(Last edited Feb 26, 2008)

The Prefs applicaton is the main application where you can change various settings in the Palm device and customize it in the way you prefer. You can change the color of the background and menus, etc. Again, the best way to show what I’m talking about is to show a simulation.

Simulation of the Prefs Application

Alternative links: Image Shack

Here’s a simulation of the Prefs Application, showing how you can easily make changes to settings to customize the Palm. You can easily change the default week start setting from Monday to Sunday by going to Formats and selecting Monday as well as the format that dates are shown, changing the color of the background, among many other settings.

The simulation will play through to the end unless I’ve inserted a pop up note to explain specific points.

To continue playing the simulation, press the button.
To go back to a previous paused segment, click on the button.
To pause the simulation at any time, press the button. To continue after it’s paused, press the button again.
To scroll forwards or backwards in the simulation, click anywhere on the left (to go back earlier in the simulation), or right (to go forward in the simulation) on the progress bar.

Here are some screenshots of the Prefs Application

I will provide a bit more info on the various screens of the Prefs application to help you understand what they are by showing screenshots. The screenshots will be in the order from top left to right and down to make it easier to figure out.

Main screen of the Prefs Application

Tap on any item to go to its settings screen.

Date and Time screen

Set or make changes to the Location, Date and Time.

Digitizer screen

If the Palm isn’t detecting the taps correctly, run this Digitizer screen to reset and re-calibrate the digitizer.

Formats screen

Set the format for the following: Country, Time, Date, Week (starts with) and Numbers.

Graffiti 2 screen

For the indicated 2 stroke Graffiti characters, you can set the software to detect the stroke in an alternate way.

Alternative stroke method of making a ‘t’

Tapping on the ‘t’ character in the previous Graffiti 2 screen brings up this screen which allows you to set the Graffiti 2 software to detect the ‘t’ with the first stroke going from left to right horizontally and then the second stroke from up to down vertically.

Power screen

Set the Auto Off time (automatically turn off the screen after 30 seconds, 1, 2, 3 minutes of no activity), Stay on in cradle (screen remains turned on when plugged into the cradle with AC power), Beam receive (On - detect infrared signals, Off - capability turned off)

Security screen

Set a Password, Current Privacy setting of showing or not showing private records, Auto Lock Handheld (automatically lock handheld settings: Never, On Power Off, At Preset Time, After a Preset Delay (after inactivity of a specified time).

Drop down menu options for the Current Privacy Settings: Show, Mask, Hide Private Records.

Lock Handheld screen options: Never, On Power Off, At Preset Time, After a Preset Delay (after inactivity of a specified time)

I will continue discussing the rest of the Prefs application starting with Sounds & Alerts in the next posting. I hope you have found out that there’s a lot of settings on the Palm you can change to personalize your Palm device in the way you want.

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