FIGURE D

This is the TealGlance configuration panel.

Useful Utilities: TealInfo, TealLock, TealScript
TealInfo, TealLock, and TealScript are a powerful threesome of useful utilities.

TealInfo, shown in Figure E, is a general-purpose database for that information you know you need, but you're not sure where to put it or how to keep it. Databases in the TealInfo world are known as "folios". TealPoint offers a Folio page with various types of information ranging from HTML tags to guitar codes to medical lab test reference values. Although folio creation is somewhat more involved than adding info to other TealPoint products, the flexibility and power TealInfo offers make it well worth taking the time to learn.

FIGURE E

Here's a handy TealInfo folio with metric to English/English to metric conversion tables.

TealLock, shown in Figure F, provides security that's better than the application built into PalmOS. For one thing, TealLock can be configured to hide the actual characters you enter when your password is requested. There are also a number of handy ways to increase the likelihood that you'll protect your Palm, including shortcut-and time-based activation.

FIGURE F

Here's the TealLock settings screen.

TealScript lets you modify Graffiti to work your way. See Scott Johnson's in-depth review of TealScript in the September 1998 issue of PalmPower for further details. Basically, TealScript lets you create your own alternative strokes. It's somewhat like Jot (which I've tried and didn't find as useful, although other readers swear by it) but in my opinion much better, because it's trainable to recognize your handwriting. I'm not sure I have the patience to train any device to recognize my terrible handwriting, though! I can always read what I've written in Graffiti, and I certainly can't say that about my handwriting. TealScript won a PalmPower Editors Choice Cool Tools Award for 1998.

Fun Gadgets: Teal Meal
TealMeal, shown in Figure G, is the answer to that age-old question, "What's for lunch?" Easily customizable, TealMeal can help you pick a restaurant whether you're in your hometown or on a business trip. TealPoint offers restaurant databases for the San Francisco Bay Area and other major destinations including Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, London, and Singapore. Still more restaurant databases can be downloaded from Palmtastik.

If your town--like mine--isn't listed, it's really easy to create a database. I cut and pasted most of the local free weekly's restaurant listings into a word processor, edited them to conform to the TealMeal database format, then ran the TXT2MEAL utility. Although my data needs a little tweaking, the basic process for creating and maintaining restaurant databases is easy and well-explained by the documentation. TealPaint won a PalmPower Editors Choice Fun Gadgets Award for 1998.

FIGURE G

My favorite TealMeal screen, listing most of the Japanese restaurants in Denver.

Cool Tools: TealDoc, TealPaint
Most of us know TealPaint for its capability of taking screenshots of apps on your Palm so they can be included in articles, documentation, and the like. In fact, I used TealPaint for all of the screenshots accompanying this article. TealPaint is probably the most full-featured Palm device-based graphics software currently available. TealPaint includes multiple line and shape tools, fill patterns, image compression and rotation, and even basic animation. Since I'm drawing-impaired, about the only thing I can think of that I need and TealPaint does not currently offer is a library of smart shapes similar to Visio. This addition would be one more reason not to carry my laptop. TealPaint won a PalmPower Editors Choice Cool Tools Award for 1998.