WordSmith reminds me of FullWrite on the Mac or early versions of Word on the PC. It has great formatting ability, but it's nauseatingly slow. If you need to read and edit heavily formatted documents on your Palm handheld, WordSmith is worth exploring. But if you simply want a plain vanilla document reader, many others will serve you better. The newly released version 1.12 has added a Mac conduit. I may try it again once it also adds bookmarks. It requires 408K and is priced at $30. WordSmith is pictured in Figure J.

FIGURE J

WordSmith is like Word for the Palm OS.

Bottom line
After playing with many readers (but before I tried QED), I found myself using CSpotRun for basic reading tasks. However, its lack of bookmarks kept cropping up as I often wanted to flag an interesting passage. So for a while I explored a combo of CSpotRun and TealDoc 3.x--literally switching to TealDoc for bookmarking, then back to CSpotRun for reading on its full screen. Then I found MobiPocket. It has much of what one wants and is free. If they revamped its search algorithm to make it faster, displayed a normal amount of text, and included text copying, it would be one of the best.

When I first drafted this review, I wrote, "if TealDoc added full screen display, it would probably become my standard." Then version 4 added it. I was on the verge of registering it when I tried QED, an impressive alternative. I'm left in a quandary, undecided between the two.

What do these two programs still need to make them a perfect reader? Here's the Lucky 7 wish list:

• Quick, consistent toggling of a clean full screen. Tapping the bottom right corner--or pressing the Memo hardware button--should toggle full screen. QED needs this. TealDoc's full screen should be free of symbols.

• Fast access to edit and copy modes. QED needs an icon for toggling editing mode. TealDoc should select text whenever one drags across it (even when screen tapping is on).

• Smart use of selected text. A selected phrase should automatically appear in the bookmark and Find dialog boxes.

• "Grab-it" bookmarks. Use the selected text as a first guess for the bookmark name (or if no words are selected, the top line should be used). If selected text is used, the cursor belongs at the end to add more; if the top line text is used, it should be highlighted for fast deletion.

• Instant bookmarks need an icon on the bottom line and a hardware button to instantly add bookmarks, bypassing the use of a dialog box. Select a word, tap an icon, and voila, bookmark!

• Screen tap for menu bar. Tapping the top line should display the menu bar.

• Hardware buttons should be used for key functions such as instant bookmarking, Find, and toggling the full screen.

Still, as it stands, if you need the main quartet of features I consider important--full screen, bookmarking, text copying, and speed--QED and TealDoc are now the best of the readers. They offer a great reading experience.