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Here’s an interesting challenge. You are often out of the office, and your office manager will use your Calendar in Outlook to schedule appointments for you while you are away. At the same time, you are setting up new appointments in your iPAQ. This leads to scheduling and sync conflicts.
To get around this, you have the option of setting up your iPAQ to sync with your server over your wireless connection. To do this, you need to have added Microsoft Mobile Information Server to The Rules are important for determining how to resolve sync conflicts, perform file conversions, and access the Internet while connected to a desktop. your server. It will allow you to dial in with your wireless modem and synchronize your Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts.
If you are syncing data with a server through MS Mobile Information Server, you cannot also sync it with a desktop PC. You can only use one or the other. To enable syncing with a server, select Options in the Tools menu in ActiveSync to open the Options dialog box. From here, select the Enable Synchronization With Server check box, and click the Configure button to go to a dialog box where you will enter the information for the server you will be synchronizing with.

The Rules tab of the ActiveSync Options dialog box allows you to set three critical elements:
how to resolve sync conflicts, how to do file conversions, and how to access the Internet. For conflicts in synchronization, you can choose to have a manual resolution (in which case you are prompted about what to do with the information), or you can set it to always favor the desktop over the iPAQ, or the iPAQ over the desktop.
The Conversion Settings button will enable you to specify whether files are to be converted when moved between the Pocket PC and the desktop. You can choose to not convert files such as Word documents (or any other file type). This feature enables your Pocket PC to act as a mobile hard drive as you move among different computers, but to access the file on your Pocket PC, it will need to be converted by the relevant program.
The Pass Through setting specifies how this device will be able to connect to synchronize IMAP4 e-mail services and browse the Web. The selection you make in the Connection box is generally some type of Internet connection.

The Sync Mode tab of the ActiveSync Options dialog box, enables you to alter how frequently the data from your iPAQ is synchronized with your desktop. By default, your iPAQ will synchronize with your desktop continuously. Every time a piece of information is changed in a desktop or Pocket PC application, the relevant record is synchronized on the other device. If this is not the behavior you desire, you can set ActiveSync to only replicate when your device is first connected to your PC, or you can set it to be manual and only synchronize when you click the Sync button in ActiveSync.

Once ActiveSync is installed, you can physically connect your iPAQ to your PC. This will initiate a conversation between your iPAQ and the PC as they attempt to establish communication. The first time you connect a new iPAQ to your system, a wizard will open, asking whether you want to set up a partnership with the device. A partnership is required if you want to allow your iPAQ to synchronize calendar, contacts, notes, e-mail, and other Pocket Outlook data with your PC. If you only want to use the cable to load software or files onto your iPAQ, then you do not need to set up a partnership. Without a partnership, a device will be connected as a guest. Select Yes, With This Computer or No, and tap Next to go on to the next screen of the New Partnership Wizard. The middle option on the screen, Yes, With This Computer And A Server, is to be used only if your company has acquired and installed the Microsoft Mobile Information Server with ActiveSync. This feature is great for the mobile corporate professional and allows for syncing of your Calendar, Contacts, and Inbox of your iPAQ from remote locations over a wireless or wired connection.
In the second screen, you will be asked whether you want to synchronize this device with
more than one computer. If you only ever synchronize with one system, then choose Yes to set up the relationship. If you choose No, then you will not be given the option to synchronize e-mail. However, if you have a computer at work and another at home and want to connect to both of them, you can configure your settings to accommodate this. Set up the computer where your primary e-mail account resides as a Yes (exclusive) relationship, but set up the other machine as a No relationship. This will synchronize your calendar and contact lists on both systems, but your e-mail will only synchronize with the machine that has the Yes relationship. Tap Next after you have made your selection.
If you want an e-mail account to stay synchronized instead of relying on ActiveSync to keep the e-mail on your iPAQ, use a new e-mail service with IMAP4, which will always keep your Inbox in sync, no matter which computer you are syncing with. The next screen of the wizard will ask you which programs you want to synchronize with your iPAQ. Each of the programs has separate settings that you can configure to modify how it synchronizes. The programs to synchronize are AvantGo, Calendar, Contacts, Favorites, Files, Inbox, Notes, Pocket Access, and Tasks.

You can connect your iPAQ to your PC in a variety of ways for synchronization and connectivity:

• Universal serial bus (USB) cable
• Serial cable
• LAN connection (wired or wireless)
• Infrared port

