Latest News
Order Now
Download
Screenshots

Other Products/Services
Graphics Muse Tools CD
CGI/UX

Documentation
Users Guide
Features
System Requirements
XNotesPlus FAQ
Installation
Known Problems
Future Plans

Other links:
Pilot-Link

Features include:
- Editable, searchable notes
- Spell checking
- Visual/Audio alarms
- Email notes
- Import/Export notes with Pilot features
- Calendaring
- Sync, backup, restore
- Install, delete, fetch Pilot db's & files
- Notes exchange between XNotes, Address Manager, and Todo Manager.

XNotesPlus: Users Guide - Other Features

  1. Using the File Selection Window
  2. Configuring the Mailer
  3. Audio Alarms
  4. Known Issues
  5. Author Information, History, and Links



Using the File Selection Window

The File Selection Window will be the well known GTK+ version. A text field at the bottom of the window can be used to filter the current directory. You simply type in a name in the Selection text field and type a TAB. This will update the directory and file lists. Hitting the ENTER key will do the same thing unless the name in that field is an existing file. In that case, the file is selected for whatever purpose the window was opened. You can also create directories and delete files from this dialog, if desired. The left-side scrolled window is the set of directories available from the current directory and the right side (if shown) is the list of files in that directory. Double clicking in either window will select the appropriate directory or file.

The File Selection windows are used for saving, opening, and exporting files. It is also used by the Pilot Tool feature to select a directory in which to store backups. In this latter case the right-side scrolled window (the one that list files in the current directory) will not be displayed. This is because with the Pilot Tool feature you only need to select a directory to use.

Clicking on a entry in the scrolled window of filenames will cause that file to be selected. If you are opening a file then the file chosen will be added to the current note at the location of the cursor in that note. Be sure to set the cursor to where you want to import text before opening a file. If you are exporting a file then the text of the file will be written to the file chosen. If the file already exists then you will be prompted as to whether you really want to overwrite it or not.

Configuring the Mailer

In order to use your systems mailer with the Email feature of XNotesPlus, you need to configure the appropriate mailer command using either the -emailcmd command line option or the EmailCmd entry in the config file. The format for these is the same: a double-quoted string which contains the name of the mailer command, the option for providing the subject line, and the addressee. By default the Unix command "mail" is used. For most users this default will work just fine and you don't need to change a thing.

If you wish to use another mail command, or if for some reason the ``mail'' program is not on your system, you can configure XNotesPlus accordingly. Note: the following discussion is a little technial and intended for those people who understand a little about C programming.

The default email command is defined in the XNotesPlus application defaults file (and in the source code fallback resources) as:

     mail -s\"%s\" %s
 

The format is the standard format used by printf(). The first string parameter is the subject line. The backslashes are required so that the following double quotes are passed properly to the command. If these are left out the subject will be truncated to the first word of the first string parameter and an attempt will be made by the mailer to send mail to non-existant recipients. The second string is the addressee. The order of the string parameters is significant (subject first, addressee second) - it must be this order no matter what mailer you use. The mailer command must also accept the text of the mail via standard input. This too is required.

As an example of using a different mailer, if you use elm, you might want to change the mailer commad to:

     elm -s\"%s\" %s > /dev/null
 

The difference here is that elm prints out a few messages when it runs in batch mode and you should send those to /dev/null.

Audio Alarms

Alarms in XNotesPlus can be set to go off at any time, allowing you to use the program as a automated reminder service. Earlier versions of XNotesPlus simply popped up a window to let you know the alarm has expired. Now, using an audio player of your choice, you can have an audio reminder to go with the visual one.

To configure an audio player, use the --audiocmd command line option or the audiocmd entry in the config file. The format of the command string follows the same conventions as the email command, where printf() style arguments are used to specify the volume to play the audio file and the file name, in that order.

The default audio program configured is the ubiquitous play. This tool works well on both Linux and Solaris systems and I suspect it will work well with other Unix OS's. The format of the default command is as follows:

     play -v %d -d /dev/audio %s
 

The %s represents the name of the audio file and the %d is the volume to play the file. The volume setting may not actually work with some audio software, but it's still a required parameter. I know I couldn't get it to work properly no matter what volume settings I passed to sox (an alternative to play).

Audio players must be capable of playing whatever audio files you place in the audio directory (usually $HOME/.xnotesplus/audio-d). The audio files you received with the XNotesPlus package should have contained a set of .wav audio files, but you can add whatever other audio files you like as long as the audio player understands how to play them.

Known Issues

The sizes of the XNotes are only as accurate as the display dimension and resolution returned by the server. On the Sun server and possibly others, this means they may not be all that accurate.

The Dialog used to name a note doesn't limit the number of characters that can be used in a name, although it does prevent (by use of translations) a user from putting a newline in the text. The drawback to not limiting the length of the name is that the dialog box's text field won't resize to the right as characters are typed off the right hand edge of the field, although it will scroll that way.

You can't delete projects from the Projects dialog yet. You also can't change the name of a project. To do either, edit the projects file by hand. Look at the xnprojects-gtk file in the data directory.

In the older XPostitPlus, the -c option was reported to not read in old notes properly. It would eat the first line. This can be worked around by adding a blank line to the old notes. However, I couldn't reproduce this problem. I suggest creating a backup of your old notes before trying to run with the -c option, just in case. This isn't a problem if you've been using XNotesPlus and not XPostitPlus. Keep in mind XPostitPlus is very old and you probably aren't using it.

Without a color display for canary yellow notes and the logo in the Plaid Window, the aesthetic value of xnotes+ cannot be fully appreciated.

GTK Version

The GTK+ version has a few bugs, mostly related to the GtkText widget. There are also some bugs in the widget that may cause XNotesPlus to crash. A port to GTK+ 2.x is planned for a later release and should address those problems.

No, the GTK port will not be part of GNOME, although if possible it will be GNOME compliant in the future. I also intend to make it KDE compliant. Probably for the 4.0 release.

Author

Originally based on xpostit by David A. Curry, SRI International

XNotesPlus and XPostitPlus are both written and copyrighted by Michael J. Hammel (mjhammel@graphics-muse.org).

Post-It and the plaid design are registered trademarks of 3M.

The SOX (audio) software can be found at http://www.spies.com/Sox/. More recent versions (ie a new distribution) can be found at http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/cbagwell/projects.html.

Nenscript, by Craig Southeren, is a freely redistributable program to convert ASCII files into Postscript. It is made available with XNotesPlus as a service to my users and through Craig's (and CSA's - his employer at the time) kind graces. Current releases can be found at http://www.im.lcs.mit.edu/~magnus/nenscript/.

The pilot-link software can be found at http://www.pilot-link.org

GNOME and other highly polished icons can be found at Jimmac's web site: http://jimmac.musichall.cz/



Michael J. Hammel
2004/02/27
webmaster@graphics-muse.com
http://www.graphics-muse.com