New Stuff (including this column)
First off, greetings and welcome to my column. This, along with the official Writing On Your Palm website (www.jeffkirvin.com/writingonyourpalm) and the "Writing On Your Palm" book (available at PalmCentral), make up the triumvirate of all the writing-related PalmOS knowledge that's fit to print (or that I remember to write down). This column will be published on the rigorously defined schedule of "whenever I get around to it", but I hope to have them out weekly or so ("or so" in this case meaning anywhere from daily to monthy, depending on what other writing projects I'm working on). Those that know me personally (hi Jay!) know that I have trouble shutting up about Palm stuff, so that shouldn't be too hard. Oh, and just so everyone knows I practice what I preach, all of these columns will be written entirely in MemoPad (whose 4k limit should be sufficient to keep me writing columns as opposed to books).
Okay, now that the annoying administrivia is out of the way...
It's been a busy week for me, software-wise. This week I installed new or updated versions of Fitaly, ToDoPlus, ThinkDB, PopUpNames and I bought a new stylus (which isn't strictly software, and which I'll get to if space permits).
The new version of Fitaly is 2.0 Release Candidate 1 (it's finally out of beta testing!). I've covered Fitaly fairly in-depth in both the book and the website, so here I just update you on the new stuff.
Fitaly 2.0RC1 adds two major features over the previous betas. The lesser of the two is you can now choose the layout you want for sliding numbers off of the punctuation keys, either in columns (12345-67890) or rows (12-34-56-78-90). Minor change, but nifty nonetheless. The big change is the addition of scrolling. While the Fitaly keyboard will still optionally dodge the cursor (useful for field-based text entry like the Address Book), for serious text entry you can now "park" it somewhere on the screen and have the text scroll over or under it. This is done by "lifting" the entire display above the keyboard, much like tilting an overhead projector slightly off the screen. For example, if you have Fitaly parked along the bottom of the screen in Memo Pad, the Done and Details buttons are just barely visible over the keyboard, and the title bar & categories aren't visible at all, as they are an inch or so above the top edge of the screen. I can't tell you what a differecne this makes when writing paragraphs as opposed to just a few setences. This has all but made me forget that I had to sell my GoType when I got my Visor. About the only thing better would be if there was a way to do away with the on-screen aspect of Fitaly altogether and just have it override the Graffiti area. (Hint: this isn't just an idle wish. Stay tuned for more details as they become available...)
The new version of ToDo+, 3.10, adds more enhancements to an already great program. For those who don't know, ToDo+ is a third-party (HandsHigh Software) replacement for the stock ToDo app. It adds drawing attachments (good for maps, etc.), repeat and regenerating todos (never forget to take out the trash again) and adds alarms to todo items. 3.1 addresses some of the alarm peculiarities in earlier versions, and adds Lefty support for us southpaws. If you haven't tried it yet, check this one out.
ThinkDB is a relational database for the Palm. I don't have the space in this column to give a crash course on relational databases, but the shorthand is that you can have multiple sets of related information that you can link together. Getting back to writing for a brief moment, I'm using it to create a submissions tracker. I have tables for publishers, works and submissions, with the publishers and works tables tied into the submissions table. Email me at jkirvin@myself.com if you have any idea what I'm talking about and want a template of the database for your own use. There' no runtime, so you'll need a copy of ThinkDB.
Oops! I'm out of space. I'll get to PopUpNames, styli, screen protectors and more next time.
Okay, now that the annoying administrivia is out of the way...
It's been a busy week for me, software-wise. This week I installed new or updated versions of Fitaly, ToDoPlus, ThinkDB, PopUpNames and I bought a new stylus (which isn't strictly software, and which I'll get to if space permits).
The new version of Fitaly is 2.0 Release Candidate 1 (it's finally out of beta testing!). I've covered Fitaly fairly in-depth in both the book and the website, so here I just update you on the new stuff.
Fitaly 2.0RC1 adds two major features over the previous betas. The lesser of the two is you can now choose the layout you want for sliding numbers off of the punctuation keys, either in columns (12345-67890) or rows (12-34-56-78-90). Minor change, but nifty nonetheless. The big change is the addition of scrolling. While the Fitaly keyboard will still optionally dodge the cursor (useful for field-based text entry like the Address Book), for serious text entry you can now "park" it somewhere on the screen and have the text scroll over or under it. This is done by "lifting" the entire display above the keyboard, much like tilting an overhead projector slightly off the screen. For example, if you have Fitaly parked along the bottom of the screen in Memo Pad, the Done and Details buttons are just barely visible over the keyboard, and the title bar & categories aren't visible at all, as they are an inch or so above the top edge of the screen. I can't tell you what a differecne this makes when writing paragraphs as opposed to just a few setences. This has all but made me forget that I had to sell my GoType when I got my Visor. About the only thing better would be if there was a way to do away with the on-screen aspect of Fitaly altogether and just have it override the Graffiti area. (Hint: this isn't just an idle wish. Stay tuned for more details as they become available...)
The new version of ToDo+, 3.10, adds more enhancements to an already great program. For those who don't know, ToDo+ is a third-party (HandsHigh Software) replacement for the stock ToDo app. It adds drawing attachments (good for maps, etc.), repeat and regenerating todos (never forget to take out the trash again) and adds alarms to todo items. 3.1 addresses some of the alarm peculiarities in earlier versions, and adds Lefty support for us southpaws. If you haven't tried it yet, check this one out.
ThinkDB is a relational database for the Palm. I don't have the space in this column to give a crash course on relational databases, but the shorthand is that you can have multiple sets of related information that you can link together. Getting back to writing for a brief moment, I'm using it to create a submissions tracker. I have tables for publishers, works and submissions, with the publishers and works tables tied into the submissions table. Email me at jkirvin@myself.com if you have any idea what I'm talking about and want a template of the database for your own use. There' no runtime, so you'll need a copy of ThinkDB.
Oops! I'm out of space. I'll get to PopUpNames, styli, screen protectors and more next time.
