Productivity Portfolio

One benefit of a Palm OS device is it holds so much data in such a small form factor. This size is ideal to carry around to enter and retrieve information. As good as this device is, many people hesitate entering information for one of two reasons:

1. They focus too much on where to put the information.

2. The information contains more than one data type.

For example, you're introduced to a prospect at a coffee shop that asks you call him at 4pm tomorrow about ad copy ideas. You have just enough time to get his first name and phone number before he dashes out the door. At this point, I've seen people freeze and start looking for a napkin before they forget the information.

The problem with the paper solution is you still need to transfer this information to your calendar. In my case, I have to make sure I can still find the paper and read my handwriting.

A better solution is to use a small utility program by Hands High Software called Slap. Perhaps, the easiest way to think of Slap is as an electronic Post-It Note with intelligence. What makes the program ideal is that it becomes your starting point for entering information. This design focuses on first capturing the information and then organizing it. After the data is inputted, you decide which built in application should receive the data.

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The program is clean and intuitive. The developers have made it easy to access the program by reassigning it to the Memo button. Although this feature is optional, it makes the process simpler and faster. To enter information, the user presses the Memo button regardless of the type of information. Once you've assigned your information, you can use the Quick Launch feature to go to another program.

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Beneath the elegant design, Slap has incorporated some parsing routines. For example, Slap correctly recognizes days of the week, times, and so on. This is one example where the developers have thought how people would use this program. Although this sounds like a minor feature, you'll quickly see the benefit when fields are prefilled.

Slap is a program we've been using since we saw it demoed. It's one of those programs where after seeing it you wonder why companies haven't incorporated it into their platforms. Speaking of incorporation, the program has been updated to also work with 3^rd party applications such as SnapperMail and DayNotez.