QED The original large document editor for PalmPilot organizers.

INTRO

The "notepad" application built in to the PalmPilot family of organizer has a tiny limit on document size (4K). QED has no such limit and can be used for editing very large documents.

QED uses standard DOC format files. DOC refers to the defacto standard file format used for large text documents on the PalmPilot organizer. This file format optionally compresses the contents, using dramatically less of the organizer's memory. Such files are also called "e-texts". One popular source of e-texts is MemoWare. The DOC format was created for a large text file viewer program now called "AportisDoc Mobile Edition" sold by Aportis.

INSTALLATION

  1. You will need WinZip to uncompress QED.ZIP after downloading. Mac users will need ZipIt.

  2. Install QED.PRC using the standard Pilot PC desktop install tool.

QED can be used freely as a DOC reader. When used to edit, QED will regularly nag you to register. If you're like me, you'll quickly see that QED is what you've been waiting for... Unlimited size document editing on the PalmPilot. Easy to use, very stable, and it's only $23!! That's CHEAP!!! So come to http://visionary2000.com/qed to buy.

After registering, you'll receive by email a registration code keyed to your organizer's HotSync ID. HotSync ID is the "user" name maintained in the Pilot desktop program. HotSync ID is NOT the same as the "owned by" name maintained in your organizer on the Applications/Preferences/Owner screen.

QED has been extensively tested and runs perfectly on PalmPilot Personal, Professional and Palm III models. It is not compatible with the basic 1000/5000 models unless an OS2 upgrade chip has been installed. QED works fine with TRG memory expansion products for storing DOCs, and with the GoType keyboard.

PURCHASING

The freely downloadable copy of QED is intended as a trial version. It allows customers to confirm that QED is satisfactory and compatible with their organizer.

To register QED which deactivates the nag messages, go to http://visionary2000.com/qed and fill in the order form.

Enter your PalmPilot HotSync ID on the order form. HotSync ID is the "user" name maintained in the Pilot desktop program. It is shown on QED's Options/Register menu. HotSync ID is not the same as the "owned by" name maintained in your organizer.

For fastest processing, enter a credit card order on our standard or secure forms. Email andrew@visionary2000.com for info on other ordering options.

LEGAL

QED is copyright 1999, Kurt Schuster, all rights reserved. The trial version file may be freely distributed in unmodified form. The QED executable may be used freely by individuals assessing it's suitability for purchase. No other use, distribution, reproduction or modification whatsoever is permitted.

Registration entitles the purchaser to a single user license to use QED on a single organizer. No other use is permitted. Changing an organizer's HotSync ID or installation on multiple organizers may require the purchase of additional registrations.

Purchasers may freely download future updates and will be able to use their existing registration number. This policy may not continue indefinitely.

It is assumed that the purchaser has evaluated QED prior to purchase and accepted it as satisfactory. Therefore no refunds will be given.

Though tens of thousands of users have shown QED to be stable and safe, no program is perfect. The purchaser must be aware of the possibility of data loss connected with the use of any program.

AUTHOR

QED was created and is maintained by Kurt Schuster who resides in Weiden in North Bavaria. Please direct correspondence to andrew@visionary2000.com though you may also send praise, problem reports, or questions to the author at kurt.schuster@t-online.de You may also visit Kurt's home page at http://home.t-online.de/home/kurt.schuster

INSTRUCTIONS

Screen buttons:

The screen buttons are as follows:

1. Create new document.
2. Open a document.
3. Search / Search Again
Split arrow button functions are listed by base / point.
4. Line Up / Screen Up
5. Line Down / Screen Down
6. Column Left / Screen Left
7. Column Right / Screen Right
8. Move through document.
Tap the head or foot of this scrollbar to skip to the top or bottom of document.
9. Bookmark functions.

File Manager:

The buttons on the file dialog are as follows:

1. Category functions.
Select which category's documents are currently listed above, and maintain the database of categories.
2. File Functions.
By default, this menu is set to select a file to load. Simply select a file and click OK. To change the category of a document, or to delete or rename a document, tap the desired function then tap a document name. You will be prompted to confirm a rename or delete.
3. Cancel/OK.

Menus:

The File menu includes Open, New, Save, Rename, Delete, and Info commands. Standard Cut, Copy, Paste and Undo operations can be found on the Edit menu. The Options menu controls all configuration settings, including Registration.

