With wireless Internet available in hospitals, coffee shops, airports, universities, and libraries, real-time Internet access away from the home or office is just a click away on your personal digital assistant (PDA). But what if you’re somewhere without wireless Internet-such as in flight or at the local department of motor vehicles?
Transferring and storing online content onto your PDA lets you access critical online information in places without a connection, making your down time more productive.
Portable online content
Much Web-based information can easily be captured or stored onto your PDA.
Electronic books, or e-books, have long been one of the pleasures of using PDAs and handheld devices such as the Beating the high cost of software,” Psyber Psychiatry, March 2004.)
Plucker also is free, but it creates documents primarily for Palm OS handhelds. A Pocket PC version of Plucker is in development. iSiloX documents can be viewed on Pocket PC or Palm OS devices, but the paid version of the viewer iSilo, available for $20, is required to use the navigational links. The free version of iSilo can read but cannot navigate with hyperlinks. Adobe Acrobat PDFs can be viewed on Pocket PC and Palm OS devices, but these PDFs must be distilled a second time for the handheld.
One disadvantage of all viewing systems is that Web pages with complicated formatting or specialized layers may not be accurately captured or well viewed on a PDA’s small screen.
Table
Sample systems for viewing Web-based content on PDAs
| Software | URL | Compatible PDA operating system(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Plucker | http://www.plkr.org; http://vade-mecum.sourceforge.net/ | Palm, Pocket PC |
| iSiloX | http://www.isilox.com http://www.isilo.com | Palm, Pocket PC |
| Adobe Acrobat | http://www.adobe.com | Palm, Pocket PC |
| PDF Creator | http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm | Palm, Pocket PC |
Related Resources
- Microsoft Windows XP. Make web pages available for offline viewing.
- Kansas City Clinical Oncology Program. Mobile users help page.
- PDACorps discussion forum (topic: Plucker for Pocket PC).
If you have any questions about these products or comments about Current Psychiatry, click here to contact Dr. Luo or send an e-mail to Current.Psychiatry@dowdenhealth.com.
Disclosure
Dr. Luo reports no financial relationship with any company whose products are mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed by Dr. Luo in this column are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Current Psychiatry.