I suspect that people buy a Palmtop because it looks neat and works great.
They keep a Palmtop when they discover how versatile it can be.
For many users the built-in applications are more than enough. However, they still want to make the Appointment Book, Database Engine, Lotus 1-2-3, and HP Calc do more. For the folks in this camp, the Basic Tips column in this issue contains some tips that have never before appeared in print.
Other Palmtop users seem to have crossed a threshold. They realize that the Palmtop could do a lot more if only there were more System Manager compliant or plain MS-DOS programs available. If you count yourself as a user who wants "more, more, more!" take a quick look at the software index on the last page of this issue. There are 50 files in the list: enough to fill two HP Palmtop Paper ON DISKs. Yet when we started to put this issue together we saw that we had enough new software to fill about 15 disks. Fortunately, we can make room for those on the 1999 PTP CD InfoBase.
Ninety percent of the files are the result of one persons desire for "more, more, more!" Dr. Larry Garwood turned his penchant for old adventure games into a search for lost software treasures. He shares his game strategies and some of the treasures he found in two articles that we've called The LX-Files.
Hans Hoenen and Stephan Luettjohann have pushed the Palmtop into the realm of desktop publishing with the use of the TeX formatting program. Who would have believed that the HP 200LX could do Palmtop Publishing?! Yoichi Motohashi does, and offers convincing proof that it can be done.
For those who are involved in word crafting, we offer David Sergeant's review of two great dictionary programs that work on the Palmtop.
In the Through the Looking Glass column, I talk about some more software that will keep your Palmtops clock accurate to the split second. I also answer the question is the Palmtop Y2K compliant? In short, it is: you'll be able to use the Palmtop well into the next millennium.
The question remains: what to do with all the extra software. Hal Goldstein gives the answer in his User to User column in which he talks about the greatest CD InfoBase yet and announces www.PalmtopPaper.com, the new Web site for Thaddeus Computing. Be sure to check it out.
Hopefully there's enough in this issue to keep you enthused until next year.
Ed Keefe