ZipCoder
for PalmPilot

Users Guide

Version 1.0
June 1998

Installing ZipCoder in Your Pilot

Whether you downloaded the software from our Web site or received it in the mail, you should have a file called ZipCoder.prc on your computer or floppy disk, and a second file called ZipCoderDB.pdb. Both of these files should be installed on your Pilot; here's how:

From a Macintosh:

Run the program InstallApp. Click on the Select button, set the List Files of Type to All Files, locate and select the file ZipCoder.prc, and click Open. Now click on the Install button. Now click on Install Another File button, locate and select the file ZipCoderDB.pdb, click Open, and then click on the Install button. The next time you HotSync your Pilot, the program and the associated data file will be downloaded.

From Windows:

Run the program INSTAPP.EXE, which is located in the C:/PILOT folder. Click on the Browse button, locate and select the file ZipCoder.prc, and click Open. Now click on the Install button. Now click on Install Another File button, locate and select the file ZipCoderDB.pdb, click Open, and then click on the Install button. The next time you HotSync your Pilot, the program and the associated data file will be downloaded.

Starting the Application

From the Applications window on your Pilot, look for the icon labelled AreaCoder which looks like this:

Entering Your Serial Number/Unlocking the Application

When you start the application, you'll see this screen:

Tap on the word "Unlicensed" button, and you'll see this screen:

Use Graffiti (or the on-screen keyboard) to enter your serial number (supplied to you by Stevens Creek Software); when you're done, tap on the OK button. If you enter an incorrect number, the software will let you know. If necessary, tap on the Cancel button to dismiss the Enter Serial Number screen.

If you run into a problem, this probably means that when you provided your Pilot name to Stevens Creek Software, you did so incorrectly. To find the name, tap on the Applications icon in the lower left of your Pilot, then tap on HotSync. Look at the top line of the screen and it will read, "Welcome, XXX". Read the name which follows the word Welcome, and write it down exactly (including case, i.e., whether the letters are upper-case letters like THIS or lower-case letters like this) and email it to Stevens Creek Software technical support and wait for a new serial number to be provided to you.

If you are just trying out ZipCoder, you can use the software without entering a Serial Number.The software will "go through all the motions"; however, when it comes to the final step (actually updating the Zip Codes in your Address Book), it will only pretend to do so. You'll need to register the software (at http://www.stevenscreek.com/pilot/) in order for the software to be fully functional.

Viewing and Configuring the Zip Code Database

Once you have licensed ZipCoder, the word "Unlicensed" will disappear from the main screen of the program. If you loaded the preset database of new Zip Codes (as of this writing, containing changes for Eastern Massachusetts that became effective July 1, 1998), you'll see something that looks like this:

(In reality, the displayed list will fill the screen, and scroll arrows at the lower right will let you scroll through all 42 entries). There are four columns on the screen - Old displays the old Zip Codes, New displays the new Zip Codes, Date displays the effective date of the switch, and Location is a guide to where that Zip Code is located. If you want to look at this information in a different way, the labels at the top of each column all serve as buttons. Tap on the word Old and the information is sorted in numerical order according to the old Zip Codes. Tap on New and sorting will be done on the new Zip Code column; tap on Date and they will be sorted by effective date, or tap on Location and they will be sorted alphabetically.

If you want to add a new Zip Code change to the database, tap on the Add button, and you'll see this window:

The screen should be self-explanatory - enter an old and new Zip Code, select the effective date, and, optionally, type in the name of the town or other description. When you're done, tap on Add.

If you want to modify or delete entries in the Zip Code database, tap on the entry of interest in the main screen. The entry will invert, like this:

Note that a new button, labelled Mod/Del (for Modify/Delete) appears. If you tap on Mod/Del, the "Zip Coder Database Entry" window shown above will appear. Instead of an Add button on the extreme lower left of the window, however, you'll see Modify and Delete buttons on the bottom instead (along with the Cancel button). Either tap the Delete button to delete the entry, or make the appropriate modifications and tap on Modify, as you wish.

