I hope you all like this FAQ, but remember, it is completely
unofficial, and is not intended to replace the manual which
comes with the Siena, it is meant to accompany it.
Any questions or comments should be sent to me through email at
James.Phillips@which.net [Note new address]
Thanks to Steve Litchfield for his insight.
The next update will be during the month of July. Email me at
the above address if you would like the next version sent direct
to your email inbox.
James Phillips
Author
"Siena is a powerful, high-end organizer whose built-in suite of
applications include a robust database, agenda, a fully-featured
Microsoft Word-compatible word processor, as well as Excel and
Lotus 1-2-3 compatible spreadsheets."
Psion press release
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D I S C L A I M E R
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This document is provided "as is" without any express or implied
warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy
of the information contained in this article, the author, will not assume responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. This document is distributed for free, and I cannot thoroughly check all its contents. I would like feedback however!
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S P E C I F I C A T I O N
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Size: 150mm x 70mm x 18mm
Weight: 180g [Including batteries]
Screen: 65mm x 44mm
Keyboard: 48 key Qwerty
20 key calculator
8 application keys
Memory: ROM: 1MB, RAM: 512k/1024k
Processor: 16 bit NEC V30H running at 7.68mhz
[80c86 compatible]
Sound: Piezo Buzzer [Similar to in mobile phones]
Serial port operating at 1.536Mbits/second
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P O W E R I T U P !
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When you unpack your Siena, you will realise, that it takes a lithium
backup battery, as well as two 'AAA' batteries, for some insane reason
only the backup battery is included in the package. The batteries are
reasonably cheap and last for around two months of average use. Rechargeables are cheaper in the long run. If you choose to use rechargeables, ignore what the battery life utility says, it wouldn't know a rechargable if it smacked it in the face! Note that when using rechargeables, you should have a proper backup strategy in place to a desk-top machine, otherwise you could risk damage to your data when they die suddenly without warning, especially as the Siena's backup battery isn't brilliant. For more security at greater cost, use Duracell alkaline batteries instead.
There is a fine third party utility from Pelican Software, called
Battery Checker, it is well worth downloading, the file is called
BATTERYS.ZIP and is available on CIS.
The Siena sometimes gives "REPLACE BACKUP BATTERY" messages, this is because of a loose connection.
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S O L I D S T A T E D I S K S
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Unfortunately, to keep the size down the Siena has no SSD drive built in, it is an optional extra and costs about 65 UK pounds. This isn't such a limitation, SSD disks are very expensive anyway, there is very little, in fact to my knowledge, no Siena software on SSD and not including the drive makes the unit pocket size. Unless you are going to need to store huge amounts of data I wouldn't bother buying an SSD drive, and remember, you can't delete from an SSD, you have to format it. If you need to store large amounts of data then backup your Siena to a floppy disk on your PC.
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R A M
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The basic Siena has 512kb of RAM, this should be more than enough for most people using it as an organiser. If you plan to use a lot of shareware, getting the 1Mb version is highly recommended.
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C O M M U N I C A T I O N
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The Siena has an RS232 serial port and an IRDA infra-red port, these are different to the ports on the Series 3/3a, therefore the 'Soap on a rope' cable is incompatible, a new Series 3c/Siena PC Link is available with PsiWin for approximately 69.99 UK pounds and does the job rather well.
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F I L E T R A N S F E R
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PSIWIN FOR SIENA
Approximate price 69.99 UK pounds.
This is a rather good piece of PC software and has the following transfer
capabilities:
Agenda converts to: Lotus Organizer v.1.0
Act! v.2.0
Microsoft Schedule Plus
Organizer v.2.1
Data converts to: dBase III and IV
MS Fox Pro
Lotus Organizer 1.0
Comma Separeted Values [CSV]
TST.
Psion PIC format converts to Windows Bitmap
Psion Record converts to Windows Wave sound (*.WAV)
Sheet converts to: Quattro Pro
MS Works for Windows spreadsheet
Lotus 123
Excel 4.0
Excel 5.0
Word converts to: Text (Windows ANSI and codepage 850)
Rich Text Format
Corel WordPerfect 5.1, 5.2 and 6.0
Works for Windows 3.0
Word for Windows 2.0 and 6.0
Lotus Ami Pro 3.0
Most of these conversions work in both directions.
This should mean that you will not have to waste time re-typing data in
the Psion's tiny keyboard. You will be able to easily convert the files to and from your PC.
As if the PsiWin program didn't convert into enough PC formats for you,
the package includes the PC version of Psion Data so you can enter your
data there and then. Although the database is basic, it does all you
should need to do on a Psion. This software may seem rather expensive,
but with the Database, Print and Cable included it is well worth it!!!
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P R I N T I N G
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There is, at the moment only one sensible way to print from your Psion.
You use the cable to connect the Psion to your PC then load Psion Print and print through the Psion Print driver using TrueType Fonts. This gives very good results... The Siena is surprisingly good at printing, remember that fonts on your Siena quickly use up it's precious memory, so I recommend that you only use one or two, Times New Roman and Arial or Courier would be good choices.
