Icon Manager 1.3
by Christopher Antos (chrisant@premier1.net),
Copyright © 2002-2003, All Rights Reserved.
Visit the Icon Manager User Group hosted by Yahoo.
Contents:
What is Icon Manager?
Sample Icon Sets for Download
User Manual
Icon Set List View
Icons View
Icon Editor
Assemble Your Set Of Favorite Icons
Known Issues
History
Hints of What Is To Come
What is Icon Manager?
Visit PalmGear to find the latest version of
Icon Manager or
HandyShopper.
Icon Manager works on any Palm™ based device with Palm OS 3.0 or higher, including
devices from Palm, Handspring, Sony, etc. Icon Manager lets you create or edit icon
sets for use with HandyShopper, DateBk5, DataShield, and Agendus (formerly known as
Action Names). Icon Manager also supports high density icons on Palm OS 5.0 devices.
ShareWare - The Trial Version of Icon Manager is nearly fully functional, to let
you try out Icon Manager free of charge for an initial trial period of 14 days. Some
third party software packages may include a Free Version of Icon Manager which can
copy/paste/move icons and manage icon sets but cannot edit icons (the Free Version is
specially and clearly marked, but if you're unsure which version you have, check the
About box).
Support - I wrote Icon Manager as a hobby project. I have a "real job" during
the day. I am not able to provide timely technical support for Icon Manager. If you
have questions or suggestions, or if you want to share icons you've created, then visit
the Icon Manager User Group.
End-User License Agreement - See the EULA.htm file for the end-user license
agreement (EULA). By using this software or any part of it, you are agreeing to be
bound by the terms of the EULA. If you do not agree to the terms of the EULA, do not
install or use the software.
Note to Sony Clie users with OS 4.x - High density icons
can only be stored in Palm OS 5.0 format. Icon Manager can edit the OS 5.0 format icons
on Sony OS 4.x devices. But in order for other apps to draw the high density icons, you
will either need an updated version of the other app with special support for OS 5.0
icons on OS 4.x devices, or you can try installing
v3bhack
(USE V3BHACK AT YOUR OWN RISK - some people have reported it is incompatible with
some apps and may require a Hard Reset). I've contacted the authors of DateBk5, Agendus,
and DataShield with information on how to support high resolution icons on Sony OS 4.x
devices, so hopefully it won't be long before they support it:
- HandyShopper
version 2.7.3 and higher support high resolution icons on Sony OS 4.x devices.
- DateBk5 - DateBk
5.0c preview 8
and higher support high resolution icons on Sony OS 4.x devices. Be sure to check
Pimlico Software for newer
official releases (it may have been updated since this writing).
- DataShield - Ultrasoft is considering whether to support high resolution
icons on Sony OS 4.x devices (please direct further inquiries to
Ultrasoft).
- Agendus - Iambic Software has not responded (please direct further inquiries
to Iambic).
Sample Icon Sets for Download
Here are just a few of the icon sets that you can find on the internet, listed in
alphabetical order by artist:
- ClieSource -
High and low resolution icons.
- designsbybert -
High and low resolution icons.
- Icon A Classic -
High and low resolution icons.
- Peter Ong (Rock) -
High and low resolution icons (the first to produce a high resolution icon set).
Special note to HandyShopper users: be sure to check out the food/grocery icons.
- twokidsinagarage -
Low resolution icons (future plans include high resolution icons).
Icon Set List View
When Icon Manager is first launched, it shows a list of the icon set databases that are
installed on the handheld device. For each, it shows the first icon in the set, the
name of the set, and how many icons are in the set.
An icon set can contain a little over 65,000 icons (the limit comes from the Palm OS).
DateBk5 supports up to 255 icons in an icon set; other apps support a little over 65,000
icons in an icon set.
Icon Set Names
DateBk5 and HandyShopper look for an icon set named "Icons-DATEBK5" or "HS2Icons",
respectively. If the specially named icon set does not exist they use the default icon
set, which is indicated by a star to the right of its name. Agendus always uses the
default starred icon set. DataShield looks exclusively for an icon set named
"DataShield Icons", and if that doesn't exist it doesn't use icons.
Context Menu
To the right of each icon set is a dropdown arrow. Tapping on the arrow pops up a menu
with several actions:
- Copy... - Asks for a name for the new copy of the icon set.
- Rename... - Asks for a new name for the icon set.
- Delete... - Asks for confirmation before deleting the icon set.
