WordSmith

One lesser known tool that deserves to be better known is BlueNomad WordSmith, which sells for $29.95 and works with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux PCs. Open WordSmith and you'll get a tabbed screen that lets you view either all your memos or all your documents.


WordSmith can display either editing or
viewing controls on its toolbar.

Doc files have an icon beside them letting you know if they're Palm document, Word docs, and so on. When you open a document, you can choose to see either editing tools or viewing tools in the bottom toolbar. The editing tools are the standard ones for changing the font, paragraph settings, alignment, and for adding bold, underline, and italic. The viewing tools are a great addition and let you scroll through a document either by dragging your stylus along the screen or tapping the top or bottom of the screen. You can also look for bookmarks or call up a list of the first lines of each paragraph with this toolbar.

Office 2004 Professional & Mobipocket Office Companion

Two unrelated office apps share the prefix "mobi-" in their names, so you're forgiven if you have trouble telling them apart: MobiSystems MobiSystem sand Mobipocket Office Companion. The similarities end at their names, however.

Office 2004 Professional (price $69.95) is a sprawling suite that goes beyond editing documents and spreadsheets, including apps for drawing, keeping track of your daily agenda, and working with Access databases. The document editor's main screen lets you mark each of your docs with a custom icon and protect them with encryption. Open a doc and you'll get a toolbar along the bottom that offers quick access to the standard formatting options. The toolbar is too big for one screen, so you need to tap a small arrow on it to see the rest of the buttons. The top and bottom controls can be quickly hidden, giving you more room to work.


Office 2004 Pro's document editing tool is the slickest-looking
in this roundup, offering a professional appearance and
quick access to all controls.

Unlike the others in this roundup, Mobipocket Office Companion isn't an editing tool, but only a viewer. It does a good job of reproducing office documents on a small screen. The standard version costs $19.95 and lets you view Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint documents. The professional version sells for $29.95 and adds Access, FrontPage, and Visio tools. Mobipocket works with the version of Word on your PC, letting you automatically send documents to your handheld from within Word. It's a strong doc reader, offering easy controls for you changing the screen orientation or automatically scrolling through your document.


When you send a document from your computer to your Palm,
Office Companion's on-screen controls let you select what
type of compression and security options you'd like.

If you need to work with Word or Excel documents, you can't go wrong with any of these apps, since they all provide clear, easy access for Palm users. Find the combination of price and features that works for you so that you can make your Palm even more useful.

--Introduction

--Documents to Go

--Quickoffice

--WordSmith, Office 2004 Professional & Office Companion