DateBk5 Installation Notes

First Time DateBk5 user, not very experienced with Palm Devices

First Time DateBk5 user, experienced Palm User

DateBk5 User upgrading from DateBk4 or V-5.0a of DateBk5

Since you are reading this file, we assume you managed to unzip the archive!

Extract the DateBk5.prc file and place it in the Palm Add-on folder (or any other folder you choose).

Run the Palm Install tool (Start button, Programs, Palm Desktop, Palm Install Tool), tap on Add button and navigate to the Palm Add-on folder where DateBk5 is stored and select it for installation (Click on Done).

Put Palm in cradle and hotsync to copy DateBk5 to your palm device.

If you have a color device you will most likely want to install Icons-DATEBK5.prc which provides colorful graphical icons that you can assign to events. Install it the same way you installed DateBk5.

There are useful information tips available in all DateBK5 dialogs. You may well want to install these helpful tips. To do that, install the dbSetup.prc application, run it and just tap the Install Checked Items button (only the DateBk5 Help Database item should be checked).

There are other useful things in the zip archive, but you don't need to install them until you become more familiar with DateBk5. Do not blindly install all the PRC files in the zip archive! dbMemo, etc. will just generate an error if you do that.

Remember: for the most part DateBk5 does work like the built-in datebook application so try things out. Looking through the preferences is a good way to learn about all the features (tap on the info icon 'i' at top right) in each dialog too!

Install DateBk5 and, if you have a color device, dbIcon, Icons-DateBk5 and any other icon collections you choose so you can create a custom icon collection.

To conserve space, the info tips for DateBk5 are in a separate database that you can install with Dbsetup. If you think these would be useful and you have the space, you can install them with dbSetup. dbSetup also allows you to install the timezone files. If you travel extensively in different timezones, you will definitely want to install them (they take virtually no space).

dbAddr, dbTodo, dbMemo, dbView are special applets that allow you to launch DateBk5 with a saved view (of the same name). If you prefer using those databases from DateBk5, these provide a convenient way to launch DateBk5 with pre-selected options (such as full screen display, day view, etc.). But they will only generate an error message until you create the associated saved view.

DateBk5 is an extremely powerful calendar program -- typically much more powerful than people think at first. To gain full use of this application, you will find it worthwhile to review the comprehensive, 100+ page DateBk5 User manual which you can download from Pimlico's webpage (see below).

There may also be step upgrades posted shortly after the release of a new version. Check back with the Pimlico web page for the latest information on releases and beta previews.

If you have DateBk4 installed, make sure you first Delete DateBk4 . This is perfectly safe - ignore the boilerplate delete warning from the Palm OS. If you forget to do that, you will be warned when you first run DateBk5. Should that happen, go into the main APP screen, select DELETE from the APP menu and delete DateBk4 if you see it and delete DateBk5 if you see it. Then re-install DateBk5. Leave your DateBk4DB preference database alone so DateBk5 picks up your preferences and registration.

If you have V-5.0a of DateBk5 - just install V-5.0b on top of that version.

If you get monochrome icons and not your color icons, go into the memopad database and delete the old DATEBK3 memopad record. If necessary, use dbIcon to rename your working collection: Icons-DATEBK5

If you encounter any severe problems after upgrading, it may be that there are some old corrupt preference settings that are causing the trouble - in that case, your best bet is probably to delete the DATEBK5DB preference database and let DateBk5 build a new one.

Before using DateBk5, you will want to review the file: WhatsNewInVersion50b.htm which covers all the new features in DateBk5. Some features have been moved around, and others have been changed. Some very useful new features may not be apparent if you skip this document.

There may also be step upgrades posted shortly after the release of a new version. Check back with the Pimlico web page for the latest information on releases and beta previews. Note that dbMemo, dbAddr, etc. will generate an error message if you have not defined a saved view with the same name.

Where is the documentation? There is a very comprehensive, 100+ page user manual that you can download from: http://www.PimlicoSoftware.com/datebk5-manual.zip. The zip archive has the manual in PDF format. If you have difficulty reading the manual, download Version 5.0 of Acrobat Reader from www.adobe.com (it's a free download).

