Out Damn Scratch

Scratches are inevitable when you drag a pointed implement over a smooth surface. When that implement is your stylus and that surface the screen of your Palm, scratches can make life very difficult. Not only do they make it harder to read the screen, they can also make small portions of your screen unresponsive.

If you do have some scratches, all is not lost. There are several products available that help clean these scratches. Although nothing can help a serious scratch, these products do quite well on the more common surface scratches, lessening their impact and in some cases making it impossible to tell they were ever there. The most popular of these products is Screen Clean by Tim Warner. Just apply Screen Clean, let it stand for five minutes, then buff it off. Your screen will thank you for it.

Being able to remove scratches is great, but preventing them from occuring in the first place is better. There are a multitude of screen protection options ranging from commercial products to various do-it-yourself solutions. Some of these offer full screen protection while others only cover the grafitti area (the most used area of the screen).

WriteRights are a popular commercial screen protector from Concept Kitchen. WriteRights cover the full screen with a plastic overlay that sticks to the screen. The overlay is also supposed to reduce glare on the screen. They provide a noticeably rougher texture than the plain screen area. 12 Write Rights cost $27.99.

Pro-Techniq's Screen Covers are an inexpensive commercial choice for grafitti area protection. They are easy to apply, stay on the screen until you remove them, leave no residue, and provide a slightly rougher texture than the screen. 3 Screen Covers cost $4.49.

Softava gets the award for the most unusual screen protector, SilkyBoard. This grafitti area protector is also a keyboard. Because it needs to align with the expected key positions, the SilkyBoard must be installed exactly over the grafitti area. The keyboard masks the buttons and other markings in the grafitti area, but the button locations are clearly marked so this is not problematic. SilkyBoard also provides a slightly rougher texture than the plain screen. 12 SilkyBoards cost $37.99.

There are also several homegrown screen protection options. Many people use Scotch 811 tape to cover the grafitti area. Others use post-it flags or post-it notes. There are also templates you can use to cut screen protectors from overhead projector transparencies or top-loading sheet protectors. I use this template with overhead transparencies on my PalmPilot Professional. It may or may not work with other units.

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