Default Preferences controls how newly loaded or created documents will be configured. It also has settings for creating new documents compressed, and for scrolling a full screen (rather than one line less).

Screen Width is one of QED's best features. QED uses a wide "virtual screen" where a user can pan left and right. The width is specified in pixels, from 160 to 800. Your document will be word wrapped at the specified width. The PalmPilot screen is 160 pixels. Use this setting for reading bulk text such as books. Use higher settings for documents such as lists, source code, and documentation where wide formatting must be retained.

Editable is an important flag. If a document is left not editable it is "read only". In this mode QED operates like older DOC viewers. A document can be browsed by tapping the screen to scroll. The Ruled option displays the dotted screen lines. QED can use the standard proportionally spaced PalmPilot font, or the large extremely readable font, or a special mono spaced font perfect for programmers.

The Document Preferences menu controls preferences specific to the document. Here the user can set a document to be private. If marked private, a document is only shown on file lists when the organizer's security is set to show private records. The backup flag indicates that a document has been changed and will be copied to the PC during the next HotSync. Use this to manually force or prevent a backup.

After purchasing a registration code, enter it on the Register menu.

DOCUMENT PREPARATION

Win95 users can use QEX, our PC/QED Document Exchange Utility. QEX registration is free with the purchase of QED. Download from http://visionary2000.com/qed/qex.htm

Word97 should use PalmDocs, an add-in to directly load/save PalmPilot DOC files at http://visionary2000.com/palmdocs

You can also prepare a file for QED using one of these utilities:
  • Windows:
  • PalmDocs - Word Add-In:
    http://visionary2000.com/palmdocs
    Load/save directly from Word.
  • For Windows 95/NT by Visionary 2000:
    http://visionary2000.com/qed/qex.htm
    Bi-directional and remembers favorite conversions.
  • For Windows 95/NT by Mark Pierce:
    http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Pierce
    Also has a DOC conversion Active-X control.
  • DOS:
  • For DOS by Pat Beirne:
    http://pc-28134.on.rogers.wave.ca
    Well known, bi-directional. Java version also posted.
  • For DOS with TealDoc enhancements by Bryce E. Maryott:
    http://www.io.com/~bryce/maketeal.html
  • Mac:
  • Good converter for Mac:
    http://www.softplum.com/macpalmdoc
  • For Mac by Masatoshi Yoshizawa:
    http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~yoz/PilotSoft-e.html
    Reportedly may crash on large files.
  • Another mac converter:
    ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/systems/mac/amug/files/pilot/mac/pilot-make-doc-1.0.sit.hqx
  • Web:
  • On line conversion from Web pages by Chris Heschong:
    http://pilot.screwdriver.net
  • For Win95/NT creates DOCs given URLs by Clarence Ho:
    http://home.netvigator.com/~clarenho/Web2Doc
  • Unix:
  • For Un*x with XML formatting by Rob Tillotson:
    http://www.io.com/~rob/cq/xmldoc/xmldoc.html
  • For Un*x with source code by Paul Jay Lucas:
    http://www.best.com/~pjl/software.html

  • USE WITH MICROSOFT WORD

    Word97 should use PalmDocs, an add-in to directly load/save PalmPilot DOC files at http://visionary2000.com/palmdocs

    The following discussion may be useful to other Word users:

    Due to the extremely complex formatting information stored embedded in Microsoft Word documents, they cannot be directly exchanged back and forth well with QED, or with any PalmPilot program for that matter. However, presented here are some procedures which may be suitable for certain situations, especially where there are large blocks of text contained in a main document such as chapters in a book. This is done using Word's insert linked text file feature.

    Create a DOC in QED, or by using QEX with an existing text file. Edit this file at will and return it to the PC using QEX. Make a document in Word. Position the cursor where a QED edited block should appear and click Insert, File from the Word menu. Find and select the QED edited text file and check the Link box. The text maintained in QED should appear in the Word document.

    That block can now be freely exchanged between QED and Word, and can be edited in either. One must simply use QEX in the appropriate direction and HotSync when changes are made on either end, and right click Update Field on the text block in Word when changes were made in QED. Sorry, this procedure does require some manual steps and attention to coordination of revisions. Furthermore, some users have reported that they could not return the block to QED easily.

    Good Word users will understand all this fairly easily. Less familiar users should read the Word help on inserting files. Apparently for formatting to work, the inserted file must have a .txt file name extension.

