Crystal Popup Suite - Manual



Requirements

Palm OS: 5.0 and above
Screen: Color screen, minimum 256 colors

Installation

Install Crystal Popup Suite by double clicking on CrystalPopupSuite.prc and MathLib.prc, and then HotSync your Palm PDA.
Note: The program must be installed to RAM. If installed to an SD card, popup functionality will not work. MathLib must also be installed to RAM.


Starting up Crystal Popup Suite - quick guide

Once installed, look for the Crystal Popup Suite icon in your application launcher. Start the program by tapping it.
You will see the following screen:


Tap Enable to enable popup functionality.
Note that once enabled, Crystal Popup Suite popup functionality will stay enabled, even after soft resetting the device.



As seen in the picture above, there are two ways of launching the popup functions (once the app has been enabled):

1. Press one of the four HardButtons (default setting is to press the DateBook button). Will not work in 100% of applications.
2. Drag with the stylus from the left to the right side of the silkscreen area. This will work in practically any application.


You will now see the Crystal Popup Suite popup function buttons at the bottom of the screen.



Tap on the icons to bring up the corresponding function. Tap on the rightmost icon to exit the popup.
You can also use your Navigator keypad to switch between functions by pressing left/right.

Learn more about the different popup functions below.




Crystal Popup Suite Preference settings

General Preferences screen



Explanation:
From this screen you set general preferences and enable/disable popup functionality.

1. Tap Enable to (immediately) enable popup functionality. The key used to launch the popup functions is configured from the 'Keys' screen. Tap Disable to (immediately) disable popup functionality.

2. Tap one of the four buttons to reach the corresponding program preference setting.

3. If checked, the Crystal Popup Suite popup key will function even when the current application has disabled the standard handling of hardkeys (as, for example, many games do). The disadvantage is however that the Palm system may become slower overall. Also note that even with aggressive button check enabled, popup functionality is still not available in 100% of applications. In these cases, use the silkscreen stroke from left to right to popup Crystal Popup Suite.

4. If checked, Crystal Popup Suite remembers which was the last function you used on the last popup, and immediately re-enters that function when launched again.

5. If checked, Crystal Popup Suite will automatically set the standard 256 color palette when launched. Normally you won't notice whether 'force default palette' is on or not, but some applications that run in 256 colors change the palette and will make Crystal Popup Suite look strange if launched without setting the default palette.

5. If checked, the functionality normally available by tapping various positions in the silkscreen area can also be reached from the Application Launcher popup function. This is useful if your Palm has a slider and you want to keep it closed. If 'Show silkscreen apps' is not checked, there is room for more applications in the Application Launcher popup


Keys Preferences screen



Explanation:
From this screen you set the invocation method of the Crystal Popup Suite popup functions. Note that you must first Enable Crystal Popup Suite in the General Preferences Screen before popup functionality becomes active.

1. Select which one of the four hardkeys (Address, Memo, Todo, NotePad) you want to use to launch Crystal Popup Suite. You can also select 'None' to disable key support altogether (allowing launching only using the left to right stylus stroke as described below).

2. Drag the slider to change the time you must press the button you have selected to launch Crystal Popup Suite.

Note: Regardless of key settings, you can also launch Crystal Popup Suite by dragging the stylus from the left to the right side of the silkscreen area.



Launcher Preferences screen



Explanation:
The launcher preferences screen is where you set up the programs that you want to be able to launch from the Launcher popup function. Please note that for space considerations, the Preference screen show only 8 applications vertically, whereas the actual popup functions shows 10 (thus, an application put in the second column, second row in the Preferences screen would be shown in column one, row ten in the popup function).

1. Select a location for the application you would like to add by tapping one of the boxes in the area indicated in the picture.

2. Select the application you want to run from the selected position by tapping the popup trigger, and select the application from the popup list.

3. Tap the box next to 'Fg' to change the foreground (text) color of the currently selected application-box. Similarly, tap the box next to 'Bg' to change the background color.

4. Press the (U)p and (D)own buttons to move the currently selected application-box upwards or downwards.

Note: If you have selected 'Show silkscreen apps' in the General Preferences Screen, the last ten application boxes won't be shown when you access the Application Launcher function in Crystal Popup Suite.



Registration screen



To register Crystal Popup Suite and get rid of annoying nag screens, visit http://www.newborngames.se or http://www.palmgear.com.

1. Remember to supply your Hotsync Id exactly as seen on the registration screen.

2. Once you have received your registration code by e-mail, type it in exactly the way it was written in the e-mail (including dashes), and press the Register button.

Once registered, all updates to Crystal Popup Suite are completely free (simply install any new versions over the old one)!


Popup Function Screens


Calculator Screen



Explanation:
Most of the functionality of the calculator should be self-explanatory; it works the way you would expect a calculator to. Some details deserve mentioning, however:

1. Press the Copy button to copy the current value to the Clipboard. This text can later be pasted into any other text field, such as the Memo Popup Function field or Palm's standard MemoPad application.

2. Press the Append button to concatenate the current value with the content of the Clipboard. This is useful if you want to save the result of several calculations, to be able to paste them into a text field later on.

3. Press the Function button to popup a list of additional mathematical functions, like trigonometric functions and boolean operations. The screen will look like the picture above to the right. Select the desired function from the popup list.

