Palm-sizing the scheduler

Federal employees who increasingly rely on Palm Inc.'s handheld computers for scheduling needs may be able to use the same project management software on their Palm devices as they use on their desktop computers.

AEC Software Inc., Sterling, Va., released a mobile version of its FastTrack Schedule at last month's FOSE conference that provides project schedules and planning objectives on Palm-based computers.

"There is a perfectly tight integration between what you see on your desktop and what you can take on your Palm device," said Kurt Wyckoff, vice president of sales and marketing at AEC Software. "You have the ability to take all the information and sync up with the desktop version, [and you] don't lose formatting or any other information."

Federal agencies including the departments of Defense, State and Education, as well as the CIA and NASA already use AEC's desktop scheduling tools.

The new Palm version lets users synchronize one or more schedules, display time lines from hours to years, drill down into task specifics and create new schedules on the handheld device.

FastTrack Schedule 6.04 for Palm OS is available for an estimated street price of $99 and runs on Palm OS Version 3.0 or higher. A 30-day trial version of the new FastTrack Schedule is available online.