Pocket Word supports only the most rudimentary document

formatting (character formatting, justification, bullets

and numbers) and lacks support for such common document

objects as tables and outlines. In fact, the product

called Pocket Word has actually lost features over

time… versions of Pocket Word for the Handheld PCs

at least supported outlines, a feature that was dropped

for the Pocket PC version. Worse yet, if you create

a document on the PC side that contains such objects,

the objects will not survive a trip to the Pocket

Yet another frustration for Pocket PC owners is that

we know that our chosen platform has ample power for

more sophisticated word processing software, but none

has been available. In the meantime, the "less

powerful" Palm platform offers very strong word

processing choices such as WordSmith and QuickWord,

both of which have more features than Pocket Word,

and allow a Word document to "round trip"

Well, after over 2 years, some help is here. One highly

anticipated product is TextMaker by SoftMaker Software

GmH. A version is already available for the Handheld

PC and one is expected to go into beta for the Pocket

PC shortly. It includes all kinds of features like

tables, outlines, headers and footers, etc., that

are missing from Pocket Word, and it supports intact

"round tripping" of desktop Word documents.

One possible downside is the fact that it’s expected

to sell for around $50, which is a fairly high price

point for Pocket PCs. Many Pocket PC owners will be

willing to pay that price, but what about those who

For people who mostly miss the ability to use outlines,

there is another solution that’s already available…

Streamliner by Kopsis, Inc. Rather than replacing

Pocket Word, as does Textmaker, Streamliner is more

of a special purpose companion product to Pocket Word

that’s engineered just for outlines. Outline documents

can be shared with desktop Word through the use of

.rtf (Rich Text Format) files, and they maintain the

outline formatting throughout the round trip. Another

very attractive feature is that Streamliner sells

for a mere $9.95, so you don’t have to break the bank

Why do people use outliners? Outliners are very useful

   Standard Pocket PC install…

Streamliner supports a proprietary format (.wkl) as

well as Rich Text Format documents. When you start

Streamliner, it starts up much like Pocket Word, with

a listing of Streamliner documents (fig. 1). Using

the Types menu (fig. 2), you can switch between listings

Fig. 3 shows a newly opened document. Fig. 4 shows

that same document with one of the levels collapsed.

The level was collapsed by tapping on the minus sign

to the left of "Formatting Features" as

shown in fig. 3. In fig. 4, you can see that the minus

sign is now a plus sign, and you can expand the level

again by tapping on that plus sign. The levels of

expansion are saved with a document, so if you save

a fully expanded document, it will open up that way

Note also in fig. 3 that the cursor is located right

in the text. This is because Streamliner supports

in-place editing, or editing right within the document.

Some list programs require the use of a dialog box

to enter any text, which obscures the rest of the

The "Formatting Features" level has been

promoted in fig. 5. This is done by putting the cursor

anywhere in the level text and tapping the left arrow

on the toolbar. The arrows are active or inactive

depending on which actions can be performed on the

currently selected level. Note that "Formatting

Features" is now at the same level as "What

In fig. 4, the same level has been demoted to its

previous level, which was accomplished by tapping

on the right arrow. Since the level was at the bottom

of the list when promoted, it remains at the bottom

of the list when demoted. It can be moved up to the

Outline setting (fig. 7) can be accessed from the

Tools menu and provides options for using 2 types

of numbering, bullets or neither. I’ve selected "Legal"

numbering, and the results are shown in fig. 8. That

same figure shows the use of paragraph text. You can

convert any level to paragraph text and it will no

longer be numbered along with the other levels. Paragraph

text is marked by the paragraph symbol to the left

of the text. It can be converted back to a level if

Streamliner supports more than just numbers and bullets,

however. In fig. 9, you can see a few items in a project

plan. Fig. 10 shows the Item Settings (accessed by

tapping on the pencil icon in the toolbar). On this

page you can change the text of the item and designate

it as a regular item, a task with a progress bar or

Since this is a project plan, I chose a task with

a progress bar. The result of this selection is shown

in fig. 11… a progress bar has appear to the left

of the item "Business Requirements". Note

that a progress bar has also appeared to the left

of the parent level, "Documentation". This

progress bar shows an average value of the completion

of all of its children. The percent completed is accessed

by a tap and hold on the progress bar, which pops

up a menu that allows you to set completion in 10%

increments (fig. 12). In fig. 13, the result of setting

"Technical Spec" to 50% complete is shown.

