Outliner • Task Manager • Checklist • Note Taker • ToDo List • Organizer • Life Fixer

Handheld Reference Guide

Updated for Shadow Plan 3.0.0




This is the Shadow Plan Reference Guide; please see the FAQ and website as well for additional documentation. For the Desktop application see its own Desktop Reference Guide. For new users, see the Quick Start Guide. For the website, head to http://www.codejedi.com.


Please join the mailing lists so you can get informed of new updates to the Shadow software,
or to join in the discussions and feature requests! This can be very rewarding!
Website Mailing Lists


Section One: Getting Started

  1. Downloading and Installing Shadow Plan
    1. Downloading Shadow Plan
      • Shadow Plan (Handheld only)
      • Shadow Plan Bundle (Handheld + Desktop)
      • Shadow Plan Expansion Pack (Desktop Only)
    2. Installing Shadow Plan (Windows with Shadow Setup utility)
    3. Installing Shadow Plan (Windows By Hand)
    4. Installing Shadow Plan handheld (Windows without Shadow Setup utility, Mac, Unix)
    5. Installing Shadow Plan onto expansion cards and flash memory
    6. Installing Shadow Plan Desktop (for Mac and Unix users)
  2. Upgrading Shadow Plan

Section Two: A Quick Start Guide

  1. See the Quick Start Guide

Section Three: A Reference Guide


Installation - Downloading Shadow Plan

Downloading the latest version of Shadow Plan is easy. Simply head on over to CodeJedi.com to pick it up. Specifically, you can go to the downloads page. You will always be able to find the latest version (and older ones too, in case for some reason you wish to go back a revision). The download will be clearly labeled and will include the manuals, handheld application, desktop application.. the works.


Installation - Windows

Installing Shadow Plan with the Windows Setup Utility is very easy! Simply run the "Setup*.exe" that comes in the distribution file, and follow its directions. You will need to pick a directory to put Shadow Plan's desktop files in, but you can leave the default if you don't know where to put them.

Example: Shadow Plan 3.0's distribution includes Setup30.exe. The version number is in the filename to make it easier if you have many versions around and want to make sure you're using the latest.

Note: The setup utility might take a minute to unpack itself and get ready for the installation; it features a small progress bar so you can observe this process, but it can be slow at the very beginning, while unpacking and checking itself for errors, etc.

If you are having trouble getting through the setup*.exe installation application for some reason, then you can perform a manual installation as well. See the INSTALL.txt file included with the distribution for details.

After the installation, you just perform a Hot Sync and Shadow Plan will appear on your Palm OS device, the manuals will be available in your Start menu, the Shadow Plan Conduit will start syncing your selected files, and the Desktop Application will be ready to use. See the Shadow Plan entry in your Start menu.

Note: If for some reason your handheld doesn't get a copy of the application, or doesn't get updated with the latest, just double click on Shadow.prc in the distribution and then sync, and you should be all set.


Installation - Windows By Hand

You should ideally use the Setup utility to do the installation; however if for some reason its misbehaving on your system, you can still install the works by hand, though it is more tricky.

Please consult the INSTALL.TXT file, found in the zipfile distribution for the latest instructions on doing this. In general though, you go through these basic steps:

  1. Double click on Shadow.prc; this asks Palm Desktop to install the main handheld application for you. Pick the correct handheld user!
  2. Double click on ShadowSync.prc (to also install it)
  3. Synchronize; this moves the two handheld components to your handheld.
  4. Copy the By_Hand directory to somewhere on your computer; for instance, you could copy it to C:\Program Files
  5. Rename By_Hand to "Shadow Plan" (or whatever you'd like it to be)
  6. Run Shadow.exe by double clicking on it; if Palm Desktop is set up correctly, Shadow Plan Desktop should come up on your display.
  7. One of the pulldown menus is labeled "Expert"; pick it, and one of the options is "Force Install"; pick that. This will ask the desktop to attempt to copy the sync conduit and some other files into the right place for synchronization to work. It should report a simple success or failure.
  8. If an error occurs, email support@codejedi.com and we'll be sure to help you out!

Installation - Mac, Unix, Other platforms

(or for Windows users who do not wish to use the automatic Setup utility)

Installation of Shadow Plan is fairly straight forward and should be done just as you've installed any other palm application. Just follow these simple steps are you're ready to save time!

NOTE: Windows users can install the handheld software using the steps below. To install the Shadow Desktop application, you will have to use the Windows Setup Utility.

  1. Obtain the Shadow Plan distribution file (you've probably done this already, since you're reading this manual)

  2. Extract the distribution file (a .ZIP archive) into the directory you wish to keep the files in.

    You don't need to keep the extracted files after the installation, but you may wish to keep them so as to have the Reference Guides and Quick Start Guide available in the future.

  3. Install the Shadow.prc file into your Palm OS device.

    This is the tricky part, since you can do it in many different ways depending on your OS and on your setup. On a typical Windows OS with Palm Desktop installed, you can simple double-click on the "Shadow.prc" file in the Windows Explorer, and it will set it up for install automatically. You may have to run "InstApp" or other "Installer"'s and give them "Shadow.prc" to install. Under unix (FreeBSD, Linux, etc) you can easily use pilot-xfer to install the Shadow.prc.

  4. Thats it! All you need is "Shadow.prc" and you're ready to go!

Installing on Expansion Cards / Flash Memory

Shadow itself will run perfectly from expansion cards and flash memory, but there are some things to note, particularly if you're using Shadow Desktop!


Installation - Desktop (Mac, Unix)

These bulds of Shadow Desktop are less supported, but we still wish to wave the flag for the small guys and so we make them available. We'll do our best to support them and keep them up to date, but bear with us!

The Unix version is already quite usable and stable; it does not feature a sync system since there is no prevalent sync system for Unix. There is no Hotsync Manager. As such, you can use Shadow Desktop for Unix to directly edit ".pdb" files; you can use pilot-xfer (part of the Pilot Tools set), or JPilot, or KPilot, or any number of tools to up and download the .pdb Shadow Plan list files,a nd then just use Shadow Desktop to manipulate them.

Shadow Plan for Unix is currently available for Linux, though please let us know if you'd like a FreeBSD or other build.

Shadow Plan for Mac OSX is still in beta as it has a number of issues; it is already very useful and usable, but does have some gotchas, so don't mind a crash here or there. We're constantly working on improving it, but our resources for Mac are limited, so we do our best.

Download Unix and Mac Desktops at the Codejedi website's download page


Upgrading Your Shadow Plan

Upgrading Shadow Plan is very easy! Simply download the latest version you wish to install from www.codejedi.com and go through the normal Installation procedure. None of your Shadow lists will be removed during the install! By installing a newer Shadow Plan program, you will automatically update everything that is needed to get to that version.

Example for Windows: For Windows users, simply download the latest version and run the Setup*.exe that comes with it. Follow the onscreen directions and you're all upgraded!

Example for Mac, Unix: Simply download the latest distribution and install the Shadow.prc as you would any other .prc file. Your handheld will now be on the latest version! Upgrading the Shadow Desktop application requires using the appropriate setup utility.

NOTE: I do suggest keeping on top of major revisions; it is best to go from the 1.3.x series to 1.4.0 and then to 1.5.0, for instance, than to go from 1.3.x to 1.5.0 directly. This should work fine, as I try and maintain forward compatibility. (We have had many people jump all the way from 1.x releases through to 2.8 without a problem!) Once you get extreme like 1.2.x to 2.0, its hard to know for sure if everything will work and so caution should be used.. perform full hotsync backups beforehand!. So its best to check the website every month or two and install new versions as you can. Remember, updates are always free!

Whats New?

See the file "WhatsNew.txt" included in the top level of the distribution zipfile. You can also click here, but it may or may not lead anywhere, depending how you installed this manual!


Shadow Tips / Discussion Forums

We host a number of mailing lists and forums so that everyone can help each other, bounce ideas around, or make feature requests. You can find all of them here:

Shadow Plan lists and forums

The main ones of interest are:

Shadow Tips Summary

One of our friendly users went through the Shadow Tips forum archives and formatted the majority of the postings to be easier to read on the handheld screen. We've included his Shadow Tips Summary in the Shadow Plan distribution. See the "Tips" directory in the .zip file you downloaded with Shadow Plan in it. Open the Tips directory, and double click on the included ShadowTips.PDB file, and it'll install to your handheld and be available to read at your leisure in Shadow Plan itself!

One thing to note is that the Shadow Tips Summary is a pretty large file with a lot of long notes. It might take a few moments to open on older units, though should open in a blink for newer PDAs.


File Selection Screen

If no list is currently open, the file selection screen will be displayed. From here you can do high level operations such as beam, delete, rename, duplicate, import, export and otherwise manipulate whole files. Most importantly you can open existing lists and create new ones. The actions that can be taken from this screen are described below, starting with the menus accessible by tapping the menu icon at the lower left of the graffiti area.

