Converting images
Once you have installed the viewer software, you will want to convert and install your own images. To do so, you must use a program that converts images to PalmPilot-readable files. This program, the Image Converter utility, is included with the Viewer software package.

When you start Image Converter, you will see a window with four tabs. In the conversion window, you can select your image source. This can be the clipboard, an image on your screen, or a graphic file on your hard drive. Once you have selected the image source, you can select the Note tab to add a short or long (up to 700 words) note describing the image. Selecting the "Preview" tab will enable you to see what your image will look like once it has been converted into a PalmPilot-readable format. Once you are satisfied with the way your image is going to look and added any notes you want to include, it's time to select the Conversion tab. Here you can select an image type: black and white for simple line art or grayscale for photographs and images with a variety of colors. Choosing the dithered option will make your images appear to display more gradients. Give your image a title and click the convert button.

Images on the PalmPilot
How do the converted images look? Remember that with only four shades of gray you are not going to wind up with museum quality photos, but when you convert drawings and other line art to a PalmPilot readable format, you will be pleased with the amount of detail which is retained.

Although you can convert any image (color, black and white, or grayscale) to Image Viewer format, you will obtain your best results if you first crop out of the picture anything that is unnecessary using an image editing program. (PaintShop Pro is a popular shareware program that can be used for this) Then reduce the number of colors in the picture to 8 or 16, and finally convert your picture to a grayscale image. Images prepared this way will appear better when converted.

If you select the Auto-Install option in the Image Converter program, your image will be ready to be installed the next time you HotSync your PalmPilot. If you would prefer to create the images first and choose which ones to install, deselect the Auto-Install option while converting your images. When you are ready to install your newly created images onto your PalmPilot use the PalmPilot Install Tool and performing a Hotsync. Now your images will now be ready for viewing on your PalmPilot.

Although the PalmPilot has only a 160-by-160 screen, you can still display images that are larger than this size. You can scroll through an image that is larger than the PalmPilot screen size by dragging the stylus anywhere along the image. Drag right with your pen, for example, and your picture will move to the right.

It is possible to add notes to any picture. These can be added when you create the picture in the Image Conversion program discussed above or they can be added later on your PalmPilot using the Graffiti input system. To add a note from the Image Viewer information screen, tap the stylus directly to the right of the image size and the note window will appear.