pda newbie

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On 15 Dec 2004 07:17:56 -0800, "Harrzack" <avres@comcast.net> wrote:

>Greetings!
>
>Just started a sales job and am thinking a PDA would be great to track
>customers reminde me to call them back and other store info.

Yep. Start with plaintext in Memo Pad until you get figured out what's
important to track, and then move to a database of some kind.

>This is a
>furniture store and they have package deals in which items can be
>substituted. I can see some interesting "what-if" scenarios developing
>- would a PDA be useful to enter differing package/price combo's (on
>the showroom floor)? I could go back and forth: "Well Ms Jones, With
>this table and this chair it will cost $xxx.00, but (taps PDA screen)
>but with THIS chair and THIS table it will cost $yyy.00". I'm thinking
>an Excel spreadsheet could be set up to do this

And many Palms come with Documents To Go which reads, writes & edits Excel
files.

> but it also sounds like a database app.

Smartlist to Go is also easy to work with, syncs with Access, reads Excel
files (so you can transition easily from Excel/Documents To Go), and allows
multi-tabbed records. With the small screen size, tabbing is very useful.

Both those programs come from Dataviz.com and have been reviewed
extensively. In particular, DTG has been rated as more compatible with Word
and Excel than Pocket Word and Pocket Excel on a Windows Mobile/PPC/WinCE
machine.

>I've never owned a PDA but this seems like a great place to use one.
>Any comments? Recommendations?

There's also custom sales tracking software, and I would make sure if you
looked at such that they could export data into both reports as well as for
word processor mail merge, so you could generate letters to your prospects.

The big advantages of the Palm platform include the volume of software
(20,000+ programs) available, as well as being easier to learn (IMHO) that
Microsoft's offerings. Freewarepalm.com has many, many useful programs for
free download.
--
John Bartley K7AAY http://celdata.cjb.net
This post quad-ROT-13 encrypted; reading it violates the DMCA.
"We're not living in a simulation. We're living in a collaborative SF novel... and now, of course, it's Philip K. Dick's turn. In a back room somewhere, Vernor Vinge and George Orwell are currently arguing about who gets to take over in 2025." (Ross Smith)