File Selection Screen File operations popmenu Recent Files popmenu Categories and one expansion card

  1. Pulldown menus and shortcuts

    1. Open List
      Open list retrieves the currently selected list and goes to the List View screen where you can manipulate the contents of the list. This menu item to make keyboarding easier and the menus more consistent.

    2. New List
      New List allows you to create a new Shadow file. It brings up the List Preferences screen from which you can either tap "Cancel" or fill in the information for the new list and tap "OK". Hitting "OK" moves you to the List View screen (see below). Sensible defaults exist so you can just enter a filename and go if you wish. You can return to List Preferences anytime you wish.

    3. Delete List
      This will delete the currently selected file. In case you picked the wrong file, an Alert will be shown to ask if you are really sure about removing it. If you are sure, another Alert will present itself asking if you would like to remove all the "file links" to this file. Answering "Yes" to this dialog will cause Shadow to search through ALL your lists for occurances of links to this file and any that are found are removed. If you choose "No", then Shadow will simply delete the file without removing links to it. There are reasons you may wish to do either one -- you may wish to delete the links to the now removed file, so that you don't have "orphaned" links -- links that don't go anywhere. Or you may wish to leave the links going nowhere, so that you can create a new file and have all the old links pointing to it, because you named it the same as the now deleted file.

    4. Rename List
      Renaming a list pops up a new form that shows you the current name and allows you to enter a new one. By default it sets you up with the existing name in case you just wish to change it a little bit. Shadow will automatically go through ALL your Shadow files and convert links to the old file to point to the newly named file. If you have a lot of large files, this can take a moment.

    5. Duplicate List
      This will create a new file with the same contents and settings as the currently selected file and will prompt you for a name for the new file. As with the Rename List command, the new name will be initialized to the original name. If you do not modify the name, then no duplicate file will be created. Duplicating a list can be very handy. Suppose you travel from time to time and have created a template packing list called "Packing". Now suppose that you are about to head off to Paris. You can duplicate the template list and give it the name "Packing for Paris". You can then modify the copy for this specific trip and check off the items as you pack them. When you are done with this list, you can delete it. Creating templates in this fashion can be very useful.

      NOTE: the shortcut for Duplicate List is "C" (as in Copy), since "D" is used for Delete. Be careful!


    1. Import From ToDo
      Importing from ToDo allows you to bring in your Palm ToDo database items as a Shadow list. This can be used to make replacing the built-in Palm ToDo application easier, since your toDo items are migrated nearly automatically! See the later section on "Importing" for details.

    2. Import from Marked ToDos
      If you do not wish to import all ToDo's, or all ToDo's from a single category, but wish instead to import select ToDos or perhaps new ToDo's, then you can use this operation. This lets you specify in your ToDo application a list for the given ToDo to be imported into. In this way you can at your leisure prepare your old ToDos to be imported into Shadow, or even prepare them for import as you create them. To mark up a ToDo, simply remember that the Shadow marking is like this: "[[[" followed by a list name or partial list name, followed by "]]]". For example, if you have a Shadow List called "@Inbox", you could mark up a ToDo with "[[[@Inb]]]" and that would be enough for Shadow to figure out which list you mean. Make sure that it doesn't match 2 or more list filenames though, or else you won't know which list will get the item! You can specify as much or as little in the filename part of the marking as you need to identify the list. Once you've marked up your ToDos as you see fit, simply pick this option and Shadow will inform you of its progress and how many items were imported in the end.

    3. Import from Memos
      This item allows you to easily import lists from other outliner applications or from your desktop. When importing from memos, the memos must be formatted in a specific way that Shadow understands, otherwise the import will turn out as garbage since Shadow only understands a few layouts for lists. See the section on importing for details.

    4. Export to Memos
      Exporting allows you to get your Shadow files out of Shadow and into another place -- another Palm outliner, a desktop application, or even a web browser! You may wish to do this so you can edit lists on a desktop, or so you can print or share with friends. An exported list should also import back into Shadow just fine. See the section on exporting for details.

    5. Export to DOC
      Exporting allows you to get your Shadow files out of Shadow and into another place -- another Palm outliner, a desktop application, or even a web browser! You may wish to do this so you can edit lists on a desktop, or so you can print or share with friends. A Palm DOC file is a standard file for representing long text files on the Palm, and is most commonly used for word processing or for eBooks. Many programs for the Palm (and Windows and Mac) can work with DOC files, so this is a very convenient way to get data out of Shadow for printing, sharing, prettying up, etc.

    6. Beam Selected File
      This will beam the currently selected file to another palm (even if it does not have Shadow installed!). This can be handy for passing around your templates, chore listings, work assignments, etc, to other people.


    1. About shadow
      This menu just gives you an informational screen. After reading it over, you will notice that the bottom left includes either "Unreg" or "Reg" to show your registration status. If you have paid for Shadow it will say "Reg". If it doesn't, and your still getting nag screens, you should contact support and get your registration settled! If you have not paid, it should say "Unreg", which means you'll get nag screens and should register the product if you like it.

    2. Preferences
      This pulls up the Global Preferences screen. See it described above. You can also get this screen from within a List.

    3. Register
      This command will bring up the Registration screen. It shows your Hotsync ID (Palm Username), which you need when registering Shadow. When you register, a registration key, which is a series of numbers and letters, will be sent to you by email. Enter that string of characters into the field on this screen. Provided you enter it correctly, your copy of Shadow will become registered.

    4. Where To Purchase
      This option just pops up a window informing you of the location of our webstore, or the store you downloaded from, depending on our agreement with the website you downloaded from. Shameless plug: Buying from the Codejedi webstore gets you your registration code in the fastest time.


  2. The file listing



    The File Selection Screen is just that -- a way to select a file and more so, to let you open it, delete it, etc. Most operations only work on the selected item. Each line of the file listing shows a few pieces of useful information:

    1. Filename of the list
    2. (For checklists) Number of completed items in the list and total number of items in the list
    3. Size of the file in bytes (so you can be aware of how much memory is being consumed by the list)
    4. File operations popmenu

    Controlling the Selection

    1. You may tap on a line to select it
    2. You may double-tap a line to select and open it
    3. If there are so many files in the current category that some cannot fit on-screen, tap the scroll arrows in top and bottom right to scroll the screen to reveal the hidden files
    4. Use page up/down buttons to scroll it
    5. Use keyboard cursor keys to move the selection up and down
    6. The Sony Jog Dial will also function here
    7. The Palm 5-way Navigator will allow page up and down here

    The completion-count for Checklists shows the number of items that are checked and the total number of items in the list, giving you a quick hint of how finished the projects/items are in the file. The file size is the number of bytes of Palm memory the file occupies.

    NOTE: A future version will allow you to hilight important files and show more relevant data than the file size, if you like

    Opening a file

    You can double tap on a filename to open it. If the item is selected (from a single tap), then you can tap on the "Open" button at the bottom of the screen to open it. You can also tap on "Open" in the popmenu on the right hand side of the file you wish to open. Lastly, you can use the keyboard shortcut or the pulldown menus. Whew!

    Deleting a file

    You may delete a file by making it the selected file and hitting Delete from the pulldown menus, or tapping on the trash can located in the bottom right of the screen. The popmenu on the right also includes deletion operations.

    Changing the file listing's category or selecting an expansion card

    In the top right of the File Selection Screen is the Category popmenu. Tap on it to get a list of your current categories and expansion cards. Pick one of them to change to that category or card, or tap on "Edit Categories..." to manage your categories. Once you have made a category or card selection, the File Selection List will redraw to show you the files in the selected location. In this manner, you can treat expansion cards as categories of their own, though in the future you can expect some category management of files on expansion cards, too.

    File Operations Popmenu

    Most of the file operations that can be performed from the pulldown menus and onscreen buttons can also be applied by tapping the arrow on the right side of the filename. This will select the item and then apply the desired operation, as if you'd selected the item and hit the appropriate pulldown menu yourself. Operations include:

    1. Open
    2. Changing the items category (without having to enter the list and go to List Preferences!)
    3. Beam
    4. Rename
    5. Duplicate
    6. Delete
    7. Export to memo
    8. Export to DOC
    9. Move to card (or Move to internal)
    10. Copy to card (or Copy to internal)

    "Move to card" and "Copy to card" are only available if you have an expansion card plugged in and your version of Palm OS supports those cards as storage media and you are currently viewing an internal category. If a card is plugged in and you're viewing the card directory, the options "Move to internal" and "Copy to internal" are shown instead. If you select one of the two "to card" options, another list will pop up letting you select which card to operate on, though currently you will likely see only one card listed. (Future units may sport multiple card slots.) If a file already exists on the card or internal memory target, you will get an error -- Shadow will try to stop you from accidentally clobbering a file that has the same name in the target location.

