Is a PDA what I need?

July 26, 2006 4:22 PM

I need to organize alot of daily and long term information

What I need most is the ability to cross reference. I am a detective and would like to maintain a database of open and recent cases, 50-100. I need to be able to search by victim, suspect, date or location etc. I would love to have photos also. I have no experience with PDAs and have no idea what is out there. What is the smallest item I could get that would serve those functions?

posted by InkaLomax to technology (3 comments total)

I think Pocket PCs have a version of Office, which includes Excel. A simple spreadsheet should be good enough. Using Access would be better, since you'd be able to make complex queries (e.g. "find me all the murder cases that took place in 90210 after 9 pm") but there's no version for Pocket PC, IIRC.

Maybe there's some other database, like MySQL, ported to Pocket PC/Palm?
posted by lunchbox at 6:15 PM on July 26, 2006

Maybe there's some other database, like MySQL, ported to Pocket PC/Palm?

Some googling turns up filemaker mobile, which syncs with filemaker pro. I've never used the mobile version but I have used filemaker pro, and it at least definitely can do everything you want. I do suggest that if you go this route, and don't have experience designing databases, that you find someone to help you with the design -- my (limited) experience with graphical database software suggests that while they are easily usable by people with limited experience, they also make it much easier to poorly design databases. I do think this kind of solution would be much nicer than excel in terms of interface.
posted by advil at 8:20 PM on July 26, 2006

I believe there are some industry-specific contact management applications out there...I have either read about or heard of applications for the medical staff @ hospitals, college admissions officers and field salespeople.

I'm not a techie, but I assume whatever you use should be able to be adopted by your fellow detectives and should be synchable with a central database.

Does your department have an IT honcho? Perhaps he/she can contact Palm & the other providers.
posted by NYCinephile at 2:11 AM on July 27, 2006