Calculator Menu

Press the Menu silkscreen button to bring up the Calculator menu:



From the 'Trig mode unit' menu, you can select which mode you would like to use for trigonometric functions (such as sin, cos etc): Radians, Degrees, or Grads.



Memo Screen



Explanation:
Use the Memo popup screen to write down notes or ideas without switching from the current application to a specialized text processing application. You can also see the Memo popup screen as an advanced clipboard. Paste any text from the underlying application, edit and re-arrange it, and later you can copy the text, or parts of it, and paste it into another application.

1. There are 12 memos available for writing text to. Tap on one of the twelve memo icons to access the contents of the corresponding memo text. The red dot indicates which one of the memos that is currently active.

2. Enter your text here using any available input method.

Note: There is no 4k size limit for the Memo popup screen texts (unlike the Palm standard Memo app). The limit is around 40k.

Memo Menu

Press the Menu silkscreen button to bring up the Memo menu. The menu contains the standard edit functionality of text fields, such as Copy, Cut and Paste.

Navigator support

Press Up/Down to switch between memos.
Press Select to toggle mode, allowing you to use the up/down buttons to scroll in the current memo instead.




Note/Drawing Screen



Explanation:
Use the Drawing popup screen to jot down quick notes, draw sketches, or even paint pictures! There are 10 available drawing screens, and like the Memo popup screen, they're accessed by tapping the ten icons to the left of the drawing area.

1. Tap this box to change the pen type. There are 8 available pen types.

2. Tapping this box will bring up a color selection screen where you can choose pen color from a selection of 256 colors.

3. Tap this box to erase the current drawing, filling the drawing area with white color. You will be asked to confirm the operation before continuing.

4. Drag the stylus inside the drawing area to paint with the current pen in the current color. The last drawing operation (from starting to draw until lifting the stylus) can be undone from the menu (see below).


Note/Drawing Menu

Press the Menu silkscreen button to bring up the Note/Drawing menu:



1. The last drawing operation (from starting to draw to lifting the stylus) can be undone by selecting this menu option.

2. The same effect as pressing the Clear button. Clears the background with white color.

3. Clears the screen the same way as pressing the Clear button would, but uses the currently selected color as fill color.

Navigator support

Press Up/Down to switch between drawings.






Timer/Stopwatch Screen



Explanation:
The Timer/Stopwatch screen contains (as the name suggests) a timer function, and a stopwatch function.

1. Tap this button to activate the stopwatch. Once the stopwatch has been started, the button label changes to 'Stop' (4), and tapping it will deactivate the stopwatch again.

2. Tapping this button while the stopwatch is not running will clear the stopwatch value as well as any values left in the split time textfield (6). If the stopwatch has been activated, the label of this button changes to 'Split' (5), and tapping it will copy the current stopwatch value to the split time textfield (6) (without deactivating the stopwatch). This is useful for timing simultaneous situations, such as runners during a race.

3. Tap the digits to change the timer value. Once you have set the desired timer value, you can start the countdown by tapping the Start button. When the timer reaches zero, you will hear an alarm sound and an alarm screen will be shown.

6. Tap the Copy button to copy any values in the Split textfield to the clipboard. You can later paste this text into any textfield, such as the one in the Memo popup function.

Note: If they have been activated, both the timer and the stopwatch will keep running after returning from the popup. If the timer reaches zero while the Crystal Popup Suite popup functions are not active, an alarm sound will play and the Crystal Popup Suite alarm screen will be shown.




Launcher Screen



Explanation:
Use the launcher screen as a quick way of launching your favorite applications. Note that before the launcher screen has been configured (see Launcher Preferences screen), you will not see or be able to launch any applications. The picture above is an example of what the launcher screen may look like after configuring it.

1. Launch the desired application by tapping it.

2. The 'Silkscreen' column will only be shown if the 'Show silkscreen apps' checkbox in the General Preferences screen has been checked. Tap the desired silkscreen function to activate it (Crystal Popup Suite will exit first). This is useful if your Palm device has a slider and you want to keep it closed while still being able to use the silkscreen functionality.

Navigator support

Press Select to allow selection of application by using the Navigator buttons. A red box will indicate the currently selected application. Press Select again to launch the selected application.





Eye Screen

The eye screen shows the underlying application that was running before Crystal Popup Suite was launched.

Note1: If the system is low on memory, Crystal Popup Suite will not be able to save the previous background. As a consequence, the eye screen will not be able to show the underlying application.

Note2: If the underlying application used 256 colors and a custom-defined palette, Crystal Popup Suite will (by default) try to set the standard palette (otherwise Crystal Popup Suite will look strange). This can cause the eye screen to show the underlying graphics in the wrong colors. However, the palette is reset when returning from Crystal Popup Suite.




Additional information

Known bugs and limitations

Version history

Version 1.0 (2004-03-01): First release of Crystal Popup Suite.

Feedback

If you have bug reports, questions or suggestions about Crystal Popup Suite or other products developed by NewBornGear/NewBornGames, feel free to contact our support center at support@newborngames.se. Also make sure to check out our website at http://www.newborngames.se for program updates and bug fixes.

Credits

Programming: Mikael Sollenborn.
Graphics: Mikael Sollenborn

Legal issues

NewBornGear takes no responsibility for any damage that this software could cause to you, your software, or your machine. Crystal Popup Suite is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties.

Copyright(c) 2004 NewBornGear/NewBornGames. All rights reserved.