It is possible to print using the IRDA Infra-Red port, but only to an
Infra-red printer, and you need a special driver file, which you can get from technical support or from the net or 3-Lib (see later).
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S O F T W A R E
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Psion software is available by the bucketload, and there is now a
respectable amount of Siena specific software, 3a software *may* work but the screen size may cause problems with anything that uses the full
screen.
Getting new software isn't too hard if you have access to Compulink
Information Exchange (CIX) or CompuServe, who both have Psion forums.
There is also some Psion stuff on AOL. Plus, of course, the enormous number of Psion-related web sites on the Internet.
I think the best way to work with the software is to download the files
to your desktop computer, unzip them with Pkunzip or WinZIP, then download them to your Psion using PsiWin.
Top Siena Software
SNFILE.ZIP - This is a file manager designed for the Siena, it does all
you'd expect and is probably worth using.
QUIKNOTE.ZIP - This is an excellent notepad program, different enough from Psion Word to make it worth installing.
BATTERYS.ZIP - Brilliant software for checking on the life expectancy of your batteries.
MAPS11.ZIP - Steve Lichfield has finally programmed Mapper for the
Siena.■.
The best route planner ever... No questions asked.
BANKS11.ZIP - Bank Plus personal account manager, very comprehensive.
MONTHVUS.ZIP - Month View for the Agenda application.
JPBANK.SPR - Small spreadsheet to handle bank accounts. Simple,
but effective. There are lots of other Bank programs around, visit
http://siena.home.ml.org/ or
http://www.vodanet.net/psion/siena/default.html
for lists.
Games
SNGOLF10.ZIP - a golf game/simulation, cut-down version of the
well-known FAIRWAY for the Series 3a.
SDUNG1-0.ZIP - Doom clone for the Siena... Very good.
CHESS.ZIP - A brilliant chess game, the latest version is fully compatible with the Siena and is well worth the five pounds registration.
S-GP1.ZIP - Game Pack for the Siena, needs quite a bit of space but is
well worth it, games are appearing for the Siena in great quantities now!
C4-S-12.ZIP - Connect Four for the Siena, very good game, great for
playing at work!
NOTES ON SIENA SOFTWARE
File management is one of the most important aspects of any machine,
oddly, the Siena doesn't have a decent built in file manager, there is the basic viewer you can activate by pressing <TAB> from the system menu, but thats it... Get one of the fine shareware managers..
The Siena uses a similar file structure to an IBM PC, except the files are stored in the ram and built in apps are on a ROM disk.
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T i p s f o r S i e n a
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<> Battery covers! The cover for the batteries breaks. It is not held on well and doesn't take much to damage it. Replacements in snazzy colours are available from Widget for about 7 UK pounds, call Widget on
Knebworth [01438] 815444. There have also been all sorts of problems
with the backup battery. Try to keep the battery compartment clean and
not to touch the backup cell with your bare hands, as this leaves traces of grease on the cell which prevents proper contact etc.
<> Keyboard. It is hard to type when the Siena is laid on a desk because it doesn't stay flat, remove the battery cover to fix this problem. It is also prone to 'double typing'
<> Siena Tips! There is a list of 59 tips available when you switch on the Siena, I would like to list them here but some are rather trivial, by pressing Psion+Q you can access the preferences and turn them off if you like. You can also change the screen font.
<> Screen shots! The Psion has a built in screen grabber, activate it by pressing <PSION+CONTROL+SHIFT+S> The file is called Screen*.pic and stored in the root directory of the memory, remember that the next shot you take will overwrite the previous, so remember to rename it! You can translate them to BMP format using PsiWin.
<> Buy a proper leather carry case! this is an excellent accesory and
only costs about 15 UK pounds, it is definately worth having as it
protects you Siena really well, it has a pocket for your bus ticket and
room for more batteries!
<> Use password protection! simply turn on the password, then every time the machine is powered up, the owner information is displayed, that way if you lose your Psion, the person will know who to return it too! of course, you could hard reset the machine and loose all data, including the password, so keep a backup.
<> Pressing SHIFT+SYSTEM has the same effect as ALT+TAB does on the PC, it switches between applications.
<> Program your Psion! a programming guide is available online at
The Siena comes with the excellent applications that were included with
the 3a, including the spreadsheet- which you can use to keep track of your bank accounts etc. rather than paying for commercial software.
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DATABASE
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This is a great application, not over complex, it is already set up for
you to use to store phone numbers and addresses, the pre-defined fields are:
HOME PHONE
WORK PHONE
MOBILE
FAX
ADDRESS
EMAIL
I don't think all these were included in the original 3a database, this is all you are likely to need, although it should give more room for the address, still, you can change the fields if you need it for other
purposes, eg if you were a car spotter you could have
MAKE
MODEL
REG NO
DATE
It automatically sorts the records for you. This program was so good it
was ported across to the IBM PC with the PsiWin package. The Database, like the Agenda can compress your datafile. Confusingly, the Psion Data file uses the extension .DBF which you would expect to be dBASE as it is on the PC.
