In this Newsletter:
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New Services Available: Turn-Key Printing & Data Entry
Data
Entry Services:
NC Software is now offering data entry services for
customers wanting to migrate line-by-line data from
handwritten logbooks to Logbook Pro. We know you're
busy and don't want to spend time transferring years worth
of data to Logbook Pro, so let us do it for you!
Logbook Pro provides the best results and analysis
options when your flying is entered line by line instead of
using mass carry-over entries. We'll take your
handwritten logbooks, transfer the data and then return your
logbooks (or copies of) and include a disk with your new
Logbook Pro data file. If you've already started, no
problem, we'll take your existing Logbook Pro data file, add
the remaining entries from your handwritten logbooks and
return a completed data file for your continued use.
Our rates are very affordable, all you have to do is inquire
and tell us how many rows of data you have (rows per page x
number of pages) and we'll get you a quote. We operate
on a first come first serve basis, so don't delay if this
service can benefit you. You must have a license to
Logbook Pro prior to commencing the data entry service.
Inquire today!
Turn-Key
Printing Services:
NC Software is now offering turn-key printing services
complete with your very own Cirrus Elite Professional
leather cover. We take your Logbook Pro backup file
and handle all the duplex (front/back) printing on the heavy
bond pre-hole punched and perforated Cirrus Elite sheets on
high quality laser printers. We'll produce a solution
complete with your Logbook Pro data looking just like the
Jeppesen style handwritten logs (open faced left to right
reading), a cover page, and various other pages such as
summaries perfect for interviews.
We offer two services depending on your needs. We
have a 2-5 business day turn-around "expedited"
service where you contact us and we can typically have your
binder to you the next day! Or, we have a "normal"
service turn-around of 5-7 business days complete
with your choice of binder, paper, and we'll take care of
the rest! Whether for a hard copy backup or preparing
for that all important interview, let us provide you the
highest quality printing solution so you stand above the
rest in the hiring process. Don't settle for blurring
ink-jet printing, we'll use our high-end laser printers to
ensure the highest in quality!
Inquire today
and we'll get started on your turn-key printing solution
immediately.
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Considering a PDA? Supported Handheld Devices
Explained
Are you looking to lose your laptop computer, consolidate
your cell phone and PDA, or get an updated PDA to manage
your day to day tasks? We know it can be daunting
figuring out what is what, Palm or Pocket PC "Windows
Mobile" and which version of this or that! So I'm
writing this article to help simplify the entire process
with one easy test!
If you can interact with the screen via a stylus, we
support it!
Now there's always an exception, but I'm willing to bet my
dogs dinner the above statement will hold true 99.99% of the
time! There is sometimes confusion as we say we don't
support "Windows Mobile SmartPhone Edition" and some people
take this to mean we don't support "smart phones." We
are talking about two different things. We don't
support smart phones, but a smart phone, from the programmer
and technical aspect is one that does NOT allow screen
interaction. Examples are the Motorola Q and
BlackBerry (although a non-supported platform) as these
devices require all interaction via a scroll wheel on the
side and other methods of navigation with no stylus or
screen interaction. From the non-technical point of
view a "smart phone" is one that combines the PDA and Cell
Phone, which is a different concept than our technical
specs. So you may call this a "smart phone" or
companies trying to sell you these devices, but technically
they are combined phone and PDA devices. We DO support
these devices as long as you can interact with the screen.
We used to say our favorite devices are Palm OS devices,
yes, they are faster, longer battery life, more reliable,
but Microsoft has really come a long way with Windows Mobile
5 and ActiveSync 4.x. Our new Logbook Pro Pocket PC
Companion demonstrates the versatility and ease of use this
new operating system allows, of which APDL already takes
advantage of as it has for several years now. So now
the answer is "it depends" when asked about which device
platform is best, and typically we can't answer this, we
stick to purely technical questions so we don't end up with
your hated PDAs!
When the Motorola Q craze came out, I figured it was time to
get one of these so we could support it. I went to the
local Circuit City to get a little hands on, then to the
Verizon store to inquire further. I quite frankly was
not impressed with the quality, it felt like plastic, unlike
the sturdy and quality feel of the Palm Treo. The
screen is very small unlike the higher resolutions and
clarity of the Treo, and the lack of screen interaction was
probably the nail in the coffin! Why someone would
prevent screen interaction with a stylus for a PDA type
device is beyond me! I own and use a Treo 650 and love
it! We were subjected to the marketing hype of the "Q"
but in my opinion I cannot recommend this product, nor do we
support it.