  3. The buttons

    There are only four buttons on this screen; "New", "Open", "Recent" and the "Trash Can". Hitting "New" is the same as tapping the "New List" menu item (see above), allowing you to create a new list. Tapping "Open" will open the file you currently have selected in the File Selection List. Finally, tapping on the trash can will allow you to delete the specified file just as if you'd tapped the "Delete List" menu item. The "Recent" button performs as follows:

    Recent Files (History) Popmenu

    Shadow Plan keeps a list of files that you've recently accessed. The way this works is each time you open a file, it is pushed to the bottom of the history listing if it is new. If it is already in the history listing, it is not moved. The reason for this is to keep you moving quickly -- moving items around in the listing could make you pick the wrong file if you're in a hurry. You can also perform a few operations on the recent files listing:

    1. Pick a file to open it (regardless of category!)
    2. Clear the history (if its too cluttered, for instance)
    3. Start a new list. This is useful since you can pull up the recent files listing while inside a file. Starting a new list inside one file causes the current file to save and a new one to begin right away

    See the section on the Recent Files

    If you're careful with the order of opening some files after clearing the recent files history, you can essentially create yourself a quick table of contents to jump around your more common lists very quickly!


Synchronization and Backups

Synchronization is covered in detail in the Desktop Reference Guide. Please see it for a discussion of that subsystem.

Some notes to consider:


Files, Categories, VFS, Expansion Media

In general, you shouldn't need to worry about Shadow's file usage. It'll take care of everything for you, and you can manage everything you need about your files through the various menus and options available in the file selection screen and list view screens.

  1. How files are stored on the handheld

    Each Shadow list is stored, along with the list preference settings for that list, in a single Palm database (or .pdb) file. If you wish to beam this file to someone else or download it to your desktop (using HotSync or pilot-xfer or Shadow's Desktop Conduit, or other tools), you can do so. It's just like any other .pdb file. The shadow file is named "ShadP-FILENAME.pdb", where FILENAME is the name you gave to the list when creating it with Shadow. Shadow Files are not categorized.

  2. How categories are stored

    Shadow Categories are stored in a special, separate database called "ShadCat.pdb", which is a normal Palm database. Its sole purpose is to store the last-specified category of each file. Keeping the categories separate from files offers some advantages. For example, if you beam a file in your Unfiled category to a friend, and they then move it from Unfiled into Personal in Shadow, and you later beam it over to them again, their new version of the list will still be filed under Personal. You don't need to know much about ShadCat except that it is there. What if you lose it? All your Shadow files simply revert to being Unfiled. If you get a Shadow list that ShadCat doesn't know about, it will be Unfiled.

  3. Shadow Cache

    Shadow uses a lot of runtime memory to help speed up its performance. In addition to this memory, it caches various interesting calculations into storage memory for later use this "session", so that it can avoid recalculating things when it would rather be speedily working with your data. This cache is removed when you exit Shadow, or at various other times. Please do not delete it yourself unless you are sure Shadow is not running, or else you will run into problems!

  4. VFS and Expansion Media (Memory Sticks, Compact Flash, etc. etc)

    There are many types of expansion media or plug-in cards that you can use for various Palm OS units; Handspring units use Springboard modules, Sony units follow their Memory Stick system, Handera and TRGPro users are used to Compact Flash, and Palm units have a variety of cards they can use. In general, data on these cards is accessed through an operating system module called "VFS" -- the Virtual File System. All you need to know is that data on the cards is not part of "internal memory" and so programs need to be aware of VFS before they can access data stored in VFS devices. Shadow supports VFS, so all is well in the world :)

    You manage files on a card from the file selection screen just like any other files; see that section for details.

    There are some things to be aware of when using VFS data files, however, so read on.




Recent Files/History Screen

As you can see from the screenshots, the Recent Files popup can be summoned a variety of ways. You can in fact summon in like this:

Shadow Plan keeps a list of files that you've recently accessed. The way this works is each time you open a file, it is pushed to the bottom of the history listing if it is not in the listing already. If it is already in the history listing, it is not moved to the bottom. The reason for this is to keep you moving quickly -- moving items around in the listing could make you pick the wrong file if you're in a hurry and used to its position. You can also perform a few operations on the recent files listing:

  1. Pick a file to open it (regardless of category!)
  2. Clear the history (if its too cluttered, for instance)
  3. Start a new list. This is useful since you can pull up the recent files listing while inside a file. Starting a new list inside one file causes the current file to save and a new one to begin right away

If you're careful with the order of opening some files after clearing the recent files history, you can essentially create yourself a quick table of contents to jump around your more common lists very quickly!


Built-in List Types

Shadow has a variety of built-in list types that can be used for either List Views or Individual Item Overrides. (By default, all items are of the same type as the List they are in, but you may override this in the full screen Details window of an item).

The various built in views provide a cross section of useful layouts. They do not contain all of the widgets and columns Shadow Plan can provide you -- you will need to design your own layouts in order to use all of the widgets Shadow Plan provides! The built-in views are as follows:

Checklist
For packing lists, record collections, things to do, notes.. virtually anything at all can be a fine candidate for a Checklist.
Note
Note lists feature minimal widgetry -- only the Link Arrow column is present. You may wish to use a "bullet" auto-number to separate items on the screen. Handy for meeting notes, school notes, jotting down things on the run, making summaries or essays, writing a column for a newspaper.. anything where a lot of prose is going on.
Tasklist
This view is useful for project managers, people tracking things going on over time, or who want to know how far along a given set of chores or tasks are. It provides a percentage complete column/icons, priorities, checkboxes and the ever-present link arrow.
Flat
Can be useful for just squashing more information on-screen and getting a simple list of what you need to do, without regard to parent and child relationships. Often useful as a temporary view -- flip to it using the [V] top-right popmenu, see whats going on, and then flip back to another view.
Worksheet
This is a handy layout for doing an overview of work; you can quickly assign items to someone, or add dependencies (via tags), set a date and see how long until this date is due (or how late you are). Priority is also included, so you can judge the importance of the items.

Unique Custom List Views

Shadow Plan is extremely customizable; you can change your global preferences (general, display and links), list preferences (mini editor, to sync or not, colour backgrounds, auto numbers, etc), list options (suppress word wrap, default todo link category), and even.. what widgets make up your list display. This is a very powerful option and as a result, can be very confusing.. especially when coupled with all of these others preferences and options! But we prefer to give you the power when you've decided to go looking for it, rather than limit you!

Each list has a "type", normally Checklist, Tasklist, etc. Really, these are just built in selections of widgets to display in your lists -- a Checklist is a list where its items have checkboxes (unless you've gone and overridden the items in that list to be other types :). Should you wish a selection of widgets not normally shown, you can make your list (or specific items) into a Custom view. This lets you pick and choose which widgets to use from among the library of widgets Shadow Plan supports.

Several widgets available are not turned on in any built in view.

For example, you may have wondered why no built in view sports a target date column. It is definitely supported by Shadow, but takes up a lot of screen territory, and not everyone needs it.. so we decided to make it purely optional. A custom list is where you turn it on.

But first.. there are two types of custom view -- a unique custom view, and a saved custom view. A unique view is one where the details of which widgets are displayed are stored in the list itself, and no other list knows about this lists setup. A saved view is where you use the View Manager to define and save the view, and then ask this list to use that view. The difference is that for a saved view, you can use the same view layout for many lists, and changing that layout with the View Manager changes all lists using that layout. A unique view is.. on its own. Updating its layout has no effect on other lists. Using a unique layout, or a saved layout.. is purely up to you. If you wish to have a consistent set of layouts it is advisable to use saved views.. you can create a half dozen of them the way you like, and then make all lists of that saved type, and life is easy onwards.. but at that cost of creating the saved views!

To set what widgets are in the Unique Custom View, you must go to List Preferences screen. In there, if your list is set to a Custom type, you will have a Custom button at the bottom right of your screen. Even if you wish to have the list as a (say) Checklist, but wish to have some items as Custom, you will need to change the list to a Custom list, set the custom options, and then change it back to a Checklist.

  1. Open the list in question
  2. Pull up List Preferences (List menu, Preferences)
  3. Ensure the list is set to Custom type
  4. Tap on the Custom button in the bottom right
  5. Select the widgets to enable for this list
  6. Tap OK
  7. Optionally, set the list view to the desired type; leave it at Custom if you like, or change it to Checklist. Changing it to a non-Custom means your Custom options will not be enabled except for specific items you've overridden to be Customs.
  8. Hit OK to return to the list view; your custom settings will take effect on custom items (which could be all of them for a Custom list, or some of them if you've been playing with overrides)

The list of widgets to pick from is displayed on the right; a list with most of them turned on is displayed below and right; you can see that turning on everything leaves little room for actual text content, so be judicious!

What are the available widgets?

  1. Priority bubble
    The priority bubble is the (1) through (5) (and (-)) you see on the main list view in Tasklists; it can also be displayed as a bold 1-5 or - depending on your preferences. Note lists, for example, do not have priorities.

  2. Checkbox
    Either a check-circle or a check-box depending on your display preferences. If present, an item can be checked to mark it as complete.

  3. Progress bar
    Commonly seen on the Tasklist on the right; when present, you'll see a little progress bar showing how far along the task is. If tapped on, you are able to set progress in 10% increments. If the item is a parent item, its progress is not settable, but is the average of its children's progresses.

