(Read all of this, please!)
Copyright 1997-2000 by Florent
Pillet, All Rights Reserved.
FindHack is a $10 shareware product.
Please
register!
FindHack Web Site: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fpillet/
Mirror Web Site: http://fpillet.free.fr/
E-mail: Florent.Pillet@wanadoo.fr
Alternate e-mail: fpillet@kagi.com
FindHack is a replacement for the Palm's Find function. It is compatible with all PalmPilot and IBM WorkPad units, Palm III, Palm IIIc, Palm IIIx, Palm V, Palm VII, HandSpring Visors, Symbol SPT, TRG and all other PalmOS-based devices. FindHack brings the following enhancements:
- Remembers the last 6 searches you did
- Lets you preconfigure 4 permanent searches, with their search rules (see below)
- Lets you select where the search will be performed: in all applications, in built-in applications (Memo Pad, Date Book, To-Do List, Mail, Expense) or in the current application.
- Lets you find a text even if it is not at the beginning of a word. For example, to find the word 'transport' you can type 'port'. The Palm's standard Find function does not allow this.
- Lets you use wildcards. You can use the question mark (?) or dot (.) as a generic character. For example, looking for 'j?m' will find 'Jim', 'james', etc.
- Lets you use '*' as a wildcard for any sequence of characters. For example, searching 'green*paint' would find 'Green Paint' and 'Green Or Blue Paint'. Note that due to the way the handheld performs a Find, the selected text for matches when using the '*' wildcard will be the exact size of the text YOU typed, not the exact size of the match.
- New to version 3.0: lets you find the next occurence of a text in the current text field. Very handy when you are editing a long memo and want to retrieve information in it.
- New to version 3.0: Lets you determine which applications are to be searched. This way, you can exclude applications containing lots of data (like database programs) that you search independantly when running them.
FindHack is a HackMaster extension. It is not an application, and can not be run alone. To install it, you first need to install HackMaster from Daggerware. You can download HackMaster from the HackMaster Web Site:
http://www.daggerware.com/hackmstr.htm
You can also download HackMaster from many Palm-oriented web sites. All web sites providing software for your Palm handheld also offer HackMaster.
Note: HackMaster is shareware. Please support shareware!
If you have a previous version of FindHack installed on your Palm handheld, make sure you first deactivate it by going to the HackMaster application and unchecking the checkbox left to the 'FindHack' line. If you do not deactivate FindHack before installing the new version, your Palm handheld will most certainly crash the next time you try to do a Find.
Install FindHack and HackMaster on your Palm (if HackMaster is already installed, you do not need to reinstall it).
Once you have installed HackMaster and FindHack, start the HackMaster application. You will see a list of installed hacks, including FindHack. On the left, a checkbox lets you activate or deactivate FindHack. On the right, the question mark brings FindHack's About box.
Tap in the + sign to set FindHack preferences. You can now enter up to 4 permanent searches, which will appear at bottom of the recent searches pop-up menu when you do a Find.
You can also preselect where each text will be searched by taping the arrow next to each line: in all applications, in built-in applications (Memo Pad, Date Book, To-Do List, Mail, Expense), in the current application or in the current text field (when applicable).
Tap the Apps... button to access the apps selection screen. This lists all the apps on your Palm handheld and lets you select which apps should not be searched. Only apps with a checkmark in front of them will be searched. To set or remove the checkmark, simply tap the name of the application.
Once you have activated FindHack, the next time you do a Find the standard Find dialog box will be replaced with FindHack's. You'll notice an arrow at right of the text field: tap on it to select a recent search or one of the permanent searches you have configured.
Select where you want to search by tapping one of the buttons: All Apps for all applications, Built-Ins for built-in applications, Curr. App for the current application. This is very useful, especially if you often need to search an address or a meeting and you have lots of applications installed on your handheld.
Finally, if you were editing a text field when you invoked Find, a Text button becomes available. This lets you search the next occurence of the search string withing the current text field, starting from the position of the cursor.
There are many ways to use FindHack in a productive fashion:
- Set your preferred friends/relations' names as permanent searches in Built-Ins to quickly find their phone number from any application; place keywords in important data in your applications' data and set these keywords as permanent searches.
- Carefully place keywords in important and interrelated data in various applications in your handheld. Using preferred searches, you can now quickly gain access to your data, whichever applications it is stored in!
- Use the wilcards to quickly find people you don't remember the name details (i.e. enter the first and last parts of the name, with a '*' in the middle).
- Sometimes when you download applications from the web, your Palm suddenly starts crashing when you do a Find. Be smart! Use the handy 'Apps...' button in the FindHack settings panel to exclude the last apps you installed on your Palm and find the culprit. This will save you many hours of blind searching and headaches.
FindHack is fully compatible with all other hacks. If you are using TealMagnify, you should take some extra steps to ensure that both hacks will work properly.
Doing so is very easy: go to the HackMaster application. You see a list of installed hacks. The order of the list is important: if you see TealMagnify appear AFTER FindHack, you should uncheck the checkbox on the "TealMagnify" line, then check it again. This will move TealMagnify at top of the list: now you are sure that it is called first.
