Microsoft Office Word Mobile: Write down great thoughts while they are fresh

If I had to guess, I’d guess that the feature enhancement most anticipated with the release of Windows Mobile 6 was the introduction of Office Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Standard — for non-touch screen Windows Mobile phones. One of the Office Mobile applications now available for Windows Mobile 6 Standard is, of course, Word Mobile. In this article, I’ll tell you how to use Word Mobile, for both Windows Mobile 6 Standard and Windows Mobile 6 Professional.

It is amazing how many different uses you can find for Word Mobile, because it is always available. It doesn't depend on connectivity of any kind. I use Word Mobile to make notes all the time: standing up in a hallway or sitting down in a conference room. Waiting in the car for my daughter to come out of school, I might start the first couple of paragraphs for an article I’m going to write, typing along on my little Windows Mobile phone. I take notes at meetings and at parent-teacher conferences. (I think I have those conference notes going back to kindergarten.) You can use Word Mobile while in flight or in a cavernous convention center. All you need is a functioning Windows Mobile phone with battery power and enough storage space for your documents.

How you can use Word Mobile, which comes with Windows Mobile 6, depends on which type of Windows Mobile phone you chose. Phones with Windows Mobile 6 Standard do not have a touch screen and are generally smaller and lighter than phones with Windows Mobile 6 Professional. In addition, phones with Windows Mobile 6 Standard are optimized for one-handed use.

Before we get into the details, let’s look at how Word Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Standard, Word Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Professional, and Microsoft Office Word 2007 for the PC fit into a workflow continuum.

In general, Word 2007 for the PC is the appropriate place for heavy-duty editing and formatting. Before you get to that stage, however, you have to get your thoughts down. Writing that first draft is when I often turn to Word Mobile. Our highly mobile Windows Mobile phones are best suited for heavy-duty content creation, not fancy formatting. (One of my graduate school professors noted that the more time you spend formatting, the less you spend actually writing.

The main thing to do when creating text in Word Mobile is to keep writing and not worry about the details of how it should eventually look on a printed page or PC screen. Just keep moving forward and crank out the words.

Quick Tip. Although many phones with Windows Mobile 6 Standard and Windows Mobile 6 Professional have QWERTY keyboards, there are times you may still want something more like a full-size keyboard. I often carry a Bluetooth wireless keyboard designed to work with Windows Mobile phones so I can quickly type notes, articles, book chapters, or just write.

The simplest scenario is receiving e-mail with a Word document attached. Figure 2 shows an e-mail with a Word attachment, on a phone with Windows Mobile 6 Standard.

There are times when I want to change or add a couple of words here and there in a Word document. You can save a file you receive in e-mail by clicking Save As and then clicking E-Mail Attachment

I mentioned earlier that Word Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Standard could not create new Word document files. Technically, that is true; but this doesn’t mean that you can’t use it to create quick notes and other documents as needed.

Here’s what I do: Using Word 2007 on a PC, I create simple templates (not to be confused with the Word document templates used for preformatted forms). For example, the one I use most is simply an empty Word document file that I cleverly named BLANK.DOCX. You might want to create a few templates for your own work requirements and give them names like MEETING-TPL.DOCX (TPL is my abbreviation for Template), or ESSAY-TPL.DOCX, or IDEA-TPL.DOCX. Then, copy these files over to your non-touch screen phone.

So, you can simply open one of the template files you prepared, save it as a new file by clicking the File and then clicking Save As (Figure 4), and then start working in your "new" document.

Here are a couple of recommendations to help you get the most out of using Word Mobile on your phone with Windows Mobile 6 Standard and Windows Mobile 6 Professional.

Word 2007 Compatibility. Microsoft Office 2007 has a new default file format called OOXML (Office Open XML). Devices and phones with early Windows Mobile 6, and those with Windows Mobile 5, do not support this format out of the box. However, Microsoft has a free compatibility add-on that you can download and install. Find out more about the Microsoft Mobile Office Upgrade.

"Round-Trip" Formatting. Neither version of Word Mobile lets you apply styles or insert images. However, if you open a document with styles or images, Word Mobile does its best to display them, as you can see in Figure 7. If you edit the file, the styles and images will be preserved when it is returned to the PC and used with Word 2007.

There are often different sizes of tools for different jobs. A sedan is fine for driving to the office. But, you may need a pickup truck to haul a new freezer home from a store. And, if your daughter’s Girl Scout troop needs transportation, maybe a van is the most appropriate vehicle. Word Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Standard, Word Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Professional, and Word 2007 for the PC are different-sized tools for your text-related work. Whichever edition you use, my advice is to focus on the content and not the formatting while writing on the move. You can refine the formatting and page layout once you get back to your PC and use Word 2007.