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From The PAFinder, March 2002 PAF for Palm: |
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By Janet Brigham Rands Tired of hauling piles of paper and your laptop to the library to do family history work? Tired of wishing that you actually had a laptop? Tired of waiting for your computer to boot, just so that you can retrieve the birthdate for a great-great-grand-uncle? The answer may be as close as your pocket. For as little as $100 you can house your PAF 5 database in an easily transportable, instant-open electronic format. The tool for doing this is a palm-size computer called a personal digital assistant, or PDA. PDAs are designed to be useful even for those with no background in computers. However, to use a PDA for family history requires that you interface your PDA with a PC or Macintosh. Several PDA software programs allow you to transfer information back and forth between a PDA and another computer (PC or Mac desktop or laptop). Family history information can be loaded onto a PDA using any of at least seven programs, including a free program for PAF 5. Most PDAs use one of two operating systems: Palm OS or Windows CE/Pocket PC. If your primary purpose for owning a PDA is to have quick, easy access to your family history database, be sure to check what operating systems and versions are supported for the program you want to use. PDAs can be excellent tools for family history, particularly because of new software that downloads a PAF 5 database to any of the various PDAs that use the Palm operating system, otherwise called Palm OS: The software is easily and quickly downloaded from the www.familysearch.org website, although its location is somewhat obscure, tucked at the bottom of the final downloads screen for PAF 5.1, just above the yellow icon for downloading Acrobat Reader. Given the convenience of this tool, it could use some marketing. PAF for Palm is one of several genealogy database programs that run on PDAs. PAF for Palm has the advantages of being free and of linking directly to PAF 5. Pros and Cons of PDAs PDAs have several virtues that facilitate family history research. PDAs are small. The smallest units fit the palm of your hand and weigh a few ounces. The largest are about the size of a 200-page hardback book. They are durable enough to withstand life in a handbag, briefcase, or backpack. They fit easily on those narrow tables that house microfilm readers. The have backlighting that allows you to see them in dim light (although this quality varies greatly among machines). Also, they start up quickly. PDAs turn on and off virtually instantly because their fundamental software is permanently written and doesn't require noticeable time to boot, as a desktop or laptop computer would take. Thus, when the user wants to find information quickly, the information is almost instantly retrievable. This is especially handy for library research. PDAs perform many functions. They typically have word processors, calculators, spreadsheets, datebooks, address books, games, and thousands of other applications, ranging from rudimentary to sophisticated and powerful. Another virtue of PDAs is that they are quiet. Typically, you can enter information through a touch-screen or through a detachable keyboard accessory, ranging from a "thumbboard" to a foldout keyboard. Even those larger PDAs that have built-in keyboard have quiet keyboards. Which is to say, you can use a PDA in a library without distracting those around you. (Many PDAs make beeping noises, but you can turn those sounds off.) Numerous add-ons accessories are available for PDAs. Both Palm and Handspring can be connected to small, portable keyboards, so that you can type information into the PDA rather than using the much more cumbersome screen entry through a handwriting-recognition program or screen-based keyboard that you punch one key at a time with the PDA stylus. Thousands of software applications can be downloaded (or otherwise purchased) and installed into a Palm OS machine. However, PDAs have somewhat limited memory, so installing numerous programs could make it difficult for you to download a sizable database and run it on PAF for Palm. Nonetheless, a basic PDA with 8 megabytes of memory can handle a database of 15,000 names easily (notes are optional; sources aren't included). PAF for Palm OS Views. The small screen size of a PDA limits the ease of access to information. The neat, clean three-tab views(Family, Pedigree, Individual) that are the hallmark of PAF 5 require considerably more navigation in PAF for Palm. PAF for Palm opens in a List View, which provides an alphabetical listing of all the people in the database you have downloaded. You can navigate from the List View to a Family View or Individual Detail View by clicking on either the name (links to Family View) or the date (links to Individual Detail View). Access to Ancestry and Descendancy views is through little up- and down-arrows. Parents' information can be viewed through a circled P. Multiple spouses are accessed through a circled S. This process sounds simpler than it is. Using PAF for Palm is likely to require that you dedicate an hour or so for learning to navigate the interface. Also, it's best not to get out of practice with the device, or you'll need to learn it all over again. In other words, its interface is not entirely intuitive. Read-Only. PAF for Palm is a read-only program, although it links quickly to the Memo function of a PDA, allowing you to enter information that you can later upload to a desktop or laptop machine and copy/paste into PAF 5. Not all genealogy database programs allow you to make changes in your database through your PDA. Even those that do allow database changes can do it so unreliably that the software comes with bold warnings. Notes and Sources. Notes can be downloaded in PAF for Palm, but sources cannot. You can copy your source list from PAF 5 into a PDA's "memo" area, but this will not provide specific citation information. Documentation. A significant limitation of PAF for Palm is that it comes without documentation. A few help screens clarify otherwise unlabeled functions, but by and large the only option for the typical user is to install it and leap in. The program was not developed on-site by the PAF development team, and thus was not included in the PAF User's Guide. We have attempted to close this gap with our downloadable tutorial. Database Size. If your database has more than a few thousand names, you probably will want to download it in several separate files, so that it loads quickly and is more easily navigated. The only limitation on the number of database files you download is the machine's memory capacity. Databases can be downloaded, deleted, and replaced readily. A 3,500-name database took only 440K; a 13,500-name database was 1.7Mb, with notes. Bug Report. One glitch is that you must make sure that the names you are downloading to the PDA are all capitalized similarly, e.g., you cannot mix all-capitalized last names with initial-letter-capitalized names. PAF for Palm's alphabetization protocol groups these names separately, as seen here:
It may not look serious here, but this glitch can be quite irritating when you are working with a large database. The solution is simple: Before you download any portion of your database, access the Tools pull-down menu Preferences option Names tab Capitalize surnames on screens and reports check-box. Rating. On a scale of 1 to 5, I rate PAF for Palm a 3.5. Its strengths are that it is easy to install; it is free, small, and quick; and it can handle a large database. Its limitations are its lack of documentation, its somewhat awkward access channels, and its lack of sources. (See more of the Best of The PAFinder.) |
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