XNotesPlus: Man Page
XNOTESPLUS(1) manual page
Table of Contents
xnotes+ - X window system sticky notes
xnotes+
=1 [-c] =1 [--geometry] =1 [--sb] =1 [--sv] =1 [--ns]
=1 [--na] =1 [--nn] =1 [--help/-?/-h] =1 [--geometry] =1
[--bs] =1 [--notedir] =1 [--interval] =1 [--nw] =1
[--ao] =1 [--tmpdir] =1 [--printcmd] =1 [--emailcmd] =1
[--spellchecker] =1 [--calendarcmd] =1 [--homedir] =1 [--xpmdir]
=1 [--audiocmd] =1 [--audiodir] =1 [--noaudio] =1 [--addrdir]
=1 [--pilotdir] =1 [--defaults] =1 [--install] =1 [--version]
XNotesPlus (also referred to as xnotes+, which is the actual
name of the program file) is a full featured Personal Information Manager
(PIM) based around a sophisticated notes facility. Complete contact information,
todo lists, calendaring and memo features are provided in an easy to use
GTK+ based interface.
Aside from providing the expected text note editing
capabilities, XNotesPlus memos - known as XNotes - provide tools for managing
notes, both individually and in groups (known as "Projects"). Notes can
be hidden, searched, cascaded, printed, and emailed. All notes have titles
and each can have its own audio/visual alarm. Calendars and dates, both
local and in GMT, can be inserted at any point. You can even import and
export text files.
The "plus" side of XNotesPlus is its interface with
the 3Com PalmPilot(R) handheld PDA (personal digital assitant) and compatible
devices. You can upload XNotes to the Pilot, download Pilot Memos into
XNotes, do backups and syncing of backups of your Pilot, download the
Pilot Address database, edit it in the Address Manager and upload the changes,
and download, edit, and upload Todo lists.
The Pilot Address database is
fully supported under the Address Manager, which provides an interface
much like the Pilot's for listing entries in the database. Additionally,
you can filter the entries, making it much easier to find a particular
entry in any given category. Another plus is the Envelope printing feature.
This feature is linked directly to the Address Manager, so selecting an
entry there will automatically update the To field in the Envelope dialog.
The Email dialog is also linked to the Address Manager, so finding an
address to email a note is now much easier!
Most importantly, you can
now edit both Addresses and Todo lists directly in XNotesPlus and upload
the changes to the Pilot!
Note: Envelope printing makes use of the Nenscript
tool, the source of which is included with XNotesPlus. The Pilot Tool feature
uses new external programs that are included with the source and are based
on the pilot-link library.
Each individual note, referred to as "XNotes",
is a seperate window on the screen. When xnotes+ is first invoked, it
creates a small window, known as the Plaid Window, with the XNotesPlus
logo (historically, this window used to have the 3M Plaid logo, but I changed
it so 3M wouldn't be upset with me). This is the plaid window for xnotes+.
If any notes were previously saved (see below) then they will be placed
on the screen at their last locations, unless they were hidden when last
saved (see below). The Plaid Window is the main plaid window for XNotesPlus.
To access basic features, the right mouse button is clicked, opening the
main menu. This menu provides access to the main features, such as creating
new notes, managing the notes in general and access to the Palm Pilot and
Address Manager features.
XNotePlus is based on GTK+ and has a number of
compile time configurable options. See the config.h file for details.
XNotesPlus
has a very large number of command line options. In this version you can
also use the XNotesPlus.cfg file for setting options. The command line options
will override configuration file settings. Since the 3.0 release, all command
line options use two dashes (--) instead of one (as the previous versions
had done).
- -c
- Enables compatibility mode. Initially this was for notes created
using the %! magic cookie, ie Version 2.0 and Version 2.1. In XPostitPlus
2.2 this was changed to %%!! because the original cookie was the one being
used for Postscript files. In the future this mode may cover other items
that are not compatible between versions/releases. Yes, this option is the
only one that still accepts a single dash.
- --sb
- Depricated - no longer used
in XNotesPlus.
- --sv
- Enables save-on-exit. When specified, this option tells
xnotes+ to save all XNotes to disk when exiting. If not specified, notes
can be saved to disk manually by the user (using the Save All Notes main
menu option) or via the AutoSave feature (autosave will save notes automatically
at the intervals specified with the --interval). It is useful to specify this
option since hidden notes cannot be saved unless either the "Save All Notes"
option is used or the autosave option has not been disabled. It's also helpful
to use this option since its not guaranteed that the autosave feature
will have saved all notes since their last updates when xnotes+ exits.
- --ns
- Disables the autosave feature.
- --na
- Disables alarms.
- --nn
- Disables the opening
dialog that describes which features have been disabled.
- --help | -? | -h
- Displays
a usage message.
- --geometry WxH
- Sets the geometry of the Plaid (ie main)
window. This value is honored for resizing the window smaller than the
default xpm-d/xnotes.xpm image, but will not size the window larger than
that. If you want a larger main window, change the xnotes.xpm file.
- --bs number
- Depricated - no longer used in XNotesPlus.
- --notedir dir
- Specifies the directory
to load and save notes. If path begins with a `/' it is taken as-is; if it
does not begin with a `/', the path is taken relative to the home directory.
