Creating a portable data-collection system with Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools for the Pocket PC.

Dixon (2003) shows how to build a tiny data-capture program for a Pocket PC.

The paper gives free Visual Basic code and step-by-step screenshots.

No new data were collected; it is a how-to guide for researchers who want to ditch paper sheets.

The author built a working app that runs on any Pocket PC with Windows CE.

You tap the screen to score behaviors; the file exports to Excel.

The guide is free and needs only Microsoft’s Embedded Visual Tools.

Escobar et al. (2015) is the direct successor. They swap the 2003 Pocket PC for a $20 Arduino board and keep the same Visual Basic spirit.

Frazier et al. (2018) and Reichow et al. (2018) give quality checklists instead of hardware. They ask, “Is the data worth collecting?” while Dixon (2003) asks, “How do I collect it?”

Sappok et al. (2024) zoom out further and build a cloud platform for autism studies. Their work extends the same dream: smoother, faster data capture, just at hospital scale instead of one device.

If you run single-case sessions and hate clipboards, this paper is your starter kit. You can still copy the code today and run it on any old Pocket PC you find on eBay. Even if you move to newer tools like Arduino or cloud forms, the guide teaches the basic logic: one tap equals one response, and the file lands ready for analysis.