Commander Lite provides Palm Computing® Platform security, complete with startup and shortcut functionality. The main screen is the password-entry screen; additonally there are a number of configuration screens, accessed from the menu bar. 

The Password-Entry Screen 

There are two forms of the password-entry screen, Welcome, and Lock. Both forms display the same useful information, as shown. 

In the top bar are the current date, along with a selection of useful date statistics ; The current day of the year, the current week of the year, and the current month of the year. The format of the information in the title bar is fixed. 

The format of the large time display is determined by the Time Format settings in System Preferences, which can be set to 12 or 24 hour modes. 

The battery meter shows a graph, and a numeric display of the current battery voltage. The graph is a fixed scale from 2.00 volts to 3.00 volts. 

The password screen also keeps a count of any invalid login attempts made since the device was locked. Up to three invalid login attempts are recorded, and displayed as small no-entry symbols at the bottom of the screen. 

Your own contact details are also be shown on the password entry screen - helpful if your Palm device is ever lost, and found. Your contact (or 'owner') information is configured by selecting the 'Options-Security' menu option within Commander, and then tapping the 'Owner' box. The message may be longer than a single page, and can be scrolled by tapping the scroll-up/scroll-down indicators, or by using the up and down hard scroll keys. 

Passwords can be entered using graffiti or from the pop-up keyboard.  Additionally, the application buttons can be used enter simple numeric passwords - each of the application buttons generates a numeric character from 1 to 4 (reading from left to right).

Passwords can be set to display in plain text, or masked with one of two settings, configured within the 'Options-Security' menu. With the **a mask, all characters in the password are displayed as asterisks, except for the last character entered, making it easier to ensure that your graffiti characters are recognised correctly. With the mask set to ***, all password characters are displayed as asterisks. The password mask is active in both the password-entry field, and in the popup-keyboard fields. 

Lock 

The Lock screen requires you to enter a password to gain access to the Palm device.

Welcome

The Welcome screen is an alternative that simply displays the time and date, and your contact details, but can additonally be used to 'unhide' private records if they are hidden at the startup. 
Normally, the Welcome screen will simply display, without requiring a password. After pressing the OK button, you will be switched to the last running application, and private records will be hidden, or not depending on the state at startup.
If however, you enter a password (simply start writing the password, and the password-entry field will popup), private records will be un-hidden after leaving Commander Lite. Deleting the characters of any password you are currently entering will 'pop-down' the password field again, allowing you to continue without entering a password (but with private records possibly hidden). 

ShortCuts 

ShortCut commands are a convenient way to execute a variety of tasks from within any application, by simply entering a graffiti shortcut. 

Selecting the ShortCuts menu shows a list of the currently configured shortcuts, and their 'Active' status, shown by the checkbox to the left. Only 'Active' shortcuts are recognised, and executed. Selecting an item from the table pops up the details window for the shortcut. From here, you can edit the shortcut itself, and change the task that the shortcut performs. The available tasks are : 
  • Launcher pops-up the application launcher, or the Commander launcher
  • K/b Alpha pops-up the Palm keybaord, in Alpha mode
  • K/b Num pops-up the Palm keybaord, in Numeric mode
  • Backlight turns on, or off, the backlight
  • Help pops-Up the graffiti help window
  • Previous returns to the last running application
  • Lock locks, and turns off the device
  • Hide invisibly set private records to 'hidden'
  • Show pops-up a password dialog, and sets private records to 'show'
  • Run runs a specified application.
Shortcut commands are executed, from within any application, simply by entering the graffiti shortcut character, followed by the shortcut that you have defined. eg,lk 

Startup 

StartUp Commands are a flexible method of defining tasks to be performed when the device is turned on. 

Selecting the StartUp menu shows a list of the currently configured StartUp commands, and their 'Active' status, shown by checkbox to the right. Only 'Active' commands are recognised, and executed. Selecting an item from the table pops up the details window for the StartUp command. From here, you can set the activation criteria for the command (such as 'always'), and set the command itself. 

Commander provides several options for configuring when a particular StartUp command will execute, providing enourmous flexibility in what happens when the device is turned on. 

The options are : 

  • Always - Always perform this startup task, whenever the device is turned on. For example, you may wish to Always hide private records, or display a welcome screen.
  • Off For - Only perform this task if the device has been off for the specified amount of time. When this option is selected from the 'Time' list, a time field is shown. To set the time, simply tap on any of the digits, and select from the popup list.
  • Daily, At - Perform the task at (or after) the given time, once. This option can enable a task to be run only once a day, at (or after) a given time. For example, you may wish to only lock your device each the morning. After you have entered the password once that day, the device is not locked when turned off thereafter.
  • Between - Perform the task if the device is turned on between the specified times. For example, you may wish to have the backlight come on automatically between 7:00pm and 6:00am.
The available tasks are : 
  • Launcher activate the built-in launcher
  • Backlight turns on, or off, the backlight
  • Hide invisibly set private records to 'hidden'
  • Welcome displays the Commander Lite 'Welcome' screen
  • Lock locks, and displays the Commander Lite password-entry screen
  • Run runs a specified application.
Many StartUp commands can be run in succession when the device is turned on (for example, turn on the backlight, hide, and welcome), but if several 'run' tasks are specified, only the last application in the list will be run.

Menu Options - Preferences 

This pull-down menu provides a number of miscellaneous configuration options for Commander Lite. 

  • StartUp Allows you to add, delete and modify StartUp commands
  • ShortCuts Allows you to add, delete and modify ShortCut commands
  • Lock & Off Locks, and turns off your Pilot, regardless of any startup command settings
  • Install Allows you to install (activate), or un-install (de-activate) Commander Lite
Menu Options - Help 

This pull-down menu provides information about Commander Lite. 

  • About Provides version and contact information
Commander Lite StartUp and ShortCut functions will only operate when Commander Lite is active (installed). Commander Lite must be de-activated before it can be deleted from the Palm device. 

© 2000 Palmation Limited