XNOTESPLUS(1) Unix/X11R5-R6 XNOTESPLUS(1)
23 May 1999
NAME
xnotes+ - X window system sticky notes
SYNOPSIS
xnotes+ [-c] [--sb] [--sv] [--ns] [--na] [--nn] [--help/-?/-h]
[--bs bufsize] [--notedir notedir] [--interval seconds]
[--nw pixels] [--ao pixels] [--tmpdir tmpdir] [--printcmd cmd]
[--emailcmd cmd] [--calendarcmd cmd] [--homedir path]
[--xpmdir dir] [--audiocmd cmd] [--audiodir dir] [--noaudio]
[--addrdir dir] [--pilotdir dir] [--rgbfile path] [--defaults]
[--install] [--version]
DESCRIPTION
XNotesPlus (also referred to as xnotes+, which is the actual name of
the program file) is another Sticky Notes program, but it's really
much more than that. Aside from providing the expected text editing
capabilities, XNotesPlus provides 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 text files directly into the notes.
The "plus" side of XNotesPlus includes its interface with the 3Com
PalmPilot(R) handheld PDA (personal digital assitant). You can upload
XNotes to the Pilot, download Pilot Memos into XNotes, do backups and
syncing of backups of your Pilot, and retrieve (later to upload) data
from the Pilot's Address database. 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!
Note: Envelope printing makes use of the Nenscript tool, the source of
which is included with XNotesPlus. The Pilot Tool feature is a
wrapping around the very useful PilotLink set of tools. These,
however, are not included with the XNotesPlus source.
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
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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 available with either a Motif (or LessTif) interface or
one based on Gtk. This choice, along with a series of other options,
can be configured at compile time. See the config.h file for details.
OPTIONS
XNotesPlus has a very large number of command line options. In the
Motif version you can use the application defaults file instead of the
command line options to set these. In the GTK version you can use the
XNotesPlus.cfg file. The command line options will override
configuration file settings. The Motif version of XNotesPlus accepts
all of the standard X Toolkit command line options (such as
-geometry), and both versions accept the additional options listed
below. Since the 3.0 release, all command line options, in both
versions, 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
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have saved all notes since their last updates when xnotes+
exits.
--ns Disables the autosave feature.
--na Disables alarms.
--nn Disables the opening dialog about what features have been
disabled.
--help | -? | -h
Displays a usage message.
--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 minutes) 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.
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--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 or .emailCmd resource 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.
--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,
and the associated resource .homeDir is not set 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).
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--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.
--rgbfile path
Fully qualified path to rbg.txt file. Only useful for the
Motif version.
--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
Install a private colormap for XNotesPlus. May help on low
color displays, although XNotesPlus really doesn't use that
many colors. This is only meaningful to the Motif version.
--version
Displays the current version of xnotes+.
MOTIF APPLICATION RESOURCES
The Motif version of XNotesPlus understands all of the core X Toolkit
resource names and classes as well as those listed below, which are
all of class XNotesPlus. All of the resources listed are also
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available as command line arguments and can be specified using the
``XNotesPlus'' resources file. This file, which is simply the
XNotesPlus.ad file from the source distribution renamed (according to
X standard naming conventions), should be installed, but only if
modified by the user, in the users $HOME/app-defaults directory. The
XAPPLRESDIR environment variable should be set to that same directory
name.
The file XNotesPlus.ad in the srcm-d directory of the source code
distribution can be edited prior to compiling. If you do this, then
XNotesPlus will be compiled with these settings and you don't need to
install this file in your $HOME/app-defaults file.
The resources below are listed with their respective command line
arguments. See the OPTIONS section for details on their meanings.
