Use the Pilot installer to install the program file TEALINFO.PRC.
To be useful, you'll also need to install some folio files, available
online at most software archive sites like PilotGear HQ (www.pilotgear.com).
INFOREF.PDB is a reference folio for TealInfo commands, and is included in this archive. SALESTAX.PDB is a calculator for sales taxes from 3-11%. TIPS.PDB is a tip calculator with a handy guide to tipping in different situations. METRICON.PDB is a metric conversion folio, containing conversions for temperature, distance, area, volume, and weight.
This manual is also provided in this archive as the PalmPilot document INFODOC.PRC, which can be viewed with TealDoc.
Instructions on how to use the PalmPilot installer are in the PalmPilot Handbook that came with your Pilot, PalmPilot, or WorkPad.
You can also perform similar operations with image files by selecting the "Pic" options at the bottom right. These picture databases can be used as source imagery for Folios. If you choose to Open a picture database, TealPaint will automatically be started if it is present on your PDA. You'll need to manually go to the correct image database, however.
BACKING UP FILES: The Backup All in List menu sets all the backup bits for Folios listed in the current category. This forces the Folios to be backed up into your backup directory each time you hotsync. Choosing Backup None in List turns off all the bits. After hotsyncing to back up a file, you'll probably want to reset the bits, or the Pilot Desktop will scan the file looking for changes every time you hotsync, slowing down your hotsync sessions.
PREFERENCES: By default, the selection entries are sorted alphabetically. You can turn off this feature to increase response time if you have many folios on your PalmPilot. Do this by turning off the alphabetization option under the Preferences menu. Another option here is the automatic version control. By default, TealInfo will automatically check the version numbers of any Folio files and warns you if any may be new than your current version of TealInfo. You can turn off this feature, but note that you may encounter unpredictable results running newer folios with an older copy of TealInfo should the new folios require features not support in your browser.
DETAILS: The Details menu allows you to set two parameters for
the current Folio. The Backup bit for the Folio, which determines
whether the file is backed up during each hotsync, and Private, which
determines whether the file is listed in the Folio Section screen when
private records are hidden.
Using Folios
TealInfo folios can have many interface elements already familiar to PalmPilot
owners. These include:
In addition, TealInfo offers these newly-expanded capabilities:
Creating Folio Files
Like TealDoc files, TealInfo Folios are created first as text files that
then get converted to a pilot-recognizable format using a conversion
program. For TealInfo Folios, the MkTlInfo tool is included for this purpose.
Run MkTlInfo from a DOS box with the following format:
MKTLINFO <input text file> <output .PDB file> <Folio Title>
When making a folio, you'll no doubt need to quickly preview changes, particularly when positioning on-screen objects. We recommend using POSE, the Palm OS Emulator, available at Palm's web site http://www.palm.com. This program simulates a PalmIII on your computer desktop, allowing you to nearly instantly load new version of a folio for quick previewing.
(OBJECT1) (ID)
(FIELD1) (VALUE1A) (VALUE1B...)
(FIELD2) (VALUE2A) (VALUE2B...)
...
(OBJECT2) (ID)
(FIELD1) (VALUE1A) (VALUE1B...)
(FIELD2) (VALUE2A) (VALUE2B...)
...
where (OBJECT) is a keyword defining an on-screen interface element such as a list, label, or button, and (FIELD) is the name of an adjustable parameter for that object. Each (FIELD) is followed by one or more values, depending on the particular (FIELD).
EXAMPLE: This example creates a simple form with one scrolling object
#
# This is a simple scrolling list
#
LIST
X 10
Y 20
W 140
H 130
TEXT "The Man Trap"
STYLE HRULE
"Charlie X"
"Where No Man Has Gone Before"
"The Enemy Within"
"Mudd's Women"
"What are Little Girls Made of?"
"The Naked Time"
FONT 1
LISTPOPLIST
- Description
- A scrollable, selectable list of text items, supporting optional columns and vertical and horizontal ruled lines.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H TEXT
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT TABS LINKS DEFAULT
- Supported Styles
- VERT_RULE HORIZ_RULE INVERTED NO_BORDER BOLD_BORDER NO_SCROLL ALIGN_RIGHT ALIGN_CENTER ALIGN_LEFT_START ALIGN_RIGHT_START ALIGN_CENTER_START ALIGN_LEFT_END ALIGN_RIGHT_END ALIGN_CENTER_END
- Notes
- Lists are defined by multi-line text fields, where each line of the text field defines an item in the scrolling list. In addition, up to 8 columns can be defined with the TABS field. By default, entries in each column are left-justified. The ALIGN_CENTER and ALIGN_RIGHT styles can override this justification. In turn, the ALIGN_xxx_START and ALIGN_xxx_END styles can be used to set alternate justification for the first or last columns, respectively, overriding the overall justification settings for those columns only.
