LapTopHack is designed automate the activities requiring a stylus so that they can be performed directly from your keyboard. With this nifty piece of software, you can keep your hands on the keyboard, typing away as fast as you want. It turns your Palm handheld and keyboard into a powerful computer that can rival the usefulness of a laptop! I wouldn't be without this software on my Palm handheld.

How does it work?
LapTopHack uses an "escape" key to let it know that the next thing you type is a LapTopHack command rather than data to be sent to the current program. The default escape key is the "`" (the back-quote character), but you can change it to anything you like. Many people find the "\" (the back-slash character) to be more convenient because of its location on the keyboard.

When you type the escape character, you'll see the LapTopHack ESC form (pictured in Figure A) appear next on the screen of your Palm handheld.

FIGURE A

Here's the LapTopHack ESC form.

This screen contains a summary of some of the LapTopHack commands available to you. You can also configure LapTopHack so it doesn't display this form, which I'd recommend after you become familiar with the commands available to you. In any case, after typing the escape character, the next character you type will be a command to LapTopHack to perform one of its functions.

What kind of functions can LapTopHack perform?
When using LapTopHack on your Palm handheld with a keyboard, you'll never need to touch your stylus. This Hack literally allows you to perform, through your keyboard, any operation that would normally require your stylus. With it you can select buttons, pop-ups, selectors, check boxes, and push buttons. You can pull down menus and select items from them. If all else fails, you can cause the pPointer (a small square containing a cross-hair), which appears on your screen. It can be maneuvered across the screen and used to click on a particular location in a simulation of a stylus tap. There is a category editor and a date selection function.

In addition to these commands for simulating stylus functions, LapTopHack offers a couple of handy utility functions. It can display the current date, time, and battery voltage. It can also adjust your Palm handheld's screen brightness and contrast.

Finally, LapTopHack is tightly integrated with another of the author's programs: pEdit. If you also own pEdit, you'll find it even easier to use and more powerful in its functionality when used along with LapTopHack.

Is LapTopHack reliable?
Like all other hacks, LapTopHack is no less reliable than any other third-party software you might install on your Palm handheld. I've had absolutely no problems with it in the many months I've been using this software.

How about documentation?
There's good news and bad news when it comes to the LapTopHack manual. The good news is that it's quite exhaustive in its documentation of the LapTopHack product, its philosophy, and the history of its implementation. The bad news is that it's not very well organized. I found that it can be quite hard to find exactly how individual commands actually work by reading the manual. I suggest you start off slowly with LapTopHack. Read through the manual and try using a few of its functions at first. As you gain experience with the product, go back and read the manual again and use its information to add more LapTopHack commands to your repertoire.