- Beam - Beams the icon set to another handheld device. Protected
icon sets have a lock icon next to the dropdown arrow, and can't be beamed.
(Note that the Beam command is disabled in the Trial Version).
- Set as default - Marks the icon set as
the default one. Agendus always uses the default icon set. DateBk5 and
HandyShopper use the default icon set only if there is no "Icons-DATEBK5" or
"HS2Icons" icon set, respectively. The default icon set has a star next to
the dropdown arrow. DataShield exclusively uses the "DataShield Icons" set,
and if that doesn't exist it doesn't use icons.
- Sonyize... - Sony OS 4.x devices have certain
hardware bugs that will lock up the device when drawing 16-bit icons that are
compressed or have transparent backgrounds. The Sonyize command analyzes the
icon set and if necessary modifies it to avoid these hardware bugs. You only
need to Sonyize icon sets you get from other people, or sets that you may have
created using Icon Manager 1.0 or 1.1. When editing or creating icons with
Icon Manager 1.2 and higher, images are automatically Sonyized while you edit
them (on Sony OS 4.x devices; other devices are not affected).
Jog Dials
In the list of icon sets, Icon Manager suppports the following operations on devices
with jog dials (such as Sony Clie, Handspring Treo, and Handera):
- Up - Scroll the list up. If an icon set is selected, instead of scrolling the
list it selects the previous icon set.
- Down - Scroll the list down. If an icon set is selected, instead of scrolling
the list it selects the next icon set.
- Push - Pushing the jog dial button selects the top icon set. If an icon set
is already selected, instead it opens the selected icon set.
Direction Pads
In the list of icon sets, Icon Manager suppports the following operations on devices
with direction pads (such as Palm Tungsten T):
- Up - Scroll the list up. If an icon set is selected, instead of scrolling the
list it selects the previous icon set.
- Down - Scroll the list down. If an icon set is selected, instead of scrolling
the list it selects the next icon set.
- Left - If an icon set is selected, this clears the selection.
- Right - If an icon set is selected, this pops up the context menu.
- Select - Pushing the center button selects the top icon set. If an icon set
is already selected, instead it opens the selected icon set.
Icons View
When you open an icon set, Icon Manager shows a list of the icons contained in
the icon set. If the icon set name begins with "HS2" then Icon Manager shows
a table of 8 columns by 11 rows of icons, which corresponds to the table
HandyShopper and Agendus show when letting you select an icon. For all other
icon sets Icon Manager shows a table of 13 rows by 10 columns of icons, which
corresponds to the table DateBk5 shows when letting you select an icon.
Selecting Icons
To select an icon, tap on it with the stylus. To edit the selected icon, tap it again.
To select multiple icons, tap on the Select+ checkbox to check it, and then tap
on the icons you want to select. Drag the stylus to quickly select multiple icons.
Clipboard
The icon view menu has some commands to copy and delete icons. Tap the menu
button (the lower left circle in the Graffiti area) and select one of the
following menu items from the Record or Misc menus.
- Cut - Removes the selected icon(s) from the icon set and adds them
to the clipboard.
- Copy - Copies the selected icon(s) and adds them to the clipboard.
- Copy to... - Copies the selected icon(s) to another icon set. If
copying the icons will cause the other icon set to become larger than 255
icons, it warns you first, since DateBk5 only supports up to 255 icons.
- Paste - Pastes icons from the clipboard to the end of the icon set.
If pasting the icons will cause the icon set to become larger than 255 icons,
it warns you first, since DateBk5 only supports up to 255 icons.
- Paste special... - Pops up a screen with choices for how to paste
the icon(s):
- Paste & replace icon(s) - First select the icon(s) you want
to replace. Then use this command to replace the selected icons with icons
from the clipboard until it either runs out of selected icons or runs out
of icons from the clipboard, whichever comes first.
- Paste & insert icon(s) - First select an icon. Then use
this command to insert the icons from the clipboard in front of the
selected icon.
- Delete icon(s)... - Removes the selected icon(s) from the icon set.
- Show/clear clipboard... - Shows the contents of the clipboard, and
has a Clear... button to let you clear the clipboard.
Color, Grayscale, Monochrome, etc
Icon sets can contain any combination of 16-bit color, 8-bit color, grayscale,
monochrome, high resolution, and normal resolution icons. In fact, an individual icon
can include multiple images, one for each of the possible resolutions and color depths.
The 16-bit color format is referred to here as "16-bit", and the 8-bit color format is
referred to here as "color".