WINDOW
- Description
- A scrollable selectable item list triggered by popup button, resembling the PalmPilot category selector
- Required Fields
- X Y W H TEXT BX BY BW BH
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT TABS LINKS DEFAULT
- Supported Styles
- VERT_RULE HORIZ_RULE INVERTED NO_SCROLL BOLD_BORDER ALIGN_RIGHT ALIGN_CENTER ALIGN_LEFT_START ALIGN_RIGHT_START ALIGN_CENTER_START ALIGN_LEFT_END ALIGN_RIGHT_END ALIGN_CENTER_END
- Notes
- A popup list appears when the user taps on its corresponding Popup trigger. The trigger shows the name of the currently selected item, and its bounds are defined by BX BY BW and BH.
POPWINDOW
- Description
- A scrollable text area that auto-wraps lines of text if necessary. Columns and line rulings are supported. This object can also be used to represent a table of data by setting up columns using the TABS field.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H TEXT
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT TABS LINKS CYCLE DELAY
- Supported Styles
- VERT_RULE HORIZ_RULE INVERTED NO_BORDER BOLD_BORDER NO_SCROLL ALIGN_RIGHT ALIGN_CENTER ALIGN_LEFT_START ALIGN_RIGHT_START ALIGN_CENTER_START ALIGN_LEFT_END ALIGN_RIGHT_END ALIGN_CENTER_END
- Notes
- A window holds a block of text which automatically word-wraps if longer than one line. The text is not selectable, so this object cannot be linked-to.
OUTLINE
- Description
- A scrollable auto-wrapping text window which comes up only when a specified trigger button is pressed.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H BX BY BW BH BTEXT TEXT
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT TABS LINKS
- Supported Styles
- VERT_RULE HORIZ_RULE INVERTED BOLD_BORDER NO_SCROLL ALIGN_RIGHT ALIGN_CENTER ALIGN_LEFT_START ALIGN_RIGHT_START ALIGN_CENTER_START ALIGN_LEFT_END ALIGN_RIGHT_END ALIGN_CENTER_END
- Notes
- The trigger button is defined by BX, BY, BW, and BH. Its label is defined by the field BTEXT.
CHECKMARK
- Description
- A scrollable, selectable, hierarchial item list, this object shows a list of data in outline tree form, where subsections of the tree may be collapsed and hidden from view when desired.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H TEXT
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT LINKS DEFAULT
- Supported Styles
- HORIZ_RULE INVERTED NO_BORDER BOLD_BORDER
- Notes
- Used much like a normal scrolling list, OUTLINE objects are displayed like an outline tree with items, sub-items, and sub-sub-items. Subsections can be hidden or shown by tapping on control triangles on the list. To define an outline list's contents, create a multiline TEXT field, preceed each line with one or more '>' characters to define it's level in the tree. Root items are bare. Subitems to root entries are preceeded by '>', sub-items to sub-items are preceeded by '>>', etc.
Example:
OUTLINE
X 10
Y 20
W 100
H 120
TEXT "Restaurants"
"Hotels"
"Taxis"
"Museums"
">Art"
">Nature"
">>Marine"
">>Land"
"Nightclubs"
">Nice"
">Seedy"
GOTO
- Description
- A checkmark control like standard PalmPilot checkmarks.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H TEXT
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT LINKS DEFAULT
- Supported Styles
- INVERTED
- Notes
- When used as a link for another object, checkmark objects assume a value of 0 when unchecked and 1 when checked.
LABEL
- Description
- A button that closes the current Folio and opens another one, specified by name, if it is installed on the current PDA.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H BX BY BW BH BTEXT
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT TARGET
- Supported Styles
- INVERTED
- Notes
- A GOTO object with no TARGET resource replaces the standard close button. Otherwise, TARGET specifies the folio to open when this control is tapped. Note that the TARGET must exactly match the name of the target folio as it appears in TealInfo.
IMAGE
- Description
- A simple text label.
- Required Fields
- X Y TEXT
- Optional Fields
- STYLE FONT
- Supported Styles
- INVERTED ALIGN_CENTER ALIGN_RIGHT
- Notes
- The label is drawn so that either the Upper Left, Upper Right, or Upper Center of the text is aligned at the designated coordinate.
