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6/1/2000 Get
It Together
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by Liz Kelley Kerstens, CGRS
This
columns is posted on the Clooz.com Web site with
permission of
MyFamily.com. The
column was originally posted on the Ancestry.com
Web site.
Organizing Your
Schedule
If you’re a person that is
always on the go, you may have experienced difficulty at
some point in keeping track of your appointments and
activities. Before I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island,
this week for the NGS Conference, I knew that I had better
create a schedule of some sort in order to keep track of
my various commitments during the conference.
There are, of course, a number of
ways you can keep track of your schedule. You can write
yourself notes, you can buy a personal organizer, such as
the compact offerings from Day-Timer
or Day Runner, you
can create a calendar in any number of different types of
software programs, including the software version of
Day-Timer, Lotus
Organizer, or Microsoft
Outlook, or you can use a Personal Digital Assistant
(PDA) such as the Palm
Pilot or Compaq’s
Aero 1500 series.
The Compaq Aero 1530 is one of my
latest gadgets and has been quite helpful in keeping me on
time and on schedule. I decided to try this PDA because it
comes with Windows CE and, frankly, because it received
good reviews. I have never been too successful at keeping
a calendar of any type current, so the PDA has presented
me with a new challenge, and some irritating moments.
The Aero includes a down-sized
version of Microsoft Outlook that allows you to add
calendar events, to do items, addresses, and even notes to
yourself. It also has audio record and playback, which was
a feature that attracted me because I was considering
buying a digital recorder to capture those stray thoughts
while I’m driving. I’ve used this feature and it works
great, and is even more fun because I can play back the
recording when I’m able to jot down notes so I can
finally remember the ideas that float through frequently!
The calendar has been the feature
that I have used most so far. Since the Aero is small and
lightweight (5.2 oz. and ½ inch wide), I can carry it in
my very small purse along with my checkbook (they’re
about the same size). If I’m at a doctor’s appointment
and am given a follow-on appointment, I enter the time and
date right away and don’t have to worry about missing
the appointment in the future. You can schedule
appointments a year or two in advance, so you can enter
reminders to schedule your annual physical, or any tests
that you need done on an annual basis. When I was in
physical therapy after my recent knee surgery, I had the
appointment entered in the PDA. When the appointment was
done, I went in to that schedule item and changed the date
to the next appointment and voila! The one irritating
feature about the calendar is that when it’s appointment
time, the PDA actually makes noises to let you know. The
noise that is currently selected sounds like a train
approaching. If I don’t go over and dismiss the
reminder, the PDA toots at me every couple minutes to
remind me. The noise feature is necessary and an advantage
over the paper versions, but you have to pay attention to
the PDA to get the noise to stop.
I also use the To Do list,
although I’m not sure why. I usually can remember the
projects I’m working on and about when they’re due, so
this feature is rather superfluous for me. However, I do
get great satisfaction going in to an item and selecting
the completed box.
The address list is helpful for
the names, addresses, and phone numbers that I need to
keep with me when I travel. And the notes section has been
used once or twice to jot down miscellaneous items, so it’s
nice to have when needed. I must admit that I haven’t
used any of the other Windows CE features as of yet–I
primarily purchased the Aero for the calendar feature.
The Aero comes with Microsoft
Outlook 2000 for your desktop or laptop and Microsoft
ActiveSync to allow you to keep your calendar on your
computer in sync with the calendar on the Aero. I tried
that feature in preparation for my trip, and after some
software problems were solved by Compaq, the Aero and my
laptop were talking back and forth like old friends. My
main reason for syncing the Aero with my laptop is in case
something happens to the Aero–I now have a backup on my
laptop. This becomes even more crucial for appointments
that I entered directly into the Aero for which I have no
paper backup.
One of the nice features of the
Aero is the backlit feature for when you’re in a
low-light situation. The Aero comes with a lithium ion
battery that lasts quite a long time between recharge
episodes (I’ve gone a week without placing the Aero in
the battery charging unit that comes with it).
The Compaq Aero retails for about
$299. I purchased mine before Microsoft released it’s
new "Windows for Pocket PC," so if I want to
upgrade it’ll cost another $69. Since I’m happy with
the way the unit operates, I think I’ll stick with
Windows CE for now. If you’re looking for a high tech
way to keep track of your schedule, I recommend the Compaq
Aero!
As an aside, this is the last
column I will be writing on organizing tips. Next week I
will begin a new column, "GC Online," which will
focus on the computer and genealogy world and will allow
for more timely information to be passed.
Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS,
is the managing editor of Genealogical Computing,
editor of the Board for Certification of Genealogists’
newsletter OnBoard, the creator of Clooz—the
electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records, and a
frequent contributor to Ancestry. She can be
reached via e-mail at liz@ancestordetective.com.
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