Palm and Treo Hacks

Set Up a Master Application

Depending on how you primarily use your Treo, you can set up different applications to be your master (or primary) application. This involves configuring your chosen application to provide easy access to the Treo’s other functions.

Someone who uses a Treo mostly as a cell phone should have a different setup than someone who mostly uses the organizer features. If you have a Treo, however, you presumably want to make some use of all the categories of features: phone, organizer, and Internet access. This hack will help you to optimize your Treo for your preferred application while also providing convenient access to the other features. Each section covers optimizing for a specific application.

There are a few general strategies which apply to all applications. The goal of these optimizations is to provide quick access to the things you do most often and slightly less convenient access to the things you do less frequently.

(By the way, this is a fundamental principle that professional user interface designers use when designing software or electronic devices.)

The easiest access comes from the hardware buttons that turn on the Treo and open an application all at one time—the Phone, Date Book, and Messaging buttons. Next in convenience are single buttons or single taps from within an open application. After that are multiple key combinations (e.g., Option and another button), multiple taps on the screen, and combinations of buttons and taps.

One decision you will ...