RECT
- Description
- An embedded TealPaint image or subrectangle of an image.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H SX SY DATABASE RECORD
- Optional Fields
- STYLE LINKS CYCLE DELAY
- Supported Styles
- NO_BORDER BOLD_BORDER
- Notes
- The bounding box for the image must be a multiple of 8 pixels wide. SX and SY define the offsets into the source image from which to grab the subrectangle. SX must also be a multiple of 8 pixels wide. DATABASE defines the name of the image database. It is case sensitive and must match the name of the Image Database as it appears in TealInfo or TealPaint. RECORD defines the image number. The first image in a database is image 0. To create simple page flipping animation, set the CYCLE parameter equal to the number of frames of animation. TealInfo will step forward through the image databases, looping from image RECORD to image RECORD+CYCLE-1;
TRES
- Description
- A bare graphic rectangle.
- Required Fields
- X Y W H
- Optional Fields
- STYLE
- Supported Styles
- FILLED ROUND_BORDER BOLD_BORDER
PASSWORD
- Description
- A text resource.
- Required Fields
- TEXT
- Optional Fields
- (none)
- Supported Styles
- (none)
- Notes
- This object does not appear on screen, but serves as a central location where commonly used text may be placed and pointed-to by other TEXT fields. See the field descriptions in the next section for details on how to use text resources.
- Description
- The presence of this object in an Folio forces causes a passkey to be entered when the Folio is opened. This can be used to generate password-protected folios for security or sales-demo purposes.
- Required Fields
- KEY
- Optional Fields
- STYLE TEXT
- Supported Styles
- LOCKOUT REGISTER
- Notes
- The password is defined by the KEY field. When the LOCKOUT style is defined, the Folio cannot be entered until a correct key is entered. Otherwise, the password request can simply be dismissed, functioning only as a registration reminder. When the REGISTER style is defined, the password is saved once its entered. If not, the password is asked-for every time. You can have multiple PASSWORD objects in a folio, but this is not particularly useful.
- X (value)
- Defines the object's pixel offset from the left edge (0) of the screen.
- Y (value)
- Defines the object's pixel offset from the top edge (0) of the screen.
- W (value)
- Defines the width of the object in pixels (screen is 160 pixels wide).
- H (value)
- Defines the height of the object in pixels (screen is 160 pixels high).
- BX (value)
- Defines the pixel offset of a trigger object or button from the left edge of the screen.
- BY (value)
- Defines the pixel offset of a trigger object or button from the top edge of the screen.
- BW (value)
- Defines the width of a trigger object or button.
- BH (value)
- Defines the height of a trigger object or button.
- SX (value)
- For image objects, defines the horizontal offset into the source image from which the displayed image is grabbed.
- SY (value)
- For image objects, defines the vertical offset into the source image from which the displayed image is grabbed.
- FONT (value)
- Defines the font to be used for this object. 0=standard font, 1=bold font, 2=large font, 3-5=standard system symbol fonts, 6=large number font. Use a program like FontApp (available at www.pilotgear.com) to preview the correct fonts.
- CYCLE (value)
- This field causes WINDOW objects to cycle through their list of TEXT fields. CYCLE indicates the number of TEXT blocks to cycle through. There must be at least that number of TEXT fields present. For image objects, CYCLE indicates the number of images in the database to cycle through, starting with the imaged defined by RECORD.
- DELAY (value)
- Indicated the rate at which cycling (if turned on) occurs. This value is in tenths of seconds between frames. Thus, a value of 10 will cause cycling a one change per second.
- TABS (value) (value) (value)...
- The TABS field sets tab positions within an object in pixels. Up to seven tab positions may be specified, creating eight columns. Each tab value represents the position of a dividing line between neighboring columns, measured as the number of pixels from the left edge.
- STYLE (style) (style)...
- Followed by one or more style keywords, the STYLE field determines alignment and other miscellaneous properties for screen objects.
- BTEXT (string)
- Defines text for a button or trigger.
- RECORD (value)
- Used for IMAGE objects, this defines the number of the image (starting at 0) to be shown.
- DATABASE (string)
- Defines the name of a TealPaint image database to serve as a source for imagery.
- KEY (string)
- Defines the password that must be entered to unlock a Folio with a PASSWORD object.
- TARGET (string)
- Defines the Folio to open when a GOTO button is pressed.
- DEFAULT (value)
- Defines the initial value for a list, outline, or checkmark object
- TEXT (string) (string)...
