Essential Software

[ksvader]

Hello,

I just bought a Tungsten C over the weekend and am totally in love with it.

I've been using the Palm Desktop software as well as a few programs that came on the Palm Software Essential CD.

While the Palm Desktop software is doing everything I need right now (such as photo management, contacts, converting Word files, etc.), are there more powerful programs out there I should be getting?

Also, are there any software recommendation that are "must haves?"

My needs are:

1) I live in Atlanta, Georgia and my work requires a lot of travel via automobile in the state. I don't necessarily need a GPS telling me how fast I'm traveling, direction, what turn to take, etc., but a great atlas/map program would be nice rather than dealing with paper maps. Any suggestions?

2) The photo manager that came with the Tungsten currently is fine...but just curious if there is a better one out there? I plan to do all my photo editing on my desktop and just sync it to the Tungsten...so editing features are not necessary.

3) The Documents-To-Go program that came with the Tungsten seems to be OK. I tested a Word document with a bulleted list. On conversion, it seemed to lose some of the bullets and formatting. Should I get the DataViz Documents-To-Go 6.0? Also, is there a major difference between the Standard and Premium versions?

4) Speaking of Dataviz, how is Beyond Contacts compared with the Palm Desktop software contacts/address book? Is it worth getting?

5) Games: Have to throw this in there! In the little downtime I have, I like videogames. Recommendations? Anything but Solitare...

6) I have MS Money 2004...any good financial software that would sync Money 2004 with my Tungsten?

I appreciate any help...like I said, the Tungsten is awesome. I would like to use it to its full capabilities!

Thanks!

[Jim Cooke]

<<While the Palm Desktop software is doing everything I need right now (such as photo management, contacts, converting Word files, etc.), are there more powerful programs out there I should be getting?>>

Your only other choice would be Outlook or Agendus with Agendus Desktop. I use Outlook because it's much more capable than the Palm desktop due to having integrated e-mail. I'm not a big fan of Agendus but you can get a trial at the Iambic website and try it. I use DateBk5 on my Clie, which is a very powerful replacement for the standard Palm PIM applications. You can download a trial at www.pimlicosoftware.com .

<<1) I live in Atlanta, Georgia and my work requires a lot of travel via automobile in the state. I don't necessarily need a GPS telling me how fast I'm traveling, direction, what turn to take, etc., but a great atlas/map program would be nice rather than dealing with paper maps. Any suggestions?

HandMap and Mapopolis are two good mapping programs. HandMap has GPS integration and Mapopolis does also if you get the Paltinum maps.

<<2) The photo manager that came with the Tungsten currently is fine...but just curious if there is a better one out there? I plan to do all my photo editing on my desktop and just sync it to the Tungsten...so editing features are not necessary.>>

AcidImage and Resco Photo Viewer are two popular programs.

<<3) The Documents-To-Go program that came with the Tungsten seems to be OK. I tested a Word document with a bulleted list. On conversion, it seemed to lose some of the bullets and formatting. Should I get the DataViz Documents-To-Go 6.0? Also, is there a major difference between the Standard and Premium versions?>>

You can see a comparison of the features at http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/ . If you need Powerpoint, Excel graphs, and spellchecking then Premium is the way to go. Version 7 is the latest version. There are others here who know a lot more about DTG than I do so I'm sure they'll chime in with more details. I'm still using version 4 and find that it's acceptable for what I need.

<<4) Speaking of Dataviz, how is Beyond Contacts compared with the Palm Desktop software contacts/address book? Is it worth getting?>>

Unless you're using Outlook, there's no point in getting Beyond Contacts since it doesn't work with the Palm Desktop. If you are using Outlook, you should also check out KeySuite by Chapura. It has the same features as Beyond Contacts and I think it's a better program although more expensive than Beyond Contacts.

<<5) Games: Have to throw this in there! In the little downtime I have, I like videogames. Recommendations? Anything but Solitare...>>

Go to www.freewarepalm.com and take a look at the game section. There are hunderds so that should give you a start.

<<6) I have MS Money 2004...any good financial software that would sync Money 2004 with my Tungsten?>>

Ultrasoft Money at http://www.ultrasoft.com/Money/overview.shtml seems to get the votes at the best interface between MS Money and the Palm OS. I say this with the caveat that Microsoft Money is really made to work with a PPC so there somelimitations to what you can do with a Palm.