If the named directory does not already exist, then xnotes+ attempts to
create it. The default is .xnotesplus.
- --interval
- Sets the timeout interval
(in seconds) for when the autosave timeout should expire. When this timer
expires, all notes are automatically saved to disk. The default value is
10 minutes.
- --nw pixels
- Depricated - no longer used in XNotesPlus.
- --ao offset
- The offset is specified in pixels and is used to determine the X and Y
offsets from an anchor note for a note being cascaded. The default value
is 15 pixels.
- --tmpdir path
- Specifies the path name of the directory to use
for temporary files. By default ``/tmp'' is used.
- --printcmd cmd
- This must be
a quoted command string that can be used as the format string to sprintf().
It must include "%s" for the temporary file name used when printing a
note. The buffer created with sprintf(), this option value, and the temporary
file name is passed to the system() call to print the note. By default,
the printcmd value is ``lpr %s''.
- --emailcmd cmd
- The "Email" option from the
notes menu will pop up a window prompting for an email address. The --emailcmd
command line option can be set to your systems mailer command. The mailer
must accept the text of the mail via standard input (actually as a pipe
from "cat tmpfile"). "cmd" must be a Unix style command in printf() format.
See the section on Configuring the mailer.
- --spellchecker cmd
- By default,
XNotesPlus will use aspell, an ispell compatible spell checking utility
found on many Linux distributions. If aspell is not installed locally,
you can use ispell instead by using this command line option. If neither
aspell nor ispell (or the compatible spell checker you specify) can be
found, then spell checking is disabled for individual xnotes.
- --emailaddr
address
- Use the specified address as the default address to display in
the Email dialog window. This can be overridden by typing in a new address
or using the Address Manager to find another email address.
- --calendarcmd
cmd
- This is the command used to produce a calendar for the current month.
On most Unix systems this will be ``cal'', which is the default. The output
from this command is redirected to a temporary file and then inserted
into a note at the current cursor location.
- --homedir path
- Specifies the
base directory from which the File Selection Window will look for files
and directories. If not specified then the environment variable HOME is
used. If this is not set either, then the File Selection Window uses the
root (/) directory as its start point.
- --xpmdir dir
- Where XNotesPlus bitmaps
can be found. This is normally a subdirectory under the ``notedir'' directory.
- --audiocmd cmd
- Command to run audio files (use %s for audio file).
- --audiodir
dir
- Where audio files are stored. This is normally a subdirectory under
the ``notedir'' directory.
- --noaudio
- Disable audio for alarms.
- --addrdir dir
- Where
address files are stored. Not currently used.
- --pilotdir dir
- Directory to
save PalmPilot backups to. This is normally a subdirectory under the ``notedir''
directory.
- --defaults
- Show configured defaults for all parameters. Normally
this is just used for development work, but it is useful to see what the
program options are set to when things aren't working as you expect them
to.
- --notips
- Disable the Tool Tips. This can be turned on and off at run
time. This option can be used to set the initial state of the Tool Tips.
- --install
- Depricated - no longer used in XNotesPlus.
- --version
- Displays the
current version of xnotes+.
The GTK+ version can be configured
in two ways. The first is the standard gtkrc file, which describes the
look and feel of the buttons, labels, etc. The gtkrc file should be stored
in the ``notedir'' (see the OPTIONS section).
The other cofiguration file, XNotesPlus.cfg,
works like a Motif Application Resources file. This file is fairly well
self explanatory, but here are the basic meaning of all the options available
from within this file. Options in this file are either "Yes" or "No". The
meaning of Yes and No depends on the option. This is all described in better
detail in the file itself.
Note: The name of the gtkrc file can be changed
using the appropriate XNotesPlus.cfg option.
- HomeDir
- Command Line Option:
--homedir
- TmpDir
- Command Line Option: --tmpdir
- NoteDir
- Command Line Option:
--notedir
- XPMDir
- Command Line Option: --xpmdir
- AudioDir
- Command Line Option:
--audiodir
- PilotDir
- Command Line Option: --pilotdir
- AddrDir
- Command Line
Option: --addrdir (not currently used)
- NoAudio
- Command Line Option: --noaudio
- SaveInterval
- Command Line Option: --interval
- SaveExit
- Command Line Option:
--sv
- AutoSave
- Command Line Option: --ns
- Alarm
- Command Line Option: --na
- Notice
- Command Line Option: --nn
- AudioCmd
- Command Line Option: --audiocmd
- PrintCmd
- Command Line Option: --printcmd
- CalendarCmd
- Command Line Option:
--calendarcmd
- EmailCmd
- Command Line Option: --emailcmd
- SpellChecker
- Command
Line Option: --spellchecker
- EmailAddr
- Command Line Option: --emailaddr
- GtkRC
- Command Line Option: --gtkrc
XNotesPlus uses
several windows to manage the notes and access other features. These include
the Plaid Window, the XNotes windows, the Address Manager and Address
Editor, along with the Print Envelopes window, the Todo List window, the
PalmPilot Interface window, the Projects windows, the Alarm window and
file selection windows, along with various dialogs for text input and ordinary
messages.