The dropdowns in the upper right corner lets you select which images to show. There are
two dropdowns if the device has a high resolution screen - one selects the color depth
(Best, 16-bit, Color, Gray, Mono) and the other selects the resolution (Best, High, Low).
HandyShopper, DateBk5, Agendus, and DataShield all support 16-bit, color, grayscale,
monochrome, and high resolution icons (high resolution icons require Palm OS 5.0 with a
high resolution screen). However, if you're using DateBk5 then you'll need at least
"5.0c preview 6" or higher. Otherwise DateBk5 may mistakenly report that the icons are
corrupt, or it may just crash (see the Known Issues section
below).
Even if a color device supports 16-bit mode, the Palm OS defaults to using 8-bit color
mode because it's faster (half as much work to drawn the screen). Few applications
force the screen into 16-bit mode, because it's slower and uses more memory. DataShield
does force 16-bit mode, and also you can use utilities such as
Screen Prefs
to force 16-bit mode. The advantage of 16-bit icons is that there are 65536 colors
available, versus only 256 for 8-bit icons; the disadvantage is they take up twice as
much space on the device. So generally it's better to use 8-bit icons even if your
device supports 16-bit color. To that end, Icon Manager defaults to creating 8-bit
color images even on 16-bit color devices (unless you explicitly indicate otherwise by
selecting "16-bit" from the Color Depth dropdown).
Tip: If you're creating an icon set for use on a variety of devices, you can use
the Resolution and Color Depth dropdowns to simulate different devices. For example, if
you select "Low" and "Color" then the icon view shows the same images that will be drawn
by apps running on a low density color device. Or if you select "Low" and "Gray" then
the icon view shows the same images that will be drawn by apps on a low density
grayscale device (OS 3.5 or higher grayscale device).
Note: OS 3.3 and lower only support monochrome images. OS 3.5 and higher support
grayscale images on all devices. OS 3.5 and higher support color images on color
devices. OS 4.0 and higher support 16-bit images on color devices. OS 5.0 and higher
support high density images on devices with a high density screen.
Resolution
- Best - Show the best resolution image for the device's capabilities.
- High - Show high resolution images.
- Low - Show low resolution images.
Color Depth
- Best - Show the best color depth image for the device's capabilities.
- 16-bit - Show 16-bit color images, or lower.
- Color - Show 8-bit color images, or lower.
- Gray - Show grayscale images, or lower.
- Mono - Show monochrome images.
If an icon doesn't have the indicated image then the next available lower image is shown
with a small red 'X' next to it. If no lower image is available, then a dot is shown
with a small red 'X' next to it.
When opening an icon to edit it, if the icon doesn't have an image that matches the
Resolution and Color Depth dropdown selections Icon Manager offers to convert one of the
existing images. You can select Convert to edit the converted image and add the
new image to the icon, or Edit to edit the next best image, or Cancel.
When the dropdowns are set to 'Best', you can also make Icon Manager automatically
convert to the best image format, without your needing tap the Convert button.
To do this, select the Conversions... command from the Misc menu, check
the Convert to best image format checkbox, and tap OK.
You can pop up a list of the images contained in an icon by tapping and holding the
stylus on an icon. To edit a specific image, select it from the list. Images listed in
boldface are present in the icon; images listed in the standard font are not present.
(High resolution images can't be drawn on devices with low resolution screens; in this
case a dot is drawn instead of the image, and the boldface text indicates whether the
high resolution image is present in the icon).
An individual icon can contain several image formats, to help it look as good as
possible on different devices. The extra image formats take up extra space in memory.
Icon Manager can remove unwanted image formats to help you save space. To do this,
select the Remove extra images... command from the Misc menu. Then select
the image format you want to keep, and tap OK. Icon Manager will remove other
image formats from the icon set. If an individual icon doesn't have your preferred
image format, Icon Manager will find the next closest image format in the icon and keep
that one (i.e. it always makes sure there is at least one image in an icon, even if your
preferred image format is not available).
Tap the New button to add a new icon to the icon set. If the Resolution and
Color Depth dropdowns are "Best" then the icon will be the best resolution and color
depth for your device (except that to save space and help your apps run faster, it
favors Color icons instead of 16-bit icons even if your device supports 16-bit mode).
If the dropdowns are set to something else, then the new icon matches the dropdown
selections. If adding a new icon will make the icon set larger than 255 icons then it
warns you first, because DateBk5 supports up to only 255 icons.
