If you're worried about losing a PDA, you probably shouldn't be traveling.

Besides, there are tethers that prevent such mishaps.

<i>&quot;If you're worried about losing a PDA, you probably shouldn't be traveling.&quot;</i>

How can you argue with that kind of logic?

Do you want to discuss this on the merits?

It is possible to lose anything. The fact that you can lose anything is not a reason for not carrying it. Precautions can be taken. The backup to a PPC is a tiny chip. The backup to a pile of paper is another pile of paper.

Your choice.

But the tiny chip is worthless until you go out and buy a replacement ppc/pda.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's <i>not</i> a good idea to travel with one. I'm only pointing out that it is not a perfect solution for everyone. I use mine to an extent, but sometimes prefer the non-tech alternatives. You admit that it's a personal preference, but then go on to say there is no reason whatsoever that anyone shouldn't carry one - countering every opposing viewpoint with your own.

I believe Robespierre backs up his PDA in the event of a hard reset or the battery going dead so the data can be restored. I do the same with mine.

I cannot imagine traveling without my PDA. In addition to the datebook itinerary (with addresses, phone numbers...), there's E-wallet, PalmMoney (really nifty for accumulating a customs list), Ultralingua and others.

My new favorite is RepliGo. Amazing! Beautifully copies anything to the PDA. Has reduced the paper I cart along by about 95%. One huge advantage of copying all those papers onto the PDA is that you can find them a lot faster.

When we inadvertently left our Clarence House tickets at home on the fridge, I sure was glad to have the online order number on the PDA!

Sometimes you prefer the non-tech alternatives. That's a valid reason, as I have said consistently. Go in peace with your dead trees.

But <u>besides</u> personal preference, I see a lot of ignorance driving peoples' choices. Fortnately, ignorance is curable.

<b><i>Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!</i> Bogus argument alert!</b>

The fact that something valuable can be broken, lost, or stolen is not a valid reason for not taking it on vacation with you. If it were, no one would venture out their front door with an iPod, SLR camera, or Rolex.

The validity of my point (<i>i.e.</i> that 100% of my travel data is backed up, but that of tree-luggers' isn't) is irrefutable, so you raise the (true, but irrelevant) fact that the PPC would have to be replaced. No cigar.

Perhaps you haven't noticed but you've bullied all of the other children off the playground.

Give it a rest would you?

If you have nothing to contribute, don't.

Hi, I'm relatively uninitiated in PDA use. I used to own one a few years ago, but have no idea where it is anymore. I have no use for it in everyday life, <b>but</b>, carrying a zillion guidebooks was a huge pain during my last vacation and may consider it if only for that reason.

Here's my question:
Where do I find guidebooks that are downloadable to PPCs? Is there a good selection available? Can anyone point me to a website, please?

I already have all contact#s on my cell phone and all other confirmation#s take 2 pages of the journal that I carry anyway (no, I'm not quite ready to switch from writing to PPC shorthand). If there was an easy way to upload guidebooks (short of scanning each page I want), it would be worth it to me.

Fodors has one- go to the shop section on this site.Lonely Planet also has one available on their website. I am sure there are many more out there. Maybe do a search or go to the palm website.

thanks ally. google didn't turn up anything (probably wasn't using the right key words).

Microsoft lists 379 travel e-books, 29 of them Fodor's titles. Look here:

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

Robes, since I am PDA impaired, perhaps you can answer this for me.

The people I am traveling with to Italy have a Treo Palm One 600. I have a ton of files (in word document) that I would prefer not to lug (agree with you on not bringing a ton of &quot;dead trees&quot.

I sent him a word file on just one of the towns, and he was only able to get about 50% of what I sent him. Do you have any idea what he did wrong, or is it something with his PDA? Or should I send in another format?

Thanks, your fellow Apple Shareholder.

There are so many versions of Word, it's hard to keep up. The easiest approach would probably be to find a reader for PalmOS that speaks Word.

Failing that, maybe you could &quot;save as&quot; some format that the Treo recognizes. I don't know that world very well, but your friend might.

Thanks Robes. I will try to get an answer from my friend, who I believe might be more tech-impaired than myself. Maybe, I'll have to bite the PDA bullet and get one myself.

A PDA is a neat toy, but for some of us it is not worth the trouble to maintain and use it. I have one provided by my employer. I loaded all sorts of stuff into it--snail mail and email addresses, birthdates, appointments, etc. Kept at it for over a year.

But my At-A-Glance Pocket Weekly with a real faux leather cover is just so much easier to maintain and use {for me} (and it costs only $5.99 plus tax) that I found myself using the PDA less and less. It has sat alone and ignored in my middle desk drawer for over a year now.

I guess it does just come down to personal preference--I prefer paper; it has worked for me just fine for a long time and I find it a lot less trouble to maintain.

But I do love my digital camera.

Oh, a tech question I might be able to answer (hard to do with this bunch). Maitaitom, try saving your Word documents as text files (*.txt) and then sending them over to your friend. There might be some formatting issues, sort of like when someone copies and pastes a Word document here.

For the person looking for out of copyright books, try Project Gutenberg. I don't know their webaddress so try a google. The prof. in charge is trying to get books into the digital age and started with out of copyright materials. It's been a whiles (ok, like 10 years) since I last had any involvement with this, but it's worth checking out.

To read ebooks on your Palm, you need the Palm ereader. To convert text files to Palm books, you need a free program called DropBook. You can get both of these at:

http://ebooks.palmone.com/product/browse/software

There is a pro (i.e., paid) version of the ereader, but the free one works fine for me.

I have an ancient Palm III, which probably would be worth all of $5 on the open market today. So as long as all my files are backed up, I don't really worry much about losing it. It works just fine for my needs, and I can store quite a few text files on it. TimeOut has some good city guide available for the Palm, by the way. You can buy them as separate files, or via a CD that comes with the books.

I actually prefer reading paper, so I often photocopy pages from guidebooks to use when traveling and not have to carry heavy books, But I do like having reference material on the Palm as well.

&quot;Maitaitom, try saving your Word documents as text files (*.txt) and then sending them over to your friend.&quot;

I have an iMac G5, not a PC. Will this make a difference? I see you can save docs as &quot;Text only&quot;, &quot;Text only with line breaks&quot;, &quot; MS-DOS Text&quot; or &quot;UNicode Text&quot;. Any clue? thanks for the help.