What programs are needed to read documents on a Palm handheld?
The software you use for reading depends on the format of the document file you wish to read. There are a number of standard document formats available for Palm handhelds. Each has different capabilities associated with it.

PalmDoc is the original Palm handheld document format created by Rick Bram quite a few years ago. The PalmDoc format doesn't support any real text formatting (i.e., no bold, italics, etc.). There are many programs available for Palm handhelds, PCs, Macs, and other computers that can read and even edit PalmDoc files.

Some free PalmDoc readers for Palm handhelds include CspotRun (at http://www.32768.com/bill/palmos/), ReadThemAll (at http://maksee.narod.ru/soft/), Qvadis Express Reader Lite (at http://www.qvadis.com), and RichReader Freeware (at http://users.rcn.com/arenamk/).

A more sophisticated document format is Palm Reader. This format is really an extension of the PalmDoc format that supports text formatting, limited graphics, and encryption. It's the format used by Palm Digital Media for all the material they sell.

The Palm Reader program is available free from Palm Digital Media (at http://www.peanutpress.com). This program can read both Palm Reader format files and PalmDoc files.

Finally, there are proprietary formats supported by such programs as Documents To Go and Wordsmith. These formats support the very sophisticated text and document formatting required for representing Microsoft Word documents on a Palm handheld. These programs even allow you to edit documents and synchronize the Palm version of your document with a PC.

Documents to Go (at http://www.dataviz.com) and Wordsmith (at http://www.bluenomad.com) are both commercial programs that allow you to read (and edit) Microsoft Word documents and are also able to read PalmDoc format files. Figure A shows what a Word document looks like using Wordsmith

FIGURE A

A Word document as it appears on a high-resolution Palm handheld screen using WordSmith.

What do I read on my Palm handheld?
I fetch quite a few articles off the Web during the course of each day for later reading on my Clie. I convert these Web articles into PalmDoc format using the Syncplicity (at http://www.cognitiveroot.com) shareware program on my PC. I also use the free Sitescooper (at http://sitescooper.org) program on my PC to bulk load some larger Web-based material to my Palm handheld on a regular basis. Be warned, however: Sitescooper is a very sophisticated program that requires a bit of time to understand and configure. For casual fetching of Web articles, I find Syncplicity much easier to use.

I use WordSmith to synchronize a variety of work documents onto my Palm handheld. I always carry material related to the current project I'm working on. This includes the project's statement of work, interim deliverables, project contact information, and any reference materials I'll need. Some of the reference material I carry will be from the Web and in PalmDoc format. I use WordSmith to read PalmDoc files as well as Word documents.