******* SUMMARY ******* FieldPlus enables users to use their 5-way navigation button to select text in standard PalmOS text input fields. Third party word processing applications typically use their own text routines, so FieldPlus will not affect them. *************** VERSION HISTORY *************** v1.1 Initial public release. Supports basic selection, toggling between word- and character-based selection, and opening the Palm Command Bar by holding the Menu key. v1.2 - Disabled execution on Tungsten T5 due to the lack of a keyboard. - Fixed selecting beyond the field boundary (previously selection was lost if the field scrolled). Note that scroll bar locations will not update until selecting is done. There are no adverse effects from this behavior. - Added option to set how non-alphanumeric characters (refered to in documentation as space characters) are treated while selecting in word mode. v1.3 - Fixed field overrun bug when selecting words with spaces at the beginning of a field. - Added option for how symbols are treated during selection. - Added autodial option for things that 'look' like phone numbers. Additional autodial options will be forthcoming. v1.3.1 - The standard Treo Dial Number dialog is opened when a number is selected and autodial is enabled. v2.0 - Added additional selection operations including: select word, select line, select sentence, select all. - Added additional operations that can be performed on selections including: use selection, cut, copy, and paste. - Expanded use of center button to be disabled, perform a single selected action, or open a popup with all operations. - Optional optimized support after a cut or copy operation. - Removed auto-use option. (this was a temporary addition until a more active means of using selections was devised). - Fixed previous disabling of shift+backspace deletes word behavior. v2.1 - Added Exclusion list to prevent FieldPlus from running in high-performance applications; for example NesEm or other games. - Added Quick quit option to allow disabling FieldPlus for the duration of the current program. - Fixed initial focuson Treo 600 preference panel. - Fixed center action setting keeps FieldPlus active problem. v2.2 - Added move-without-select behavior - Fixed erroneous activation of behavior when insert point not active v2.2.1 - Fixed bug that lost exclusion settings when 2.2 was installed over 2.1 - Fixed improper version reporting. 2.2 was listed as 2.2a. Current version should show 2.2.1 - Fixed unable to select certain non-typical characters, such as the bullet character. - Fixed date jumping and selection problems when running in DateBk. - Fixed jumping problems in SnapperMail. - Fixed crash problem when clicking menus in Phone app - Added check to try to minimize application cross-talk - Fixed incomplete clearing of graffiti state v2.2.2 - Fixed compatibility with DateBk (be sure to be running the most recent version of DateBk; tested on 5.4a,p7) - Added a few more device compatibility checks v2.2.3 - Post edit setting was not being honored ************ KNOWN ISSUES ************ ************* Configuration ************* FieldPlus is installed as a Preferences applet, meaning it is not visible in the normal Launcher. To access the configuration screens for FieldPlus, open the Preferences application. On a Treo 600, FieldPlus will be visible as an option in the popup list at the top-right corner. On a Treo 650, scroll down to the Other section and you will see FieldPlus listed there. Layout There are 4 main configuration areas for FieldPlus split into 4 separate screens. Switch between screens by using the popup list immediately below the Preferences title bar. Selection: sets whether selection is enabled, and the default selection behavior Center Action: sets whether to use the center button for FieldPlus operations, and how to use it Command Bar: sets whether to use the menu button to open the Palm Command Bar Exclusions: sets where not to run FieldPlus. FieldPlus can affect the performance of resource0intensive software, such as games. Available Settings Selection 5-way does: whether selection or movement using the 5-way navigation control, or both are enabled. If not enabled, center actions will not be enabled either. nothing: neither selection nor movement is enabled. This also disables the shift+center action setting. select only: only selection using shift is enabled. Movement is not enabled. move only: only left/right movement using option is enabled. Selection and the shift+center action are disabled. both: selection and the shift+center action, and left/right movement using option are bth enabled. Right and left select: sets whether the default selection mode is by letter, or by word. This option is hidden when selection is not enabled. Word mode skips spaces: When selecting by word, this sets whether to jump over whitespace between words. When checked, whitespace is skipped. When unchecked, Spaces are selected space-by-space. This option is hidden when selection is not enabled. This option is relevant even when the default selection mode is, Letter, as users may toggle between word and