Trouble with data not synchronizing? Completely remove and re-install your conduit software - this has nothing to do with any flaw in DateBk5, but sometimes happens when third party software is installed.

Duplicate Alarms? Make sure you run DateBk5 after every hotsync. You can also use a hack to do this automatically, or you can download and install dbAlarm (http://www.PimlicoSoftware.com/dbalarm.zip) to disable alarms, but make sure you read dbAlarm's read-me-first file if you do this!

Basic Tech Support: If you have problems with the basic installation, getting a permanent registration code after registering electronically or other 'setup' problem, send an email to: PimlicoSupport@bigfoot.com.

Advanced Tech Support: If you are an experienced user and have run into a more advanced problem, you can fill out a tech report form (copy in archive) and send it to: SWSupport@PimlicoSoftware.com.

There are several sources of color icons. These collections are featured as samples in the zip archive - and full versions are available from these sources. TwoKidsInAGarage and DesignsByBert are very supportive of the Dewar Wildlife Trust Inc./Gorilla Haven, and donate a portion of their profits to wildlife conservation (All proceeds from the sales of Pimlico's products go to wildlife conservation).

Umberto Uderzo - Icons-UBI_Collection
Pimlico Software - Icons-DATEBK5 - this collection is a perfect match for the standard monochrome collection which may be handy if you are transitioning from monochrome to color icons (i.e. use this as your base set so current icon assignements are preserved, and then add new icons at the end.

To find other icon collections, you can try a search in a standard search engine (such as www.google.com) for: Icons + color + Palm + DateBk5 which will likely provide links to several other icon collections.

There are some special considerations for Handspring users, so just quickly check the list below to see if anything here applies to you.

Handspring OS v-1.4 is Flawed. There is a significant bug in Handspring's OS 1.4 update which can cause a crash with a "Blitter.c" error.If you are using this 1.4 update, you should download the OS 1.5 update that fixes this bug:.HS Updater 3.5.2v1.5

Caution about Floating Events. If you used floating events with DateBook+, there is a potential problem if you use DateBk4/5 and then go back to using Datebook+. In that case, your completed, floating events may under some circumstances all get advanced to today's date. To avoid this problem, it is suggested that you select the regular Datebook application as the default datebook (Options menu in Datebook or DateBook+). Also make sure the Float Advance at Midnight checkbox in DateBook+ is not checked. And run DateBk4/5 after every hotsync so you never have a problem with duplicate alarms from DateBook+. As noted above, you can use dbAlarm if necessary to prevent duplicate alarms. If you have an OS 3.1H device (such as a Visor Deluxe), you can install: DtbkPlusStub.prc which will effectively mask the Datebook+ application.

There are some hacks with bugs that are known to cause problems with DateBk5 (and other applications too). These bugs can cause unexpected crashes (such as when alarms go off), or screen redraw problems. In all cases below, the problems are caused by flaws in other applications and not DateBk5, so no workarounds are planned at this time (almost all the authors of these applications are aware of the problems).

In all cases, if you see a problem, contact author for latest update in case the problem has now been fixed.

A corrupt database can cause problems. To eliminate this as a possibility, run dbScan and let it remove any corrupt records. The error of orphaned events (no displayable occurrences of a repeat event) is a benign issue that does not cause any problems (but you might as well remove such records anyway).

Saved Views can confuse new users. If you use saved views, remember that all local and global preferences values are saved along with the view. If you do not propagate those changes to other saved views, then those changes will be lost when you move to a different view.

Weird colors? No Grayscale? If you are updating from an older version of DateBk5, this can happen. Go into the color/gray selection dialog (for an event, ToDo or category profile) and tap on the Reset Palettes button to set the default palette selection.

Crashes when alarms go off? There are many hacks that consume so much stack space that it causes problems for applications like DateBk5 that are trying to use the alarm system as the Palm OS does not have enough memory to launch DateBk5 and crashes. Solution is to remove all hacks and DateBk5, then install DateBk5 first and verify alarms are ok. Then install remaining hacks monitoring as you go along to see if any problems occur. This problem can also occur if you are running an application that has used up all the stack space - again when the Palm OS attempts to launch DateBk5 - there is no stack space left for the Palm OS to allocate to DateBk5.

