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
You will need WinZip
to uncompress QED.ZIP after downloading.
Mac users will need ZipIt.
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://www.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://www.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. We can also accept credit card orders by email
to andrew@visionary2000.com,
by phone to (773) 275-5335 (US).
Mail orders with other payment forms to Visionary 2000, 5674 N. Ridge,
Chicago IL 60660, USA. In all cases you must
include your email address and HotSync ID.
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 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 should use
QEX,
the PC/QED Document Exchange Utility
from Visionary 2000. Also see the later section on use with Word
for more info.
Click here
to try QEX.
Like
QED,
QEX
nags for registration.
QEX
registration
is free with the purchase of
QED.
You can also prepare a file for
QED
using one of these utilities:
USE WITH MICROSOFT WORD
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://www.visionary2000.com/qed/qex.htm
BOOKMARKS
QED
is fully compatible with DOC standard bookmarks.
The bookmarks feature has two 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.
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 bookmark 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.
However, one must also set the BOOKMARK CHAR on the OPTIONS menu
to the same character before starting this process.
Technical note:
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.
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, but does not yet fully utilize the shortcut keys.
The QED
program is incredibly small, requiring only about 15K
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.
PROBLEMS
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 the Visionary 2000 Clear Flip Cover at
http://www.visionary2000.com/cfc
Perfect for e-text reading. Includes free software and screen sheets!