By Bill Mann
The best thing about writing on paper is that you're not constrained in what you can write or draw. You can print stuff neatly in rows. You can write in script. You can draw and doodle and scribble. Pen and paper have their own limitations, but if you can conceive of something, you can get it down on paper.
riteMail, from Pen&Internet, LLC (at http://www.ritemail.net), brings the flexibility of pen and paper to many types of computer, including your Palm handheld. With riteMail, you can draw and doodle and scribble right on your handheld to create handwritten email messages.
What is riteMail for Palm Handhelds?
riteMail for Palm Handhelds provides interactive, handwritten email for Palm OS devices. With riteMail you can send and receive handwritten email messages through wired or wireless connections. If the person you're corresponding with is a riteMail user or is using a Java-enabled computer (see "The many flavors of riteMail" later in this article) they can view your handwritten message, modify it, and reply to you in their own handwriting.
riteMail lets you write with various widths and colors of ink, using a pen, pencil, eraser and other tools. For those times when you need to draw a real circle, square, triangle, or other simple shape, riteMail includes riteShape, a tool that can convert your freehand scrawl into a perfectly formed geometric object. riteMail is thrifty with bandwidth too, storing and transferring messages in compact digital ink format instead of as large graphics.
Installing and registering riteMail
Installing riteMail from your PC is similar to installing any Palm OS application, with one exception. During installation, riteMail will connect to the default email program on your PC and ask you which email profile it should use. You'll need to select the name of the email profile you want the program to use and enter the appropriate password to give riteMail access to that profile.
Once you have riteMail installed on your handheld, you'll need to register with the riteMail service, as well as fill out the User Identity screen on your handheld. Use the same email address as you used when you registered riteMail.
Note: If you are installing a retail version of riteMail instead of a trial version, the registration process should already be taken care of.
The last step here is to configure riteMail to connect to your mail server so it can receive messages. For this, you'll need to get information about your incoming email server from your Internet Service Provider or network administrator.