Be a Palm Pro

Pen Strokes and Button Switchin'

The Pen Stroke Power-Up

A common trick of experienced Palm users is the "pen stroke." You can think of this magic maneuver as a special macro that lets you perform various tasks. To see it in action, turn on your handheld. Place your stylus at the very bottom of the screen, in the middle of the Graffiti area. Now run it swiftly to the top of the screen, in a straight line. It's important to drag the stylus the complete length of the glass screen, and do so quickly.

The result? If you did it right (and haven't changed the default behavior), the first screen of Graffiti Help appears. Whenever you're stuck for a Graffiti character, you can use the pen stroke to bring up Graffiti Help.

But suppose you're a Graffiti master and don't need to consult Help. You can redefine the pen stroke to do any of the following:

• Display the onscreen keyboard--instead of tapping the tiny dots in the lower-left and lower-right corners of the Graffiti writing area.

•Turn the backlight on and off--instead of pressing the power button for two seconds.

•Turn off and lock your handheld--instead of using the power button to turn it off. (You also need to define a password for this operation.)

• Beam data--instead of trying to remember where the Beam commands are. This has my vote for best use of the pen stroke, but your choice will depend on which of the pen-stroke actions is most useful to you.

To define a new action for the pen stroke:

1. In the Applications Launcher, tap Prefs.

2. Tap the drop-down box in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Buttons.

3. Tap Pen.

4. Tap the drop-down box and select the option you want:

5. Tap OK.

Idle Apps Lose Their Buttons

The four buttons on the front panel of your handheld are there so you can turn on the handheld and open the basic applications. But suppose you don't use one of the basic handheld applications very much--the To Do List, for instance. At the same time, you've fallen in love with a third-party application that you downloaded--say, DiddleBug. Here's how you can assign the To Do List hardware button to DiddleBug instead:

1. In the Applications Launcher, tap Prefs.

2. Tap the drop-down box in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Buttons.

3. Tap the drop-down box next to the app you wish to replace. (In this example, it would be To Do List.)

4. Select the app that you want to assign the button to. (In this example, DiddleBug.)

That's all. The next time you press the To Do List hardware button, your Palm will come to life and open DiddleBug.