The Plaid Window is the small window that opens
when you start the program. It is a relatively small window whose maximum
size is fixed (it can be made smaller using window manager controls, if
desired). XNotesPlus allows four operations to be performed from its Plaid
Window. Clicking (ie pressing and then releasing) the left mouse button
in the plaid window will cause all XNotes on the screen to be raised to
the top - that is, they rise above all other windows on the display. Pressing
the middle mouse button in the plaid window will cause all XNotes notes
on the screen to be lowered to the bottom of all other windows. Pressing
the right mouse button in the plaid window opens the xnotes+ main menu.
Finally, pressing the left mouse button down, holding it there, and dragging
it out of the Plaid Window will open a new note window. This is called
"tearing off" a new note. Once the note is opened you can release the mouse
button.
Users with 2 button mice will need to check with the X Server documentation
as to how a 3 button mouse can be emulated and how the 2 buttons will be
mapped to match a 3 button mouse.
The xnotes+ main
menu provides the following selections:
- Create Notes
- A submenu of different
note sizes you can pick from to create new notes.
- Raise All Notes
- Raise
all XNotes to the top of all other windows. This is equivalent to pressing
the left mouse button in the plaid window.
- Lower All Notes
- Lower all XNotes
so they are below all other windows. This is equivalent to pressing the
middle mouse button in the plaid window.
- Save All Notes
- Save all XNotes
to disk. The directory used is specified either with --notedir or the NoteDir
option in the XNotesPlus.cfg configuration file. Notes are saved only if
they have been modified and not previously saved since that modification.
- Unhide All Notes
- All notes that have been hidden will be unhidden.
- Hidden
Notes
- Pops up a scrolled list of all notes that are currently hidden. The
list contains the names of the notes so it is wise to give a note a meaningful
name (using the Name option from the pull-down menu of each note) before
it is hidden. If no notes are hidden then an error message is displayed
stating this fact.
- Cascade Notes
- Each note can be ``anchored''. If one or more
notes are anchored and the "Cascade" option is chosen from the xnotes+
main menu, then all the visible notes are cascaded onto the anchored notes.
An attempt is made to distribute all visible notes evenly amongst all
the anchored notes. Each note also has an "unanchor" option as well. Only
one of "anchor" or "unanchor" is sensitive for any given note. Hidden notes
are not affected by the cascade feature. The default offset for cascaded
notes (from the anchored note) is 15 pixels. This can be changed with
the -ao option or the .anchorOffset resource.
- Find A Note
- If you "lose" a
note and want to bring it up at the cursor, select ``Find A Note'' from the
xnotes+ main menu. A pop up list of all notes will be presented. Select
the note you want and if it will pop up at the cursor. Selecting a note
from the list will also close this dialog window. The ``Cancel'' button will
close the dialog if no note is selected.
- Projects
- The Projects dialog.
This allows you to define projects and assign them colors. All XNotes can
be assigned to any project. Once assigned, they take on the color of that
project so they become easier to associate with one another. This feature
is discussed in more detail in the section titled Projects.
- Address Manager
- This option opens the Address Manager dialog. From here, you can access
all your Pilot Address database entries, using much the same format used
in the Pilot. Additionally, you can filter the list of addresses shown
for the specified category using the ``Filter On...'' and ``Filter'' text entry field.
From the Address Manager, you can also call up the Print Envelopes dialog,
which allows you to print simple envelopes using the currently selected
address from the Address Manager. You can also edit any address entry. See
the section on Using the Address Manager and Address Editor.
- Calendar
Tool
- This feature will launch the ical calendaring tool, an external program
which may or may not be on your system. If not, see the web site to get
a copy you can compile yourself.
- Todo List
- This option opens the Todo List
window. Here you can view and edit Todo list entries, convert Todo notes
into XNotes or import an XNote as a Todo note.
- Pilot Tool
- The Pilot Tool
dialog allows you a set of features to manage your Palm Pilot. These features
are discussed in the section on Using the Pilot Tool.
- Enable/Disable Tool
Tips
- By default, tool tips are enabled. These are the small windows that
pop open when you place the mouse over certain buttons, lists, or other
window components. Currently, tool tips are available in places where the
use of a button or list might not be obvious. Once you've learned to use
these features you can disable the tool tips. This menu option will turn
tool tips on or off while the program runs, but you can also specify the
initial state of the tool tips with either a command line option or in
the XNotesPlus.cfg config file.
- Exit
- Exit xnotes+. If the --sv command line
option was given, or the saveNotes resource is true, all XNotes will be
saved to disk first. Otherwise you will be prompted to save any notes that
have recently been modified and not yet saved.
The Create Notes Submenu
This menu allows you a choice of creating a few different sizes of notes.
The sizes of the notes, specified in inches, is actually fairly accurate,
although probably not exact. XNote windows may or may not need to be positioned
using the window manager. This depends on the window manager you are using
and the use of dynamic placement features within that window manager. If
possible (and/or necessary), you should turn dynamic window placement off
for XNotes so that the notes will pop up in their old spots.
- Create 1.5x2
Note
- Create a new XNote, 1.5 inches tall by 2 inches wide.
- Create 2x3 Note
- Create a new XNote, 2 inches tall by 3 inches wide.