FindHack has two levels of improvement:
First, it lets users select whether they want to find text in the current application, in built-in applications or in all applications. It also remembers the last searches you did. This is compatible with all applications.
Second, it lets you find text even if it is not at beginning of a word. This functionality will work only if applications use the standard PalmOS services to perform the find. Some applications have a custom, proprietary way of doing a Find because they store data in a specific way. FindHack can not help you find text not at beginning of a word in these applications.
FindHack needs a bit more memory than the original Find function in the Palm handheld. When you tap the Find button, FindHack first checks how much memory remains in the current application, and if it considers it is not enough, it directs you to the original Find function.
Too often, badly designed applications tend to crash when doing a Find. FindHack itself proved to be very reliable and has never been the cause of the crashes. There are several steps you can take to solve this problem:
This problem may occur if an application allows you to search in private items when in "Hide Private Data" mode. FindHack can not prevent an application from doing this because it has no control over which items the application looks into. You should report the problem to the author of the application.
This problem occurs because Action Names does not store Todo items, Datebook items or Contact items in its own database, but rather in the Palm's built-in applications' databases. To be able to find an item in Action Names, the user must at least let FindHack search in the "Built-In" databases.
The shareware distribution model allows authors to make very cheap software available to users. Also, shareware authors usually update their software as often as needed, and paying for the software you use keeps authors motivated!
You can register FindHack online at the following sites:
If there is any improvement you would like, please send your suggestions to Florent Pillet (e-mail: Florent.Pillet@wanadoo.fr). Registered users are notified by e-mail when a new version is available. Also, please remember to send any e-mail address change to the author if you want to continue receiving update e-mails.
Your e-mail and address and user information is kept as confidential data. It is not given or sold to anyone else.
Have problems accessing special characters in Graffiti? Can't get mathematical symbols? Check out SymbolHack, a nice add-on that gives you easy access to a palette with hard-to-type characters!
Use a Macintosh? Want to mount your Palm on your desktop like a disk and do drag-and-drop installs and backups? Would like to drop a text file on your Palm and have it automatically converted to a DOC document? Don't wait! Check out Palm Buddy, the state of the art Mac-based backup and install companion for your Palm connected organizer!
Also make sure you give a try to BrainForest from Aportis Technologies, the definitive Outliner, Action Item, Checklist and Project Manager for the 3Com Palm Connected Organizer! BrainForest is now available with a Macintosh and Windows desktop companion offering the same, uncompromised functionality!
FindHack 3.0 (May, 2000)
- FindHack can now look for the next occurence of a text in the current text field.
- Added an "Applications To Search" dialog box in the FindHack settings to let the user configure which apps to search in.You can now tune your Find for maximum speed and efficiency!
- New option for users of non-roman extensions to PalmOS: checking the 'Non-Roman Text' box disables FindHack's accent-insensitive/case-insensitive search, letting you search text written in non-roman languages like Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, etc.
- Fixed a bug where unchecking the 'Use Wildcards' box would not find occurences of words containing accented/european characters.
- Several other minor bug fixes for compatibility with new PalmOS releases (PalmOS 3.3 and PalmOS 3.5).
- FindHack can now run from Flash Rom (use a tool like TRG FlashPro or Brayder JackFlash to transfer the software to flash rom)
FindHack 2.8 (March 10th, 1998)
- Oopps! Inadvertently crashed the Phone Lookup function in 2.7. This is fixed in this release.
FindHack 2.7 (March 9th, 1998)
- Speed, speed, speed! FindHack's search method has been reengineered. The speed loss due to recent improvements in the software has been eliminated. FindHack now runs at roughly the same speed than the Palm's original Find.
FindHack 2.6 (End February 1998)
- New and improved search systems for even better compatibility with international characters.
- FindHack now detects if the PalmPilot is running J-OS (Japanese language enabler) and uses a different search method that produces accurate results on Japanese language.
- Circumvented a bug in the Phone Lookup function. Starting a Find from the Phone Lookup screen sometimes crashes the PalmPilot, even if FindHack is not installed. This is a bug in the address book. To alleviate this problem, FindHack now closes the Phone Lookup screen before displaying the Find dialog.
- Searching in 'Built-Ins' only does not search the current app anymore if it is not one of the built-in applications.
FindHack 2.5 (February 1998)
- Improved compatibility with international and accented characters.
- Added the * wilcard to match any sequence of characters
- Added a checkbox to disable use of wildcards (this allows you to find a '.', '*' or '?').
FindHack 2.1 (January 1998)
- Bug fixes
- Fixed a sporadic crash problem when displaying the "shareware" alert in the unregistered version.
- Fixed a display problem where after the second page of matches, all application headers had the "cont'd" word, even if they were not continued from the previous page.
- Tapping Stop during a find now pauses Find instead of closing the matches window.
- Improvements
- When tapping the 'Find' icon, the currently selected text is now copied and pasted to the Find field.
- The Edit menu has been reactivated (like in original Find)
FindHack 2.0 (December 1997)
- First release of this complete replacement of the Find function.
FindHack 1.0 (April 1997)
- FindHack 1.0 only improved searches, allowing to find part of a word.
FindHack is Copyright (c) 1997-2000 by Florent Pillet, All Rights Reserved.