letter mode while selecting. This option also impacts how option movement jumps over words. Treat symbols as letters: When selecting by word, this sets whether to include symbols as letters. When checked, symbols are selected as part of a word. When unchecked, symbols are selected character-by-character. This option is hidden when selection is not enabled. This option is relevant even when the default selection mode is, Letter, as users may toggle between word and letter mode while selecting. This option also impacts how option movement jumps over words. Center Action Center button does: sets the general behavior of the center button while selecting. no action: the center button is not used for selection operations. single action: the center button always performs a single selected action. action menu: the center button opens a popup allowing users to select an action to perform. The popup can be cancelled without selecting an action by pressing left, right, shift, or option. Single action: displayed when 'Center button does' is set to 'single action'. Allows the user to select the single action that will be performed when the center button is pressed. toggle mode: toggle between Letter and Word selection mode. The cursor remains at the current position, and the user may continue selecting the new mode. Toggling again will switch back to the original mode. Note that if select mode is terminated (either by terminating one-hand mode, or by releasing the shift key) the default select mode will be active when selection is re-activated, not the last toggled mode. use selection: look for 'usable' content in the current selection. This content need not start at the beginning of the selection. Supported content includes: phone number: prompts the user to dial or SMS the selected number. Users may cancel this action at this time. url: opens the url in the default browser. email: opens a new email to the selected address in the default mail client. If the user cancels using a phone number, they will remain in selection mode and can continue with the current selection. select word: selects the current word at the insert point. The user remains in selection mode with the cursor at the end of the new selection. select line: selects the entire line at the insert point. The user remains in selection mode with the cursor at the end of the new selection. select sentence: selects an entire sentence (which can span multiple lines) at the insert point. Note that mid- sentence terminal punctuation (especially periods used in abbreviations) will prevent full sentence identification. The user remains in selection mode with the cursor at the end of the new selection. select all: selects the contents of the entire field. The user remains in selection mode with the cursor at the end of the new selection. cut: cuts the selected text, removing it from the field and placing it on the clipboard. The user will no longer be in selection mode so that they can move to a new location (presumably to paste what they just cut) without selecting intervening text. paste: pastes the current contents of the clipboard at the insertion point. The user will no longer be in selection mode after the paste operation. copy: copies the selected text to the system clipboard. The user will no longer be in selection mode so that they can move to a new location (presumably to paste what they just copied) without selecting intervening text. Optimize after cut or copy: displayed only when 'Center button does' is set to 'action menu'. When in one-hand operation (discussed below), this will place FieldPlus into a special mode after performing a cut or a copy. Until the shift key is pressed again, the user will be able to move about the current field, and even enter text, and when the center button is pressed, the menu will open without holding or pressing shift again (typically a cut, copy or paste will cause one-hand mode to end). Press shift after a cut or copy to terminate this mode, then shift again to re-enter one-hand mode. To avoid this behvaior (in which case, the post action state will be as described for each action above) uncheck this option. Command Bar Holding menu opens command bar: allows the System Command Bar to be opened by holding the Menu key for a short time. This is usually opened by a special pen motion written in the Graffiti area, but as many users do not enable Graffiti input on their Treo's the functionality that some applications add to the Command Bar can be hidden. The Command Bar will open automatically when the hold time has passed. This option can be enabled or disabled separately from the other selection options. Exclusion The list here presents all discoverable applications in main memory. Applications on the card will not be listed. Most shortcut style applications (such as those created by PowerRUN or ZLauncher) should appear and function as normal. By checking an application, FieldPlus will not run while that application is active. While most applications will be unaffected by the few resources used by FieldPlus, this is useful for high-performance applications such as games (or emulator