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| July 2001• Vol.7 Issue 7 Page(s) 33-34 in print issue | |
The Palm Interface Learn How To Use It & You’ll Know It Like The Back Of Your Hand |
Jump to first occurrence of:
[PALM]
[INTERFACE]
 Between setting up the Palm and getting to work with the various
applications contained on it lies the period of time where you’re getting
used to it. While your Palm uses a lot of the same conventions that have
given desktop computing a standard look and feel, you’ll still want to put
some time into familiarizing yourself with what’s on the screen, how you
can go about selecting items or entering data, and more.
 Elements Of
The Interface. Many of the
things you can see and manipulate on your Palm handheld will be familiar
if you’ve spent any time at all with a desktop computer. There are also a
number of elements unique to the Palm.General setup. The interface itself is split into two separate parts. The top section is a touch screen that serves as the monitor, where applications load and you can view and work with your data. The bottom of the touch screen contains the Graffiti area and features options for opening Applications (house icon), Menus (open menu icon), the Calculator (icon with mathematical symbols), and Find (magnifying glass icon). The Graffiti window lets you enter text and numbers (text on the left, numbers on the right; note the marks within the box where it is split between the two) or access the alphabetical (ABC) or numeric (123) keyboards. If you’re using Graffiti and wish to open up one of the keyboards, you can tap the ABC or 123 without having to “quit out” of Graffiti. To switch back to using Graffiti, however, you’ll have to close the keyboard window. Either way, the text window you’re working on should smoothly transfer between the two input methods without the loss of any data.
Command buttons. Command buttons let you tap a button to perform a specific command, such as closing a window or getting more details. They appear in dialog boxes or at the bottom of application screens. Pick list. Tap this list, which appears at the top-right of the screen as an arrow pointing down, to open up a drop-down list that gives you options from which you can select. Next/Previous arrows. These work in the same way as a scroll bar; tap the vertical arrow to show next/previous pages or the horizontal arrow to show next/previous records. Enter Data.
Palm users have four ways that they can input information into
their PDA. They can use the on-screen keyboard, Graffiti, enter or import
data into the Palm Desktop software and then synchronize it, or use an
external keyboard.On-screen keyboard. The Palm’s on-screen keyboard system lets you easily, although perhaps not quickly, enter text, numbers, or international symbols. To use the on-screen keyboard, make sure the cursor is in a text-capable box or field and tap the ABC dot in the bottom-left corner of the Graffiti area (or the 123 dot in the bottom-right corner if you wish to add numbers). This pulls up the alphabetical keyboard (or number keyboard, if you tapped the 123 dot), letting you type by tapping out the words. You can easily switch between the alphabetical, number, and international versions through the appropriate buttons on the bottom of the keyboard. Once you’ve finished entering data, tap Done. While an on-screen keyboard is active you cannot enter Graffiti characters. Graffiti. While it takes a little getting used to, Graffiti writing can be a more effective way of entering data into your Palm. This shorthand-type system lets you enter letters and text in the Graffiti window using stylus strokes. For normal, everyday use of your Palm, learning Graffiti is beneficial to users. (For more about using Graffiti, see “On The Write Foot” in this issue.)
Keyboard accessory. If you’d like to expand your Palm’s functionality, consider picking up a keyboard accessory. These keyboards hook up to the Palm and feature a more or less normal-sized keyboard. When you’re done with the keyboard, it folds up into a block about the size of the Palm for easy storage and transport. Open Applications.
Working with applications on the Palm is a simple affair,
particularly if it’s one of four primary applications: Date Book, Address
Book, To Do List, or Memo Pad. Buttons to open these programs are found
along the bottom of the physical case of the handheld.To open other applications on your Palm, use the Applications button. Tapping this repeatedly will bring up windows of applications that are arranged by category. You can also view applications by category if you tap the pick list. If there are too many icons on the screen to see them all at once, use the scroll bar to pull up more or write in Graffiti the character for the first letter of the application you want; the Palm will scroll to it. To open an application, tap its icon. Work With Menus.
Menus are collections of commands used within an application.
Their operation and look in the Palm OS is similar to that of desktop PC
applications. There is no set number of menus available within an
application, and actual commands within a menu vary from application to
application. To work with a Menu, open an application and tap the Menu icon in the Graffiti area or tap the inverted title bar at the top of the screen. This opens up the first menu, giving you a variety of options to choose from. Tap an option to select it or choose a different menu if one exists along the top of the screen.
Use Online Tips.
The Palm uses an “online tips” feature to help you out of
sticky situations and provide shortcuts/tips to streamline your work
within an application. Depending on where they are located in an
application, these tips can anticipate any questions you might
have.For example, in Mail, if you tap New and then the Details button at the bottom of the screen, a dialog box pops up with several options, including a Priority pick list and a number of checkboxes. If anything in this window is confusing, or if you’d like some tips on how you can get the most out of this dialog box, you can access the online tips window for this dialog box by tapping the lowercase i that is inside a circle. That symbol meansthere are online tips that exist for that box. Tap the icon to access the online tips window. Having a firm grasp of the interface and the various ways you can launch applications and load information into it should greatly lessen the learning curve when it comes to actually working with the various applications themselves.  by Rich Gray
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