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One of the most powerful and useful applications that all PDAs have is an electronic diary. This can be extremely useful for those with a specific learning difficulty, memory problems or a time perception difficulty. For a student a full lesson timetable could be planned out, with alarms warning the student of impending events. Coursework reminders could be set and deadlines recorded.
In Palm the electronic diary is called DateBook and in Pocket PC its called Calendar.
One of the four core applications of Palm OS is the Datebook , which is an electronic diary. The diary allows the user to view appointments by day, week, and month. Appointments can be booked within 5 intervals and can cover a whole day. Appointments can be set to repeat each, day, week and month. Each appointment can have an alarm that alerts the user 5 (variable) minutes in advance. For each appointment a note text file (max size 4k) can be attached.
Once an alarm is alerted the user can choose to Ok (to dismiss the alarm) or Snooze (alarm will repeat in five minutes). After the initial alarm has been ignored or snoozed then a flashing star appears on the Palm application interface on the clock to indicated missed alerts.
The Diary can be synchronised with the Palm Desktop application, Microsoft's Outlook and many other dairy email programs.
The NotePad application allows the user to record electronic inked notes. However these notes can have alarms set or a specific day and time. The inked image appears when the alarm is activated with the choice of OK, Snooze and GoTo, which takes you to the NotePad file.
RNS Student (Freeware)
This is a simple timetable planner that the user can set out a repeating weekly lesson plan. The interface shows the timetable for each week. For each day of the week it shows the start/end times, course name and location. There is also a countdown clock showing the time until the next lesson and a school bag that shows, which lesson material would and would-not be needed for the next day. To access RNS Student search on google.
Student Four Zero (Shareware)
This is an application designed for college students. It allows the user to set up a full class timetable with locations, tutors, homework, coursework and assignments. This application can synchronised with a web portal in which the user can view, create and manage the timetable and coursework. The application also interfaces with the native Palm Diary and To-Do lists. The system can be used with or without the web portal, which charges an annual subscription. The application is also designed to record students' grades / scores and can be used to estimate the likely average score for a course based on passed grades.
The Pocket PC OS contains Calendar, a MS Outlook style electronic diary. The Calendar allows the user to view appointments by day, week, month and year. Appointments can be made at anytime and for any interval. Each appointment can have an alarm which can be activated in advance.
The Calendar appointments can be synchronised with Microsoft Outlook. The Activesync system allows for two way synchronisation. Passed appointments can be erased from the handheld and the period appointment are stored in the handheld can be adjusted.
This is a very powerful application that has many options and is best used when synchronised with Microsoft Outlook. There are various applications that provide a slightly different interface but do not significantly improve upon the functionality.
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