Getting software from cyberspace to the palm of your hand: Downloading and installing software on your palm OS or pocket PC handheld

We've covered a lot of ground in this chapter. At the very least, you should now realize how you can download specialized medical software from the Internet. Without this additional software, your handheld computer will never realize its full potential! In the first hands-on exercise, we showed you how easy it is to download the software to your desktop.You can do this using either Internet Explorer or Netscape browsers.We also made a few suggestions on how to keep track of your downloads. In the second hands-on exercise we showed you how to uncompress software so that it can be installed on your handheld.We also showed you ways to manage all the files that you will accumulate after uncompressing software. In the third and fourth exercises, two ways of installing Palm software to your handheld were illustrated step by step. If you don't have the Palm Desktop (for Palm users) or the Microsoft ActiveSync software (for Pocket PC users) installed on your desktop, it's time to do this now. Also, make sure that your handheld and desktop are communicating nicely; otherwise, the rest of this book will not be very helpful to you! Finally, in the last exercise, we showed you two ways to install software on a Pocket PC handheld computer. It's important to make sure you download the software for the right processor (check your user's manual).We also showed you the "trick" for installing software to your additional memory or main memory. Now that you see how simple it is to download and install software on your handheld computer, all the uses and applications that we describe in the following chapters will be usable with your Palm OS or Pocket PC device. The nebulous mystery of getting software from cyberspace to the palm of your hand is solved once and for all, and you can join the growing numbers of health care professionals who use handheld computers at the point of care on a daily basis.Whatever you do, don't forget to take time out to play a quick game of Tetris or Defender!