Artelope V (version 1.2)
Artelope V is a Palm application for sketches and notes. It is a vector-based drawing program, similar to Adobe Illustrator, MacDraw, PowerPoint, and so on.
You can learn more about Artelope, and download the latest version, from the Artelope home page.
To install Artelope V, double-click on the ".prc" file you downloaded, and then HotSync your handheld with your desktop. If you have a Tungsten T3, you must also install both "AppSlipRotate.prc" and "StatusBarLib.prc" at the same time.
Artelope is easy to use; you only need to worry about a few drawing tools:
Artelope's most powerful drawing tool is the pencil. This tool is all you need to draw straight lines, rectangles, ovals, triangles, circles, curves, and any other type of shape you can think of. It straightens lines, smoothes curves, and otherwise does its best to figure out what it is that you just tried to draw. To use the pencil tool, draw your shape with a single stroke--do not lift the stylus until you are done.
The freehand tool lets you draw without shape recognition. This is good for handwriting.
The text tool lets you enter and edit text. You can change the font with the "Font" command in the Edit menu. Text in Artelope drawings can be searched with the global Palm "Find" command.
Use the arrow tool to move and manipulate objects. More on that below.
On the top of the screen, next to the tool, you'll see a slanted line. This line's color, thickness, and arrow head (or lack of arrow head) tells you what color, thickness, and arrow head you have selected. Anything you draw will take on these properties.
To change this, just tap on the line indicator, then tap either the color, thickness, or arrow icons.
With the arrow tool, you can select objects. This lets you move, reshape, color, and otherwise change your drawings.
To select an object, tap near its edge. Selected objects have squares on their vertices. You can select a group of objects by drawing an enclosure around them. You can also select more than one object by entering a "shift" character in the graffiti area (a single up-stroke) and clicking on several objects. To deselect objects, tap away from them, or select a tool other than the arrow.
Once you have objects selected, you can change their color, thickness, or arrow heads. To do this, tap the diagonal "line" icon next to the tool icon. A menu pops up, letting you choose between color, line thickness, or arrow heads. If you prefer, these options can also be set from the drop-down "Edit" menu.
Move selected objects by dragging them with the stylus.
Reshape objects by moving their vertices.
You can use the Cut, Copy, Clear, and Paste commands in the Edit menu to make copies of objects. Entering a backspace in Graffiti will delete all selected objects.
Artelope has an enormous canvas. The easiest way to move around is to use the Hand tool. You can also use the scroll bars to move around. The "page up" and "page down" buttons on your handheld (between the Address and To Do buttons on most handhelds) will let you scroll up and down. If you have a 5-way navigator button on your handheld, you can also move left and right.
To do detail work, it can be helpful to Zoom. Tap on the percentage in the lower left corner to adjust zoom. You can also use the + and - magnifying glass tools to zoom in or out.
The circle button in the lower right-hand corner takes you to the center. Tapping on it twice takes you to the center and sets the zoom to 100%.
You can make the toolbar at the top of the screen disappear. Tap on the triangle on the right side of the screen. The toolbar will disappear. Tap on the triangle again to get the toolbar back.
And, of course, you can minimize your graffiti area, or rotate the screen, to get as much drawing area as you like.
Artelope drawings are called records. Create and delete records with the Record menu. Move between records using the popup menu in the upper-right corner.
You can see a tiny version of all your records by choosing "Index" from the Record menu or the popup menu.
Each record has a title and description. To edit these, choose Get Info from the Record menu.
You can also beam records (or send them via Bluetooth or SMS) from the Record menu.
Pressing the center button in the 5-way navigator cycles through the tools.
If your graffiti area is up, you can enter numbers 1 through 7 to choose different tools.
If you have an object selected, entering a backspace in the graffiti area will delete it.
Artelope's shape recognition is not perfect. But, you can customize it. Choose "Preferences" from the Options menu, and drag the scroll bars to change the basic parameters used by the recognition routine.
If you find that you are always drawing rectangles or other polygons, but they get recognized as weird blob things or curves, then move the "Curves/Angles" scroll bar closer to Angles. If you are trying to draw curves and blobs, but they keep getting recognized as polygons, move this scroll bar closer to Curves.
If you draw circles and ovals but they come out as squat blobs, move the "Blobs/Ovals" scroll bar closer to Ovals. If you find that your drawings keep getting recognized as ovals, when they aren't, then move the scroll bar closer to Blobs.
If you tend to draw with fast, long strokes and don't always connect your corners right, or often draw lines that you wanted to be straight but are really very curvy, then move the "Neat/Messy" scroll bar closer to Messy. If you tend to draw slowly, taking time at corners, or find that your subtle kinks and curves are getting flattened too much, then move this scroll bar closer to Neat.
As you draw polygons or straight curves, Artelope will detect lines that it thinks are supposed to be horizontal or vertical. This lets it neaten up rectangles and right triangles. If you would prefer that Artelope not do this, uncheck the "Correct vertical & horizontal" box.
The Artelope web page is at http://www.artelope.biz/. Go there for updates, support, and conduits. You can also find a contact E-mail address there.
Suggestions for improvement are welcome. Most Artelope V features are the result of user suggestions. (I cannot compensate you for your suggestions, of course).
Please see the included license file for details. The short of it is that Artelope is freeware. You may use it as you please. You may not make modified versions of Artelope.
Version 1.2 changes: Arrow heads; support for hiding graffiti area and rotation; hand tool; magnifying glass tools; freeware.
Version 1.1 changes: Hideable toolbar for greater drawing space; Support for 5-way navigation button; On-screen color and thickness indicators for fast selection; Low-level optimizations that double the speed of some operations; Use of Graffiti to switch among tools; New command bar buttons; Rectangle recognition greatly improved.
Version 1.0: Artelope V is new. It cannot read the bitmap file databases created by older versions of Artelope, such as Artelope 2.2, Artelope HE, and Artelope HD.