.compatibility
Command Line Option: -c
.scrollBar
Command Line Option: --sb
.saveNotes
Command Line Option: --sv
.noSave Command Line Option: --ns
.noAlarm
Command Line Option: --na
.noNotice
Command Line Option: --nn
.bufSize
Command Line Option: --bs
.noteDir
Command Line Option: --notedir
.interval
Command Line Option: --interval
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.nameWidth
Command Line Option: --nw
.anchorOffset
Command Line Option: --ao
.tmpDir Command Line Option: --tmpdir
.printCmd
Command Line Option: --printcmd
.emailCmd
Command Line Option: --emailcmd
.calendarCmd
Command Line Option: --calendarcmd
.homeDir
Command Line Option: --homdir
.xpmDir Command Line Option: --xpmdir
.audioCmd
Command Line Option: --audiocmd
.audioDir
Command Line Option: --audiodir
.noAudio
Command Line Option: --noaudio
.addrDir
Command Line Option: --addrdir
.rgbFile
Command Line Option: --rgbfile
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.pilotDir
Command Line Option: --pilotdir
.noTips Command Line Option: --notips
.install
Command Line Option: --install
Note that it doesn't make any sense to specify the Help, Version, or
Defaults resources in the ``XNotesPlus'' application resources file
since all of these will cause XNotesPlus to immediately exit.
GTK RESOURCES
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 the 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
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.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
.EmailAddr
Command Line Option: --emailaddr
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.GtkRC Command Line Option: --gtkrc
WINDOWS AND DIALOGS
XNotesPlus uses several windows to manage the notes and access other
features. These include the Plaid Window, the XNotes windows, the
Address Manager and Print Envelopes 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
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
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.
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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 with .noteDir in the XNotesPlus
application defaults file, or the NoteDir option in the
XNotesPlus.cfg configuration file for Gtk. 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.
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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.
See the section on the Address Manager and Printing Envelopes.
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.
Pilot Tool
The Pilot Tool dialog allows you a limited set of features to
manage your Palm Pilot. These features are discussed in the
section on 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 an application resource (Motif) or
config file (GTK) entry.
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
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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.
THE HIDDEN NOTES LIST
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.
XNOTES
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.
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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
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"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 - its 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 application default
setting (for Motif only), the noteDir config file entry (for
GTK only) 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.
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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 ile 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.
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.
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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...''
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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.
USING THE FILE SELECTION WINDOW
The File Selection Window will be either the well known Motif or Gtk
version. In the Motif version, a text field at the top of the window
can be used to filter the current directory. 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.
In the Gtk version, you can do pretty much the same thing, but to
filter 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 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
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either the -emailcmd command line option, the .emailCmd resource (for
Motif) or the EmailCmd entry in the config file (for GTK). 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.
PROJECTS
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.
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Projects are defined through the Projects dialog, accessible from the
main menu's ``Projects'' option. The Motif dialog has two scrolled
windows: a list of the colors defined in the rgb.txt color database
and a list of configured projects. Below the latter is a text field
where you can type in the name of a project, or edit the name of the
currently selected project. The Gtk version uses the Gtk Color
Selection dialog to choose a color. This is a little nicer than the
Motif one since you're only likely to get available colors in the Gtk
version no matter what color depth to which your display is set. To
select a color in Motif, select an entry from the list of color names.
To select a color in Gtk, left mouse click on the "Sample Note Text".
The Motif Version of Projects
To add a new project in the Motif version, type in its name in the
text field. Then select a color from the list of color names. On low
color displays you may have to search for awhile till you find one
that works. If the color can be allocated for use, the sample text
below the text field where you typed the projects name will change
colors to show you how the note will look. When you've got the right
color, click on the Accept button and the project will be added to the
scrolled projects list.
The Gtk Version of Projects
In the Gtk version 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.
In either version 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 for both the Gtk and Motif versions 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, note
that the Gtk and Motif versions of this file are not the same. 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
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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!
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,
the .audioCmd resource (for Motif) or the audiocmd entry in the config
file (for GTK). 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 sox. 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:
"sox -v %d %s -t .au /dev/audio"
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
versions of Sox, but it's still a required parameter. I know I
couldn't get it to work properly no matter what volume settings I
passed sox.