  4. Target date column
    Not shown in built in views; if enabled, the items target dates will be shown in your Palm preferred date format. Tapping in the target date column lets you specify an items target date right from the main list view.

  5. Start date column
    Not shown in built in views; if enabled, the items start dates will be shown in your Palm preferred date format. Tapping in the start date column lets you specify an items start date right from the main list view.

  6. Finish date column
    Not shown in built in views; if enabled, the items finish dates will be shown in your Palm preferred date format. Tapping in the finish date column lets you specify an items finish date right from the main list view.

  7. Link arrow column
    Seen in all built-in views; shows presence of any link from the item. If tapped on, allows you to GoTo links, change a todo links category, or pull up the link manager screen where you have fine tuned control over links.

  8. ToDo link column
    Not seen in any normal view; if enabled, a special checkbox will be displayed on the right side of items. The checkbox will either be [T] or [] (or occasionally [X]). A [T] indicates a todo link is present. Tapping on it will toggle a todo link on or off as appropriate. This is the fastest way to maintain a todo list from Shadow! If a link has been broken and is not severed, the checkbox will show [X] instead of [T], and tapping it will sever the link (and then retapping will of course assign a todo link).

  9. Days until due column
    A very useful column not normally seen; if enabled, each item will be shown with a number to its right side. The number can be negative, zero, or positive, and can in fact also be "very negative" (-<<) or "very positive" (+>>). If the number is negative, it will be displayed in red, and suggests the item is that many days LATE. If positive, it will be displayed green and suggests the item is that many days in the future. For example, an item due in 3 days will be green +3, while an item 35 days in the past will be red -35 (overdue).

  10. Tag column
    This is available in two versions -- wide or thin. They are equivalent, however the thin tag column takes up much less space on your display. If you want it just for adding tags, or if your tags are very short, this is the way to go. If you're using wide tag names like peoples names or the like, you'll want the wide tag column, if you can afford it. See the section on Tags for details.

  11. Suppress indent
    If you want a "flat" display with maximum text space, this will do it.

  12. Suppress note icon
    Normal items with attached notes will show a little note icon on their right side (of the text); tapping on this will either expand/collapse the attached note right on screen, or pull up the note editor (depending on your prefs). If you enable this pref, however, the note icon will always be hidden and notes will always be collapsed and hidden. You'll have to use /A, the Item menu, or Details window to get to the notes. People may use this to maximize screen space, or perhaps if they use Action Names, DateBk4, or other apps which add "notes" to items all the darned time :)



Saved Custom List Views

For a general discussion of custom views, see the section on unique custom views here.

A saved custom view is a custom layout that can be re-used in many lists. You define and save the layout using the View Manager and then assign the view in List Preferences, just like assigning a built-in view type. The difference between a saved view and a unique custom view is that the saved view can be edited using the View Manager, and all lists using that view will be updated to the new layout when they are opened. With a unique custom view, the list is unique and changes to its layout have no effect on other lists.

Saved custom views are very useful if you wish to have a consistent layout across lists, or if you wish to define some handy displays with attached filters. You can quickly change view types using the [V] top-right popmenu, so it can be extremely useful to define yourself a few handy views, then flip between them (and their attached filters) depending on your location or needs.

Example: You could define a saved view that has an attached filter that shows only high priority items with the tag "@Work". Define another saved view with an attached filter for items "@Home". Your Work View could show target dates and priorities, while your Home View could display just checkboxes or tags (to display who is assigned to a chore, say). Then when you wish to consult your Shadow Plan To Do list file, just select a Saved View from the [V] popmenu depending if you are at Home or at Work, and see the desired layout and filtered items.. all with only two taps!

In practice, once you have defined a saved view, it functions more or less like a built-in view or list type. You can change a list to a saved layout in List Preferences or using [V] popmenu. You create and manage saved views using the View Manager, so see that section for details of those operations.


Changing Individual Item Types

By default, list items have the type "List's Type", which is to say that whatever type your list is, the items automatically use. If you change the list's type then the items also change to that type, which makes sense, and keeps things simple for new users. If you create a Checklist list, then all items will look like Checklist items... until you override this behaviour.

You have the option of forcing an item to a different type, built-in or saved custom view. This means you can have a list that is a Checklist type, and a bunch of items defaulting to "List's Type" (which makes them Checklists in this example), and other items which are overridden and told to be "Tasklist" type. These overridden items will not change when you change the list type, and they will show percentage and priority widgets regardless of what the other list items will look like.

Over-riding items types is useful in a variety of situations. Some people just like to keep parent items as "Note" type so they're simple and to save them from accidentally hitting a parent checkbox and checking a whole subtree of children. In this case just set the List to Checklist or whatever you like, and override the parents to be Note. Other people like to just have a mixed bag -- the list could be a meeting notes, with some action items (needing checkboxes) and some note items. Just override away as you go, or change the items to their proper type later. No problem!

To override an item, just open the full-screen Details window, and change the type in the top-right. The details window is displayed here. See in the top right the override popmenu.

In the example to the right, you will notice the item is either forced to Worksheet, or the List is a Worksheet list. If you tap in the top right and change the override to "List's Type" it will now change with the List. If you change it to (say) "Checklist", then this item will become a Checklist until the end of time, or you change it's override again.. whichever comes first :)

Most people will never need to use overridden item types, but if you're a hungry power Shadow Planner, you'll end up here before long!

View Manager

The View Manager is similar to the Filter Manager and Tag Manager -- it is the tool you use to construct, view, edit, and delete Custom Views (whereas the Filter Manager lets you perform these operations on Custom Filters).

But what is a Custom View?

There are two types of custom views -- unique custom views and saved custom views. A list can have a unique custom view, which is to say it has its own view that depends on nothing. Changes to that view will have no effect on other lists. A saved view on the other hand, is a view defined with the View Manager and that is assigned to the list just like a built in type. Many lists can share a saved view, and changing the saved layout will effect all lists using that view type. As such, saved views are preferred over unique custom views, and provide you with a consistent look across all of your lists. However, they are a little more complicated to use, as a result.

The View Manager is rather simple to operate. It has limited operations and these are the same as in other Managers. It can create new Views, show you the Details and let you Edit a View, and Delete Views. The View Manager is shown here:

Hitting "New" presents you with a simple window letting you name the view, assign a filter, and pick which widgets and columns to display for items using this view.

Tapping on the "Pick columns and buttons" button will present you with the custom widget screen. This screen is documented in the unique custom view section here.

Automatic filters: You can optionally check the "Select" box and pick a filter. If the Select box is unchecked, then when a list opens or is changed to this view, no filter changes are applied. However, if you do check the Select box, then the filter listed to its side is applied when you open a list with this view, or when you change the list to this view. The selected filter can be "All" (to disable whatever filter happens to be already present), or it can be a built-in or custom filter (to disable whatever filter is current, and apply the specified filter)

One may use automatic filters for a lot of reasons, though a popular one will be for quick queries. Consider this example: Perhaps you have a To Do list in Shadow Plan. You might tag items with a location such as @Home or @Work. You could build appropriate views for home and work (with work's featuring date columns and priorities, say, while the home view includes only checkboxes and tag columns to see who is assigned a task). Attach a filter to each of Home View and Work View. Then with only two taps (one to [V] top-right popmenu and another to either Home or Work View) you can get a filtered and cleanly laid out list of your To Do's that is much more useful that seeing the whole list in some confusing layout).

Note: Watch out for the Select checkbox - it can be confusing. If it is unchecked, no automatic filter changes will occur. If it is checked, then the filter selection *will* change when you open the list. If you check the Select box, and set the filter to "All", then whenever you open the list the current (last set) filter will be removed, and this may confuse you!

Assigning a saved custom view

Remember, to assign a saved custom view, you change the current lists type in List Preferences just as you always did (since saved views will be listed along with the built-in views). You can also quickly change the list type using the [V] top-right popmenu!

View Customization - a Recipe Book

In Shadow, every list has a "default view" you specify and every item either inherits this default view or is overridden to have its own. A view is the method used to determine how to draw each item onto the screen. You can set a list view to be one of the built in views or create your own custom view. Each item defaults to its list's view, but can be over ridden to take on one of these other views.

Change list to custom type, and a custom button appears
Tap the custom button to customize the list view to your liking

This section simply shows off a few neat screenshots with descriptions of how they were built, so you can see some of the possibilities. There are many more things you can do!



Built-in Checklist View Built-in Note View Built-in Task View
Bult-in Flat View Custom View, with
most options turned on		 Custom View, with indentation
suppressed, checkboxes instead of
checkcircles, todo links so you can
have them on your todo list,
and larger triangles for your
mature eyes. Coloured background
also turned off. Numbered level 2
items, bulleted level 1.
Custom view, with indented
priorities and collapse/expand
arrow; large arrow icon priority
number instead of bubbles; target
date column added. Priorities
present.
 Standard checklist view
Coloured an item via Details
screen. Added address book
and memo links through link
manager
 A list with button bar activated

Sony Jog Dial Control

Jog Dial's go a long way in helping you get around your handheld, especially when trying to use the unit one-handed (while shopping, or driving, or other Olympic-class events :) Sadly, each vendor has implemented jog dials in a different way so it'll be awhile before every application can support every jog dial. We at Codejedi fell so in love with jog dials that we're making sure to support them as fast as possible, however!