Different devices offer different screen sizes (resolution).
"Square" screens such as on the Treo 700w which are 240x240
resolution, then the normal and VGA screen resolutions, and
of course the crazy layout of the "Q" but we don't support
it, so no need to go there! Bottom line is, our
applications work on all of these devices, smaller screen
sizes/resolutions may produce a scrollbar here and there.
And for those that like to use the new landscape features
Windows Mobile 5 provides, the Logbook Pro Pocket PC
Companion fully supports this now!
So, your quiz for today is. "What does a device
have to have in order for our products to work?"
As always, take advantage of our try-before-you-buy
downloads. Install our software and take it for a test
drive. Most businesses will honor a short term refund
policy on the device, so
download
our free evaluation and give it a go!
(This is upside down so you don't cheat: SCREEN
INTERACTION WITH STYLUS)
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Tips & Tricks with the new PDA
Wizard
The new PDA Wizard in Logbook Pro has been a great
success allowing Logbook Pro and APDL users much greater
control over importing their PDA data and in much less time!
For APDL users familiar with SingleSync, you must remove
SingleSync from your PC using the Windows Control Panel
Add/Remove programs area to avoid a conflict with the sync
process.
To import any PDA data (either Logbook Pro or APDL)
launch the PDA Wizard in Logbook Pro under the PDA menu.
If you recently purchased a Logbook Pro PDA Companion or
APDL license, use the activation/registration option under
the PDA menu to activate your PDA license within Logbook
Pro. Logbook Pro on the PC will not listen to your PDA
until it has the key code entered so it knows
synchronization is now allowed.
When you launch the PDA Wizard you have four choices, one
each corresponding to our PDA products that sync to Logbook
Pro. Select the corresponding option, if it's grayed
out, click the Activate button to enter your PDA license.
You may have to close and restart the PDA wizard after doing
so to get the available option to appear.
For users of Logbook Pro PDA Companions:
If you're syncing in the Logbook Pro PDA Companions - do NOT
stop the process as cancelling out of the PDA Wizard process
will potentially lose your PDA data that has been brought
into the merge queue in Logbook Pro. Once you start,
just follow the prompts and then click the Sync button,
that's all there is to it! For Pocket PC users, you
may get an initial prompt to advise you to click
File...Shutdown in Logbook Pro on your Pocket PC, which was
put in place to make sure you save your data prior to
syncing, which occurs automatically when closing the
software. It is not critical as typically your data is
saved, it is just a precaution. After syncing is
completed, which typically takes 1-2 seconds, go to the
Logbook area and verify your data, then be sure to PURGE
your device data before re-entering new information to
prevent syncing the same flights the next time. This
really only applies to Palm users as the data entry areas
are automatically purged if the PDA Wizard does its job
properly.
For APDL users:
Syncing APDL provides much greater flexibility than
previously with SingleSync. You now have control over
mapping in fields such as crew, hotel, trip number, and
flight number. You can map these into their own custom
text fields, append to remarks, or choose not to import this
information. You only have to set this once, Logbook
Pro will remember your selections. At the top left,
for Palm users, be sure to set the correct Palm username.
For the top right, you can choose to combine all trips into
one Logbook Pro entry "By LogPage" or have the data come in
by flight "By Leg." By Leg will provide more detail as
far as remarks syncing to Logbook Pro, however, By LogPage
will use less rows of data and if printing, this means less
logbooks and paper in the future. If you want fields
not logged in APDL but available in Logbook Pro to match
your duration, then configure "AutoFill" in
Options...AutoFill for your A/C Types prior to syncing APDL
data. Check the option "Enable AutoFill" and Logbook
Pro will do the rest! If you enjoy the reports
generated by the former SingleSync, check the "Generate APDL
Reports" option. The most important part and final
step, and one in which you may interact with most, is the
"Date Filter." Typically it is set to "New APDL
Flights" as Logbook Pro knows your last trip and will pull
the later ones off of the device. However, if you're
new to Logbook Pro and want to go back and sync prior data
you may have input into APDL at a later date, i.e.
backlogging in APDL, or you want to "re-sync" APDL data, you
can choose various date filter options including a date
range, such as January through March 2002! If you have
any problems or questions regarding the import process,
please send us
the log file "PDASyncLog.txt" created at the end of the PDA
Wizard run.
