Korin Hasegawa-John
- 2001.09.26
Most of this column is drawn from my personal experience. I have
owned several Palm handhelds, most
recently being a Palm V. Many Mac users have a hard time getting their
Palm and their Mac to play nice together, including me. This is because
Palm treated Mac users as second class citizens for a long time. If you
have an older Palm, it's more complicated, but it can be done with a
little patience and instruction.
This article covers the basics of adapters, software, and the like.
If you're looking to find out how to get Outlook Express to sync with
your Palm Mail program, this is not your article.
First of all, if you have a handheld made by Handspring or a Palm in
the mXXX series, you are fairly well off. These handhelds use a USB
cradle, allowing you to connect them to any Mac that has USB. If you
have a PCI slot free, there are very inexpensive PCI cards that will
allow you to add USB to your Mac.
If you have an older Palm, anything in the III, V, VII series or
older, you need adapters. If your Mac has serial ports, get Palm's
MacPac for $15. This includes a PC serial adapter and all the software
you will need. If you have USB, you need an adapter. Again, Palm makes
one, as well as Keyspan. If you do go with a third party, you can
download Palm's Mac software for free.
Once you have all the adapters you need, hook them up to your Mac
and to your Palm's cradle. Install the Palm Desktop software from the
CD or from the installer which you downloaded, restart your Mac, and
press the HotSync button once the Mac is up and running again. Your
Palm and the software on your Mac should synchronize. If it doesn't,
make sure all your port settings are correct (check under Setup or
Settings under the HotSync menu).
Now that you have your handheld and desktop working together, there
are many more things you can do with your Palm. You can read and edit
Word, AppleWorks, and WordPerfect documents on your Palm, work on
FileMaker Pro databases, edit
spreadsheets, and more. Best of all, you can get any changes you made
to appear on your Mac - and your files can always be synchronized with
your Mac.