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PSION WORD
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The Psion Word is a capable package, although not up to the quality of
Microsoft Word, it does its job, some of the formatting options such as
alignment are hard to get to, as are the styles, I have listed the
shortcut keys for the styles below. It can be in either Outline or Normal mode and has great printer support, you can view the document in either printer or screen mode, screen mode is basically the same as 'Word Wrap' in MS Notepad.
Shortcut Keys for Word
ctrl-nn Normal Text
ctrl-bb Bold
ctrl-ii Italic
ctrl-uu Underline
Special characters
FN+
Z umlaut [δ] Then the letter
X grave [Φ] e.g FN + X + E
C acute [Θ]
V tilde [±]
B circumflex [Ω]
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AGENDA
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What can I say? this is the reason Psion sell so many PDAs, this is a
brilliant scheduling program, and in my opinion much better than some
windows based offerings. It features alarms, To-Do lists, Busy Times and all the other features you could possibly need. But there is still no monthly view! this is an important feature for Psion to leave out, there is an add-in for the 3a called JAMV2.ZIP I don't know if it works with the Siena but it's worth a try. You can also compress your file by pressing PSION-K.
Agenda has a calender which you can access by pressing <TAB> from any
Agenda screen.
Use in conjunction with Lotus Organizer, simply convert the Lotus file to Psion Agenda using PsiWin and put it on your Psion, at the end of the day, convert it back to Lotus and copy it to your PC.
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SHEET
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Sheet is a decent spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is, much like the Database, fairly basic, but it does it's job ammicably, you can choose the format of numbers, alignment etc. The only problem with it on the Siena is the limited screen width. There are built in filters enabling Sheet to save directly into Windows compatible .WK1 and .WKS format, useful if you are using WinLink which doesn't have conversion capability.
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World Time
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World Time is a good time-waster, it tells you the dialling codes for
various cities around the world, their distance from where you are and
shows them on a large map. There are lots of UK Cities including Plymouth, Bristol, London, Birmingham, Stoke, Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, Leeds, Hull, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Swansea and many more, it is customisable so you could add your town if it isn't listed.
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Other Psion Machines
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Psion released their first organizer in the mid '80s, it was a just about pocketable machine, which seems rather crude now, its 'calculator' style case and tiny, 2 line screen, they did another called the Organizer II, very similar to the first, as I said, now these machines look simple, but with their Diary, alarm, clock, OPL Programming language and plenty more, they were way ahead of their time. The machine was very thick, it had two expansion slots for software and memory cards, and took a large 9v battery.
The Organizer II came in several flavours:
CM 16K Ram, 16x2 screen, Virtually no software
XP 16K or 32K Ram, 16x2 screen, Database, OPL Software
LZ 32K or 64K Ram, 20x4 screen, Notepad, Phone Codes Database, and
clock
The XP is still readily available from various UK Mail Order companies, a lot of banks used them and are now replacing them, making a large number ofmachines available, around ú30 a shot, I have one which arrived in almost new condidtion.
Series 3 128k or 256k ram, same as 3a but no spreadsheet
Series 3s As above but with Spreadsheet, pretty rubbish
Series 3a 512k - 2MB ram, all the modern applications,
outstanding machine.
Series 3c The newest psion, the 3a plus high-speed serial port,
backlight, infra-red eye etc.
Siena Has most of the 3a features and a 'real' serial port
Workabout Looks like a Series II, has an ABC keyboard and a
backlit screen, unfortunately lack of software support
made it a non-starter
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MORE INFO
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For more information I recommend you try the following web sites:
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/ <-- The best site for Psion Shareware
http://www.psion.com <-- Official site
http://www.psioninc.com <-- American official site
http://siena.home.ml.org/ <-- Neil Bee's excellent site.
If you have trouble finding copies of the shareware mentioned in this
document, I have copies of most of it, and if I don't then it will
probably be on Steve Litchfield's site at http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/
The Widget software magazine is an excellent source of info, send off you registration card and you will get free copies of both that and the Psion User magazine.
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Where to buy in England
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Clove Technology
Fax: 01202 302 796
Email: 100255.3642@compuserve.com
http://clove-tech.co.uk
Byson Computers
Fax: 01635 874 022
Email: ian@byson.demon.co.uk
http://www.hiway.co.uk/~byson
Dixons
Phone: 0171 636 8511
Local branches throughout the UK.
The Link
Petty Curry, Lion Yard, Cambridge [Near the market]
Psion, Siena and all other likenesses are copyright of Psion.
This is unofficial and in no way associated or endorsed by Psion Ltd.
This document, ⌐ 1997 James Phillips.
I hope you enjoyed this insight into the Psion world, I am planning to do several more, get in touch if you would like to be put on our mailing list for new versions.
Please distribute, but only the COMPLETE document, please tell me what you think at James.Phillips@which.net [Note the new address]
