The approach of the book isn't fancy, but it does the job. Pocket PC and Handheld PC features are diligently explained one at a time. Users want to know how to do specific jobs, and the book was clearly written with that in mind. Conceptual explanations combined with procedures and illustrations help readers learn how to make their palm-size buddies do new tricks. Coverage is a bit short on applications other than those in the standard suite, but in-depth sections on multimedia management and Internet connectivity make up for that shortcoming. All together, this is a solid tutorial and reference manual for people who use PDAs based on Windows CE. --David Wall

Topics covered: Palm-size PCs that run Microsoft Windows CE and comply with the Pocket PC and Handheld PC specifications are explained for everyday users. There's documentation of the essential functions of the operating system and its most popular applications (especially Pocket Outlook, Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, and Microsoft Money). Multimedia gets a lot of attention, as does Internet connectivity.