I am considering the purchase of a PDA for my genealogy travels or perhaps inheriting my husbands when he upgrades, but before any action is taken I am wondering what programs there are out there for the Compaq. These are the high end PDAs and have great memory potential and they use the memory cards which I currently use in my digital camera so would be a great combination for me. I currently am carrying my computer into all the libraries, court houses, etc and by the time find a place to hook up and also carry the weight it is getting tiresome and would like something lighter to carry with on my travels. My husband travels a lot for business and if he is going any where that I can find some research I go with but with the new regulations at the airports, it is a pain to open and display all my computer paraphernalia and refuse to put it in the hold. Genealogy Computing had an article on the PDAs this summer but only addressed the more inexpensive models and since I have the change of the better one I don't want to tell my husband I will buy his off him and then find out no programs will work with it. Any help on this matter would be great. All my material is in Family Tree Maker. I know the Compaq PDA uses a form of Microsoft so all my spread sheets would work, but need the family information and I still haven't found time to put in all my collected data and sure don't have time to put it in another unit. Thanks. Jerilyn

Jerilyn I'm a computer gadget nut and I have both a Palm V and a Compaq iPaq 3835. I can tell you that I would rather take my laptop and scanner with me for genealogy work even though it is a hassle to get through airport security. You can export your files from Family Tree Maker into gedcom and then open on your PocketPC device (like a Compaq iPaq PDA) with some free software You may find you are happy taking notes or adding to your spreadsheets on the PDA but I just don't like the small size myself personally. I stick to using my PDA for keeping my address book, calendar appointments and MP3 player. I prefer my laptop for genealogy research. I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a CD-RW and DVD drive. I can burn CDs to share with others. I carry a Canon N1240U scanner which I think has now been replaced by model CanoScan LiDE 30. I bought mine for $79 and it's been worth every cent. It's USB and doesn 't require a separate power supply. I took it with me on a trip to Surry Co, NC and had no trouble taking my laptop and scanner into the library and courthouse in Dobson. I opened my laptop, attached the scanner and scanned to my heart's content. I do use a rolling case that holds my laptop and scanner and my Canon S40 digital camera so I have everything I need when I travel and it rolls everywhere very easily. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth of opinion. Sandy (Whalen) Bauer http://whalen-family.org [email protected] wrote: >I am considering the purchase of a PDA for my genealogy travels or perhaps >inheriting my husbands when he upgrades, but before any action is taken I am >wondering what programs there are out there for the Compaq. These are the >high end PDAs and have great memory potential and they use the memory cards >which I currently use in my digital camera so would be a great combination >for me. > >I currently am carrying my computer into all the libraries, court houses, etc >and by the time find a place to hook up and also carry the weight it is >getting tiresome and would like something lighter to carry with on my >travels. My husband travels a lot for business and if he is going any where >that I can find some research I go with but with the new regulations at the >airports, it is a pain to open and display all my computer paraphernalia and >refuse to put it in the hold. > >Genealogy Computing had an article on the PDAs this summer but only addressed >the more inexpensive models and since I have the change of the better one I >don't want to tell my husband I will buy his off him and then find out no >programs will work with it. > >Any help on this matter would be great. All my material is in Family Tree >Maker. I know the Compaq PDA uses a form of Microsoft so all my spread >sheets would work, but need the family information and I still haven't found >time to put in all my collected data and sure don't have time to put it in >another unit. > >Thanks. Jerilyn > > >==== ILWAYNE Mailing List ==== >Any questions/problems regarding the Wayne County, Illinois list, >contact the listowner, Dianna Williams mailto:[email protected] >Visit the Wayne County, Illinois Genealogy web site at: >http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilwayne/ > > > >