- Create 3x3 Note
- Create
a new XNote, 3 inches square.
- Create 3x4 Note
- Create a new XNote, 3 inches
tall by 4 inches wide.
- Create 3x5 Note
- Create a new XNote, 3 inches tall
by 5 inches wide.
- Create 4x6 Note
- Create a new XNote, 4 inches tall by 6
inches wide.
The default size for a note created by dragging the mouse,
left button down, out of the Plaid Window is 3x3.
This
dialog pops up from the ``Hidden Notes'' option of the xnotes+ main menu. The
list is a scolled list of all notes that are currently hidden. If there
are not enough hidden notes to fill the visible list then no scrollbar
will be present. If more hidden notes exist than can fit in the visible
list, then a scrollbar will become available for you to scroll through
the list.
Note that currently if you have this window open and then hide
a note, that note will not automatically show up in the list. In this case
you need to close the list window and then reopen it.
Each XNote
is made up of two parts (plus the scrollbar): A text window where the text
of the note is stored and a menu bar. To enter text into an XNote, simply
move the mouse cursor into the text window and start typing. Use the mouse
buttons and arrow keys to move around the window and for manipulating the
selections for cut-and-paste operations. A number of translations - ie keyboard
shortcuts - are available. See the section on Keyboard Shortcuts for more
details.
The menu bar has four icons, each with its own menu. The first
two icons are, by default, small gray circles. The leftmost circle is for
alarms, the next one for anchors. The next icon, the file icon is
for file operations such as saving or emailing the note. The last icon
is the notes icon, which is used to access features such as naming the
note, assigning it to a project or inserting a calendar.
Clicking the left
mouse button on the first icon shows the alarms menu. There are two options:
Set Alarm and Disable Alarm. To set a notes alarm, select ``Set Alarm'' from
the alarms pull down menu. A window pops up with month, day, hour and minute
fields. The default for each of these is the last alarm time that had been
set (if no alarm had ever been set for a note then the time is actually
the time the note was created). Use the arrow buttons on either side of
each value to set each field to the day and time you wish the alarm to
go off. You can use the Toggle button to reset the fields to the current
time. When the alarm expires, a small window will pop up reminding you
for which note the alarm had been set.
Beneath the alarm settings is a
scrolled list of audio files you can choose to play when the alarm goes
off. You don't have to play an audio file, its just available if you'd like
to. A few default audio files should have been in the distribution you
received. If you choose an audio file to play you will also need to select
the number of times to play it. The Repeat field should be set to something
other than 0 or else the audio alarm won't play.
Playing audio alarms requires
that an application that can play the files be installed and XNotesPlus
is configured to use it properly. See the section on Configuring The Audio
Command.
If you wish to save this value between invokations you should
use either the notes ``Save'' option or the ``Save All Notes'' option from the
plaid windows menu. When a notes alarm is set the gray icon will be replaced
with an icon of a clock (or wristwatch, if you like).
To turn off the a
notes alarm, select ``Unset Alarm'' from the menu. This will disable the alarm
for that note and remove the clock icon from the menu bar, returning it
to the gray circle.
Next to the alarms menu is the anchor menu. This menu
has only two options: Set Anchor and Disable Anchor. These do pretty much
as you'd expect. An anchored note is one that will be at the bottom of the
stack of notes when you cascade them. Only one of the two options in this
menu will be active at any given time. If the "Set Anchor" option is active,
then the note is not currently anchored. If the "Disable Anchor" is active,
then the note is currently set as an anchored note. When anchored, the
anchor icon changes from the gray dot to an icon in the shape of an anchor.
The File menu contains options pertaining to file input and output:
- Save
- After entering text in the XNote, you may wish to save the note in
a disk file using the file menus ``Save'' option. This way, if the machine
goes down, or if you exit xnotes+, the note can be restored when you restart
xnotes+. XNotes are also saved automatically (if saveNotes is true) if a
SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGTERM, or SIGQUIT signal is received. Using "kill -9" on
the xnotes+ process, however, will not allow changes to be saved. Thats
a design intent in Unix - it's just the way Unix signals work. If you need
to kill xnotes+ manually, use the "kill -s HUP " or "kill -s TERM" commands
instead, and only use "kill -9" if all else fails.
To save the note to a
disk file, click on the file icon and drag the mouse cursor to the menu
item labeled ``Save'', then release the mouse button. The note will be saved
as the file ``noten'' in your notes directory, where n is some sequence number.
Saving a note means to save it in the XNote format under whatever directory
has been configured using the --notedir command line option, the noteDir
config file entry or the default setting.
Note that the ``Save'' menu item will
not allow you to save unless something has been typed in the text window
of the note, the name of the note has been changed, the project has changed
for the note, or the text of the note has been erased. This is a good way
of checking if you've made changes to the note. If the Save menu item is
"insensitive" (grayed-out) then you haven't made any changes to the Text
of the note.
NOTE
: it is important to remember that if you have disabled
the auto-save (--sv) feature then the note will not be saved until you have
pressed the ``Save'' button. You can also make sure changed notes get saved
on exit by enabling the Save on Exit feature.
