Cheryl...

Here are a couple of suggestions. First, go buy a miniSD card for your PPC. Get a big one (>= 512M). You know, sometimes people just say "trust me on this one?" Well, trust me on this one. You'll want one.

Then pop your PPC-6700 in its cradle and let it ActiveSync. On the Desktop PC's ActiveSync window click "Explore." Then in the Mobile Device window that pops up, double-click "My Windows Based Device..." followed by "Storage Card." This gets you to the root directory of the miniSD card you just bought.

Create a directory called "CABs" or "Stuff" or "JoeGuruIsDogFood" or whatever you want. This is where you're going to put 2 things: CAB files you download and the occasional PPC (read-->PPC) .EXE files. Copy the ARM (read-->ARM) .CAB file over to your newly-created CABs directory.

Wait for it to completely copy, then pull the PPC-6700 out of the cradle and launch it's "File Explorer" (Start, Programs, File Explorer).

Change the directory (tap the pull down in the upper left) to "Storage Card" and navigate to the "CABs" directory you just created. Tap on the program you want to install and it will launch the installer and give you a couple of decisions: install to device memory or storage card.

This is an interesting and important decision, and here's why. Your PPC-6700 comes with a certain amount of program storage memory built-in. Programs placed in internal memory are faster to launch, and data is faster to access.

The storage card, on the other hand, is somewhat slower for the device to access, but there's much more storage card memory available to you (assuming you bought a reasonably sized miniSD card--I suggest 512M or 1G) than there is internal memory on the device.

So here's how I make decisions as to what goes on the card and what goes internal: I generally put system, network and device utilities internally on the device, and everything else goes on the card.

My internal storage has things like Indibar, Total Commander, MortSaver, Network Browser, PHM RegEdit (which I suggest you stay away from for the time being), PocketBreeze, SPB Pocket Plus, Voice Command, etc. Basically all these have something to do with the device itself; either utilities or plugins that work with existing apps on the device.

On the storage card I have things like AOL Instant Messenger (which works like garbage), CEdit, Creative Notes, Laridian Bible, ListPro, Mapopolis, Pathaway, HanDBase, Pocket SharpMT, NHS NetTools, BlueJackerXL (just kidding; just wanted to see if any of you guys were actually paying attention), Mocha Telnet, VNC and Remote (which beats the tar out of the RDC client Microsnot ships with WM5), etc. Again, general applications for the most part.

But there are always exceptions. You remember, I mentioned earlier that internal memory accesses faster than miniSD? I have a package, Pocket Genealogist, that installed on the storage card. The JoeGuru family was very prolific, and I've ended up with a very large family tree to spend my non-existent spare time researching (no, I'm not Mormon, I'm just an ordinary run-of-the-mill heathen Methodist with a family that expects me to do all this work).

Pocket Genealogist creates this large database with multiple index files, and does some fairly access-intensive operations. So while I installed the program itself to the Storage Card, I let the databases reside in main (internal) memory for speed-of-access.

On the other hand, I've done some testing with HanDBase databases on the miniSD (storage) card versus main memory and performance is acceptable both places.

So your preferences, mileage and performance may vary. Just play around with it until you get it the way you want it. Flattening the device (hard resets) and starting over is half the fun when it comes to Windows Mobile! I'm just waiting for our University Site License copy of Studio.NET 2005 to come through so I can *really* break the thing!

I am a PalmOS convert to Windows Mobile. When I finally broke down and got the device, I gotta tell you: I felt like I hadn't showered for 2 weeks. I felt like I sold out to the darkest side of the Dark Side of The Force. I felt like I was standing in the spotlight on the cement floor with my left foot on the button marked "Pee" and my right foot on the button marked "Here!"

But even with all the device's shortcomings, it really has a nice interface, and people have written utilities that fix most of what's lacking on the device.

And the coolest part: I have yet-another-platform that can be the butt of my Microsoft jokes!

But give it time, you'll get used to it and like it.