Recomend a PDa for estimating

[Dan308]

Can anyone recomend a PDA for job costing? I have a printing business and I'd like to do on the spot estimating. I have a DOS based program I use on computer. Could I use that on a PDA? Or how about Excel spread sheets downloaded to a PDA. What are my options?

[Brad Adrian]

DOS applications will not generally work well on a Windows Mobile-based device (the focus of this Web site). However, they all come with "mobile" versions of Excel (and Word, for that matter) pre-installed in the ROM. Not all of the functionality of desktop Excel is supported by Excel Mobile, but the most commonly-used ones are, including most functions and equations.

This article (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/help/pocketpc/excelmobile.mspx) gives an overview of Excel Mobile and some How-Tos.

Look here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/help/pocketpc/unsupportedexcelfeatures.mspx) for an explanation of exactly how Excel Mobile and desktop Excel differ.

Then, to see what types of third-party job costing software is available for these devices, check out handango.com or pocketgear.com.

I hope this points you in the right direction. Post additional questions as you get them.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

You can use DOS programs on a Windows Mobile device using an emulator - just don't expect too much out of it. See here (http://www.pocketdos.com) for more info.

All Windows Mobile devices carry Pocket Excel as well, but it's strictly limited in function compared to the desktop version.