By Steve Niles
Palm, Inc. has recently announced a new, updated U.S. English version of its Palm Desktop software for Windows (Japanese, international English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese versions will also be available for download in early fall). Palm Desktop 4.1 (at http://www.palm.com/software/desktop) features a number of new enhancements, including an updated Windows XP look and feel.
Other new features include a flexible Launcher bar that will let you view either large or small icons and reposition the order of application icons; a new Auto-Save feature lets you set how often information is saved automatically to the PC; and a Delete Duplicates Add-in to assist you in searching, reviewing, and deleting duplicate records with just a few clicks. The new Delete Duplicates icon is pictured in Figure A.
FIGURE A
The Delete Duplicates feature helps you clean up your PIM.
Let's look at some of the other new features available in Palm Desktop 4.1.
New Expense application
There's a new Expense application designed to let you effectively manage all your vital expense information, such as expense category, date, vendor paid, amount, payment method, city, country, attendees, and personal notes. You can export this information directly into Microsoft Excel or print a detailed expense report. There's also a new currency exchange feature that converts foreign currencies based on customizable rates.
The new Expense application is pictured in Figure B.
FIGURE B
Manage your expense information with Palm Desktop 4.1. (click for larger image)
Note Pad application
You've been using the Note Pad application on your Palm handheld to create hand-drawn messages and pictures. The Palm Desktop Note Pad application now lets you easily read notes and drawings on the PC that were created and synchronized from the handheld Note Pad application. If your Palm computer doesn't have a Note Pad application, this feature won't matter much to you.
The Note Pad application is pictured in Figure C.
FIGURE C
View your Note Pad data on Palm Desktop 4.1. (click for larger image)
Personalized settings
You can create personalized settings with Palm Desktop 4.1. You can custom alarms and choose from 15 different color themes. I discussed some of the color themes available in the previous version of Palm Desktop in my article, "Color your desktop with fun new themes," in the January 2002 issue of PalmPower at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200201/themes001.html. The new color themes available in Palm Desktop 4.1 include Groovy, Lime Freeze, Sky Blue, Spearmint Wave, and Very Cherry.
The Lime Freeze theme is pictured in Figure D.
FIGURE D
The Lime Freeze color theme is soothing on a hot summer day. (click for larger image)
The Very Cherry theme is pictured in Figure E.
