A time-of-flight mass spectrometer (laser-micro-mass-analyzer LAMMA 500) was modified to allow the simultaneous detection of ions as well as neutral species originating from the metastable decay. The influence of sample preparation and laser irradiance on the mass spectra was examined and significant differences in the decompositions of acid and salt samples were found. Some initial measurements of simple aromatic carboxylic acids and their salts gave some new information about fragmentation and metastable decay after short pulse UV laser desorption.