(string) (string)...- Defines text for this object. Text items should be quoted, with text for separate columns appearing on the same line as separate quoted groups of words. To insert a quote in a string, use two quotes together (""). Text for multiline text objects (such as lists and outlines) should appear as more quoted text on subsequent lines without the TEXT field name. Only TEXT fields allow information on lines following the field name itself. A backslash '\' character at the end of a line can be used to break up a line of text but have it treated as if it were entered as a very long line of text.
EXAMPLE:
TEXT
"This is a line of text."
"This is another line of text, followed by a blank line."
" "
"This is a paragraph of text, using the backslash " \
"character as a line-continuation marker so that " \
"TealInfo will know to re-wrap this block as if it " \
"were entered as a single line. Note the extra " \
"spaces at the end of each line."
- LINKS (value) (value)...
- The LINKS field can be used to link the contents of an object to current selection in one or more other LIST, POPLIST, OUTLINE, or CHECKMARK objects, each of which is identified by its ID value which follows the object TAG. More information appears in the section below.
LIST choice_list
X 5
Y 5
...
An object can only be linked to objects ("Linkees") which appear before it (the "Linker") in a text file. The "linker" object must have multiple TEXT fields defined for it. The one that is actually used at any given moment is determined by the current selections of all of its "Linkees", with the first object in the list being the most numerically significant, and the last object being the least. For instance, consider the following "Linkees." Note that the "Linker" has as many TEXT fields as total combinations between the two "Linkees", and that the order of all the combinations in the "linker's" TEXT lists are determined by the order of the "linkees" after the LINKS field.
EXAMPLE:
LIST id_difficulty
X 90
Y 15
W 60
H 100
TEXT
"Easy"
"Hard"
LIST id_speed
X 10
Y 15
W 60
H 100
TEXT
"Off"
"Slow"
"Med"
"Fast"
WINDOW
X 10
Y 120
W 140
H 20
LINKS id_difficulty id_speed
TEXT "This is Easy and Off"
TEXT "This is Easy and Slow"
TEXT "This is Easy and Med"
TEXT "This is Easy and Fast"
TEXT "This is Hard and Off"
TEXT "This is Hard and Slow"
TEXT "This is Hard and Med"
TEXT "This is Hard and Fast"
ADVANCED TIP: If the Linker is linked to more than one Linkee, and then one Linkee is in turn linked to another, the dependent Linkee must be appear before the other in the current LINK list.
EXAMPLE:
TRES id_notfound
TEXT "Sorry, no information is available about this device."
WINDOW
X 5
Y 14
W 80
H 100
LINKS id_device id_class
TEXT "4-5 Miles"
TEXT "3 Miles"
TEXT @id_notfound
TEXT @id_notfound
TEXT "15 Miles (estimated)"
- INVERTED
- Draw the object with reversed colors.
- HORIZ_RULE
- Draw horizontal ruling lines between rows.
- VERT_RULE
- Draw vertical ruling lines between columns.
- NO_SCROLL
- Don't allow a scroll bar or reserve pixels when word wrapping.
- NO_BORDER
- Don't draw a border around the object.
- BOLD_BORDER
- Draw a thicker border around the object.
- ROUND_BORDER
- Draw a rounded border around the object.
- ALIGN_RIGHT
- Align all text to the right of its column.
- ALIGN_CENTER
- Center all text in its column.
- ALIGN_LEFT_START
- Align the first column to the left, ignoring the global setting.
- ALIGN_RIGHT_START
- Align the first column to the right, ignoring the global setting.
- ALIGN_CENTER_START
- Align the first column in the center, ignoring the global setting.
- ALIGN_LEFT_END
- Align the first column to the left, ignoring the global setting.
- ALIGN_RIGHT_END
- Align the first column to the right, ignoring the global setting.
- ALIGN_CENTER_END
- Align the first column in the center, ignoring the global setting.
- LOCKOUT
- PASSWORD: Require the key to be correct to enter the folio.
- FILLED
- RECT: Draw it filled-in
- REGISTER
- PASSWORD: Save a registration key once entered.
TealPoint SoftwareWe look forward to hearing from you.
454 Las Gallinas Ave, Suite #318
San Rafael, CA 94903-3618
This archive is freely redistributable, provided it is made available only in its complete, unmodified form with no additional files and for noncommercial purposes only. Any other use must have prior written authorization from TealPoint Software.
Unauthorized commercial use includes, but is not limited to:
This program may be used on a trial basis for 30 days. The program will
continue to function afterwards. However, if after this time you wish to
continue using it, please register with us for the nominal fee listed in
the program.
Thank you.