The same project plan is shown with more items complete

An additional option is to set up an outline as a

checklist as in fig. 15. You set up an item as a todo

with a check box using the Item Settings. When you

check off all items in a level, the parent is automatically

Another interesting feature is the SuperFind, which

allows you to find entries in the contacts, appointments

and task lists that match a value in the Streamliner

list. SuperFind is activated with the rightmost icon

in the toolbar, the binoculars with the big "S"

above them. In fig. 16, I added a few celebrities

to the list. Item 1.1.6.2 is someone from my Contacts

list. In fig. 17, SuperFind is told to find a contact

that matched the name Reynolds. A list of matches

is shown under the 3 icons. Finally, in fig. 18, the

contact is displayed from my Contacts list. You can

do the same with calendar and task entries. A more

basic text search can also be accessed from the menu

Almost all of the commands in the Edit menu (fig.

19) are available through the toolbar or menu bar.

The functions of the arrow keys (raise, lower, promote

and demote) are available here as well, as are "Add

item" and delete. Checkboxes and progress bars

can be turned on or off from here, and a standard

The Tools menu (fig. 20) has a few additional commands.

Most notable are the RTF Import and Export commands,

which are necessary to share outlines between Streamliner

and desktop Word. The Options dialog (fig. 21) can

also be accessed from this menu. That dialog controls

font size, the use of ClearType and allows adjustment

So, how does the RTF exchange work? Numbered or bulleted

outlines can be created either in Streamliner or desktop

Word, and both tools will recognize and maintain the

outline settings. Another feature is that headings

used when creating a document with desktop Word will

retain its headings in Streamliner. Both features

That being said, I’ll admit that the information for

Streamliner on the Kopsis web site lead me to some

unfulfilled expectations. It states "RTF Import/export

with document structure (headings) preserved",

which I didn’t interpret as meaning headings only.

So I thought that we might actually have a tool that

maintains things like tables through round trips between

the PC and Pocket PC. Unfortunately, preservation

of document structure is indeed limited to headings,

Kopsis added a couple of design elements that should

become standard issue for all Pocket PC applications.

For one, all dialogs feature a Cancel button. Second

and more important, a QuickClose button is available

at all times. That’s the blue "X" in the

menu bars, and it allows you to close the document

without saving changes. That’s something you can’t

However, in the "two steps forward, one step

back" department, Streamliner lacks Pocket Word’s

undo command. When I was going through the product’s

learning curve, I occasionally made a mistake that

I normally would have cleared up with the undo command.

Instead I had to figure out how to fix the mistake

manually, and it wasn’t always easy to do. Sure, you

have the convenient QuickClose, but if you’ve done

a lot of work in a document, you most likely won’t

    Help is very thorough

and well organized on the Pocket PC. Accessed through

the Help command on the Start Menu, it has a complete

contents section and goes into a good amount of detail

for each topic. The only downside was that any time

the View/Contents menu selection was used, an error

dialog was displayed. I was able to continue after

was great on my Toshiba e740. As for my wish list,

my top wish has already been noted… an undo command

would be a great addition. My other top wish would

be for the spell checker to be available. It would

be preferable not to lose any of the conveniences

of Pocket Word in order to get the conveniences added

Streamliner was generally very stable during testing.

I did encounter one fatal error that required a soft

reset early in my testing… I was unable to recreate

the error. Another minor issue was that occasionally

a duplicate toolbar would appear above the main toolbar.

And finally, there’s the error in help covered in

the Help Support section. Overall, it’s a very impressive

Streamliner

    Streamliner definitely

fills one of the major gaps between desktop Word and

Pocket Word (the Pocket PC version, at least), and

it’s a welcome addition to an area that has had little

support from third-party developers up to this point.

One thing that I found quite remarkable is how faithfully

Kopsis recreated the feel of the outline mode in desktop

Word with Streamliner. In fact, the main example that

I used for this review was from a tutorial for Word’s

outline mode, and I could follow it pretty much step

the promise of Textmaker, Streamliner doesn’t bring

word processing on the Pocket PC to the desktop level.

However, not every Pocket PC owner is going to need

full fledged word processing on their Pocket PC, and

Textmaker’s $49.95 price tag is likely to meet with

some resistance. For its part, however, Streamliner

brings parity to the outlining function between the

desktop and the Pocket PC, and that’s a big step in

the right direction. And for a mere $9.95, they don’t

even have to throw in a set of Ginsu knives to make