Changing (Updating) Zip Codes

Once your database is set up (and, for the Eastern Massachusetts case, there should be nothing for you to do), you can proceed to update the Zip Codes in your Address Book. You have two ways to proceed. If you tap on one or more of the displayed Zip Codes (on a single screen only), tapping on the Update Zips button in the lower left will make those changes only (Note: to select a whole range, you can "click and drag" across a set of changes). If you don't tap on any of the specific lines, the tapping on Update Zips will apply the entire database of Zip Code changes to your Address Book (this is the simplest way to proceed).

You will be given feedback during the process. First of all, once you tap on Update Zips, you'll see a "spinning beach ball" cursor in the middle of the screen to let you know action is proceeding. Second, the Update Zips button will change to a Cancel button, which you can tap on to cancel the process if you get impatient (it does take a while). And finally, when the software finds a Zip Code in your Address Book that needs to be updated, it will display a screen showing you the old name and address, the new Zip Code, and give you four choices: Change, Change All, Skip, and Cancel. These are probably self-explanatory, but in case they're not: Change will update the displayed entry and continue on with the process. Change All will update the displayed entry and will also continue on, but will make all further changes automatically, without notifying you. Skip skips this entry (i.e., does not update this entry), but continues searching for more changes. And finally, Cancel stops the process.

Zip+4?

is handled properly. XXXXX-ZZZZ is updated to YYYYY-ZZZZ as it should be.

The One Catch...

There are a small number of Zip Code changes where a single Zip Code has been split and is now multiple Zip Codes, based on unspecified geographical divisions. If you put ZipCoder into the Change All mode, then it will take the first change and apply it to all the relevant Zip Codes. In other words if A changes to B, C, and D, Change All will change all A's to B. If you know which ones should be changed to C and D, you'll need to use the Change mode, observe which change the software is about to make (A to B or A to C or A to D), tap on Skip when it's a change that isn't correct and Change when it's the correct change. Alternatively, you could use Change All to change A to B, then add two new Zip Code changes to the database (B to C, and B to D), then tap on just those two changes, run Update Zips again which will then apply just those two changes, and use the Change mode to select which ones to change from B to C or D. Did you follow all that?

Operating tip: In the case of the eastern Massachusetts Zip Code changes, there are four towns (Brookline, Waltham, Lexington, and Arlington) where one Zip Code has split into many. After you decide (based on information from the Post Office) which new Zip Code is the right one, first tap on just those towns one at a time (sort by Location first by tapping on Location to make this easier), then Update Zips and use the "manual" (Change) mode to give you an opportunity to approve or decline each change; approve the correct one, decline the rest. Now those Zip Codes are updated. Now tap on Update Zips with nothing selected (which means use all the changes), select Change All, and all the remaining Zip Codes will be updated (the first ones won't be changed again because they no longer correspond to an "old" Zip Code.

Updating Your Desktop...

is automatic. Once you have updated the Address Book on your handheld unit, the next time you HotSync (assuming you have HotSync configured to syncronize the handheld and the desktop), the changes made on the handheld will propagate back to the desktop.

UnDo...

is not supported. If anything goes wrong, you can always go back to your desktop, reconfigure the HotSync software to "Desktop overwrites Pilot", and re-HotSync to restore your handheld database to what it was before ZipCoder went to work. However we have absolutely no reason to believe anything will go wrong; the software is quite well tested, and springs out of our AreaCoder software (which updates phone Area Codes), which has been on the market for more than six months.

For Support

If you have any problems using ZipCoder, you can contact Stevens Creek Software in one of the following ways:

By email: pilotsupport@stevenscreek.com
By phone: 1-408-725-0424

If you lose this manual, you can find this same information on the "About" screen of ZipCoder (tap on the Information icon in the upper right of the screen).

Copyright 1998 by Stevens Creek Software
All Rights Reserved