User`s guide
HOW
TO
USE:
Fixing
your
database
files
open
any
file for
editing
.
There
are
apparently
no
restrictions
on
the
size
of
the
file.
Of
course, once
you
bring
the
database
file into PalEd it,
you'll
be
faced
with
the
daunting
task
of
going
through
the
docu-
ment
and
deleting
all
the
non-text
characters.
What
you
'll
be
left
with
is
the
raw
data
of
the
database
file,
minus
any
records
that
were
totally
corrupted.
The
next
part
of
the
operation
involves
creating
a
new
database
and
using
the
Copy
and
Paste
keys
to
copy
the
data
from
PalEdit to
the
database.
By
the
time
you
finish
this
task
you'll
ha
ve
vowed,
once
again,
to
mak
e
fre
-
quent
backups
.
One
learning
exp
e-
rience, like this, is
enough
to last a
lifetime.
Shareware
Freeware
mentioned
in
this
article
ABDDUMP
• -
Utility
program
that
sal-
vages
corrupted
database
files
.
Freeware.
Available
on
The
HP
Palmtop
Paper's
1997
CD
Info8ase
.
ABDLOAD
• -
Utility
program
that
helps
you
rebuild
a
corrupted
Appointment
book
file.
Freeware.
Available
on
The
HP
Palmtop
Paper's
1997
CD
Info8ase.
DBV
• -
Database
viewing
program
for
GDB/PDB
database
files .
Freeware
.
Available
on
The
HP
Palmtop
Paper's
1997
CD
Info8ase
.
FASTDB
• - A
TSR
(Terminate
and
State
Resident)
program
that
speeds
up
100/200LX
Database
appl
i
cations
(Phone,
Appointment
book,
etc
.)
Freeware
.
Available
on
The
HP
Palmtop
Paper's
1997
CD
Info8ase.
GARLlC.ZIP
• -
Utility
program
that
tries
to
reconstruct
any
damaged
database
file
on
the
palmtop.
Freeware
.
Available
on
The
HP
Palmtop
Paper's
1997
CD
Info8ase
.
PalEdit
. -
Text
editor
for
the
palmtop.
Freeware.
Available
on
The
HP
Palmtop
Paper's
1997
CD
Info8ase.
How I Speed Up My Phone Book
By
Hal
Goldstein
M
y
200LX
Phone
book
file
is
200K
in
size
.
Even
using
the
FASTDB
•
program
on
my
double
speed
palmtop,
searching
and
loading
can
take
a
long
time
.
Here
are
several
suggestions
for
faster
access.
First,
create
Subsets
which
will
help
you
get
at
needed
data
quickly
.
For
example,
I
have
Subsets
called
"HP",
"
Company",
and
"Fairfield".
HP
consists
of
HP
employees,
in
each
record
of
which
I
have
placed
"
HP"
in
the
category
field
. "
Company"
consists
of
all
Phone
records,
but
sorted
by
company
.
(When
defining
such
a
Subset,
just
leave
all
fields
blank
.
This
Subset
allows
me
to
easily
search
for
contacts
within
a
specific
company
.)
For
my
home
town
of
Fairfield,
I
look
for
a
"472
"
or
"469",
the
two
Fairfield,
Iowa
exchanges,
in
the
phone
and
business
field
.
(I
usuplly
don
't
bother
putting
"Fairfield"
in
the
city
field
when
I
originally
enter
the
data
. I
can
easily
screen
out
the
few
extra
records
with
"472"
or
"469
"
in
them
pulled
up
with
this
method
.)
The
first
time
you
access
a
Subset
it
can
take
a
long
time.
However,
the
database
apparently
creates
an
index
,
because
subsequent
accesses
of
the
Subset
occur
very
quickly
.
I
have
brought
down
my
load
and
search
time
to
virtually
zero
using
Harry
Konstas
's
DBV
•
database
viewing
program
.
DBV
quickly
loads
and
searches
a
Phone
or
other
data-
base
file
.
It
requires
less
than
150K,
so
it
can
run
as
an
application
from
Application
Manager
(More)
.
(I
use
Software
Carousel).
The
downside
is
that
you
cannot
use
both
the
PhoneBook
and
DBV
at
the
same
time.
The
solution
is
to
back
up
every
night
and
use
DBV
on
the
backup
file
.
I
have
further
refined
the
solution.
I
use
a
macro
to
back
up
the
PhoneBook
file
.
The
macro
first
opens
each
Subset
in
my
PhoneBook,
closes
Phone
Book
,
and
from
Filer
backs
up
the
file
.
The
reason
for
opening
each
Subset
is
that
DBV
requires
a
Subset
to
be
opened
before
it
can
take
advantage
of
quickly
accessing
the
Subset.
An
ounce
of
prevention
Fred
Kaufman,
one
of
the
volun-
teer
expe
r
ts
in
the
HPHAND
forum
on
CompuServe
offers
the
final
bit
of
advice
: "
My
habit
for
many
year
s
has
been
to clo
se
each
database
application
when
I'm
fin-
ished
with
it,
rather
than
keeping
it
perpetually
open.
I
don't
think
I
have
ever
(knock
on
wood)
had
a
corrupted
data
file.
It
is a
bit
slow-
er
to
reopen
,
but
it
works
for
me
.
So I
look
something
up
,
add
a
new
item
...
whatever.
..
and
then
I close
[(MENU)
Quit]
the
application
."
Speeding
up
the
Appointment
Book
Palmtop
users
sometimes
complain
that
one
particular
database
appli-
cation,
the
Appointment
Book, is
notoriously
slow
.
It
takes
an
inor
-
dinately
long
time
to
add
an
item
to
the
Appointment
calendar
or
ToDo
list.
Other
users
report
that
moving
forward
or
backward
in
the
calendar
see
ms
to
take
forever.
First, reali
ze
that
slowness
is a
relative
term
.
No
wadays,
we've
become
accustomed
to
the
speed
of
desktop
or
laptop
machines
that
use
32-bit fi
ling
systems
and
have
CPUs
and
disk
drives
that
are
10 to
25
time
s
faster
than
anything
on
the
palmtop
.
Ha
v
ing
s
aid
that
,
here
are
some
sugge
stions
on
how
to
speed
up
the
Appointment
Book applica-
tion
.
-
If
you
keep
your
Appointment
Book
database
file
on
a
PC
card
that
uses
Stacker
to
compres
s
the
files,
consider
elimin
a
ting
Stacker
or
else
move
the
appointment
file
to
the
C:
drive
for
faster
process-
ing
.
-
If
you
use
a
PC
card
to
hold
your
database
files
and
you
notice
that
saving
or
closing
a
database
t
akes
a
long
time,
it
may
be
a
sign
14 THE HP PA
LMT
OP
PAPER SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 1997