PDA Advice Needed

[kamkazmoto]

All my dad needs is something that will organize times, dates, names, and numbers easily so that he can schedule meetings a little easier. internet or WiFi or any of that jazz is not needed. I have no idea if they offer it a lower end model, but a "write and type" feature would be nice so that he can scrawl out some notes without pecking them out.

Jake

May I suggest that you get him a electronic organizer. Casio makes a whole bunch of different models. Here are a bunch of them from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=br_ss_h...ords=electronic+organizer&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go I have had great luck with Casio but YMMV

 

[Steely_Gunz]

Thanks so much, guys. You've been a big help. Right now I have my options narrowed down to two. First, my wife is going to check her work e-mail account for e-mails from Palm. Being an employee of the school system, she gets great deals on new/used/over-stocked PDAs since all of her fellow psychologist use them.
The other option is going out shopping for a really nice paper organizer. My main concerns, which I hadn't thought about until you guys brought it up (thanks!), are screen size (pop is starting to get to the point where he could use a pair of glasses) and back up issues. My dad does NOT have a secretary. He has a son that is the Retail Office Manager that gets treated like a secretary at times
Oh, and a little background information about our business for anyone that wants to know: Our family owns one of the oldest swimming pool construction businesses in our area. Sounds funny for Indiana, but if you have ever passed through in the summer, then you know it's horribly muggy and hot Anyway, my father has been the prez of the company for about 10 or 15 years now. He is in charge of the actual installation (a 6 or 7 day a week job). Up until about the beginning of the summer, my somewhat retired grandfather made the actual sales calls. However, he bowed out of that and left that to my father. So, you see, my father keeping potential customer info at hand is vital to the business. Losing a post-it note could mean the difference between getting and not getting a $20,000-$40,000 job More pointless background info: The vice prez of the company is my uncle. He runs the service end of the business as well as liner replacement. Yours truly, runs the retail end of things at both our stores/customer service/troubleshooting/advertising/foot-in-the-door-sales

Anyway, thanks again, guys. It is very appreciated.

Jake

 

[Bladite]

Thanks so much, guys. You've been a big help. Right now I have my options narrowed down to two. First, my wife is going to check her work e-mail account for e-mails from Palm. Being an employee of the school system, she gets great deals on new/used/over-stocked PDAs since all of her fellow psychologist use them.
The other option is going out shopping for a really nice paper organizer. My main concerns, which I hadn't thought about until you guys brought it up (thanks!), are screen size (pop is starting to get to the point where he could use a pair of glasses) and back up issues. My dad does NOT have a secretary. He has a son that is the Retail Office Manager that gets treated like a secretary at times
Oh, and a little background information about our business for anyone that wants to know: Our family owns one of the oldest swimming pool construction businesses in our area. Sounds funny for Indiana, but if you have ever passed through in the summer, then you know it's horribly muggy and hot Anyway, my father has been the prez of the company for about 10 or 15 years now. He is in charge of the actual installation (a 6 or 7 day a week job). Up until about the beginning of the summer, my somewhat retired grandfather made the actual sales calls. However, he bowed out of that and left that to my father. So, you see, my father keeping potential customer info at hand is vital to the business. Losing a post-it note could mean the difference between getting and not getting a $20,000-$40,000 job More pointless background info: The vice prez of the company is my uncle. He runs the service end of the business as well as liner replacement. Yours truly, runs the retail end of things at both our stores/customer service/troubleshooting/advertising/foot-in-the-door-sales

Anyway, thanks again, guys. It is very appreciated.

Jake

i'd skip the palm pilot. huge failure for many folx... COMPLETELY useful if you want to look up a number, or have it remind you of address and meetings... otherwise? no so much. for the prior, you "pre-load" it and carry it around to look things up with. for entry in the field? no so much.

i would: get him a "car seat oraganzier" (see duluth trading company for instance; just tossed the catalog); get him some legal pads. also some "lab notebooks (lined with graph paper, and permantly bound - not rip out); he can take nose the live long day, paste/tape things in there. yay.

find or teach him a system - when he gets to the office, someone (him), enters critical things into the computer right then and there - phone numbers, dates... even a plain text file - print that out now and then, easy to look stuff up while out and about. doesn't lose power! if his cell phone is "fancy" enough, he'll be able to use that too for phone numbers.

a paper calendar system too, to compliment the notebooks, teach him about cross-reffing each - page numbers to dates;etc. it'll work.

if you do go palm, keep in mind the top of the line Tx right now is "only" $250 - nice "high rez screen"... a lower level model would be adequate for schedules and phone #s. i'd never use one for anything but the most casual notes (which i transfer immediately when i can - it's easy to lose stuff on those) [i've been using PDAs since the early 90s :>]...

good luck

bladite