Icon ID Numbers
There are two key approaches for how applications associate icons with item
records.
The latest versions of all the apps are able to use "icon ID" numbers. This
enables the icon associations to be preserved even when rearranging the icons
in an icon set. Icon ID numbers are used by HandyShopper 2.7.1 and higher,
DateBk 5.0c preview 7 and higher, all versions of Agendus, and all versions of
DataShield.
Older versions of HandyShopper (2.7 or lower) and DateBk5 (5.0c preview 6 and
lower) used the icon's position in the icon set, or the "icon index". The
drawback of this approach is that rearranging the icons in an icon set wrecks
the association between the icons and item records.
DateBk5 and icon ID numbers - If you're
using DateBk5, you can upgrade to DateBk 5.0c preview 7 or higher and refer to
its documentation for how to convert it to use icon ID numbers, to allow
rearranging icons in an icon set without wrecking the associations between
icons and items.
Menu Commands for ID Numbers
The icon view menu has some commands to make it easier to manage icon ID numbers. Tap
the menu button (the lower left circle in the Graffiti area) and select one of the
following menu items from the IDs menu.
- Toggle ID numbers - Normally the icon view just shows icons. Toggling the
icon ID numbers makes the icon view also show the icon ID number for each icon.
- Find icon ID... - Asks for an icon ID number, and searches the icon set for
an icon with that ID number.
- Set icon ID... - Changes the icon ID number for the selected icon.
- Renumber all icon IDs... - This renumbers ALL the icon ID numbers, starting
with 0.
- Renumber selected IDs... - This renumbers the selected icons using the next
available icon ID numbers.
Use the "Renumber" menu commands with caution. Using them may damage the associations
between icons and item records in your applications. These commands are generally not
needed.
Conversions and Compression
The icon view menu also has Conversions... and Compression... commands.
These commands pop up forms that let you set related options, and select related
commands.
The Conversions... form lets you instruct Icon Manager to always convert to the
best image format without prompting you, when editing an icon.
The Conversions form also has commands to convert all white background icons into
transparent background icons, or bulk convert images to ensure each icon includes a
particular image format (these commands are not available in the Trial Version).
In the Compression... form you can choose whether Icon Manager compresses icons
to save memory. By default, Icon Manager compresses icons (note that v1.0 did not
compress icons). You can clear the checkbox to disable compression. Compressed icons
may be drawn slightly slower than uncompressed icons, but compression can significantly
reduce the size of the icon set. Compressing icons does not affect which devices the
icons are compatible with.
The Compression form also has commands to compress or uncompress all the icons in the
current icon set (these commands are not available in the Trial Version).
Rearranging Icons
You can rearrange icons by tapping and dragging an icon. When you move the stylus to
the left or right edges of the screen, the list of icons scrolls. When you lift the
stylus it pops up a menu asking what you'd like to do:
- Move - Moves the icon to the new location, shifting the position of
the other icons. If the icon set is for use with DateBk5, be careful when
moving icons because it can wreck the association between icons and item
records (see DateBk5 and icon ID numbers).
- Swap - Swaps the icons, including their ID numbers. Swapping the
icon ID numbers means that the icon associations for Agendus and HandyShopper
are not affected, only the order of the icons is affected.
- Swap (image only) - Swaps the icon images, without swapping the ID
numbers. This means the icon associations become swapped for Agendus and
HandyShopper, as well as affecting the order of the icons.
- Copy & insert - Copies the icon to the new location, shifting
the position of the other icons to make room for it. If the icon set is for
use with DateBk5, be careful when moving icons because it can wreck the
association between icons and item records (see DateBk5 and icon ID numbers).
- Copy & replace - Copies the icon to the new location, replacing
the existing image(s) at the new location. The icon ID number is not
affected.
Jog Dials
In the icon view, Icon Manager suppports the following operations on devices with jog
dials (such as Sony Clie, Handspring Treo, and Handera):
- Up - Scroll the list leftwards. If an icon is selected, instead of scrolling
the list it selects the previous icon.
- Down - Scroll the list rightwards. If an icon is selected, instead of
scrolling the list it selects the next icon.
- Push - Pushing the jog dial button selects the icon in the upper left corner.
If an icon is already selected, instead it opens the selected icon for editing.
Direction Pads
In the icon view, Icon Manager suppports the following operations on devices with
direction pads (such as Palm Tungsten T):
- Up - If an icon is selected, this selects the icon above the current
selection.