The most common method is to connect with a USB connection. Your iPAQ will have arrived with either a cradle with a USB or serial connector that plugs into your PC, or a sync cable that plugs into the bottom of the iPAQ and into your PC. It is important that you not connect your cables to your PC until after you have installed ActiveSync (described in the next section). Also included in your iPAQ kit will be an AC adapter for charging your batteries. This adapter will plug into the back of your cradle, or can plug directly into the bottom of your iPAQ if you only want to charge and not sync. You can also buy sync cables from third parties. We highly recommend the Belkin iPAQ sync/charger cable (www.belkin.com). It enables you to charge your iPAQ from your USB port using a single cable. If you travel, it saves having to take your adapter with you on the road. In addition, it comes with a cigarette-lighter adapter allowing you to charge your iPAQ in your vehicle, which for road warriors is invaluable. As a final bonus, this cable costs less than one-third the price of the same cable from HP. Most people will sync their iPAQs with a USB cable, but if you don’t have a USB port on your computer (older computers may not have a USB port), then you can sync with a serial cable. The higher-end iPAQs ship with a cradle that has both a USB and a serial connector. If you have a cable with only USB and you need the serial connector, it can be obtained at significant additional expense from HP. It is probably cheaper to buy a USB card for your PC than to buy the cable. Serial syncing is also very slow, so it is not recommended. You can also sync your iPAQ with your infrared port. Many laptop computers have infrared ports that allow you to sync with your iPAQ if the ports are aligned and the port on your laptop is active. Desktop PCs rarely have infrared ports. This is also a slow sync method and is rarely used. However, it is useful to know that it can be done if you are on the road with your laptop and have forgotten your cable at home.
The fastest way to sync your iPAQ is through a network connection. To obtain a network connection, you must use an expansion sleeve to insert either a CompactFlash or PCMCIA networking card. One of the ways of networking your iPAQ that is rapidly growing in popularity is to use a wireless 802.11b wireless local area network (WLAN) card to connect your iPAQ to your network. That way, as you roam around your office, your iPAQ is always connected in real time to your network.

If you find yourself doing a lot of typing on your iPAQ—for taking notes in meetings or for long e-mail messages, for example—you might find an external keyboard to be a very valuable accessory.
As adept as you might become with the other handwriting and input mechanisms, you will never reach the speed of a touch typist on a full keyboard. The leader in the portable keyboard world is the Targus Stowaway folding keyboard. It is easy to carry with you. Folded up in its black case it is about the same size as an iPAQ and weighs only 7.9 ounces.When attached to the keyboard, the iPAQ is propped up efficiently by a small stand at the back of the keyboard. The keyboard draws its minimal power requirements from the iPAQ.
To make the keyboard work, you must install a keyboard driver onto the iPAQ. This driver can be found on the CD that is supplied with the keyboard. More inf

You can modify the settings for the virtual keyboard. First, select Options from the input method selection pop-up menu (opened by tapping the arrow next to the current input icon on the bottom right of the window) to open the Input dialog box with the Input Method tab active. When Keyboard is selected in the Input Method box, you can opt to use small or large keys. If you select the Large Keys option, this by necessity means that some of the less frequently used keys will disappear off the keyboard. You can also turn on an option to use gestures in the keyboard area to represent certain keys, such as BACKSPACE and ENTER.

The virtual keyboard is accessed by changing the input method as we did for the handwriting recognition options. Instead of choosing one of the handwriting options from the pop-up menu, you choose Keyboard. This will turn the soft input panel at the bottom of your screen into a standard QWERTY keyboard, You can tap any key in the keyboard, just as you would with a real keyboard, to have that character inserted where the cursor is. The 123 key at the top left of the keyboard will bring up a numerical keypad along with some special character keys, as shown in the next illustration. Tapping 123 again will return you to the regular keyboard. Tapping the button on the lower left with the two accented characters will open a keyboard of special foreign characters, as shown next. Tapping this key again will return you to the regular keyboard.
The arrow keys on the bottom right will move the cursor in the direction indicated by the arrow.

At any point you can tap the ? icon on the toolbar to go to the help area and learn more about the options on the toolbar. Tapping the OK button will close the correction window, returning you to the document with your modifications in place. Tapping the X button will close the window without making your modifications to the document.
In the correction window, you can correct erroneous words and add words to Transcriber’s dictionary. Transcriber has a built-in calculator that will solve simple equations simply by writing them on the screen. For example, if you need to know the answer to 4 × 3, simply write 4 × 3 = on the screen, leaving the answer blank. Transcriber will fill in the answer in the results that it transcribes into the application, as shown here:

If a word has been entered poorly or was recognized incorrectly by Transcriber, you can go to the Transcriber correction window to fix the problem. First, select the word that was incorrectly recognized (the fastest way is to double-tap it). Then open the correction window by drawing the Correction gesture, as shown previously; by drawing the Quick Correct gesture and then selecting Go To Corrector from the menu; or by tapping the correction icon on the Transcriber toolbar (which appears as a red check mark over a page of writing).The correction window will display a larger version of the word that you selected. You can correct an incorrect word by inputting directly over the letter or letters to change them. Alternatively, you can select an entire word and tap the alternates icon (appears as an uppercase A with a bar underneath it) in the new toolbar that is at the top of the screen.
The Alternates menu that pops up when you double-tap the word is shown in the following illustration. In this menu you can select a replacement for the wrong word from a list of dictionary words, add this word to the dictionary, change the case of the selected letter, add a space, or cancel to close the menu.The fourth icon from the left on the top toolbar allows you to switch the correction window from full-screen mode to partial screen. In partial screen you can still see your whole document while the correction window floats in the front.