SnoopSoft Inc.

SnoopSoft Dashboard Manual - Options

All Skins have an Options button somewhere on them. Many times it is located along with the Main Toolbar. Other times, it is accessed by tapping on the View Title text (i.e. the words "Agenda", "Mail", "Tasks", "Launcher" or "MyDash"), or by tapping on the current date text.

If all else fails and you are unable to locate the Options button area for a skin, load up the stand-alone version of SnoopSoft Dashboard (go to the Launcher and run Dashboard) and use the Tools menu (located at the bottom of the screen on the PocketPC) to get to the Options and change to a different skin.

General Options

Language

Use the combobox at the top of this tab to select a Language. Languages available on your device will appear in the drop-list. SnoopSoft Dashboard currently ships in English, French, German and Italian.

Show Today plugin separator lines

Enable/disable the display of separator lines between Today modules and/or SnoopSoft Dashboard modules in the view.

Show Battery/Power Icon

Enable/disable the display of the Battery/Power icon on the default SnoopSoft Dashboard modules. If enabled, the power status of the device (AC power, charging, battery power) will be displayed and if on battery power the status of the battery in increments of 25% will be displayed.

Use ClearType

Enable/disable the use of ClearType within Dashboard. This setting is completely independent of the ClearType setting for the device itself allowing SnoopSoft Dashboard to use ClearType when the rest of the device is not or vice versa. Another reason that it does not tie into the system-wide cleartype setting is because some devices do not offer that option.

Allow Skin to alter Bar apps. (i.e GigaBar, WISBar)

Allows Dashboard to attempt to reskin 3rd party skin applications such as GigaBar and WISBar. As these applications have matured and evolved their developers have not always shared the new specifications with us so this may or may not work all the time for every Bar application.

Font Options

Font

The Font combobox lists most Fonts installed on the device and allows them to be used as the main display Font inside SnoopSoft Dashboard. Not all fonts will appear in the droplist as the program ignores any that are marked as special such as bold only fonts or italic only.

Small Font Size

SnoopSoft Dashboard allows for 3 font sizes on each view. This entry allows for the small font size to be selected. Medium and large font sizes displayed within each view are then scaled up based on this small size. This ensures that the user retains complete control over how large or small the fonts will appear on the screen.

A font preview window is also included on this tab for convenience.

Skin Options

Skin

The Skin drop list provides a listing of all skins installed on the device. A preview of the currently selected skin in the combobox is displayed below it along with the native resolution of the skin. In the past, only skins compatible with the current resolution of the device were loaded but by not checking the resolutions Dashboard is able to load the skins much faster. It is up to the user to make certain that the resolution of the skin (listed next to the preview) matches the current resolution of the device.

Using

The Using drop list only appears when the selected skin is set to the Today Theme option. This option can be interpreted as: Set the Skin to the current Today Theme in use on the device, Using the selected (using) skin for the layout of the buttons and font colors. By setting the option up in this manner, any skin can be set as the layout for the Today Theme and users no longer have to use the default layout and buttons provided by SnoopSoft Dashboard.

This is a highly requested feature that is being introduced with SnoopSoft Dashboard v2.0. Please note that not all skins are designed in a manner that makes them good candidates for use in this fashion. It is possible to "lose" the Options icon when doing this and if you cannot locate it by tapping on various areas of the screen where you think it may be, you will need to startup the stand-alone version of Dashboard and use the TOOLS menu to get to the Options to reset your skin selections.

Rotate

Enable/Disable the ability to automatically cycle through skins on your device at a predetermined interval. Sets the interval that will be used to automatically change the skin. These settings will be disabled if the Rotate Skins Automatically option is disabled.

User Defined Skins Folder

Permits you to define another folder (other than the \Program Files\ SnoopSoft\Dashboard\Skins\ folder) where skins will be placed. Use this setting to place that folder wherever you want it. By default, it will be on a Storage Card location, but it can be located anywhere. SnoopSoft Dashboard will read all skins from the main folder as well as the user defined folder when building the list of available skins to display in the Skin combobox. Skins can be placed in subfolders one level deep off of either of these folders for better organization.

Module Options

The Agenda, Mail, Tasks, Launcher and MyDash pages of the Options dialog all function in the same fashion so this section will just cover one (Agenda) and you can assume that all of the others work the same.

New in SnoopSoft Dashboard v2.0 is the complete integration of Today plug-ins within the SnoopSoft Dashboard program itself.

SnoopSoft Dashboard now allows for multiple Today plug-ins to be displayed within the SnoopSoft Dashboard views and also allows complete co-existence with any available SnoopSoft Dashboard modules installed on the device.

The same today plugin can be enabled on different views within SnoopSoft Dashboard and there is no requirement that any Dashboard modules be enabled on a view. This allows SnoopSoft Dashboard to effectively act as 5 separate Today screens on one device.

Restrictions

� You cannot display more items than will fit inside the available display area of the screen (i.e. no scroll bars). One of the design goals of Dashboard is to maximize information and minimize complexity and I'm trying hard to limit any scrolling that is needed.

� The Dashboard module in a view (if active) will always be the "stretchy" item. In other words, it will grow or shrink as space is available to it. So if you have 5 Today items displayed leaving only a tiny bit of room for the Dashboard module then it most likely will not appear. If you have 1 Today item displayed then the Dashboard module will expand to fill all the remaining display space. The "4 arrows" button is there to allow you to specify an absolute height for the Dashboard module and the Minilauncher, but it most likely will not be available in the initial release.

� Some Today items are not "width stretchy" and are hardcoded to a specific width. These items will appear cutoff on skins that do not make the full width of the screen available for display. There's nothing I can do about this since it would interfere with the look of the skin to allow these items to use their full width.

� Not all Today plug-ins are created equal. Some will work fine and others may not work at all. In testing, many of the Today plug-ins worked just fine, but there were a couple that people had some issues with. We worked hard to minimize anything Dashboard may be doing to cause weird behavior with the Today plug-ins but some issues will be beyond our control and may need to be worked out by the individual Today plug-in developers if they choose to do so.

Available Plug-Ins

The drop list above the check-list box will contain all of the available SnoopSoft Dashboard modules installed on your device that are compatible with the selected View. Since only one Dashboard module can be active inside the view at any given time, the drop list at the top allows for the selection of which Dashboard module will be used if checked in the check-list box below. The program is coded so that a module must always be selected in the drop list, however, if the user does not wish to display any Dashboard modules on the view itself, just uncheck it in the list below to disable it.

The check-list box allows the user to select which items will appear on the view being modified and in which order they will appear.

The buttons to the right are for:
� Move Up (up arrow) - Move the currently selected item in the list up. This changes the position the item appears on the display.

� Move Down (down arrow) - Move the currently selected item in the list down. This changes the position the item appears on the display.

� Options (paper w/ symbols) - Display the Options dialog for the current selection in the list. Use this to alter Today plugin options as well as options for SnoopSoft Dashboard modules. If no Options dialog exists for the selection, this button will be disabled.

Quick Launch Options

Agenda

Selects the QuickLaunch program that will be associated with the Agenda view. Tapping on the Run icon (!) will launch the selected program.

Mail

Selects the QuickLaunch program that will be associated with the Mail view. Tapping on the Run icon (!) will launch the selected program.

Tasks

Selects the QuickLaunch program that will be associated with the Tasks view. Tapping on the Run icon (!) will launch the selected program.

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