My husband (Mr. gadget freak) just bought a handheld computer of some sort from Dell. Sorry, but that's all I know about it at this point. I know that some people load all their travel book information into these and then don't take any guidebooks. DH keeps telling me that this is better than dragging all those books along (I'm notorious for this). Is this actually a feasible solution? How does one go about doing this? Do I just buy an e-book?

Also, I typically get tons of books from my local library and then Xerox those pages I want. Then I have just what I want for reference.

Do you have any thoughts about using one of these devices for travel? Thanks.

I have about three ways of doing it:

First, buy e-books. I like the Rough Guides.

Second, clip threads from travel forums like this one.

Finally, instead of xeroxing pages and pages of printed guides to lug around, I scan them and download the images.

The first two methods are preferable to the third, because when text is entered, it can be searched by the program. Scans are just pictures and their content can't be "seen" by a program.

Tell DH that hundreds of maps and other documents in pdf format can be found on the web. They require the free Acrobat Reader program from http://www.adobe.com/products/acroba...p2_mobile.html

I think the Rough Guides have both e-books and also hard-copy books called "Directions" that come with a mini-Cd.

Hi J,

Mr Gadget Freak ought to know how to do this.
(There is text-scanning software for Windows 98 2nd Ed and Windows XP)

My Lady Wife (who, like me, prefers paper copy) would not bother to learn how.

Also keep in mind that if you can't use the handheld, he will have to navigate if you will be driving.

I haven't seen an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program under $1000 that was worth spit. But fortunately, there are 424 eBooks in Microsoft's Travel section:

http://www.mslit.com/default.asp?mjr=TRV

"Also keep in mind that if you can't use the handheld, he will have to navigate if you will be driving." - In my experience, a reasonably intelligent co-pilot can acquire the requisite skill in less than two minutes.

I continue to be amazed that people actually find their way around cities with metros much less whole countries the old-fashioned way..and then some of them actually (can you believe it???) commit some of those routes to memory, a memory I might add, that rarely needs to be electrically re-charged.

I continue to be amazed that people actually find their way around cities with metros much less whole countries the old-fashioned way...and then some of them actually (can you believe it???) commit some of those routes to memory, a memory I might add, that rarely needs to be electrically re-charged.

I think the idea of being able to download such a wealth of information to a handheld is really wonderful and what is even MORE wonderful is the operator's willingness, and ability, to share the techniques of doing so with others in a way that is non-threatening.

Hopefully, Mr. Gadget Freak is one of those and YOU are not allowing all of it to intimidate you.

There's a wealth of nifty programs for travelers available for PDA's: converters (money, temps, sizes, etc.), language (translators, dictionaries, phrase books), and all sorts of other programs, including entire tour guides.

For anything available on the web, my favorite program for transferring to my PDA is RepliGo (a truly useful and amazing program for downloading ANY sort of document to a PDA).

Information on the web will be more up to date than books at the library.

For programs see www.tucows (handango, pdastreet, handango, palmgear, etc.).com

I've almost eliminated most of the paper I used to drag along. I do take airline and hotel confirmations, list of credit card phone numbers, etc., just in case my PDA gets lost/stolen.

It's important to keep an eye on battery level as some PDA's lose all info if the battery gets too low. Best are those that need charging only every 5-6 days. Note that playing games, music, drains the battery quickly.

It's a good idea to back up to a card regularly, just in case you inadvertently allow the battery to drain, have to do a hard reset for some reason, or whatever.

Boy! Just about every time I read a post by Robespierre, I learn something new and inspiring about technology. Smart guy!

Thanks for sharing.

We purchased a Garmin iQue and are thinking of loading Germany maps into it for our next trip. I am a bit intimidated by the whole thing but figure I can sit down and go through the book. It will also hold audio books so we won't have to bring along pleasure reading. Thanks for the website Robespierre, I'll check it out and see if it works the Garmin. Barb

This should keep Mr. GF busy for a few minutes:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34474486

Thanks so much! He's into computers and such and will have a ton of good times with all the info I've gotten here. Actually, I'm not intimidated by technology, I just hate to read the manuals. I'd much prefer to have someone else do that and then show me the basics I need to know.

I'll also have to admit that the first time he brought his GPS along I thought he was crazy. Now I can't tell you the number of times it has saved us. (We tend to take do-it-yourself trips with a rental car to obscure places).

Saving for future ref.