After doing some research, however, I learned the Palm Pilot was not just another gadget. In fact, I ended up purchasing one and recently purchased a newer model.

Years ago, I switched from a printed Rolodex to a computer data base to record names and addresses and related information to run my business and manage home information. Initially reluctant to relinquish my desktop Rolodex, I even came up with a way to print Rolodex cards from the database. To make it portable, I also devised a method to print the pages to fit into a Day Runner-sized organizer. While it made my contact list portable, it was constantly out of date and was time-consuming to reprint.

In addition to the Day Runner I carried with my contact list, I also toted a week-at-a-glance calendar book. This had several distinct disadvantages including my fear that as the only copy of my schedule (since I don't practice law anymore, I don't need a second calendar for malpractice coverage), I might lose it or leave it somewhere. The other main problem with this tool was that my office assistant had to regularly photocopy pages to know where I would be and when, and to schedule client appointments. While effective, my systems for managing appointments and having access to names and phone numbers while outside the office were frustrating at best.

My life improved dramatically when I purchased a Palm Pilot. It comes with Palm Desktop software installed on your computer. This provides a desktop calendar, contact list, to-do list and memo function. If you use this as your primary calendar, you can enter events in your computer or Palm Pilot. When you're ready to update your desktop with entries made on the Palm Pilot and update your Palm Pilot with entries done in the office, you need to synchronize them. The Palm Pilot comes with a cradle that connects to the serial port of your computer and has a place where the Pilot sits. When you synchronize, which merely involves pressing the Sync button on the bottom of the cradle, the new information in each unit is transferred to the other.

Time matters link

I already was using Time Matters to manage my schedule and track projects and contacts. Although I could have used the software that comes with the Palm Pilot, I decided to link Palm Pilot to Time Matters. To make the connection, I went through a setup wizard inside Time Matters that tells Time Matters and the Pilot how I wanted records to be synchronized. Even though the Palm Pilot doesn't have a place to track cases, Time Matters can associate cases with event and to-do records on the Pilot.

What makes Palm Pilot more than just another gadget is that it manages the critical information I need when I'm outside the office. The basic applications include a contact list, a calendar with daily, weekly and monthly views, a to-do list, a memo-taking function, a calculator and a place to enter and manage e-mail, although on a limited basis on the less-expensive models. The costlier models also include the ability to use wireless networks to send and receive e-mail from outside the office.

Other choices

Since its introduction, there have been many improvements to Palm Pilot. And to complicate matters, there are competing products and other flavors of portable digital assistants (PDAs) to choose from. The two main competitors using Palm Pilot operating system software are from 3Com, which bought the Palm Pilot company several years ago, and Handspring, a relatively new company whose founders originally developed Palm Pilot.

The other choice is a Windows CE-based device. Companies like Psion, Compaq and Hewlett Packard have products that use a version of the Windows operating system designed specifically for hand-held devices. The main benefit of these systems is they can run some desktop application programs. The main downside is they haven't gained enough market share to make software vendors want to write the same kinds of links they have to the Palm operating system units.

There are a variety of options with the various Palm-based units. In looking at them, I chose the Palm Vx. My original Pilot used two AAA batteries, which last at least a month. One of the appealing features of Palm Vx is there are no batteries; it can be recharged when in the desktop cradle. Of course, this involves a little planning to ensure I've charged the unit before I'll be out of the office for an extended time.

The Palm VII models include wireless e-mail. This was not a factor for me, so I saved a little money.

There is a Palm V in addition to the Palm Vx. It's an older version and, while cheaper, it doesn't have as much memory for applications and records. The older models like the Palm III still use AAA batteries and don't have the streamlined design of the newer ones. Of course, they're also a bit less-expensive.

Color displays

Recently (as in right after I bought my new Palm Vx), 3Com announced its first color unit. The Palm IIIc has a color display with many of the same features as Palm Vx. While I still prefer my choice because it better-suits my needs, it's one of the real frustrations of the pace of technological innovation that as soon as you purchase something, there's already a new and improved version. Palm IIIc can be recharged like Palm Vx, but will last only two hours while Palm Vx, without color, generally won't be recharged more than once a month. On a practical note, however, since I sync my information daily, it visits the cradle once a day and I just leave it sitting if it needs a little juice. Palm IIIc is closer in size and weight to my old Palm unit (6.8 oz. v. 4 oz.), but the difference in size and feel is quite noticeable. The new one is easier to hold, is several ounces lighter, smaller and thinner, and takes up a lot less space in my purse. The improved screen also makes a difference.

The various Palm models range in price from $160 for older models being phased out to $500. All 3Com Palm Pilots include a date book, address book, to-do list, memo pad, expense tracker, calculator and desktop e-mail connectivity. The newer models also include an infrared port to beam data from one Palm Pilot to another or other infrared-enabled devices such as printers, cell phones, pages and laptop computers.

3Com's main competition, which also uses the Palm operating system, is Visor Deluxe from Handspring. These PDAs come in nifty colors like orange, blue, black, clear, green. The Visor is a little larger and heavier than Palm Vx, but similar in size and weight to other Palm models. It's comparable in memory, but can be upgraded unlike the Palm. Due to design differences, Palm uses its memory differently and has a little more available for data and application programs. However, one of Palm's main drawbacks is that it runs on AAA batteries rather than being able to be recharged.

