Commander provides Palm Computing® Platform security and is also an application launcher. The two main screens are the password-entry screen, and the application launcher 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. 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). 

The Launcher 

The launcher is a replacement for the built-in application launcher, offering a variety of additional features, including security. 

The launcher display consists of 3 areas: view bar, view panel and information bar. 

The view bar shows a list of application views, which are siimilar to palmOS 'categories'. However, unlike categories, an application can be in several views simultaneously, and views may also contain links to other views. Tapping on an item in the view bar will change the display to the selected view. If a view is not currently displayed in the view bar, tap on the arrows ( or ) to scroll left or right; alternatively, tapping the built-in application 'silk' button will cycle through the different views sequentially.

Items in the view bar can be re-ordered simply by dragging them to the desired location with the stylus. If the desired location is not currently on the screen, dragging the stylus to the arrows will scroll the view bar and you can then raise the stylus at the desired location for the view item. 

The view panel shows the list of applications or views in a particular view. Items within a view can be listed in one of 3 formats (selected from the Layout menu option), 3x4 grid, 4x4 grid, and list. With either a 3x4 or 4x4 layout set, applications will be displayed with their icon (if defined) and views will appear as . The list layout displays miniature versions of these icons ( with views appearing as  ). If an application's icon has not been defined, it will be displayed as the Commander icon, or as  in list layout. 

The ordering of items within a view is determined by the view's sort type (defined from within the Views menu), and can be sorted Alphabetically, By Last Use (showing most recently used applications first), or Manually. Manual ordering of view items is achieved by simply dragging items around within the view panel. 

To edit the settings of the current view (the view tab highlighted in the view bar), select the 'View - Edit' menu.  This panel allows you to set the  view's name, the sort type, whether it is marked private ot not, and whether newly-installed applications should be automatically added to the view (the 'New Apps' check box).

To launch applications, simply tap the application icon in the view panel; alternatively, you can find and/or launch applications in the current view by entering the first characters of the application name in graffiti. To find an application, just begin writing the application name - the matching application will be displayed with the matching characters highlighted. To launch an application which is selected in this way, enter a graffiti 'new line' stroke. You can also erase matching characters with a graffiti 'erase' or the entire match by tapping on an empty part of the screen. 

To add items to a view, simply drag the item from the view panel to the appropriate tab on the view bar. Alternatively, applications can be added by checking the boxes in the 'View - Pick Apps' menu. Note that once a link has been created from the "All" view, moving the link between views will not generate duplicate links. If you require an application to appear in more than one view (excluding the "All" view), additional links may be created by selecting the 'View - Pick Apps' menu. To drag an item to a view that is not currently displayed on the view bar, drag the item to the the arrows at either end of the view bar, and scroll, whilst dragging the item, to the appropriate view. 

To delete items from a view, simply drag the item to the graffiti writing area. This does not delete the application from the "All" view, but simply removes the link to it from the current view. Note that items can not be deleted from the 'All' view. 

For more direct control over the applications in a View, use the Apps menu option from the options menu. 

The bottom section of the launcher displays the information bar , showing the Commander configuration button, today's date and time, along with the current battery voltage. 

A single tap on the Commander configuration button ) will display the pop-up toolbar of useful functions eg. backlight, lock etc.  Dragging a view to this button will display the view details, allowing you to rename, sort, add new apps to, and hide, the current view.  Alternatively, dragging an application icon from the current view panel to the configuration button will display the application details, allowing you to hide, lock or delete the app. 

A single tap on the voltage area will toggle between a numeric voltage reading and a percentage graph. 

Launcher Security 

Commander provides two levels of security for applications, above the usual 'private records' within any given application. Both views, and individual applications, can be set to 'hidden', and applications can be marked 'locked'. These settings are changed within the 'Views', or 'Apps' menus. 

Items marked 'private' are not shown by the launcher, if the the system's 'private records' setting is set to 'Hide'. This provides a way to completely hide individual applications, or whole views of applications. 

Applications marked 'locked' always require a password to be entered before the application will run, allowing you to secure particular applications, for the example 'Expense'. 

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 pops-up the Commander launcher
  • Backlight turns on, or off, the backlight
  • Hide invisibly set private records to 'hidden'
  • Welcome displays the Commander 'Welcome' screen
  • Lock locks, and displays the Commander 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 - View

This pull-down menu provides a number of options for dealing with views. 

  • Show All Shows a list of the currently-defined views, in the view panel
  • New Adds a new view to the end of the view bar
  • Edit Allows editing of a view's settings eg. application sorting type
  • Apps Allows selection of the applications in the current view and also allows you to configure the application to be locked, private, deleted etc.
  • List Layout Sets the display of applications to a list format
  • 3x4 Layout Sets the display of applications to a 3x4 format
  • 4x4 Layout Sets the display of applications to a 4x4 format
Menu Options - Options 

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

  • Security Provides a full set of security configuration controls, and allows you to hide or show private records, change the system password, set your contact details, as displayed on the password-entry or welcome screens, set the default password mask, and remove a forgotten password
  • StartUp Allows you to add, delete and modify StartUp command
  • ShortCuts Allows you to add, delete and modify ShortCut commands
  • Lock & Off Locks, and turns off your device, regardless of any startup command settings
  • Prefs Shows generic Commander launcher preferences:
    • Start on First View Launches Commander on the first view in the viewbar
    • Bold Font for ViewBar All tabs in viewbar appear in bold
    • Show the 'All' View Shows the 'All' view in the viewbar
    • App button cycles Views Tapping the built-in application 'silk' button will cycle through views sequentially 
  • Activate Allows you to activate (install), or de-activate (un-install) Commander
Menu Options - Help 

This pull-down menu provides information about Commander. 

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

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