Home » Technology » Palm Computing Devices » Spotlight on Freeware: Etexts

Spotlight on Freeware: Etexts

© Janice Karin

Welcome to part four of my continuing series on freeware. Last week I talked about CSpotRun, a freeware Doc reader. A reader is pretty useless without something to read, so this week I am showcasing etexts.

There are thousands of free etexts available for the Palm in Doc format. These files range from lists of ISP dialup numbers, programming language references, episode guides for your favorite television shows, rule books for your favorite sports, original fiction, famous works of literature, and just about everything else.

Craig Froehle's MemoWare is the best place to find Doc files. Memoware is a comprehensive site dedicated to collecting Doc files covering every topic imaginable. MemoWare also hosts JFile databases, some ImageViewer files, and other informational files.

MemoWare organizes files into categories within reference and literature sections. The reference categories include business, career, communications, computers, engineering, entertainment, food and nutrition, history, law and government, math and science, medicine, miscellaneous, Palm related, philosophy, religion, sports, and travel. The literature categories include adventure, biography, children's, horror, humor, literature, mystery, novels, poetry, romance, sci-fi, shakespeare, short story, western, and theater. The literature section also provides downloadable ezines.

MemoWare provides a search engine that will search all documents in the library or all documents added within a specified timeframe. If you prefer, you can search for specific contributers, file formats, or document categories. You can also use the search engine to find all documents added in the past 15, 30, 60, or 90 days by searching for ".*" and selecting the desired timeframe. The site also provides a direct link to the list of all documents added in the last 30 days (as the NEW STUFF link under the literature section).

MemoWare is not the only repository of Doc files, but most of the other sites focus on specialized topics or genres. For example, Mary Jo's Etext site hosts a wonderful collection of children's literature including the Oz books and the original Tom Swift series. The Political Palm focuses on political etexts, both current and historical. The Healthy PalmPilot has a large repository of medical Doc files in its Medical Content Archive. See the Palm E-Text Web Ring for a comprehensive list of etext sites.

New Doc files are created every day. Doc converters exist for Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and Java, so anyone can make Doc files from vanilla text files (be aware of copyright laws). Visit your favorite download site often for the latest and greatest etexts.

The copyright of the article Spotlight on Freeware: Etexts in Palm Computing Devices is owned by Janice Karin. Permission to republish Spotlight on Freeware: Etexts in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.