The Palm interface leaves a lot to be desired. It's not easy to switch between applications, and the screen isn't always easy to read. These are necessary compromises for convenience, and things are improving. So we shouldn't complain too loudly.

But one company, Actioneer (The Actioneer Website), seeks to simplify and co-ordinate standard Palm applications through a singular entry point. While it shows promise, the current version is definitely a first draft.

Actioneer's sister product runs on Windows and is designed mostly for the Web. Here, you can configure keywords to look at certain pages. The generic example is "find book gatsby" takes you directly to the F. Scott Fitzgerald page on Amazon and "meet george tomorrow at 10a" automatically inserts the item into your calendar.

Actioneer's Palm version is limited to manipulating local information. So you can manage calendar, to-do list and memos and access the phone list. The same "meet george" notation will end up in your calendar in the proper place, and you can access all these utilities without having to click through to each one. And since these four are often connected, it is a welcome convenience to have at least a small degree of co-ordination.

Trouble is, Actioneer's improvements aren't so much better than what comes in the regular package. When starting up in the morning you still need to click on Actioneer to start up. You may as well click on To Do or Memos. And the phone module is flawed. It is read-only, and unfortunately doesn't allow you to access the full record.

Ironically enough, Actioneer's Windows version is free and unrestricted, while the Palm program is free for the first month and $20 to become licensed. Whoever came up with "you get what you pay for" never saw this particular switch.

Actioneer is still a good idea, and some users might find the data entry process a little more elegant than what they are now using. At the same time, the program will flourish when it becomes more like the Windows version, with the ability to search the Web using simple terms. A new version geared toward Wireless applications is now in the pipeline, so it makes sense to wait.

On a Palm, every memory bit can count, and if you only have 2 MB even 96K can become valuable. So Actioneer needs to earn its place. And this version doesn't quite make it.