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Do you find that you still use a pencil and paper to take meeting notes, setup appointments, and make task lists, even though you have a Palm device? Do you find that switching between many
applications on your handheld device while trying to talk on the phone is just too slow and difficult? So do we, which is why we made Slap.
Slap gives you a place to "slap" down information first, and organize it later. Buttons along the right side make it easy to add information to the address book, date book, task list, memo
pad, or even to create an email. In fact, depending on the button you press, Slap will try to interpret what you wrote and organize it for you. Slap will make your handheld device even easier and
faster to use.
This user manual will give you details on each of Slap's functions and make it even easier for you to use Slap.
Setting Up Slap
When you first start Slap, it will ask you whether you want to associate Slap with the Memo button on your device. Since slap is designed to be available on the spur of the moment, it is most
useful when mapped to one of the buttons on your device, so you should answer yes to this question. Slap will remember what your memo button was previously mapped to and make that
application available on your second press of the memo button. In other words, press the memo button once, and you will get Slap. Press it twice, and you will get your memo application.
To change these settings, choose Preferences from the menu by tapping the menu button. The menu button is in the lower left corner of your device's screen, next to the graffiti entry area.
Checking the "Associate..." checkbox will control whether Slap is mapped to the memo button. You can select what application is started the second time you press the memo button by
choosing the application from the "2nd Memo Button" popup list.
Using Slap
Slap is very easy to use. It has one text field on the screen. Simply enter information into the field, and later organize it.
To organize information, select the information by tapping and dragging over it, and then tap on the buttons along the right side to send that information to an application. If you do not select
anything before tapping a button, all the information in the slap screen will be sent to that application.
You can quickly clear the screen by pressing the Clear button. If you accidentally press the Clear button, you can recover what you cleared by choosing Undo from the Edit menu.
Picking Dates and Times
Slap will attempt to interpret dates and times in whatever format you enter them. However, if you prefer to use the standard date and time pickers, you can get to them by tapping the date button
or time button at the bottom of the Slap screen.
Useful Graffiti Strokes
While Slap will attempt to interpret the information you enter however you enter it, there are some useful Graffiti strokes you can use to make Slap's job easier. Learning these graffiti strokes will
enable you to enter information quickly into Slap, as well as all your other Palm applications. Of course, if you can't remember them, you can always enter them using the popup keyboard by
choosing Keyboard from the Edit menu.
When entering addresses, Slap expects to see the information as if it was on a letter or an envelope, with each line of information separated by a new line. For example, you might write:
John Doe
1234 Maple Street
SomeTown, NJ 12345
123-456-7890
To create a new line on the Palm, start the graffiti stroke in the upper right corner of the graffiti area and drag down to the lower left corner.
When entering phone numbers, you may use a dash, or a period to separate the numbers. To make a dash, tap once on the graffiti area, and then stroke left to right.
 + 
To make a period, tap twice on the graffiti area.
 + 
Email addresses will have an "@" symbol in them. To create this symbol, tap once, then write an "O" starting at the top middle and drawing a circle.
 + 
When entering dates, you may separate the date, month and year using periods, dashes or slashes. Periods and dashes are described in the paragraph above. To make a slash, tap once
on the graffiti area, then stroke from the lower left corner to the upper right corner.
 + 
To enter a time, you may separate the hours from minutes using commas, periods or colons. To make a comma, tap once then stroke from the middle down to the lower left corner.
 + 
To make a colon, tap once, then stroke from the top-middle, down to the bottom-middle, and back to the top-middle.
 + 
You can end a time with a "p" or "a" to specify am or pm.
Entering Datebook Items
To enter an event in the Datebook, simply enter the information related to the event into the slap screen, and press the Datebook icon on the right side. Slap will attempt to interpret the dates and
times and enter them into the correct fields.
For example, if you enter:
Meeting at 4 on Mon.
You will see the following screen:
The date will be the date of the next Monday. Make any changes you want to the event, then press the Add button. The event will be added to your datebook, and Slap will immediately go to this
event in your datebook so that you can make further refinements to it.
Times can be entered in the following formats:
4
4:00
4.00
4p (a for a.m., p for p.m.
4pm
Dates can be entered in the following formats, and will be interpreted based on your international settings.
- 5/4
- Mon.
- Monday
- 5.4
- 5/4/02
Tip:
What if you would like to see if an appointment is available on a particular day before entering the appointment? Simply make the appointment for a proposed time and date, then press the Add
button. Slap will take you to the Datebook and highlight the item you just entered. You can then see if the appointment conflicts with another appointment, and make adjustments as needed
right in the Datebook.
Entering Address Book Items
While Slap will attempt to read address information in a variety of ways, it most effectively interprets address and phone information when they are entered like an address on a letter or
business card, with a return entered after each piece of information to create a new line.
For example, if you enter the following information:
And then press the Address Book button on the right, you will see the following screen.
Slap interprets what you wrote and fills in the most commonly used fields in the address book in its preview screen. From this screen, you can make changes to the data before sending the data
to the address book.
To send the data to the address book, press the Add button. You will then be taken to the address book application so that you can make further refinements to the item.
One easy way to make changes to the Slap data is to swap items by dragging the title of one item on top of another. For example, if Slap mixed up the last and first name, you can drag the word
"Last:" in the screen above on top of the word "First:" and Slap will swap the last and first names.
Slap defaults phone numbers to being a work phone number. If the number is a home number or a cell phone for instance, you can easily change it by tapping on the arrow next to the word
"Work:".
An easy way to specify that a phone number is a home phone, or a mobile phone is to put a letter
indicating which type of entry it is immediately after the number. For example, enter "123-4567h"
to specify that 123-4567 is a home number. Use the following letter codes to specify what kind of phone number it is:
- H = Home
- W = Work
- F = Fax
- P = Pager
- M = Mobile
- O = Other
Tip:
What if you would like to add other fields to the address book entry? Fill in as many fields as you can, and then press the Add button. Slap will take you to the Address Book and highlight the item
you just entered. You can then add additional information to that entry as needed.
Sending an Email
Select an area of the screen that you would like to email to someone, and press the Email button.
Slap will look for any email address in what you selected and put it into the To field. You can add or modify the information you see. You can also look up email addresses from your built-in
address book by tapping the arrows next to each field.
Tasks, Memos and Other Applications
You can send a list of items to the task list by selecting the list and pressing the task list button.
Slap will create a new task item for each line of the selection, and will go to the first task created so you can make further edits.
Send the contents of Slap to a Memo by tapping the Memo button.
You can send the contents of Slap to a Doc file by choosing Export to DocÉ from the Options menu.
Slap supports other Slap enabled applications. If Slap detects a Slap enabled application is installed, a new button will appear in the lower right corner of the screen
Tapping this button will reveal a list of Slap enabled applications that to which you can send the contents of Slap.
For more information about creating a Slap enabled application, see the "ForDevelopers" directory included with Slap.
Changing Buttons
Choose Button Preferences to change the default applications that will start after an item is sent to the database.
Note that you should only select an application that supports the particular database you want to edit. For example, select ToDo PLUS as the Task application, but not as the Mail application. If
you pick an application that does not support that particular kind of data, you may crash your handheld device
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