We currently support the Sony Jog Dial. We will be supporting Handera type Jog Dials in around Shadow Plan 2.3, and hopefully Kyocera and others around 2.4 or later.

Sony Jog Dial (and Back button)

The listing below shows the operations performed by the Jog Dial and Back button in the various screens. We're confident you can maneuver around, view lists, and change lists all with one hand, using the below operations.

Handera Jog Dial

Not yet supported. Check back soon!

Kyocera Jog Dial

Not yet supported. Check back soon!

Palm 5-Way "D-Pad" Control

The newer Palm units include a little navigation disc on the units, in place of the traditional page up and page down buttons. The disc is essentially a 4 direction controller with a button in the middle.

We have implemented the 5-Way Control in much the same way as the Sony Jog Dial, though of course it varies a little due to its difference in design.

In general, all you need to know is that it operates differently depending if an item is selected or not. When no item is selected, pushing up or down on the 5-Way will page up or down respectively. When an item is selected, pushing up or down will select the previous or next visible item, respectively. This lets you move around quickly or slowly, depending what is selected. Handy.

You can select an item by pressing the center button, or by pushing right. You can unselect an item by pressing left while not at a collapsed parent item. Thats most of it right there!

List View:

Detail Screen:

So you can think of "right" as selecting an item or going deeper into a selected item, and "left" as unselected, or backing out of changes. Think of "up" and "down" as getting around.



List Preferences

The List Preferences screen is used to define the overall options for the list itself. For example, you may wish to synchronize this list but not other lists. Since that is a decision you make on a list by list basis, you set it up in the List Preferences screen. For options that make sense effecting all lists, look into the Global Preferences which are documented in another section of the manual.

This screen is usually opened when you make a new list, or when you wish to change something about an existing list. It is common when making a new list to just leave the defaults, as they're pretty good, and then return later to set things up. You can change any of the List Preferences any time you wish.

If you worked with List Preferences in versions prior to Shadow Plan 2.8 you may recall an Options button; it is now gone, replaced with a new panel based system. Several "tabs" exist at the top of List Preferences now, and tapping on a tab will switch to the corresponding panel of options. Most people will be happy with the default panel of handy general options, though if you want to get into the really powerful stuff, the other tabs are very useful!

List Preferences apply only to a specific list, and are saved into it. Changing any settings here will not affect any other list than the currently loaded one. These items are basicly those things you may wish to change about the appearance and formatting of a given file. This is where some of the real power of Shadow Plan is :)

Shadow Plan will always pick sensible defaults. As such you need only enter as little as you want into these screens. If you just enter a filename you're ready to go. The other myriad of options are for your customization and can be changed anytime.

General Panel

  1. Filename
    You must enter a filename when creating a list. You can use any characters you like in the filename, however Shadow will strip out some particularly dangerous ones, such as "/" and "(", since they can cause problems with Hotsync Manager. Once a list has been given a name, the name can be changed only by using the "Rename" menu item on the "File Selection" screen (see that section of this manual). If you pull up the List Preferences menu while an existing list is open, you will not be able to make any changes in the Filename field. To ensure that your files do not get overwritten by some other application, the actual filename on the Palm is the name you entered with the text "ShadP-" prefixed to it. You will never see this in Shadow itself, but when you Hotsync files you'll see the true name. Only one file with a given name can exist at a time (even across categories - see the FAQ for reasons why).

  2. List Type
    Each Shadow list has a view type associated to it. Don't worry, you can change the type anytime you like. The type is just a general description which tells Shadow how to display the information you're storing in it. A file can be a Checklist (with checkboxes), a Memo (without any decorations), a Tasklist (with Priorities, Checkboxes, Progress Bars, Dates, etc), a Flat list (no indentation, but with a todo link checkbox for faster todo linking), or a Custom view (where you can turn on or off any feature you like!) You can pull up List Preferences from within a list and change its view type at any time. You never lose any information .. you just change how it is presented.

    Default: Checklist.

    NOTE: Changing the list to a Custom view will activate a hidden "Custom" button which allows you to customize your list to your exact requirements. See the "Customization" section of the manual to find out what you can do. If you don't set any custom options, you'll have a custom view with no gadgets.. hardly any fun at all! Be sure to turn on some gadgets if you need them :)

  3. Category
    Palm files can be assigned to categories. Palm OS supports no more than 14 user categories; fortunately, that usually provides sufficient flexibility. You can create your own new categories, rename existing categories, and merge two categories. This item in the List Preferences allows you to assign the new or existing list to a category or to carry out the above category changes. The "File Selection" screen allows you to show only the files in a particular category.

  4. Synchronize Checkbox

    This is an important setting that controls whether or not the Shadow Conduit will even look at this file for synchronization to the Shadow Desktop application. Even if you do not set this pref, Shadow will have the Hotsync Manager back up your files in case you need to restore them later. With the Sync preference checked, the Shadow Conduit will sync this file with the desktop during Hotsync.

    Default; Off. You may not wish to synchronize all files since it can slow the sync down to have a hundred files being checked each time.

  5. Mini-editor Checkbox

    Shadow Plan lets you edit in two main ways -- via the full screen Details Window (the default), or via the "on screen" Mini-Editor. Theres advantages to both -- the full screen window lets you change almost everything about an item, all in one handy place. This lets you see all of the item in a glance, and change it at will. The disadvantage is that you cannot see the items around it, since the list view is covered. We call this "item context view". With some lists (such as a shopping list) most of your list is just plain text, and you needn't worry about setting dates and tags up, but you may need to see what is going on around the item. In this case, you would turn on the Mini-Editor, which lets you edit the item text right on the main list view, in a little window at the bottom. The advantage is you can see your list layout while editing. The disadvantage is you do not see much of the item detail. This keeps "list context" in your head. The mini editor has a button to pull up the full screen Details Window when you need it, of course. (We do not offer an edit system with the cursor right in the text in the list view due to limits of the Palm OS edit gadgetry and high res screens).

    So turn on the mini editor if you think you need to see the list structure while you are creating items.

    Default; Off.

  6. Colour Theme Checkbox (Coloured Ledger Background)

    Normally Shadow uses a white screen under your list. With this list preferences checked, an alternating blue/white background will be shown behind the list. This can really ease readability for some users.

    Note that the colour backgrounds will not show up on older model Sony Clie devices while in "low res mode" or "high res assisted low res mode", but will show up on those units in Shadow "high res mode". The reason is due to bugs in the Sony OS and not due to a limit of Shadow. Sony has corrected this bug in later units such as the Sony NX.

    Default: On.

    Note that you can change the colours used by setting up the Theme Preferences, a global preference panel. See elsewhere in this manual.

  7. Show Headings Checkbox - Fast access to sort, column titles
    When checked, the first list display row is taken up by a set of column headings. When you're changing views a lot, or just starting out with Shadow, its nice to know what the columns are for. Furthermore, tapping in a column on the titlebar offers you the option of sorting (Ascending or Descending) on that column, saving you from reaching for the List pulldown menu.

    Default: On. Its handy for newbies and oldbies alike!


List Preferences


Tap on Opt to get List Options


Change list to custom type, and a custom button appears


Tap the custom button to customize the list view to your liking

Auto Panel

The "Auto Panel" is for options that generally enable or disable Shadow automatic behaviour. For instance by default Shadow will check a parent item if all of its children items become checked. Sometimes you may not wish this automated behaviour, so you can disable it here, for example.

  1. Auto-Numbering
    Auto-numbering is one of the special features that Shadow offers. You can specify an automatic numbering preference for each of the first three levels in the hierarchy. Lists themselves allow the sublevel under each item to use its own numbering sequence. This can result in strange looking lists (for example, if you have the top level numbered 1-2-3-4-5 with the children of one item numbered i-ii-iii and those of another item numbered A-B-C-D). You can use the List Preferences auto-numbering settings to enforce a uniform numbering system. When any selection other than "No preference" is made, it overrides any individual settings that may have been made previously and locks out the numbering setting on the "Details" screen for individual items at that level. A setting of "None" forces items at that level to have no numbering at all. Auto numbering can save you time by automatically choosing the correct numbering convention for you when you create a new item.

  2. Always Link New Items to ToDo
    For some lists, with a high concentration of tasks, you may wish to have all items linked to the ToDo database. Activating each one (even with the custom view ToDo link column) can take an extra few taps you really don't have time for. By activating this option, all newly created items will link to ToDo automatically, saving you the taps. Its generally not something you want for every list though, so I put it in this option screen. You can disable the link afterwards, at your leisure, if undesired.

    Default: Off

  3. Always import new ToDo items
    This option is very handy if you're replacing your Palm To-Do application with Shadow Plan. By checking it, Shadow will look for new ToDo items each time you open this list. The new items are imported and linked, so that you can now see the item in both Shadow Plan and Palm ToDo. You can edit the item in either Shadow or ToDo, or even MSOutlook or Palm Desktop or DateBk5 or Agendus.. Shadow will take care of all the synchronization for you!