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.
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USING PILOT TOOL
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 with my notes.
The Pilot Tool dialog is broken into 3 main pieces: Pilot Memos,
Pilot Addresses, 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 is the simplest of the bunch: just click
on the button and the Pilot's Addresses database will be retrieved.
The 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 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.
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.
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.
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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. In future versions I may try
to fix this. It depends on if anyone complains about it or not.
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/cua1 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.
USING THE ADDRESS MANAGER
The AddressManager is a nearly complete implementation under
XNotesPlus of the Pilot's user interface to the Pilot Address
database. The only thing you can't do is edit the entries and sync
them with the Pilot. That feature is missing due to limitations in
the Pilot-Link software's ability to update individual entries in the
Pilot's Address database.
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! If you're
version of Pilot Link doesn't support these features then you'll have
to use the old version of xnaddress and will only be able to use the
old Envelope feature - Address Manager will not be available. See the
config.h file for details about how to find out if your Pilot-Link
software is compatible with the Address Manager.
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
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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 two buttons, one for closing the
dialog (the Close button) and one for opening the Print Envelopes
dialog.
PRINTING ENVELOPES
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.
NOTE: The Print Envelopes dialog works slightly differently depending
on if the Address Manager is enabled or not. It is also opened
differently - with the Address Manager you access it from the Address
Manager dialog. Without Address Manager it is accessed from the Plain
Window's main menu. See below for the different ways this dialog
functions.
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: Window without Address Manager
Without Address Manager, the scrolled window labeled ``To:'' works
like the ``From:'' window except it has a Load button. This button
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will open a scrolled list of addresses taken from your Palm Pilot's
Addresses database, if any. If no entries exist then an error dialog
is presented stating the local database could not be opened. To
access the Pilot's databases you first need to use the Addresses Fetch
feature of the Pilot Tool dialog. See the section on USING PILOT TOOL
for more information.
The To: Window with Address Manager
With Address Manager, the From: field is automatically filled in
whenever you make a selection from the list of names in the Address
Manager window. In this case, there is no Load button in the Print
Envelope dialog (since it is no longer needed).
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.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
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: Both the Motif and 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).
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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 Options:
ALT-t Opens the alarm (timer) window.
ALT-a Toggles the anchor for the current note.
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.
ALT-P Opens the Projects dialog for configuring projects (not the
Change Project dialog).
ALT-c Inserts a calendar at the current cursor position.
ALT-D Opens the Insert Date dialog.
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.
ALT-f Opens the Search dialog, for finding text within a note.
ALT-p Prints the current note.
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ALT-m Opens the Email Note dialog.
General Options
ALT-A Opens the Address Manager dialog.
ALT-E Opens the Envelopes dialog.
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.
PP 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
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.
SEE ALSO
X(1), pilot-xfer(1) and any of the PilotLink software, cal(1),
mail(1), lp(1) or lpr(1), sox(1)
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BUGS
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.
Color selection using the rgb file for low color displays using the
Motif version sucks. I have some ideas for an alternative method, but
don't know when I'll actually get around to implementing it. In the
mean time, just hand edit the projects file with colors you already
use for some of your other applications or window manager.
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 or 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.
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.
One other problem with GTK is that I haven't figured out how to
prevent resizing of windows. Doing so can prevent odd redistributions
of some window components - especially when there is no real need to
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resize. If you resize the windows (except the note window itself, of
course), you're on your own!
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
If you use LessTif, beware the window resizing that happens when you
set alarms or anchor a note! What happens is that the icon in the
menu bar changes, and for some reason that causes LessTif to resize
the note window. This doesn't happen with Motif, so I assume it's a
LessTif bug. I'll try to work around this in a future 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
Generic UNIX
ftp://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/pub/PalmOS
RedHat RPM's
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/i386/pilot-link-<latest>.rpm
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Debian ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/hamm/hamm/binary-
i386/otherosfs/pilot-link-<latest>.deb
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