PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, Second Edition

Profiles and File Linking: Standardized Data, Multiple PalmPilots

In corporate environments, where the PalmPilot is becoming a piece of standard-issue equipment, technology managers face an interesting puzzle: how do you load up multiple PalmPilots with the same set of standard company information? And how do you update them all when that information changes? These aren’t trivial questions when the data in question is the company phone list, or price list, or manual that must be consulted in the field.

3Com has accommodated this corporate need in two ways: with Profiles and with file linking in later models.

Profiles

Pilot Desktop 2.0 and later let you load up new, or newly erased, PalmPilots with a prepared set of information—before the PalmPilots get named or HotSynced by your employees.

For example, suppose you’re about to issue 15 PalmPilots to your sales force. You want each PalmPilot to contain your company’s complete phone directory (in the Address Book); company holidays and other important dates (in the Date Book); detailed descriptions of your company’s products (in the Memo Pad); and a sales-call checklist (in a special To Do list category). You also want to install a couple of new programs (such as a shareware database program and a web browser) onto every single PalmPilot.

All of this information is, in Palm Desktop parlance, one Profile. With just a few steps, you can preload this Profile onto as many new PalmPilots as you like. After the PalmPilots are loaded up, ...