    Bottom line, exchange back and forth between Word and QED is not great. The more common use however is in one direction, which is very easy. To import text to Word, use QEX to convert between QED and a .txt (text) file. Bring up the text file in NotePad and copy, paste to Word. For larger text files a great unlimited capacity PC text file editor is available at http://www.editplus.com

    Text files converted from QED can also be directly loaded to Word using File, Open and selecting File Type as all or text. Similarly Word's Insert, File function can directly import a text block from a file converted from QED.

    The content (but not the formatting very well) of Word documents can be sent to QED using save as, type, text from Word, then convert the resultant file to QED using QEX. Pay attention to Word's prompts though, when it warns you to re-save in the original Word format.

    DOS CONVERSION PROCEDURE

    Windows users should read the above section on use with Microsoft Word. That section also covers use with NotePad and exchange with Windows in general. This section covers the original MS-DOS DOC conversion method common when PalmPilots were new. These days DOCs are typically converted with our QEX program available at http://visionary2000.com/qed/qex.htm
  • Installing MAKEDOC:
  • Download the program from http://pc-28134.on.rogers.wave.ca/makedoc8.zip
  • Unzip the program to someplace in your executable path. Depending on your setup such directories as C:\DOS or C:\WINDOWS or C:\ or C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND are recommended.
  • Converting to QED format:
    For this example we will be converting "My Diary" from a file named DIARY.TXT
  • Start a DOS session and change to the directory containing the document to be converted for QED.
    Note that only human readable files are appropriate for use with QED. This includes source code, web page HTML, lists, Windows notepad type documents and others. Documents saved by high end programs such as Word, WordPerfect and others however cannot be edited easily with QED. If you must edit such a document it must first be saved as text.
  • Enter the command line:
      MAKEDOC DIARY.TXT DIARY.PDB "My Diary"
    For faster editing you may prepare the document without compression by entering:
      MAKEDOC -n DIARY.TXT DIARY.PDB "My Diary"
  • Run the standard PalmPilot Install Tool program and select the newly created DIARY.PDB file for installation.
    After the next HotSync the diary file should appear on QED's list of files available for editing.
  • Converting back to DOS format:
    After editing a file, you may want to convert it back to a DOS format for use in another program or for printing.
  • HotSync your organizer. Any files changed in QED will automatically be retrieved and saved in a special Pilot BACKUP directory. By default this is:
       C:\PILOT\<abbreviated user name>\BACKUP
  • Start a DOS session and change to the backup directory.
  • Determine the name given to your file. Under Windows 3.x this is the same as the name originally used for the file when it was installed (DIARY.TXT). Under Windows 95/NT it may be named using the title given to the document (My Diary.pdb). It may help to get a directory in date order by entering DIR /o:d
  • Enter the command line:
       MAKEDOC -d DIARY.PDB DIARY.TXT
    This should result in a new file (DIARY.TXT) appearing. This is the QED edited version of the original file. Do with it as you wish.
  • BOOKMARKS

    QED is compatible with DOC standard bookmarks. The bookmarks feature has several distinct usages:

    1. An author may include bookmarks in a PC source document.
      This is done by placing a special character between <> symbols (less than / greater than) at the end of a file. Example (as the last line in a document):
      <*>
      Then, place that mark (without the <> symbols) at the start of lines in the content. Convert the file and view it on a PalmPilot. In QED, tap BOOKMARK, SCAN (if not set to auto-scan). The DOC is scanned and the marked points are automatically added to the bookmark list, using the text after the mark as the bookmark name. Many DOC files come with bookmarks included in this way.

    2. A user may add bookmarks while viewing a document.
      While viewing a document, tap the bookmark symbol (paper clip), tap add, and enter a name when prompted.

    3. A user may manually insert bookmarks using QED.
      Like the PC method, a user can manually type bookmark characters such as * in a DOC, and append a <*> at the end. Running SCAN would then find and record these.

    Technical notes:
    In older versions of QED it was necessary to manually tell QED the bookmark character if the automatic scan does not work right. Get to the end of the document. Mark and Edit/Copy the bookmark character (the character between the < > marks). Bring up the Options/BookChar field, pop up the keyboard and Edit/Paste the character in. Then use Bookmark/Scan.

    The DOC format stores the list of bookmarks in a table of data appended to the end of the document text. This occurs when a DOC is scanned, or if bookmarks are added when viewing. QED adheres to this format.

