Reviewed on 3 Jan 1999 by Natalie Tay
Type: Shareware
Developer: Kurt Schuster
Price: US$23.00
Program Size: 23kb
 QED
is the original DOC editor for the Palm Pilot, and that in itself is
a very attractive feature. Before QED was released, there were no DOC
editors available for the Palm Pilot. Since then, SmartDoc
has emerged as an alternative to QED in the DOC editor field.
A stand-out feature of QED is that it
can support and edit docs of unlimited size, unlike the Memo function
in the Palm OS which only supports docs that are less than 4K in size.
Another great thing about QED is that is takes up very little space
in the Palm, using up only 27K of precious RAM.
The navigational buttons in QED are found
along the bottom of the screen, however, I would hardly call them intuitive.
There are nine navigational buttons, and all are sized for easy viewing
and utilization. Unfortunately, the buttons aren't intuitive, save for
the "Open file", "New file" and "Scroll" buttons. I had to read the
FAQ on QED to figure out the functions of the rest of the buttons. The
other buttons are the search, scrollbar and the bookmark buttons. The
search button does exactly that, but only brings up the first instance
of the word that is queried for. The horizontal scrollbar brings you
to sections in the DOC by tapping on various points on the scrollbar.
Not exactly precise, but it does its job. The bookmark button I especially
like. Say you've read a portion of a DOC and would like to refer to
it later. You can set a bookmark for it, and give the bookmark a name,
and just tapping on the bookmark's name brings you back to the section
of the DOC you want to refer to.
Unfortunately, the bookmarks work only
WITHIN the current DOC, so if you need to do lots of cross-referencing
between DOCs, you're out of luck!
 There
are options galore in QED. Several things you can choose include the
DOC's font, if the DOC is editable, if the DOC should be backed up,
if you want to keep the DOC private, if you want to view the DOC with
a ruled template (i.e. those little dotted lines on the screen), and
also what screen width you prefer. The screen width option appealed
to me most --- it allows you to view you DOC in screen widths between
160 to 800 pixels. Great for people who need the screen real estate
when reading certain DOC files. These options can be set as the default
preferences or just the current DOC preferences.
QED uses standard doc files, and the
trial version can be used freely as a DOC reader. However, QED becomes
nagware when its editing functions are used. It is recommended that
you register
the program if you wish to take full advantage of the DOC editor.
 If
you're wondering what happens to your DOC files should you rely on a
DOC reader (such as
CSpotRun) other than QED, fret not, for the DOC files will be download
both into QED and your favorite DOC reader.
To edit a DOC on your PC, you can use
the QEX utility
avaible free with QED. More information on how to do so can be found
on the QED
FAQ.
 QED
works like any word processor, save for the fact that you can't do
any fancy stuff (e.g. specfiying font face or size) on it. It's essentially
a bare-bones word processor for the Palm. If you're on the go and
need to edit some documents but don't want to lug your laptop around,
QED is for you. Of course, if you're thinking about writing an autobiography,
QED handles that just as well, but you'd better be equipped with a
keyboard for your Palm, because Graffiti just isn't going to cut it!
=)
Most importantly (and this applies
to all software), READ THE FAQ! It will clear up your doubts and confusion
regarding some of the really useful functions in QED. If you don't
read the FAQ/manual, you'll just be muddling around in the dark wondering
why the heck people think QED is so great. It's a pity QED is a tad
pricey for students, since I'm sure many students would love to use
it as a notetaking tool in class.
|
|
- Unlimited DOC size
- Great bookmark function
- Tons of options to pick from
- Small footprint on Palm
|
- Unintuitive interface
- No cross-referencing between docs
- Expensive for students
|
|
| cingular
|
Refurbished Smartphones from $49.99
while supplies last
|
|
|
| Deal of the Day
|
|
|
| News Now
|
|
|
|