Expanded possibilities

Over the past few years, many vendors have added Palm Pilot synchronization to their products. As a result, there are more things you can do with the Pilot. Nearly every major calendar and contact management program can share information with Palm Pilot through the conduits. So you can use Groupwise, Outlook or any of the legal case management programs such as Time Matters, Amicus Attorney or Abacus Law with your handy assistant. This means you can have a current schedule in your hand and all the phone numbers and addresses for everyone who deals with your office. The convenience of this cannot be overstated.

For lawyers, recording time when out of the office has always been a problem. It's too easy to forget to write down a 10-minute call to a client while waiting for your case to be heard. When you start to realize how much time you forget and multiply it by the number of days in a week and weeks in a year, you will realize those lost time records represent real dollars lost to your firm. In fact, purchasing a Palm Pilot only to record time when you're out of the office may justify the price alone.

Depending which time-keeping and billing program your office uses, you probably will be able to find a palm version. For firms using Timeslips, Iambic Software (www.iambic.com) sells Time Reporter for Timeslips at $120 per license. (You'll need a license for each person who has a Pilot.) Time Reporter for Timeslips lets you use your Pilot the same ways you use Timeslips on your desktop for time and expense entry. You can enter your time in tenths or minutes, use start and stop times or the built-in timer. When you synchronize Palm Pilot with your desktop, the time and expense slips are added directly into Timeslips and any new client or activity codes are added to the Pilot. My only complaint about this inexpensive program is that it doesn't let me use my Timeslips description abbreviations and doesn't provide as extensive a description area as I occasionally need to describe my work on my bills. I subscribe to the philosophy of providing sufficient detail about my work for clients, especially when I work with the staff and the bill is sent to and paid by an attorney.

Shortcuts

The Palm Pilot has a feature called "shortcuts," which can be used as a substitute for description abbreviations. For example, I entered a shortcut, "tcw" for "telephone call with." The Pilot has a special symbol, when followed by the abbreviation, that expands into its meaning. This provides nearly the same function as the Timeslips abbreviations. Setting up abbreviations for your most-common billing activities lets you easily enter your time while you're on the road.

A good website for information about Palm Pilot use for lawyers is www.palmlaw.com. One of the more-interesting files that can be downloaded is "Palmlaw shortcuts." This file replaces the default shortcuts (which have shortcuts like time and date stamps) with 120 legal terms and phrases such as "xe" for cross-examination. This site also includes good links to other resources for Palm and Handspring products.

The same company that makes Time Reporter for Timeslips now offers Time Reporter for Carpe Diem, a time-capturing program popular in larger law firms. The people at Iambic make a more-generic time and expense-capturing program that can be used with many desktop legal time and billing programs. In addition, there are other time-capturing programs like DTE in Hand that work with DTE (distributed time entry) from Advanced Productivity Software (www.aps-soft.com).

With about 5 million Palm Pilots sold, software and accessory manufacturers have developed products for the Palm product line. There are many websites where you can sample or purchase accessories and applets - small single-function programs - to add more functionality to your Palm Pilot.

Palm Pilot comes with a stylus to write letters, numbers and symbols on the surface without wearing it out or scratching it. Some companies offer products that combine a stylus with a pen. Other companies offer better cases that can include space for business cards, pens, a small pad, credit cards and even money.

Downloadable programs

On sites like download.cnet.com there are more than 150 small programs to download for Palm Pilot. They range from train schedules to drink recipes to NASCAR schedules. You even can view your horoscope on your Pilot or download entire books. Peanut Press (www.peanutpress.com) offers many legal research resources for the Palm such as a copy of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the U.S. Constitution. In addition to legal resources, this site includes popular business book titles and a wide range of other materials.

To read books on Palm Pilot, you'll need a document reader. There are several popular ones such as TealDoc, which can be downloaded at www.tealpoint.com, the reader on the Peanut Press site or programs like Documents To Go from Dataviz (www.dataviz.com). The Documents To Go reader lets you copy your own word processing and spreadsheet documents to Palm Pilot. Rather than carrying a laptop, you can carry critical documents in your PDA.

If several lawyers in your office decide to adopt Palm Pilots to manage their information, keep in mind the advice I got when a client was having problems with synchronizing one of her units, "Palm Pilots shouldn't sleep around." In other words, once you set one up at a computer workstation in your office, don't put another person's Pilot in your cradle.

The Palm manual is easy to read and well-worth the investment. There also are several valuable shortcuts described. For example, on the newer models, you can select which applications work with the buttons at the bottom of the unit. Additionally, when you press one of those buttons more than once, it will toggle through the various views of information associated with that button. For example, if you press the calendar button, the first time it might show today's calendar, pressing it again brings up the weekly calendar and a third time the month.

One final tip: Take advantage of the find function. Unlike combing through your computer's hard drive or worse, the firm's network server drives, the find function will quickly locate a string of text in any of the applications. It's fast and very effective when you're looking for information.

Carol L. Schlein is president of Law Office Systems, a Montclair-based training and consulting firm assisting small- and medium-sized law firms with technology. She formerly chaired the Computer and Technology Division of the ABA's Law Practice Management Section and is an author of The Lawyer's Guide to Timeslips, published by the ABA. She can be reached at carol@losinc.com.

Questions for Carol L. Schlein on law office technology may be faxed to New Jersey Lawyer at (732) 650-7010 or mailed to "Law Technology Questions," New Jersey Lawyer, Edison Square, 2035 Lincoln Highway, Suite 3005, Edison, N.J. 08817.