- Open
- Used for importing
a file into the note. The imported file must be an ordinary text file or
the results of importing will be indeterminate. The imported file is inserted
at the current cursor location. See the section on the File Selection
Window for more details.
- Merge
- Opens a list of available notes. Click on
the notes to merge into the current note, then click on the Accept button.
The notes will be merged into the current note IN THE ORDER SELECTED.
The Cancel button will close the dialog without merging any notes.
- Export
- Used for saving the text contents of the note to a non-XNotes (ie a regular)
file. Only the text of the note is saved. Project and note name information
is not exported. Again, see the section on the File Selection Window for
more details on how to use that window.
- Find
- Simple search utility that
will find a specified string in the note from which the Search dialog was
opened. The search can be done forward from the current cursor location
or backwards. The search does not wrap when it reaches the end or beginning
of the note. Searches are currently case sensitive.
- Spell Check
- Notes can
be spell checked using an external spell checking tool compatible with
"ispell" ("aspell" is the default but this can be configured in the XNotesPlus.cfg
file). Click on the Start button to begin checking the text. The Stop button
stops the process. Questionable words are displayed in the "Current Word"
field. Make changes in this field and clidk on Modify Word to update the
note. Skip Word will move to the next misspelled word, if any. Learn Word
will save the Current Word in your personal dictionary. When finished,
click on the Done button to close the dialog.
- Print
- Prints the note using
the defined printer command. See the --printcmd command line option for details
on configuring this. Selecting this option causes the note to be printed
immediately, if possible. No dialogs are opened with the Print option.
- Email
- Opens a small window in which you can type or select an email address.
When you click on the Accept button the note is emailed to the specified
recipient using the notes name as the subject of the message. Typing in
an address in the text field and then hitting ENTER will also email the
message. An address must be specified or an error message will pop up if
you hit Accept or the ENTER key. The list of email addresses gets populated
when this window is used in conjunction with the Address Manager. Selecting
an entry from the Address Manager that has one or email addresses associated
with it will have those addresses added to the list of email addresses
in the Email dialog.
The Notes menu contains items for managing individual
notes: Hide, Erase, Destroy, Name, Project, Insert Calendar and Insert
Date.
- Hide
- To hide a note, you can click on the Notes menu icon and select
it's ``Hide'' menu item. This will cause the note to disappear from the screen.
The note is still available, it's just not visible. To bring the note back,
select the ``Hidden Notes'' option from the Plaid Window's main menu. Then select
the note you wish to make visible again. NOTE
: A hidden note will not stay
hidden between xnotes+ sessions unless you have saved the note. Saving
a hidden note can only be done using either the autosave features or the
option to save on exit (see discussion above) have been set or by using
the Plain Window's ``Save All Notes'' menu option.
- Erase
- To erase the entire
contents of the text window, you can click on the Notes menu icon and
select the ``Erase'' menu item. The erase is performed immediately and cannot
be undone. NOTE
: erasing the text in the window does not affect any contents
of the note you have saved on disk unless you press the ``Save'' button again.
- Destroy
- To destroy an XNote, getting rid of its window on the screen and
the disk file it is saved in, click on the notes icon and select the ``Destroy''
menu item. This will bring up a confirmation window with an ``Accept'' and a
``Close'' button. Clicking on accept will close the window and remove the associated
file from disk. This process cannot be undone. The close button will cancel
the destroy operation.
- Name
- A notes name appears on the window managers
title bar (if you have these displayed - check your window manager configuration
guides for information on enabling or disabling these). To rename a note,
you can click on the notes icon and select the ``Name'' menu item. This will
bring up a dialog box, which has two buttons labeled ``Confirm'' and ``Cancel''
as well as a field to enter text for the new name. If you press the ``Confirm''
button, the new name will be placed in the title bar of the note. If you
press the ``Cancel'' button, the operation is canceled. If you type in a name
in the text field and then hit ENTER, this has the same effect as hitting
``Confirm'' button and the name of the note will be changed.
- Project
- The Project
option in the notes menu allows you to select one of the previously configured
projects to associate with this note. The dialog is similar to the one
accessed from the Plaid Window's main menu except this one does not allow
you to modify the projects. You can only select a project here. Once selected,
the notes background color will change to match the selected project.
- Insert Calendar
- To insert a copy of the current calendar month in the text
select the ``Insert Calendar'' option from the notes menu. The text will be
inserted at the current cursor location, so you should be sure to position
the cursor first. You can position the cursor by just clicking in the text
window of the note.
- Insert Date
- Adding the date and time is done using
the ``Insert Date...'' option from the notes menu. A dialog box providing a variety
of formats is presented. Select the format desired by clicking on the format
string and then click on "Accept". The text string will be inserted at
the current cursor location. You can also choose between using abbreviated
and full Weekday and Month names, and between using the computer's local
time or convert the time to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Be sure to position
the cursor in the note text prior to clicking on Accept.
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.
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.
A Project
is just a name and a color, nothing more. You specify a project name, give
it a color, and later assign notes to that project. Once assigned, the
notes text background will assume the color specified for that project.
Projects are defined through the Projects dialog, accessible from the
main menu's ``Projects'' option. XNotesPlus uses the GTK+ Color Selection dialog
to choose a color. This is a nice in that you're only likely to get available
colors no matter what color depth to which your display is set. To select
a color, left mouse click on the "Sample Note Text".
