Using the Pocket PhoneBook is a lot like using a real phone book. All searches are based on the last name (or company title in the case of businesses). Simply type in as much of the last name as you know, and then hit the "Find" button (or hit the ENTER key).

The Pocket PhoneBook will return all the last names (and company titles) which match the text you entered. Simply select the correct last name out of the list, and the second list will display all the first names which are listed under that name. Select a first name out of this list, and the complete address and telephone number will be displayed.

After you have found the correct person (or business), you can also use the copy buttons on the button bar (or the menu items under Edit) to copy information into other applications. For example, you can click on the "Copy Street Address" button to copy the address for use in Microsoft Pocket Streets (which can then show you where the address is located on a map).

The layout changes slightly if the display's height is greater than its width.

Here it is displayed on a Palm PC
(Windows CE 2.11).

And here it is displayed on a Pocket PC
(Windows CE 3.0).

Notice the horizontal scroll bar that shows up on the Pocket PC version. Yet another strange platform difference.

The Pocket PhoneBook Database Wizard runs on any Windows PC and allows you to create database files for use with Pocket PhoneBook. It is very easy to use, as long as you have a comma-delimited text database which has a seven field format as follows:

"Last Name (or Company Name)", "First Name", "Street Address", "City", "State", "Zip", "Phone"

Example of the expected format of the comma-delimited text file:

  "A & A Machining",,"809 South St","Townsville","NV","55555-2647","555-555-1222"
  "Abbott","Mike & Jodi","310 Wash Rd","Townsville","CA","55555","555-555-1346"
  "Ackerman","Alison","117 Lake Rd","Townsville","CA","55555","555-555-0165"
  "Adams","Angie","323 Division St","Smileyton","CA","55555-2109","555-555-1347"
 

Many applications can export out data in this standard format, including Access, Excel, PhoneDisc, and ProCD's Business and Residential Directories. If you have a comma-delimited text database, but the fields are out of order (for example, the first name is listed before the last name) or there are extra or missing fields, you can import the database into Access (or any other database software) and then re-export it out in the correct format.

If your comma-delimited text database does not have all fields in their correct order, or does not have all the required fields, or has extra fields, the database will not import correctly into the Pocket PhoneBook Wizard and you will get either an unusable Pocket PhoneBook database or an error.

You will find that converting a text database to a Pocket PhoneBook database file will result in almost 50% compression. For example, I have a 250,000 record phone book which takes up 20MB as a comma-delimited text database, but only 11MB as a Pocket PhoneBook database. This easily fits on a 16MB flash card, and allows me to carry around a phone book which includes every business and person within 100 miles of home! In addition, finding an address is almost instantaneous.

Because of certain compression and indexing strategies used to improve speed and reduce the size of the final database, Pocket PhoneBook is designed for United States addresses and phone numbers, but will understand and use many other international formats. However, the zip code is expected to be numeric, so alphanumeric postal codes will not work.

Download the "Pocket PhoneBook" and
"Pocket PhoneBook Database Wizard" Source Code