like NesEm). Disabling FieldPlus in these applications will leave all system resources to that application, enabling better performance. Quick quit: For applications that don't appear in main memory, it is still possible to disable FieldPlus completely for the duration of an application. If Quick quit is enabled, press shift + hard key 4 (power button) will terminate FieldPlus completely until another application starts. If you are using a high-performance application from a ROM- based card (retail), this will still allow you to get the most performance while such an application runs. ***** Usage ***** Activating selection mode To activate selection mode, first the 'Enable 5-way selecting' option must be enabled. This is accessed in the Selection section of the FieldPlus configuration (in the Preferences application). Selection can only be activated while in a standard PalmOS field. This is typically used for short text input in dialogs, Memo Pad is one large field, VersaMail uses fields for writing emails, Messaging uses fields for composing SMS messages, Blazer (Web) uses fields for most text input. Fields are very common throughout PalmOS applications. HOWEVER, most word processing programs use their own custom methods of inputing and displaying text. FieldPlus will not affect these applications. Selecting can be activated in 2 ways: 1) Press and release the Shift key. This activates one-hand mode. Press and release again to exit. 2) Press and hold the Shift key. Selecting will be enabled until the Shift key is released. While in shift mode, the following key actions are in effect: - Up selects up to the next line. - Right selects to the right (according to the selection configuration settings). - Down selects down to the next line. - Left selects to the left (according to the selection configuration settings). Pressing the center button will perform the action assigned to the center button. When the center button is set to open the action menu, pressing the center button will open a small popup list of actions that can be performed. The order of the options is always the same as the order in this document (and the order of actions when selecting a single action in the FieldPlus configuration). To close the popup without making a selection, press either left, right, shift, or option. Toggle mode is always displayed first, so to quickly toggle between selection modes, just press the center button twice. The other options are listed to try to put more common actions close to the first position. Cut, paste, and copy are placed at the end of the normal list, because users can wrap around the action list (push up from toggle mode to wrap to the bottom of the list). Therefore, copy is actually only one item away from toggle mode, and paste is only 2 away. If the user is holding the shift key when the popup opens, and continues to hold it through selecting an action, they will remain in selection mode even for cases that say they will not. Likewise, if they are holding the shift key when the popup opens, but release it, they will not be in selection mode after they select an action. The resulting selection states apply only when the user is in one-hand mode. Fast movement can be activated in 2 ways: 1) Press and release the Option key. This activates one-hand mode. Press and release again to exit. 2) Press and hold the Options key. Movement will be enabled until the Option key is released. While in option mode, the following key actions are in effect: - Right moves one word to the right (according to the selection configuration settings). If at the end of a field, the motion event is handled by the underlying application. - Left moves one word to the left (according to the selection configuration settings). If at the start of a field, the motion event is handled by the underlying application. Option+up/down currently has no special meaning, and any observed behaviors are caused by the underlying application. Option movement, unlike selection, can actually move the focus out of the current field. This is a result of application specific behavior. Calendar, for instance, allows users to scroll by week when option is held. On the Treo 600, if you have put the focus in an event field, it's actually somewhat difficult to extract it again to allow Calendar to process the option+keystroke. This is complicated by the option key 'selecting' a calendar entry. So as not to override any of the built in behaviors, FieldPlus will return control to the application when it has no effect on the insert point motion. This is an issue I'm continuing to think about. If you have any strong feelings about it, please mail me about it. **************** Acknowledgements **************** Several key users have contributed ideas, suggestions, and testing resources to help me improve this utility. You know who you are! Thanks a lot! ******* Contact ******* Email questions, comments, or bugs to: arognlie@earthlink.net Be aware that I use an email whitelist, so don't be surprised if you receive an email from Earthlink for you to request being added to my list. You can also post feedback at PalmGear.com.