    Default: Off

    See the Options Panel for some options for this feature.


  4. Always import new Datebook items
    This option is very handy if you're replacing your Palm To-Do application with Shadow Plan. By checking it, Shadow will look for new ToDo items each time you open this list. The new items are imported and linked, so that you can now see the item in both Shadow Plan and Palm ToDo. You can edit the item in either Shadow or ToDo, or even MSOutlook or Palm Desktop or DateBk5 or Agendus.. Shadow will take care of all the synchronization for you!

    Default: Off

    See the Options Panel for some options for this feature.


  5. Suppress Autocheck
    This is a toughy. Autochecking is the behaviour of Shadow to check a parent when all of its children become completed, or to check all children when a parent becomes complete. For instance, if you define a project or story to be comprised of 4 sub-items, and then a month later complete the last item (by checking it off) then the parent item will autocheck, so you know it is complete. Many people like this behaviour, and coupled with filters or hilights or sorts, much time can be saved. However, its not for everyone. So by activating this option, some autochecking and automatic behaviour is disabled. Shadow Plan will improve in this arena, but this first step ought to help a lot of people.

    Default: Off

Options Panel

List options are part of a list's preferences, but are less frequently changed by most people so are grouped aside. There are some very handy options here for power users!

  1. Create ToDo In
    When you create a link to the ToDo database from a Shadow item, it is created in the category specified here. This allows you to change it from Unfiled to some other category, causing all new ToDo links to go to it. Existing links are not moved to the new setting. In an upcoming version, you will be able to override this on an item by item basis, too.

    Default: Unfiled

  2. Suppress title word wrap
    Title text, like attached note text, word wraps and can spread across many lines of the display. Some find this takes up too much space even when the title has a lot to say. This option keeps the title text to a maximum of one line on the display and draws an ellipses ("...") after title text that would normally take more lines on the screen. With this option enabled, you maximize the number of items you can squish onto the display (after collapsing all memos, of course)

    Default: Off -- Hiding of data can look like something was lost. Only each user can pick whether they like this or not.

  3. New items take sibling's view

    If this pref is set, new or edited items will pick up the custom view settings of their siblings. Handy so you can set up a sublevel style you like and then all new items in that sublevel will magicly look like the other items in that sublevel!

    Default; Off. Can be confusing.

  4. Suppress scrollbar

    A list will show a scrollbar if it is longer than the screen. However, if you don't wish to have a scrollbar for this list, because you generally access it linearly up and down, or just dislike scrollbars.. check this preference to totally disable it. When enabled, this pref stops the scrollbar from being rendered and returns that valuable screen space to your display!

    Default; Off. New users may need the scrollbars.

  5. Always sort undated to bottom

    By default, when sorting dates, Shadow counts an item without a date as being "very low", so sorting "ascending" will put the undated items at the top of the list. Many people will wish to have the undated items sort to the bottom of the list and so we provide this option.

    Default; Off.

  6. Auto import non-Shadow only*

    If you have enabled the Auto Import options from the "Auto Panel" (described above), then this list will pick up new ToDo and/or Datebook items. Well and good. However, what if you created these items from Shadow Plan? If this list is your master ToDo list you likely still want the items auto imported. But if this is a list of "inbox" ToDo items, then you may only want new ToDo items that are not already in Shadow Plan. Checking this option will attempt to auto import only ToDo or Datebook items that look like they came from outside of Shadow. How do we know? I'm glad you asked... Shadow Plan can be told (using a Global Preference!) to mark a linked item by adding a "Shadow Origin Stamp" to the ToDo or Datebook item's note. So if you check this "Auto import non-Shadow only" option, it will only work if you also enable the "Shadow Origin Stamp"ing feature in global preferences.

    Default; Off.
Options panel

List View Screen

After a list has been opened, the list view screen will be displayed. The actions that can be taken from this screen are described below, starting with the menus accessible by tapping the menu icon at the lower left of the graffiti area.



  1. Optional Titlebar

    By default, lists have a titlebar (though if you're upgrading from an older Shadow Plan (prior to Shadow 2.5) your lists may need to have the titlebar activated in List Preferences.) You toggle the titlebar on and off in List Preferences. It occupies the first display row on your screen and simply displays column titles for the visible columns. This can be very handy for newbies, and I think it is rather attractive anyway ;) It is also functional, for tapping on a column in the titlebar pops up the option of sorting by that column, ascending or descending. So this is really a very handy little gadget, though if you're tight for screen realestate you can as always turn it off.

  2. Pulldown menus and shortcuts

    1. New Item
      This will bring up the new item "Details" screen (see below), allowing you to create a new item for your list. If an existing item was selected at the time this command was issued, then the new item will be placed immediately after it. If no item was selected (e.g., when the list was just opened), then the new item will be placed at the end of the list. In either case, after the new item has been added, the item selection cursor will move to the new item so that consecutive "New Item" commands will create items in a row down the screen.
    2. New Child
      This, like "New Item", will bring up the "Item Detail Screen" and allow you to build a new item. The difference is that when the item is saved into your list, it'll be a "Child" of the item that is already selected. The item selection cursor will move to the new item.
    3. New (Up a level)
      This is the same as New Item except it is the same as moving the selection up a level first. As such, this operation only works when on an item that is a child of some other item. The purpose of those operation is to make quick list creation easier. If you need to lay out a list that is like this:
      • A
        • 1
      • B
      Then you need to New Item (to make "A"), New Child (to make "1"), and then New Up to make "B". You don't need to mess with the screen much to accomplish this.
    4. New From...
      This allows you to create a new Shadow item derived from an existing ToDo or Datebook database item. For instance, you may create some items from MSOutlook or Palm Desktop in your calendar. Since Shadow doesn't know they exist, they won't show up in a Shadow file. Just hit New From and pick the week containing the ToDo or DateBook entry, pick the ToDo or Datebook selector to show the right kind of entry, and pick it from the list. Voila, a Shadow item now exists! You can optionally link back to the original item, too, if you wish to have synchronization occur, etc.
    5. Delete Item
      This command is used to delete the selected item (you'll get an error message if no item has been selected). To protect against accidental deletions, a confirmation alert will pop up. After "OK" is selected, the item is deleted along with ALL OF ITS CHILDREN. This CANNOT BE UNDONE. Be careful! If there is any doubt, click "Cancel" on the alert screen. [You may be able to use the "Revert" command to return to the last saved version of the list. This will undo all work since the last save, including these deletions. Reverting is very dangerous since it cannot restore deleted links and other complex pieces of data, so odd things can sometimes occur.]
    6. Delete Children
      This is like "Delete Item", above, except that it will delete all children of the selected item. Since this is a dangerous operation, a confirmation is required.
    7. Promote Item
      Promoting an item will move an item up a level. If it is at the top level, it won't go anywhere. This exists mainly for its shortcut, so you can use grafitti keystrokes to move an item up the hierarchy. If you wish to do it onscreen, use drag and drop instead.
    8. Demote Item
      This is the counterpart of Promote Item. You use it mainly via a grafitti keystroke. The selected item is moved down a level, to become the child of its immediate previous sibling. A handy shortcut. If you want to tap on the display, just use drag and drop...
    9. Item Details
      This pulls up the full screen Details Window for the selected item.
    10. Item Links and Tags
      This option pulls up the Link Manager, which is the same screen you would get if you were to tap on Link from within the Item Details window. This screen allows you to change any links an item may have on it.
    11. Item Fast Tag
      This menu item pulls up the Tag Wizard. The Tag Wizard is documented elsewhere in the manual, but in essence is a screen for very easily and quickly setting which tags are associated to the selected item. For instance, you can associate a half dozen tags to the item with only a few taps.
    12. Add/Edit Note
      Immediately bring up the note editor for the selected item. This saves you tapping on Details and then Note, quickly allowing you to add a note to an item, or edit an existing note. Very handy in reducing your tap-count!
    13. Toggle Checkbox
      This toggles the checking of the item. Note that the shortcut for this menu item is Cmd-Spacebar!

