JurisPDA@NYLS.edu

Getting Started

Palm Handhelds, Treo smartphones, and other Palm OS® PDAs come with a number of basic tools that help you to plan and organize your life.  The four primary programs are the Date Book, Address Book, To Do List and Memo Pad.  Palm OS® handhelds also include a calculator and applications to track your e-mail and expenses. Consult the set up guide that comes with  your handheld to find out how to use these functions. Check Grace's Quick Tips Page and the Palm OS® Bookstore on this site for more help in setting up your PDA. You can also download the Palm Quick Reference Card, for guidance.

You can customize your handheld by downloading applications and documents so that it can help you become a more organized and effective law student or lawyer. There are thousands of free or inexpensive add-on programs that extend the functionality of your PDA and allow you to customize the operation of your handheld.  To get a more complete picture of how your handheld can help you as a law student or lawyer, you should wander around this website (all of the documents and applications listed are usable on any PDA that runs on the Palm OS® platform), but here are a few suggestions:

Time Management: Organization is essential for a  good law student or lawyer.  You can enhance the basic Date Book that comes with your handheld by adding applications to keep track of your schedule and stay on top of the many demands of law school and law practice.  Programs are available that allow you to keep track of your commuting schedule, insert the major U.S. holidays into your Date Book, and help you manage your time more effeciently.

Better than Sticky Notes:  Handhelds help you keep track of pieces of information such as telephone numbers, addresses and appointments.  And the HotSync® feature lets you back up your data to your desktop computer.  Every piece of information you've jotted into your PDA gets transferred to your PC - and vice versa. You can also share information with others by beaming it to another handheld.  In addition, you can buy conduit software which synchronizes data with the PDA's built-in programs, for almost any PC calendar or contact management program, including Microsoft Outlook, Act! and Lotus Organizer.

Quick Access to Legal or Reference Materials:  Instead of carrying bulky books, you can store reference materials on a PDA, which easily fits into a pocket or backpack, for access at a moment's notice.  You can put documents like the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on your handheld for easy reference.   Check the Legal Content section of this web site for other documents.  To access these materials you will need to install a document reader.  As its name suggests, a document reader compresses and converts a document into a format that permits you to read it on your Palm OS® handheld. Doc readers help you get around the 4K per document limit of the Palm OS®  Memo Pad program.  Most also allow you to search for text and to insert bookmarks to make the documents better reference tools.

Study Aids:  Applications are available that allow you to create your own flashcards and quizzes so you can use your handheld to study anywhere.  You can also download the Practicing Lawyer Institute?s free Mulitstate Professional Responsibility Exam multiple choice questions for your PDA.

The Handheld as a Substitute for a Laptop Computer:  With a document editor and a keyboard you can use your handheld instead of a laptop for taking notes in classes and in the law library.  Document editors convert documents from Word or WordPerfect format to a Palm OS® compatible format, and allow you to work with much larger documents than the built-in Memo Pad on your handheld.  Light-weight, folding, full-sized keyboards are available for the various Palm and Visor models.  In addition, a print program will allow you to print documents or text documents directly from your handheld to any printer that has an IR (infra red) port.

Internet Access:  Many handhelds now have internet access.  A handheld with a modem allows you to conduct online research. You can search the internet, Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw wherever you are.  There is also an increasing amount of content available on the Internet designed specifically for PDAs (such as AvantGo, which provides access to such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Gigalaw). Although the small size and screen resolution of handhelds do not make them ideal for general web browsing, for quick internet access on the road they can be invaluable.