Using a Palm handheld with a keyboard
One tool I consider absolutely essential to the Palm OS enterprise user is a keyboard. A keyboard is invaluable, especially during meetings. A keyboard allows you to rapidly and accurately take meeting notes. Bringing along a Palm handheld and a keyboard is a lot more convenient than lugging a laptop to a meeting, particularly when electrical outlets are at a premium (which is what happens in most meetings I attend). The long battery life of a Palm handheld allows me to keep taking notes during all-day meetings (an unfortunate occurrence, but they do happen!) while laptops users scramble for "juice" to recharge their machines.

The Palm Portable Keyboard is small enough to fit into my pants pockets, yet will unfold into a full-sized keyboard that's a pleasure to use. Keyboards for Palm handhelds rival the best laptop keyboards for ease of typing and are extremely convenient to bring along to any business meeting, or to use when traveling.

Keyboards are great, but why do I need LapTopHack?
Alas, keyboard users will soon encounter a small but quite annoying inconvenience when using their keyboards. The simple fact is that the Palm OS was never designed with a keyboard in mind. It was created with the assumption that the user would be interacting with their Palm handheld by using a stylus. So, doing most any action on a Palm handheld requires that the stylus be used to select a program icon, select an item from a drop-down menu, select a checkbox or radio button, or perform a drag operation to select text. There are some keyboard shortcuts for menu items, and the Palm Portable Keyboard driver software supports a few specialized functions like scrolling. However, most of the time, if you're using a keyboard, you're going to have to remove your hands from the keyboard, grab a stylus, and use it to perform some action.

Although this may sound trivial, it can be quite distracting and downright annoying when you're trying to type something quickly. Try using a keyboard with your Palm handheld on a regular basis and you'll soon find yourself wishing there was some way to avoid having to perform all those stylus actions.