    1. Preferences
      This brings up the List Preferences screen. See above.
    2. Revert To Last
      When this command is executed, the current list in memory is discarded and the last saved version of the list is loaded back into memory. You must be very careful using this operation, since not all data can be restored. (If you delete linked objects, for instance, Shadow cannot restore that data! Due to some complex operations being irrecoverable, strange things may occur if you Revert!) You may, for example, have worked for 10 minutes without saving your list. If you decide that don't like your recent changes, just tap "Revert" and you are back where you started. This can be handy if you wish to experiment. Save your current list using "Save Now" (see below), and then make some changes. If you don't like them, revert back to the save point. Further, if you make a mistake and accidentally delete some important items, just revert to bring them back (but remember that you'll lose other recent work at the same time). So it's a very good idea to "Save Now" after making changes that you know you want to keep. Then you can always come back to them if you make a mistake later.
    3. Save Now
      This command saves your list immediately, but unlike the "Done" command, it does not exit to the File Selection screen and allows you to continue working on your list. So if you have reached a point where you wish to save, tap this menu item, or use its graffiti shortcut. (Shadow saves automatically when you exit the program or follow a link to another file or perform any other file-changing operation.)
    4. Sort
      See the section on sorting. You can apply a sort to your list, which will juggle the items around into a hopefully more useful ordering. A sort only applies to the items on the same level, though a sort will occur against the whole list (ie: It won't move items between levels.. just re-order them *on* a given level).
    5. Filter
      See the section on filters. Filtering is the act of having Shadow temporarily hide some items from your view that you don't wish to see right now. If you wish to hide all items that are checked for instance, no problem. They're still there.. just hidden. While a filter is active, You will see a hilighted [F] flag icon in the top right of the display, to show you that a filter is active and hiding items.
    6. Hilight
      Hilighting is like filtering, except that unmatching items are not hidden.. instead the items matching the selection criterion are bolded, and even coloured if your device can handle that.
    7. Expand All
      This will expand ALL parent items. So all of your items will become visible (unless filtered or offscreen, of course). This can be handy if you wish to open up a dozen entries and don't wish to tap away for a minute.
    8. Expand All Memos
      This will expand ALL memos. So all of your items that have memos will have their memos opened up, saving you the work of expanding each one individually.
    9. Collapse All
      Like "Expand All", this will collapse all items, removing as mant from view as possible. This can be handy so you can quickly navigate up and down the list or wish to just see the top level items and hide the detail children items.
    10. Collapse All Memos
      Since each memo item can be expanded and collapsed on their own, and can be very long (20 pages easily!), this menu item can be very handy for getting around. Rather than scroll up 50 times, you could collapse all the memos and get right to the point. Can seriously unclutter your screen.
    11. Sever All Broken Links
      If you link to various files or other databases, but then delete those items, the links will point to "nowhere" and are thus called "broken". Usually when you open a Shadow file, you will be notified of any broken links and given the opportunity to sever them.. but you may have disabled this with a preference, or chosen not to sever the links. You can still sever them link by link in the Item Details screen, though this can be tiresome if you've broken many links at once. So to save the work of looking for broken links, you can just go and pick this menu item, which will have Shadow go and find any links it used to think are broken and reverify their integrity. If they are still broken, they are "severed", meaning the link is removed forever from the Shadow item (which is otherwise left alone). After this menu option has completed, your remaining links should all be working links.

    1. Cut Item
      This cuts the selected item (and thus its children, since they are attached to it) out of your list, and keeps it on the Item Clipboard. The Item Clipboard is not pastable to other applications since they do not understand things other than text. The Item Clipboard is maintained while you are in Shadow, so you can Paste into other Shadow list files even! Very handy!
    2. Copy Item
      This is similar to Cut Item, except that the selected item is copied and not removed from your list. This can be useful for template items, or items you wish to just duplicate. Copy an item, and paste it in.
    3. Move Clipboard Item
      Move is like Paste, except that it clears the clipboard afterwards. You can only Move once, and then you'll have to cut/copy again to get something into the clipboard. If you wish to move a node far in a list, you could Cut it, and then scroll the screen to where you want to put it, select an item as an achor, and then Move Clipboard Item to put it into place. This is very efficient on speed and memory.. since a Cut just brings an item into the clipboard (without copying), and Move puts it into your list (without copying). It also doesn't leave wasted memory in the clipboard.
    4. Paste Item
      This copies an item from the clipboard into your list. If no item is selected, the paste will go to the last item on the display, otherwise it will go after the selected item.
    5. Paste As Child
      Same as Paste Item, except the copy will become the child of the selected item.
    6. Clear Item Clipboard
      Erases the item clipboard. This is mainly used to save memory -- if you have copied a very large item (with lots of children or memos attached), you can clear it to free the memory.
    7. Uncheck All
      This item turns off the checkbox of all items in the list. You could wish to use this when you are done with a list and wish to re-use it later, for instance. You could also uncheck all items, then check a couple to delete and then hit "Delete Checked" above.
    8. Delete All Checked
      This command deletes all items that are currently checked off. This is another potentially dangerous operation and, therefore, requires confirmation. If you tell Shadow to go ahead by tapping "OK", then all items that have their checkbox (or checkcircle) active will be deleted, as well as ALL THEIR CHILDREN. This can delete a huge number of items and CANNOT BE UNDONE (except as noted above under Delete Item), so be very careful!
    9. Delete Sel. Checked Children
      Like "Delete Checked Items", above, except that only children of the currently selected item are examined and removed. A confirmation is required due to the danger of this operation.
    10. Copy All Checked to Clip
      All checked items in the current list are copied into the clipboard. Remember that in single-clip mode, the existing clipboard item will be clobbered, and in multi-clip mode the clipboard will be added to (if it contains anything already). This can be handy for duplicating a part of a shopping list, or packing list, for instance.
    11. Copy and Uncheck All Checked to Clip
      Also useful for packing lists, shopping lists, etc, is the ability to copy all checked items in the whole list to the clipboard.. and at the same time uncheck them so you know they're done, or to reset the list for re-use. Very handy. Be sure to check your clip-mode! (See clipboard section)
    12. Cut and Uncheck All Checked to Clip
      Again for list making, you may wish to cut all checked items out of the current list, and paste them into another list. This option will cut all checked items in the entire list, and uncheck them, and then put them into the clipboard. Remember to check your clip-mode! (See clipboard section)

    1. Top Item
      Use this to jump from anywhere to the topmost item in the list. Handy for getting around.
    2. Bottom Item
      Jump from anywhere to the bottom of the list. Just handy for getting around.
    3. Next Item
      Go to the next item that could be visible. The main use for this seemingly useless menu item is for when you have large memos open and you need to step over them. Rather than page down for perhaps 10 screens, just jump right down to the next item.
    4. Prev Item
      Same as "Next Item" above, except it goes to the previous item that could be visible.
    5. Zoom
      Zoom is the ability to drill down to a sublevel and restrict your view to only those items. If your list is very deep, this can be very useful so you can see the deeper items without having them word-wrap like crazy and without confusing yourself with the items above or below the sublevel. A side effect of zooming is that many operations restrict themselves to "visible" items.. for instance: Collapse All will collapse all items in the list... but when Zoomed, it will collapse all items in the current zoom!
    6. Un-Zoom
      This returns your view to the very top level of your list, so that no items are being hidden.
    7. Find
      This brings up the Find window, allowing you to jump the selection to an item with some matching text. See the section on Find for details.
    8. Find Again
      Once you have done a Find and found an item, you may wish to find the next item that also matches you search criterion. Keep hitting Find Again to keep jumping to the next matching item.
    9. Recent Files
      This summons the Recent Files popmenu, where you can choose to jump to another file without having to return to the File Selection Screen.

    1. Preferences
      Same as in File Selection Screen menu. Allows you to edit global preferences. See the section of the manual dealing with the manu preferences for details of what all the settings mean.
    2. Manage Tags
      Summons the Tag Manager screen, which is documented elsewhere in the manual.
    3. Manage Filters
      Summons the Filter Manager screen, which is documented elsewhere in the manual.
    4. Manage Views
      Summons the View Manager screen, which is documented elsewhere in the manual.
    5. Manage Alarms
      Summons the Alarm Manager screen, which is documented elsewhere in the manual.
    6. About Shadow
      Same as in the File Selection menu. Tells you if you are registered or not, what version you are running, and gives the website address.

  3. The screen

    The screen can br broken down into three main regions, each with their own set of functions.
    • Top
      The top is mainly for filename, indicators and the popmenus.
    • List View
      Where you do most of your work. You can see your list contents here, slide items around, bring up the details and links, and otherwise poke around, read, or manipulate your data.
    • Bottom
      The button bars. Large scale operations such as creating or deleting items, summoning the detail windows, scrolling, or doing searches.

    These three regions cover a LOT of functionality. Its best to just play around to discover the uses of most of the various widgets and operations since there are just so many of them -- though they tend to be pretty easy to understand. But do read this section, since many very useful operations are HIDDEN since they do not have a button to begin them, or have a context sensitive nature meaning only some operations are visible at a time.

    Parts of the screen

    • The titlebar contains the filename of the currently open file, or if Zoomed then ">" and the title text of the item the view is "inside of". For instance, if you see ">Top level item", then you know that the list is zoomed and you are currently viewing only items inside of "Top level item".
    • The pop-menus. These are an EXTREMELY useful context sensitive operation menu system that also serve as indicator lamps. There are three pop-menus all tucked in side-by-side: Clip, Filter, and View.