DateBook button won't cycle through views? Go into the Views tab of the main preference panel and make sure that a '1' is set in the popup list next to the Date legend so DateBk5 knows the left-most button is the "Datebook" button (Treo users will want to use '2' there).

MAC HotSync Problems: If you are using a MAC and are having hotsync problems - try allocating more memory to the HotSync Manager and the Conduit Manager say from 2048k to 3072k or even more.

##@@@@@D@@@@@ in the note field? This is normal. DateBk5 handles many features for which the built-in datebook has no provision for storing - items like colors, fonts, icons, advances, custom alarms, categories, timezones, etc. and the only way these can be handled is with tags in the note field.

To remove DateBk5, simply delete DateBk5DB which is the preference database that DateBk5 creates when it start up. Then delete DateBk5 and any other files that you may have installed. You can reference the list in the table above to see which files you might have installed.

Cheers!
C. E. Steuart Dewar (aka CESD), Pimlico Software, Inc.
The Dewar Wildlife Trust, Inc. -- Gorilla Haven

*Files in the DateBk5 Zip Archive*
Where	FileName	Description
DateBk5-v50b.zip	DateBk5.prc	The main DateBk5 program file
DateBk5-v50b.zip icons.zip	READ-ME-FIRST.htm ReadMeFirst-dbIcon.htm	The file you are now reading A read-me first file for the dbIcon color icon editor.
icons.zip	dbIcon.prc IconDBSplitter.prc	An editor for color icons on color devices only (will not work on grayscale devices). IconDBSplitter is a utility that splits up large icon collections into manageable collections of 1-255 icons.
icons.zip	Icons-TK.prc Icons-designsbybert.prc lcons-ClieSource-demo.prc Icons-UBI_Collection.PRC Icons-DATEBK5.prc	Color icon collections that you can use with DateBk5 on color or grayscale devices (you just can't edit them in grayscale mode with this version of dbIcon). Remember that DateBk5 will only use the collection called icons-DATEBK5, if you have 2 or more icon collections loaded, so delete the other icon collections, or rename the one you want to use as icons-DATEBK5.
DateBk5-v50b.zip	dbSetup.prc	Installs the DateBk5 help files, sets up monochrome icons and Timezones for you if you intend to use these features (see manual for details).
*Remaining Items are not usually installed by most users*
AdvancedStuff.zip	Lefty.prc	Tells DateBk5 that you are a left-handed user and have installed LeftHack (provides further enhancements in DateBk5 above Left Hack operation for left-handed users).
AdvancedStuff.zip	DtbkPlusStub.prc	Only install on Handspring V-3.1H devices to avoid DateBook/Datebook+ interaction issues. Do not install on Handspring devices running OS 3.5 or later, as it will have no affect.
AdvancedStuff.zip	dbScan.prc	A utility program that makes sure that your DateBook database has no corrupt records. Install and run if you suspect a problem with your database.
AdvancedStuff.zip	dbView.prc dbTodo.prc dbAddr.prc dbMemo.prc	These are four tiny launcher applications that will launch DateBk5 with a saved view invoked (dbView, dbTodo, dbAddr and dbMemo respectively). You have to create the saved view yourself, so only install these if you intend to make use of this special function. See page 54 of the DateBk5 User manual.
AdvancedStuff.zip	timezone-resource.txt timezone-resource-UNIX.txt timezone-resource-MAC.txt	Contains more timezones that you can put into your World TimeZones memo (Windows platform). Includes versions specially formatted for UNIX and MAC platforms.
AdvancedStuff.zip	Unix.txt	Some Special notes for UNIX users (especially regarding HotSyncUser name)
	*Other Items of Interest*
AdvancedStuff.zip	WhatsNewInVersionXXX.txt	(Where XXX is the version of DateBk5) is an extremely comprehensive list of every single addition and modification incorporated in this maintenance release. Of primary interest to power users or people upgrading from DateBk4.
AdvancedStuff.zip	TechReportForm.txt	Is a form that you should fill out whenever you report a problem to SWSupport@PimlicoSoftware.com

DateBk5 Read-Me-First File