MakedocW and QEX, both available from PalmGear, make this conversion process very easy. Simply select the file to be converted, click on the convert, or load, command and the file will be installed with your next HotSync.

AportisDoc-There are two versions of this reader available. The first, a free one, allows you to load up to seven documents and comes with two fonts. The better Mobile Edition has no limit to the number of documents that can be loaded, has three fonts and allows bookmarks. Mobile Edition-$30.

CSpotRun-This is a very basic doc reader. It is free and has an easy-to-use toolbar. It is also very small (that being it takes up little memory on your Palm). It doesn't have much in the way of features but what it does, it does well.

TealDoc-A very feature rich reader. Supports bookmarks, auto scrolling, document search, three fonts, categories and images. TealDoc also allows you to cut and paste between Palm applications. For less that $20 ($16.95 I think) it is a great deal with no real failings.

QED-This is a generally basic doc reader with one significant feature. QED not only displays documents, it also allows you to edit them on your Palm. As such, it can be used as essentially a mini word processor or text editor. While I wouldn't want to write a novel on my Palm (I like Graffiti but not THAT much), It is convenient to be able to make minor changes on the go. One complaint, the interface uses an icon scheme that is not very intuitive. It is not a killer flaw, but you really have to read the manual. $23.

SmartDoc-Like QED this program allows editing on the Palm. The interface is, in my opinion somewhat easier to understand and the program is very feature rich. One interesting option is that you can upload and download files directly to and from the Internet. For $20, it is well worth it.

RichReader-RichReader is a basically simple doc reader with one twist. It supports RTF (rich text format) files without conversion. Since most word processors have a "save as" RTF option, this program makes getting information from your word processor of choice to your Palm pretty simple. $14.95

Documents to Go-This is a commercial reader that is designed to move data from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Quattro Pro and 123 to your Palm in the data's native format. The program also handles doc files. It includes its own converter and is the only one I have tried that handles spreadsheets. $39 from www.dataviz.com

iSilo-This reader is my personal favorite. Two versions are available, iSiloFree and iSilo $12.95. A document conversion program, iSiloWeb is also included. Both versions of this reader will display txt , doc and html files (webpages). Best feature, hyperlinks in converted webpages are preserved allowing you to effectively navigate linked pages off-line. The commercial version supports graphics, bookmarks, cut and paste and several fonts. What makes iSilo really special is that it uses a proprietary compression algorithm that saves more space on your Palm than other readers. Additionally, the document converter is extremely fast. A dozen documents takes just a few seconds to convert.

In summary, if you own a Palm, you owe it to yourself to give a doc reader a try. Aside from all the work related material that you can load, the Palm makes a pretty good e-book reader as well. There are scads of books online, many for free, that these doc readers can display. Once you get the hang of it, and it isn't hard, you will wonder how you got by without a reader.

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