You need only type
in the new Project name and then click on the "Sample Note Text" to open
the Color Selection dialog. Once you've selected a color, close the Color
Selection dialog, then click on the Accept button in the Projects dialog.
The new project will be added to the end of the list of available projects.
You can change the color of an existing project by clicking on the projects
name. The project name is displayed in the text field and the sample text
background is updated with the currently configured color. Just select
another color and click on the Accept button. The update is immediate. When
you are done with configuring projects just click on the Close button at
the bottom of the dialog.
A sample projects file should have been part
of the distribution you received. This file is ordinary text and you can
hand edit it by hand if you prefer. However, you're probably better off
letting XNotesPlus manage this file for you.
In order to assign a note
to a specific project you simply choose the ``Projects'' option from the notes
menu in the XNote you wish to update. The Change Project dialog opens with
a scrolled list of projects to choose from and a bit of sample text to
show what the effect will be. When you've made your selection, click on
the Accept button and the note will automatically be updated. Don't forget
to save the note!
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.
One of the newest features to be added
to XNotesPlus is the Pilot Tool. A recent gift of a Palm Pilot Pro enticed
me to find the pilot-link software, a set of command line tools used to
communicate between the Pilot and a Unix system. These tools are quite
simple to use and lend themselves well to being called from other programs.
Naturally I decided it was time to update XNotePlus so I could sync memos,
addresses and todos with my notes.
The Pilot Tool dialog is broken into
5 main pieces: Pilot Memos, Pilot Addresses, Pilot Todo List, Calendar
Sync, and Pilot Sync. Pilot Memos consists of a scrolled list, two toggle
buttons and two push buttons. The toggle buttons determine which direction
you're going to go: Import means you are importing Pilot Memos into XNotes,
Export means you are exporting XNotes out to the Pilot as Memos. The Fetch
push button will retrieve either the list of XNotes (for exporting) or
the list of memos from the Pilot (if importing) and place them in the scrolled
list. You can select one or more of these from the list and then click
on the Process button. This will determine which XNotes to convert to Memos
or which Memos to convert to XNotes.
The Pilot Addresses feature provides
downloading the Pilot Address database to XNotesPlus or uploading XNotesPlus
addresses to the Pilot. The local address data is stored in a file called
xnaddresses, generally under the $HOME/.xnotesplus/pilot directory, although
this is configurable with command line options, etc.
Pilot Todo List allows
downloading Todos from the Pilot or uploading XNotesPlus Todos to the Pilot.
The local Todo List data is stored in a file called xntodos, generally
under the $HOME/.xnotesplus/pilot directory.
Calendar Sync will syncrhonize
your ical calendar database with the Pilot's calendar database. This process
is more direct than the other features - a single sync request will synchronize
the local calendar with the Pilot calendar, after which both calendar databases
will be the same.
Pilot Sync will do backups of your Pilot to local directories.
There are actually 4 types of backups: Backup, Restore, Sync and Update.
Check with the pilot-link software for details to what each of these really
does. Generally, you can use the Backup type to make backups and Restore
to restore them should your Pilot crash for some reason. Sync will simply
update an existing backup so it matches the current Pilot data.
Four other
options have been added to Pilot Sync with the 3.5 release: Install, Delete,
Fetch and List. Install will load a file from your computer into the Palm
Pilot as long as the file is a Pilot compatible format (.e.g. a .prc or .pdb
file). Delete removes a file from the Pilot while Fetch retrieves a file
to the computer. List will display a complete listing of the files on the
Pilot in a non-editable text window. You can cut and paste the names to
an XNote to save them.
Two text fields are available under the options
menu for Pilot Sync. The first is for specifying a directory name. The
second for specifying a filename. Some Pilot Sync features require only
one of these, while others require both or even none. The following details
the use of these fields:
- Backup...
- Uses directory field only.
- Restore...
- Uses
directory field only.
- Sync...
- Uses directory field only.
- Update...
- Uses directory
field only.
- Install...
- Uses filename field only.
- Fetch...
- Uses directory and
filename fields.
- Delete...
- Uses filename field only.
- List...
- Uses neither field.
The file button will open a File Selection window that allows you to
specify a directory to use for backups. The default directory (or any directory
you select from the File Selection window) is displayed in the text field
next to the file button. You can type in any directory you want there as
well. If the directory does not exist then it will be created, if possible,
before the backup process is started. The Today button will tack on a
date string to the directory, allowing you to create dated backups. Additionally,
you can remove or rename the directory specified using one of the appropriate
buttons (``Remove Dir'' or ``Rename Dir''). When you are ready to start the backup
or restore process, click on the Start Transfer button.
Once any communication
with the Pilot is about to begin you will be prompted to press the Hot
Sync button on the Pilot's cradle. Once the data transfer has started you
won't be able to do anything else with XNotesPlus until the transfer completes.
Before you can even have access to the Pilot Tool you must set the following
environment variables. If these are not set you will not get the Pilot
Tool option in the Plaid Window's main menu.