    This can be troublesome for authors. If a DOC is edited and bookmarks are added, then the DOC is converted back to PC text (using QEX for example), the PC file will appear to have lines of garbage appended to the end. This chunk may be safely marked and deleted off. Alternately, do not use the bookmark feature in documents being editing.

    Note that our PalmDocs converter for Word97 does not have this problem.

    Also, do not attempt to reinstall a file with bookmarks taken from a Pilot user backup directory. It has been reported that the appended bookmark data will cause unintended results if reused as an original DOC file PDB.

    TECHNICAL FACTS

    QED compresses "on the fly" if a memory page has changed when the cursor is moved off that page (not equivalent to a screen page) or when a different program is invoked. Compression time is therefore not dependent on document size.

    QED works well with TRG large memory products for storing DOCs. It has not however been tested with every TRG product nor tested with putting the program or DOCs in flash ROM.

    QED works well with the GoType keyboard. Almost all functions have been given keyboard shortcuts.

    The QED program is incredibly small, requiring only about 26K of your organizer's memory.

    You may view the revision history here.

    We recommend taking a full backup of your organizer occassionally using a program such as Backup Buddy. QED is Backup Buddy certified, meaning it only causes a document to be copied to a PC on HotSync if the document has been changed.

    PROBLEMS

    Q. QED documents do not appear on the PC after HotSync.

    If you change a document in QED it will be transferred to the PC on next HotSync. You may also set the backup flag on the OPTIONS/DOC PREFS menu to force a document to be backed up on next HotSync. HotSync will copy it to the Pilot desktop user backup directory, which is usually like: C:\PILOT\<abbreviated user name>

    Problems with a file not appearing on the PC after HotSync are almost certainly due to one of these issues:
    A1. The Pilot desktop program HotSync settings are wrong.
    Run the desktop program, click the HOTSYNC menu, then CUSTOM. The SYSTEM CONDUIT must be set to HANDHELD OVERWRITES DESKTOP.
    A2. When HotSyncing with multiple PCs, the DOC only automatically copies to the first PC.
    This is because the transfer resets the backup flag. QED considers it backed up and will not copy it again until some change is made or you manually set the backup flag.
    A3. A newly converted document loaded to QED from a PC does not HotSync back.
    Nor will it HotSync to another PC until some change is made or you manually set it's backup flag. QED considers the document unchanged, and thus there is no reason to HotSync it to the PC.
    A4. You are running some third party PalmPilot backup program or HotSync conduit.
    Consult the documentation for that product.

    Once transferred, use a program such as QEX to convert it out of the user backup directory and into a PC editor usable file. For QED documents, usually the file name is the document's title, with underscores instead of spaces. Do not use characters in a document title which are possibly not valid file name characters, such as any punctuation or symbols.


    Q. QED says "no valid username".
    A1. Your HotSync ID (configured on the user list in the Pilot desktop program) must contain at least three letters. Change your HotSync ID to something longer.
    A2. Some Unix users do not have a HotSync ID. In order to register QED such users must HotSync with a PC at least once to set the user name.


    Q. QED immediately crashes when run.
    A1. QED is not compatible with the basic 1000/5000 model organizers.
    A2. Download and install the latest version.
    A3. Make sure you have some reasonable amount of RAM free.


    Q. QED crashes on certain documents.
    A1. Delete and reload the DOC from an original source. If the DOC still will not open it is not a valid file and should not be used.
    A2. If the problem persists or spreads, your organizer's memory may be corrupt. This can occur from prior organizer crashes or loading invalid files. QED has never been known to cause this problem. Fully backup your organizer. Hard clear the organizer (reset button while holding power button). Reload contents USING ORIGINAL FILES wherever possible rather than copies from the Pilot user backup directory, which may be corrupt. Do not attempt this if you do not understand these instructions. Install QED and only load those other programs you really really need. Always use the most current QED release.


    Contact us at mailto:andrew@visionary2000.com with a full description of your hardware, software and symptoms.


    To download or register QED visit the QED Home Page.


    Come see PalmDocs, an M.S. Word add-in to directly load/save PalmPilot DOC files at http://visionary2000.com/palmdocs

    Also see our Clear Flip Cover for PalmPilots at http://visionary2000.com/cfc
    Perfect for e-text reading. Includes free software and screen sheets!