The program comes with both the TinySheet application, to be installed on the Palm unit, and a Tiny Sheet conduit, (the TinySheet Manager) to facilitate transfer of Excel workbooks, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) tables, CSV (comma-separated values), and tab delimitated files to the Palm application. According to Iambic, the software is compatible with most Palm OS devices with Palm OS 2.0 and later and requires 181K. The Pilot series 1000 and 5000 devices require a 1MB upgrade to run the program.

I reviewed the program on a Palm IIIx and a Palm IIIc. The application allows you to view and edit workbooks with multiple sheets, similar to Excel. According to Iambic's documentation, each sheet in a workbook can have "more than 65,000 rows and up to 256 columns. The only limitation is the memory on your Palm device." You should use judgment in sheet size, however, as the speed of calculation and navigation decreases in very large sheets.

From an overall perspective, I found the application on the Palm device operated remarkably similar to Microsoft's Excel desktop spreadsheet (considering the difference in hardware). I consider this one of its strengths. I personally find it interesting that they were able to fit many of the key functions of the rather large Microsoft software onto a device where program size really does matter. Another feature I liked was the use of "pop up" menus to facilitate functions.

Two main screens
The TinySheet interface screen consists of two main screens, the index screen and the spreadsheet screen. The index screen is pictured in Figure A.

FIGURE A

The index screen is where TinySheet workbooks on the device are listed.

The index screen is where TinySheet workbooks on the device are listed, along with the size of the spreadsheet. I particularly liked the size listing directly on this screen. You can also choose to display the available spreadsheets by a particular category. When the stylus is placed over the workbook on a list, a small box menu is brought up that provides the option to edit, delete, duplicate, or beam the sheet. You can beam the sheet and application to another Palm OS device, and the application will operate on that second device for three days. This is a convenient way to share data on a short-term basis. I found the beaming of the application and of workbooks to work quite well.