Troubleshooting:
For APDL users, once in a while we get a report of the PDA
Wizard hanging and a message coming up about "tblAircraft"
etc. If you clear the checkbox for "APDL Reports" the
problem goes away. The problem is actually caused by a
faulty Schedule Importer read of a date from your trip
information. You will typically find a file (Palm
users) named "AirlineLog-200000.PDB" in your Palm backup
folder. This file is corrupt and should be moved out
of the folder and also deleted from the Palm main screen,
menu, Delete...Apps area to prevent re-syncing to the backup
folder again on next HotSync. If you find files in the
backup folder named "AirlineLog-2021XX.PDB" then we need you
to send us your latest trip data which you used with the
Schedule Importer as we have a date format issue we need to
address. 2021 is the year value and obviously
incorrect.
All in all, the PDA Wizard is a dream come true, not only
for our users, but also for us as developers and support
staff! We've been struggling for 2-3 years now with
how to clearly distinguish APDL sync from Logbook Pro PDA
Companions, two completely separate PDA applications.
The PDA Wizard is now stable and working great. We're
working on options for a future update to automate the PDA
Sync behind the scenes so you don't even have to run the PDA
Wizard.
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Using the Logbook Pro Pocket PC Companion
The completely re-written
Logbook Pro Pocket PC Companion released in the 1.10.x
series has been a great success for all. Taking
advantage of the new Microsoft .NET Compact Framework
technology, we are able to provide you a great
user-interface to significantly streamline Logbook Pro data
entry on your Pocket PC device.
A few notes of interest to help those of
you new to the interface, or those that are transitioning
from the older version of this software. First off,
Logbook Pro 1.10.x is a completely new application, so you
can throw away all the concepts we discussed over the prior
years with the older version. First and foremost, we
no longer use "Pocket Access" for our data synchronization
system. To sync your device all you need is for the
device to be connected in ActiveSync, that's it, nothing to
configure at all. So if no other application uses
Pocket Access, you can go into your ActiveSync
Tools...Options area and clear the checkbox to the left of
"Pocket Access" as it's no longer used by us. The
other concept to understand is that synchronization is NOT
automatically accomplished now, you must use the PDA Wizard
to "pull in" the data from your Pocket PC. It's quick
and easy, just launch the PDA Wizard, if you have don't use
a Palm version or APDL, then you can even check the checkbox
at the bottom of the first screen to skip the startup
screen. That means you start the PDA Wizard, click
Sync, and you're done! Yep, that's it!
For entering data, it's a little different
from using the PC edition, but the same as before on the
Pocket PC in that you must click the SAVE icon when finished
with an entry, then click the NEW icon (far left on the
bottom toolbar) then enter the new data, then SAVE again.
Save also occurs when closing Logbook Pro's data entry area
by clicking the "OK" at the top right of the screen.
When you next return to the data entry area, if you already
have data, you MUST first click the NEW icon to start a new
entry otherwise you are going to EDIT (change) an existing
data entry. So be careful as the data entry areas do
not start with a NEW entry window unless this is the first
use.
Pocket PC applications manage memory by
"minimizing" applications in the background when not used
and closing them when memory runs low. When you see a
"X" at the top right of the screen, this actually means
"Minimize" on the Pocket PC (resisting Microsoft bashing).
Why they didn't use a down arrow I don't know! But
realize we allow Logbook Pro to be "minimized" according to
the Pocket PC "best practices" in development.
Starting up .NET applications, both on the PC and Pocket PC,
can typically have a slight delay due to how they
dynamically compile based on the computer. It is okay
to leave Logbook Pro minimized even during a Sync operation
with the PDA Wizard although we do recommend using the
File...Shutdown menu from the main screen as a habit to make
sure you save your data. Save is accomplished when you
tap the "OK" button on the top right of the screen.
However, if you leave your Logbook data entry area open and
then run the PDA Wizard, it may cause your microwave to
cease functioning too! :) So we are simply trying to
instill good habits by having you close the software prior
to syncing but it's really not required as long as you
always go back to the main screen "switchboard" or minimize
Logbook Pro from the main screen area.
For our international contingent, Logbook
Pro Pocket PC Companion is fully compliant with
international date and number formats. However, your
Pocket PC's "Regional Settings" must match that of your PC.
You cannot have your Pocket PC in United States format and
your PC in another country or the times may not sync
correctly, i.e. 4 hours may appear as 40 hours in Logbook
Pro.
Our Pocket PC sales have actually grown
above the Palm OS version sales, so that's a great indicator
to us that we've done this one right, and also that people
are leaning towards the Pocket PC devices these days.
Hopefully this discussion will give you a better feel of the
operations of your Logbook Pro Pocket PC software.
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Logbook Pro & APDL Version
Reference
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