TERRIFIC Freeware Shortcut S/W!!!

A

afk40

New member
I may be asleep at the switch here and someone might have already introduced this upgraded, FANTASTIC Freeware - but Shortcut5 new version has been around about a month and it's one of the top 3 combinations of small, lean, mean apps I've ever seen. The site, before I continue the rant, is:

http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/shortcut5.shtml

Those of you familiar with "my likes" know I'd like to be able to program the Space Shuttle for around 3-4k!! I'm a RAM miser since the old 505/8MB days ("old" being last December!) and so I love things like mReset (1k), SysTool (11k), Date Difference (26k), Tom Catalog (39k), Offstroke (9k), et cetera. Not to mention the JackFlash miracle, of course. 60 apps and 94% free? I'll take it!!

Well, this thing flies in at 20k and instead of the "graffiti shortcut loop," you make a period. A dot. That's it. I think most of you tap twice for a period; I also can do a command slash on the letter side for a period to avoid the occasional write-on-screen "jitter no period" dilemma." In any case, make a dot. Then type the shortcut abbreviation - no big whoop, right? Well, there's also MACROS for entering data on different lines in a field or DIFFERENT FORMS; "@@sc" macro brings up the control screen itself (for me, ".sc" gets that macro) - and best of all you get shortcuts A METRIC TON bigger in length than the stock Palm.

"Looking forward to your response, I remain

Sincerely Yours,



Palm Teal Lover"

precisely as you see it there, is now written with ".l" That's it. DOT L!!! Try that on the stock Palm app; you'll get to "sin . ." and you're screwed. Max 42-45 characters including spaces and shifts and tabs. This one is 4096 CHARACTER LIMIT -- One hundred times that of the T3!!!! 50 shortcuts is the limit.

Perhaps BEST OF ALL, you keep all your regular shortcut library. If "loop 9" writes area code "909 (space), for example -- then ".9" will now write "949 (space)." If you're in one of those states where you need 4,256 area codes like California - you run out of shortcuts for area codes FAST if they start with same number. Having a 2 number shortcut is silly because one more and you've written the whole thing.

LITTLE THINGS LIKE THIS MAKE ME HAPPY. Now I'm just gonna sit here being happy.

YOU gotta get this thing!! Mark Tamura leaves no email where he can be reached - but Mark, if you're reading this - join the forum, take over Iambic and bless us all with more of your GREAT APPS (he has 2 or 3 others on Freeware Palm, I believe). You can bet I'll be looking at those, too.
 
I echo PTLs joy of small, free and incredibly useful da's, hacks and apps..I fear that this rich diversity will be crushed under the weight of Cobalt which will not support da's and 'hacks'....thats progress!!
 
Sadly, you have once again crystallized EVERYONE's worries in a short, concise single sentence.

Dropshort's reference in earlier post to the Tealpoint newsletter and discussion of Cobalt confirms your true but negative statement. If OS6/Cobalt IS IN FACT what they say it is, it will "shoot another final arrow" in the heart of DA's and the ability to put "hooks" of ANY KIND in the system. You're right.

TealMaster was able to "dance around the OS5" problems and still privide the use of some hacks and my favorite, TealLaunch. OS6 apparently will finally CLOSE THE DOOR on any chance to do that - and I am not going for it.

I wouldn't even be USING a Palm daily for as much as I do if I had to go in and out of 5 different apps. The now "simple" task of entering a spreadsheet value, bringing up TealCalc to figure the amount and paste it, then highlight with Pen DA and put it in Agendus, then mark the date in Date Difference to have a record of "days since the visit" now takes me less than 20 seconds. That's all out the window if I can't use T/Launch, DA's and Date Difference. 110k of programs (plus a quick "off" with Offstroke, total 120k) make all the difference in the world entering data, closing the flip cover and starting the engine! It leaves me more time to actually TALK to people - and it would do those things with a 200MHz process or a 400 or "Nine Million Mhz" processor.

I am not interested in OS6, but apparently PalmOne think everyone runs around listening to MP3s while they check email. Perhaps some do - and that's fine. But to take away the very FUNCTIONALITY that allows people to use their Palm quickly and efficiently for business is absolutely ludicrous, and also almost HUMOROUS, if it was not so technologically BACKWARDS and WRONG.

SOS: Will you be sticking with OS5 no matter what? I think I will. What's the point of "moving forward" if the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train? People may laugh - but if you're actually USING your handheld to save time, get ahead, make more money or simply keep better track of things, you'd better think twice about Cobalt. OS6/Cobalt could have been a wonderful chance for SOME people to get everything THEY want, provided OS5 stayed intact for "us other types." But marketing that on two separate and distinct levels would be too complicated in a marketplace and ideology that is, as you said in an earlier post, "the almighty dollar." Do PalmOne realize they're ALIENATING literally THOUSANDS of software developers that made the company WHAT IT IS? A chance to use ALL SORTS of different "stuff?"

PalmOne are so afraid, apparently, of PocketPC that they'll sacrifice everything for MP3s and a higher CPU speed on the little sticker. They may well have lost the VAST majority of the "old school" types that did wonderfuly well with a Palm IIIc or a 505.

That's not only unbelievable and disgusting -- it's cruel and stupid.
 
Hi Paul,

dont know what Im going to do. Most likely Ill go for it but the temptation to wait till T3 prices come down and get one and stay with OS5 for a year or so while the dust settles is very tempting...

steve
 
I echo Paul?s comments. Been using Shortcut5 for quite a while and love it. He forgot to mention it doesn?t even take an icon, it shows up under your Pref?s as an ?Other?. Love it.
Richard
 
I used to think that I'd be the best "normal" person to actually work for Palm and teach them a thing or two about what the people want, but now I think that you've taken my title.

I'm sure that running a business that big in a market this volatile takes great courage and decisiveness and that those people in charge could use any additional strength we can lend them. I'd be really sad to see Palm's change from what I'm used to, but as homo sapiens sapiens, we're used to "Adapt or Perish." It's just difficult sometimes when I think that, as normal people, we actually have some input into the decisions that these people make, but I'm sure that we don't even know the whole story behind some of these things.

[ON TOPIC] You know, I never got into the shortcut thing much. I tried it a few times, but I guess I don't enter in repetitive/similar data enough. I'd love to delve into this program and experience the joys of PTL, but I'm afraid that I'll get bogged down in the learning and then I'll get good at it, and then it'll be away with in OS 6. [/ON TOPIC]

You know, 10 years from now, we'll all be looking back on these days and just marvel at what simple devices we used. Then we'll smile, sip some tea, and blink twice quickly with the left eye and the short cut for "909" will appear on our corneas or something.
POL9A
 
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