Posted By John C I have purchased a handheld Sony PDA for recording certain details in the event of an incident/accident or any workplace observations worthy of monitoring. I can keep it in my pocket and upload data to my Laptop when back in the office. Also keeps me updated with a 'to do' list and contacts, etc. The current software for making written notes is very basic. I wondered if there is anything out there on the market that might be of use to me in this kind of field. Any advice?

Posted By Conor O'Kelly Using PDAs for anything other than short sentences can be cumbersome, no matter how fast you are. When developing our handheeld auditing tool in conjunction with a Pfizer site, they specified that they wanted to be able to create "default actions" and "default comments" on the PC which would appear on a drop down list on the PDA. This allowed the bulk of text to be pre-prepared and then you could select and edit it afterwards. I've anlaysed stacks of completed audits for customers, and found that certain phrases, comments etc. recur often (accident investigation likewise I'm sure)and having these available to drag and drop really addresses the problem. Can give more info if you wish..

Posted By Neil Budworth Dear John, Try Stuart Cox at Auditmaster 01795 439115 Stuart has a PDA based audit system which will automatically generate full text reports and actions lists, as well as collecting management data. It has all sorts of other bells and whistles as well. We use it and are seriously impressed. Best Regards Neil http://www.auditmaster.co.uk/

Posted By David J Bristow John Just to add to the comments. On the gadget show a few weeks ago they showed a small unit (about a couple of inches wide and about 6 inches in height) which you placed on a flat service. Next you placed your PDA near to it and through bluetooth technology and infra red, beamed a key board onto the desk top (looked like a full size keyboard). Every time you hit a key it bleeped and then sent the info to your PDA. Very neat idea and off course means that you can type with two hands! thats assuming you do before. About £100.00 is the cost of the item but I have not seen it in the shops yet. If anyone has seen it or knows were the item can be purchased then I would appreciate any details - perhaps a posting so that others interested may also be able to purchase. Kind regards David B