- PILOTPORT
- Specifies the serial
port to which the Pilot's cradle is connected. For many PC-Unix users (eg
Linux, Solairs x86) this will be something like /dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS01.
- PILOTRATE
- You need to also specify the speed at which transfers should
be done. Although this isn't really required by the pilot-link software, it
helps speed things up. The value you should use is probably 57600, but
that may be dependent on your serial ports. It seems to work fine on PCs
with 16550 UARTS on the serial ports at least.
The AddressManager is a complete implementation under
XNotesPlus of the Pilot's user interface to the Pilot Address database.
You can edit entries locally and upload them back to the Pilot.
WARNING
:
In order to use the Address Manager you must download your address database
from the Pilot again (using the Pilot Tool feature), even if you've already
done so in the past. The Address Manager relies on some new features in
the Pilot-Link software in order to obtain category information. If you
try to run Address Manager using the old format of the xnaddress file,
XNotesPlus may crash!
The dialog window for the Address Manager contains
a scrollable list of names on the left. On the right is a menu of available
categories, just as they are in the Pilot. Selecting a new category will
filter the names on the left to only those entries in that category. Below
the categories menu is a menu for filtering the list of names even more.
You can filter on the last name field, first name field, or city or state
fields. Below this menu is a text field for entering a string to filter
on in the selected field. The string is case insensitive and does not have
to be a complete word.
Below the Filter options is a text area with an
XNotesPlus logo. Here is where the complete contents of the currently selected
Address entry is displayed. Click on any entry in the list and this area
is updated automatically. If you deselect the current entry (ie no names
are selected) then an appropriate message is displayed here. Note that
only one entry from the list of names can be selected at any given time.
At the bottom of the dialog are multiple buttons:
- Envelopes
- Opens the
Print Envelopes dialog. Here you can print an envelope based on the currently
selected address and a predefied From address.
- Close
- Closes the Address
Manager dialog.
- Print
- A message window opens prompting you to select the
entries to print. One or more entries can be selected. When selections
are complete, click on the Accept button to print those entries. The Close
button will close the dialog without sending any Address entries to the
printer.
- Add Entry
- Allows the addition of a new entry to the database.
Opens the Address Editor dialog.
- Delete Entry
- Deletes the currently selected
entry. Once deleted, the entry cannot be recovered unless it exists on
the Pilot. In that case, you must exit the Address Manager and download
the address database from the Pilot again.
- Edit Entry
- Opens the Address
Editor to allow editing of the currently selected address.
The
Address Editor is fairly self explanatory. Just fill in the blanks, select
appropriate menu options for phone/email fields and add even add a note
if you want. Once you're done, click on either the Accept (if you're editing
an existing entry) or Add (if you're adding a new entry) button and the
editor dialog will close.
Note: that all changes to the Address database
in XNotesPlus are not available to be uploaded to the Pilot until you exit
both the Address Editor and the Address Manager!
The Todo Manager allows adding, editing and deleting of Todo list entries
from the Palm Pilot. By default, the displayed list shows all Todo entries.
To filter the list, use the Filter on Category options menu to select
a category. The Status, Priority, Due Date, Category and Title of the currently
selected note can all be changed using the appropriate menu, button or
text field. However, those changes don't take effect until you either select
another Todo entry or hit the ENTER key from within the Todo Title field.
The Todo Note can be export to a regular XNote and an XNote can be imported
to a Todo Note using the Todo Note dialog window. Just click on the Note
button in the Todo Manager window.
Todo list entries can be printed individually
or in a group. The Print Selected button at the bottom of the Todo Manager
window will print the currently selected entry using the configured print
command (see the --printcmd command line option for details). The Print Displayed
button will print all the Todo entries currently displayed. To limit that
display list, use the Filter on Category menu.
New, blank entries are added
using the New Entry button. These entries are valid Todo items even if
they don't have a title. By default, new Todo items are placed in the Unfiled
category.
Any selected entry can be deleted using the Delete Entry button.
Be sure to note that deleted entries cannot be recovered!
The displayed
list can be sorted in numerous ways. The Sort Down/Up button (which changes
between up or down) can change the direction of the sort. Clicking on any
field header (Status, Priority, Title, Notes, Due Date or Category) will
cause the list to be sorted on that field.
Another
recent feature addition to XNotesPlus is the Envelopes dialog. This window
allows you to specify simple headers for printing on either #6 (letter)
or #10 (legal) sized envelopes. The window contains 2 scrolled text windows,
an options menu of Point Sizes to use for the printed text, a set of toggle
buttons for choosing the envelope size, a toggle to use Bold characters
and a text input field for specifying the name of the printer to use. It
is also opened from the Address Manager.
The scrolled window labeled ``From:''
will be filled with your personal address from the ``id'' file normally found
in your $HOME/.xnotesplus directory. If this file does not exist then this
field will be blank. You can type in any text you want for the From: address.
Pressing the Save button just below the scrolled window will save the
text to your id file. The To: field is automatically filled in whenever
you make a selection from the list of names in the Address Manager window.
The point size menu gives the list of available point sizes for the output.
