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You are shocked that a company would make a great product, yet lack the insight for something so simple. Wouldn't it seem obvious to Palmsource that since they brag about having over 24,000 title for their OS that someone would attempt to use at least one of them? And wouldn't this occur to Palm Inc. that if they create devices with Bluetooth and WI-FI functionality that someone may want to install software from the web while away from their desk, sync cradle or sync cable? And either would be crazy if they thought that these applications wouldn't be zipped.

But given these obvious and very likely scenarios, neither the Palm operating system nor any of the wireless Palm OS devices come with a zipping or unzipping application. Both the OS makers and the hardware makers have left this functionality to the 3rd-party application developers who have created solutions like LightNZip and PalmHandZipper. If you purchase one of these applications, you will have a very handy way of managing files that are zipped. 

But what if you can't afford the additional software? Is there a way to unzip files that are downloaded via the web? Yes, you can use Versa Mail to unzip a downloaded file if - that is if you have a memory card (If you don't own a memory card or can't afford to buy one then purchasing one of the above application will be a cheaper choice). If you have Versa Mail and a memory card then you have another option.

Versa Mail was created with the ability to unzip files that come attached to a mail message. Versa Mail won't recognize a zip file unless it is attached to a message so in order to zip it we must attach it first to a email message. Well before we can do that we need to download a file.

Downloading a File

After you connect to the Internet via a Bluetooth, WI-FI, or other connection method, open up the web browser.

Navigate to a website that offers downloads - such as http://palmloyal.palmgear.com.

Locate a file you want to download, such as AckWire.  Find the download link or download icon, and click on it.

NOTICE: You can not download the zipped file directly to the Palm OS handheld because there is no resident program that is registered to handle zipped files. If you attempt to do so, you will get the following error message.

As a result, you must first save the zipped file to the card. So when you click the link or icon, you will be prompted with the following dialog window. At this point you must check the box next to "Download to card" and then click the "Save" button.

After the file is downloaded and saved to your memory card, you will see the following screen. Click the "Ok" button.

Notice above that the file is called "ackwire.zip" and is stored in the "WebPro" location or directory on the memory card. Now bring up the Versa Mail application.

Creating the temporary email with the Attachment

In order to attach the file to a message, we must create a message. Click the "New" button.

You will now be presented with an empty email message. Now fill out the "To" field and the "Subj" field.

The info in the fields so no matter because it is merely a temporary message. Once the fields are filled out, we must attached the file to it.

Select the drop down "Options" menu and then select "Attachment"

You will see the items that can be attached to the message. It initial items shown are loaded on the handheld's internal memory. We are interested in the content that is loaded on the memory card. To see the card items, we must click the down-pointing arrow head that is to the right of the word "Type:".

Tapping it will display the choices. You must select the last item which reads "Files on Card".

Once that is selected, you can select the item from the "Files" choices or you can select "Type:" again and select the "zip" option to limit the choices to the zipped files. You can clearly our file in the first list; however, I have provided this for those who might have many other files in their list.

Select the desired file, which is the AckWire.zip file. Now select Add.

Notice that the file "AckWire.zip" appears in the attachment area. Click the "Done" button.

You are now back at the message creation screen. Notice the paper clip in the upper right corner. This means that your file has been successfully attached to the message. We need to save the message, so that we can access the attached file; therefore, we select the "Drafts" button.

This saves the email message into the draft folder.

Unzipping the File

Now click the word "inbox" in the upper right corner. This will produce a drop down menu. Select the "Drafts" menu item.

Now you will see your message displayed. You may have scroll down if you already have messages in the drafts folder. Notice the tiny paper clip which indicates that the message has an attached file within it. Tap on the message to open it.

Notice again the paper clip in the upper corner. This time you need to tap on the paper clip.

You will now see the attached item displayed. Tap on the AckWire.zip file to highlight it. Now click on the "UnZip" button.

The next screen shows the content of the AckWire.zip file. In this case there is only one file. There could be many files within a zip file. This process can get complicated if there are many different files; especially if there have similar names (at the end of this tutorial we will look at a couple different scenarios). Highlight the PRC file and tap the "Install" button.

The file will unzip as a status bar increases from left to right.

Once the file is completely unzipped, it will display the following screen. Since you want to install this file into your handheld, you would select "Yes".

A transfer status screen will appear for a duration dependant on the size of the file.

Once it is completely transferred, you will now have access to your desired program. Find your newly installed application's icon and click on it.

No more waiting until you get home to unzip a file. You can play or be product no matter where you are. After all isn't that what wireless functionality is suppose to allow?

Now it is time to delete the temporary files.

Cleaning up

First you want to delete the email message from your Drafts folder in Versa Mail. Secondly, you want to remove the zipped file from your SD card. This is easily done with a free utility program called FileZ.

Once FileZ.is launched, find your memory card and select it from the drop down menu in the upper right corner.

Now navigate to the "WebPro" directory and click on it.

Here you will see the zip files that have been saved. Click on the file titled "AckWire.zip".

Notice that the file now has a check mark to the left of the selected file. Now click the "Details" button.

Now click the "Delete" button. 

Now the file is gone.

That should do it for this tutorial. As I promised, here are two different examples that you may encounter.

Scenario 1 - Similar Named Files

 How do you know which file is appropriate for your device? Read the Readme.txt file. Versa Mail allows this without exiting the application. Select the ReadMe.txt file and then select "MMTex" from the viewer drop down menu. Now click the "View" button.

Scroll through the ReadMe.txt file until you find the answer you seek. In this case, the FishTankTerror.prc is for color devices, while the FishTankTerror-G.prc file is for grayscale devices.

Scenario 2 - Zip file has directories

It is common for developers to separate like named files into directories. The directory names are usual pretty obvious. In this case, one directory is for 16-bit grayscale devices while the other is for color devices. Clicking on one of the directory will reveal the content.

In this example, the name file names exist in both directory; however, you should only install the appropriate ones for your device. In the case of multiple files, I would install the PRC file and then the PDB files.

There are some developers who force you to run an EXE file to install their application. If you discover a zipped file that only contains EXE files, you will have to wait until you get to a PC to execute it. I would contact the developer and ask he or she to consider offering the application in a wireless friendly form.

Conclusion

Additionally all Palm OS developers who maintain their own sites should seriously start preparing their product so that people can download it directly unto the handheld without having to unzip it first. There can read the instructions online and then download the appropriate file(s). Palmgear and Handango have started to play with methods to allow such downloads from their sites.

So there you have it. We have shown you how to get a file downloaded and unzipped without needing a separate unzipping application

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