      Jump
      The first top-right popmenu is the Jump popmenu. This can be a very big time saver for your large or complex or deeply nested lists. In short, this menu lets you do two main things: 1) Jump up and down a list very quickly, or 2) Jump into and out of items (Zooming) very quickly. When you tap on the jump popmenu, a popup list of options is shown; the first option is always "Set Zoom On" or "Set Zoom Off". If an item is selected, there may be a few more options. Otherwise, the main body of the listing is an abbreviated name of all your top level items. The jump menu is in either "Zoom mode" or "Jump mode" (where Jump is the default; the mode is saved for the list too, so if you change the mode it will always be the same until you change it again!). When you tap on an item's name, Shadow will either scroll down to show that item and select it (jump mode), or it will "zoom into" it (in zoom mode). When zoomed, Shadow Plan shows the current top level items for the jump menu, so this lets you quickly zoom into an item, then zoom into its children, and so on.. letting you dig deep into your list without touching the main screen at all. In non zoom mode, it lets you scroll up and down the list very quickly.. handy for those with long To Do style lists, or writing books or the like. Additionally, since the jump button lets you drill down and zoom into items, it also lets you zoom back up, one level at a time, as a conveniance.
      Clip
      The clip popmenu is for clipboard operations. This saves you doing grafitti shortcuts or reaching for the Edit pulldown menu. All clipboard operations are available here, plus some you can't get in the pulldown menus! If an item is selected, you can Copy or Cut. If items are in the clipboard, you can Paste or Move or Clear the clipboard. A new and easily confusing and overlooked feature is the ability to set the clip-mode of the clipboard. The clip can be in "holds one" mode, or "holds many" mode. See the clipboard section for details, but essentially when the clipboard is in "holds one" mode, any copy or cut operation will replace any existing data in the clipboard (since it can only hold one operation at a time). If the clipboard is in "holds many" mode, a copy/cut will simply add to the end of the clipboard, allowing you to do several copies from different parts of the same (or different!) lists, and then do one big paste. Very handy for moving a volume of data around!
      When data is in the clipboard, this popmenu will be hilighted


      Filter
      This popmenu allows you to invoke or shut off Filters and Hilights. If a filter is currently active, the popmenu will be hilighted. This tells you that items may be hidden, so don't panic if you can't find an item you're looking for! See the sections on filters for details of how filters and hilights work. Also note, that if you deactivate a filter, this popmenu will allow you to instantly turn it back on without having to go into the filter menu!


      View
      The view popmenu is the fastest way to change views and zooms. It can save you many taps to bring up List Prefs, for instance, since you can change between the various views instantly! Change a list from a Tasklist to a Customlist in one tap, or zoom in or out of a sublevel with one tap! Just too darned handy! When any Zoom is activated, this popmenu will be hilighted!


    • Category popup list. This is a standard feature among Palm applications, though to conserve space the current category is not displayed as is customary. Tap on the little arrow in the top right to bring up the category listing, and tap on an item to change the current file to that category. This is the same as entering the List Preference screen and changing category there.
    • Button bar along the bottom of the screen .. handy buttons/shortcuts for common every day tasks like creating new items or summoning details
    • Shadow Find button (looks like a magnifying glass) to bring up the Find window. See the section on Find for details.
    • Trash Can iconic button, for deleting items. Same as hitting the Delete menu item or using the /D shortcut.
    • Repeating Scroller Arrows -- if your list is too long to fit on the display, scroller arrows will appear. You can tap on them, or hold the pen on them, to zoom up and down the list. You can also use the hardware scroll buttons to move, though they jump further at a time.

    • The list display.

      The list display will look different for different list view types (especially if you have customized the view!), but generally has the following items possibly visible in it. The colour and black and white versions look very similar... just colour gets colourized icons, backgrounds and item colour over-rides.

      • Expand/collapse arrow -- tap this to toggle display of children or indented items. When expanding to reveal children (indented items) the screen will scroll to show as many children as it can.
      • Priority -- contains -, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 if displayed at all. You can tap on the priority number to get a popup priority changer, or you may change it inside the Item Details screen
      • Checkbox or Checkcircle -- either on or off. Tap on it to toggle. Various menu items can apply against checked or unchecked items, and a checked item is always displayed with progress of 100% since it is assumed to be completed. (It also factors in at 100% for averaging). If strik-thru in the Display Prefs is active, a checked item will be struck-thru to show its completion.
      • Auto-number -- each item may have an auto-number associated to it. See List Preferences for details of setting auto-numbers, which are usually numbers, but may also be bullets.
      • Title text -- each item has title text (which may be empty). The title text is always displayed (unless filtered out of view), but has limited length. The title is usually displayed in full but a display preference can restrict the title to a single line. If the text has been cut off at one line (due to the pref), and some text is hidden, an ellipses ("...") will be drawn after it to queue you to the hidden text.
        HINT: If you double tap on the item text, the Item Details screen will open automatically.
      • Note icon/text -- A note is usually hidden from view, though if it exists at all a "note icon" will show up to the right of the title text. Tapping on the note icon will expand the note below its title text. Tapping it again will collapse the memo, hiding it from view. The note icon may be suppressed in a custom view, in case you're sick of seeing DateBk4 added notes :)
      • Progress bar -- shown for Tasklists only. Displays the progress of the item, as entered by the user, or as an average of children items. If the item has no children, the user may enter a progress by either tapping on this icon, or by changing it inside the Item Details screen. If the item has children, then its progress percentage is equal to the average of its immediate children (remember, that if an item has a child, and that item has children, those children will average to the child, which will then average to the parent. Very handy.)
      • Target date column -- in activated in custom views, the target date will display an items target date as well as allow you to quickly change the target.. just tap on the existing date!
      • Todo link column -- if activated in custom view, this column allows one-tap to turn on or off a todo link. Saves having to go to the item options window.
      • Link Arrow -- if a link has been assigned to the item, than a link arrow will be displayed on the far right. Tapping on it will pop-up a list of what links the item has and in turn tapping on a link will jump to the destination of that link. For instance, an item may link to ToDo, Datebook and even another Shadow file all at the same time. Soon it will also link to a Phonebook entry as well as DOC files and who knows what :)
        Tapping on the link arrow can bring up a menu with various options, but a sample menu could be:

  4. Grafitti Input

    Entering any grafitti characters in the List View Screen, while no dialogs are open, will open the New Node screen and enter your characters into the title for you. This is a quick way to start entering a new item, without even having to hit "New".

    Note that almost all of the pulldown menu items have Grafitti Shortcuts associated to them. These shortcuts can be used by a keyboard user or done from the grafitti area of your handheld.

    There are some special grafitti shortcuts as well:

    Stroke Actual Grafitti stroke Effect
    Swipe right Space Demote item
    Swipe left Backspace Promote item
    Swipe Up Prev Field Move item up screen one line, unless it would have to go up the hierarchy (become a parent)
    Swipe Down Next Field Move item down one screen line, unless it would have to go up or down the hierarchy.

  5. Keyboard Input

    More and more keyboard supporting is being added all the time. Please make suggestions, as well!
    Any alphanumeric character Start a new item with that character
    Up Arrow Move selection up to previous screen item
    Down Arrow Move selection to next screen item
    Left Arrow Collapse level and move selection to parent
    Right Arrow Expand child and move selection to first item in sublevel
    Space Demote item
    Backspace Promote item
    Page Down Scroll down one page
    Page Up Scroll up one page

  6. Double tap

    Double tapping on an item will bring up the Item Details screen, just as if you'd tapped the "Details" button.

  7. Tap and Hold

    After you tap on an item and hold the pen down for a second or two, the "Glance window" will pop up automatically, giving your some extra information about the tapped down item. The glance window contains much of the information from the Item Details series of windows, and perhaps other sources. It is all displayed in one place for a quick overview of off-screen information. On newer Palm OSes, the glance will automatically go away after a few seconds, though older OSes may require a tap anywhere on the screen to "wake up" the glance and tell it to go away.



  8. Drag and Drop

    If you wish to move an item from one place on the screen to another (such as to turn a child into a sibling of its parent, or to move an item from a deep level to a higher level, or vice versa), there are many ways to do it. For example, you could use the "push arrows" from the button bar (see below) if you have enabled it. You can use the clipboard "cut and paste" operations. Or you could just tap on and it push it where you want it. Thats right.. its almost that easy!

    Tap on an item and then start dragging it. If you let go too fast.. don't worry, Shadow will assume you wanted to abort and just stop the drag and drop operation. If you want to drag off the top or bottom of the screen, that'll work no problem, and Shadow Plan will scroll to follow your pen.

    Where to drop? Well, its not too hard, but there are a few rules to remember.

    While dragging the pen, you'll notice that when the pen is hovering over the middle belly of an item, a rounded rectangular box will surround the target row. If your pen is hovering in between two items, you'll see that an insertion line is shown.

    When dropping on an item (in rectangle mode), the item being dragged will become the last child of the target item.

    When dropping between two items (in insertion line mode), the dragged item till slip right where you're pointing.. between the two items.

    When dropping between two items of different indentation level the drop will go to the deeper of the two levels. This works out quite nicely at easily resolving the question of "where do you really want to drop?" when dropping in an awkward position.

    When dragging across a multiple row item, then note that you can drop only above the first row, below the last row, and while pointing at the middle rows, only drop as a child. Treat the big tall item as a single row item for the rules above.