The envelope will print in postscript using the nenscript program (which
must be in your path in order to work). The point size is passed as an
argument to nenscript. The printer field is also passed to nenscript, however
this is different than the printer command used to print notes. With the
Envelope dialog, the printer specified should be the printer name, not
the command used to print. Nenscript will handle the printing - it just
needs to know which printer to use. This is a little confusing and I hope
to have a better solution for it in a future release with better Print
support.
The toggles for setting the envelope size will simply determine
how the temporary file passed to nenscript will be formatted. The formats
are chosen to fit on their respective envelopes, but other than that the
sizes are not really exact. Again, this will change with better support
for printing, hopefully in the 4.0 release of XNotesPlus.
Note: The envelope
feature is disabled if Nenscript cannot be found.
Many
of XNotesPlus features are accessible directly from the keyboard. The key
combinations, known as keyboard shortcuts, mnemonics, or accelerators,
can be used while any XNote or the Plaid Window has keyboard focus - which
means you have to click on the window first at least once or, if you're
window manager supports it, have AutoFocus turned on so keyboard focus
follows the mouse location.
Keyboard shortcuts are most useful when used
from within the XNotes themselves. Note: The GTK+ text widgets are configured
to use their default keyboard editing functions, which I believe is mostly
Emacs style editing (not that I know how anything about those bindings
- I use vi).
The following describes the keyboard shortcuts available by
default from any XNote and the functions associated with them. Note that
the key sequences are case sensitive.
Note Specific Shortcuts:
- ALT-t
- Opens
the alarm (timer) window.
- Shift-ALT-t
- Disables alarm, if set.
- ALT-a
- Enables
the anchor for the current note.
- Shift-ALT-a
- Disables the anchor for the
current note, if set.
- ALT-s
- Saves the current note.
- ALT-o
- Opens the File
Selection window for importing a file to the current note.
- ALT-x
- Opens the
File Selection window for exporting the current note.
- Shift-ALT-m
- Opens Merge
dialog for merging one or more notes into the current note.
- ALT-f
- Opens
the Search dialog, for finding text within a note.
- Shift-ALT-c
- Opens the
spell check dialog for the current note.
- ALT-p
- Prints the current note.
- ALT-m
- Opens the Email Note dialog.
- ALT-h
- Hides the current note.
- ALT-e
- Erases
the current note.
- ALT-d
- Prompts the user to destroy the current note.
- ALT-n
- Opens the Title For Note dialog.
- Shift-ALT-P
- Opens the Projects dialog for
configuring projects (not the Change Project dialog).
- ALT-c
- Inserts a calendar
at the current cursor position.
- Shift-ALT-D
- Opens the Insert Date dialog.
Notes and Main Window Shortcuts (works in either):
- ALT-q or ALT-Q
- Quits
XNotesPlus. If save on exit has been enabled then modified notes will be
saved. If not, you will be prompted as to whether or not you want to save
them.
- Ctrl-Shift-A
- Opens the Address Manager dialog.
- Ctrl-Shift-P
- Opens the
Pilot Tool dialog.
- Ctrl-Shift-I
- Opens the Calendar tool.
- Ctrl-Shift-L
- Opens
the Todo Manager dialog.
Address Manager Window:
- ALT-c
- Close the Address
Manager Window.
- ALT-v
- Open the Envelope dialog.
- ALT-p
- Select and print entries.
- ALT-a
- Add a new entry.
- ALT-d
- Deleted selected entry.
- ALT-e
- Edit selected
entry.
Address Editor Window:
- ALT-c
- Close the editor.
- ALT-a
- Accept the
changes.
- ALT-i
- Import XNotes to Address Note.
- ALT-x
- Export Address Note to
XNote.
- ALT-e
- Erase Address Note.
Todo Manager Window:
- ALT-o
- OK (ie close
the window).
- ALT-n
- Add a new entry.
- ALT-d
- Delete selected entry.
- ALT-s
- Sort
list.
- ALT-p
- Print displayed entries.
- ALT-h
- Print selected entry.
The following
are the default bindings for mouse and keyboard actions associated with
the Plaid Window. Note that the mapping of Button 1, Button 2, and Button
3 to real mouse buttons depends on your X server. Check your X server
documentation for details on this mapping.
- Click mouse button 1
- Raises
all notes above any other windows on the display.
- Click mouse button 2
- Lowers all notes beneath any other windows on the display.
- Press and hold
mouse button 3
- Presents the xnotes+ main menu.
- Mouse button 1 down, hold,
drag out of window
- Tears off a new 3x3 note.
- ALT-q or ALT-Q
- Quits XNotesPlus.
If save on exit has been enabled then modified notes will be saved. If
not, you will be prompted as to whether or not you want to save them.
X(1)
, pilot-xfer(1)
and any of the PilotLink software, cal(1)
, mail(1)
,
lp(1)
or lpr(1)
, sox(1)
In General
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.
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. The GtkText widget is still a work
in progress, so perhaps these problems will go away with time.
Recent
versions of GTK+ seem to have uncovered a problem with bringing hidden
notes back to the screen. Their dimensions are getting lost. I don't know
what the problem is here yet.
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.
Motif Version
The Motif version was dropped starting with 3.4.0. The reason is simple:
it's much easier to support a single widget set.
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
- Generic UNIX
- http://www.pilot-link.org
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