- Down - If an icon is selected, this selects the icon below the current
selection.
- Left - Scroll the list leftwards. If an icon is selected, instead of
scrolling the list it selects the icon to the left of the current selection.
- Right - Scroll the list rightwards. If an icon is selected, instead of
scrolling the list it selects the icon to the right of the current selection.
- Select - Pushing the center button selects the icon in the upper left corner.
If an icon is already selected, instead it opens the selected icon for editing.
Saving Your Changes
When Icon Manager opens an icon set, it makes a copy of the icon set and edits the copy
rather than editing the original icon set. This gives you the freedom to make changes
and later choose whether to keep the changes or revert them.
If you switch to another application while editing an icon set, the next time you launch
Icon Manager it reopens the copy. The changes have not been saved back to the original
icon set yet.
To save the changes back to the original icon set, tap the Close button. If
there have been any changes, Icon Manager will ask you if you want to save the changes.
Tap Yes to save the changes back to the original icon set, or tap No to
discard the changes (this will lose your changes and there isn't a way to get them
back). Tap the Cancel button to continue editing the icon set.
To save the changes without closing the icon set, use the Record -> Save menu
command.
To save the changes to a new icon set, use the Record -> Save as... menu
command.
Icon Editor
The icon editor form lets you edit the icon images. You can draw, change colors,
and drag/move or cut/copy/paste selected parts of icons. You can also flip, mirror, and
rotate the icon or selected parts of the icon.
Colors
Monochrome icons
When editing monochrome icons, there are no colors to select. Tapping on a "white"
pixel in the icon editing grid turns it "black", and vice versa. Tap and drag to draw
freehand (if you tapped on a "white" pixel, then all pixels you drag over become
"black", and vice versa).
Grayscale icons
When editing grayscale icons, there is a list of 16 gray levels to the right of the icon
editing grid. Tap one of the gray levels to make that the active color. Tapping a
pixel in the icon editing grid sets it to the active color. Tapping and dragging sets
all pixels you drag over to the active color.
In the upper right corner is a pair of up/down buttons you can use to increase or
decrease the gray level of the active color.
Color icons
When editing 8-bit or 16-bit color icons, there is a list of the 25 most recently used
colors to the right of the icon editing grid. Tap one to make it the active color. To
select a different color, tap on the box labeled ACTIVE. Tapping a pixel in the
icon editing grid sets it to the active color. Tapping and dragging sets all pixels you
drag over to the active color.
For color icons you can also choose a color that will be "transparent". When an app
draws the icon, the transparent pixels are not drawn; they remain whatever was already
there where the icon is being drawn. Tap the checkbox labeled TRANS to toggle
whether the icon should use transparent mode. When the checkbox becomes checked, it
pops up the color selector to let you pick what color will be transparent. To make
that the active color (so you can make pixels transparent), tap the box to the right of
the TRANS checkbox.
In the upper right corner are three pairs of up/down buttons you can use to adjust the
Red, Green, and Blue levels of the active color.
Drawing Tools
The big square buttons are the drawing tools. When you tap on a tool button, a tip
window at the top of the screen says what the tool does. The drawing tools are:
- Pen - The pen tool lets you draw in the icon editing grid with the stylus, as
described in the preceding section.
- Bucket - The bucket tool fills an area with the active color. Select the
bucket tool and then tap on a pixel in the icon editing grid. The pixel and neighboring
pixels of the same color are filled with the active color.
- Eyedropper - The eyedropper tool sets the active color to the color of a
pixel you tap on in the icon editing grid.
- Needle - The needle tool changes the color of all pixels under the stylus.
Select the needle tool and then tap on a pixel in the icon editing grid. All pixels
with that color in the icon are changed to match the active color.
- Selection - The selection tool lets you select a rectangle in the icon
editing grid. Drag the selected rectangle to move it. Or use the Cut or
Copy commands from the Edit menu to copy the selection to the clipboard.
Then you can Paste it into the icon again (and drag it around), or you can open
another icon and Paste it there. Also most of the editing commands modify the
selected rectangle if there is one.
Editing Commands
The small square buttons are the editing commands. When you tap on a command button, a
tip window at the top of the screen says what the command button does. The command
buttons are:
- Left - The left arrow shifts the icon or selection left one column of pixels.
The leftmost column of pixels wraps around and becomes the rightmost column.
- Right - The right arrow shifts the icon or selection right one column of
pixels. The rightmost column of pixels wraps around and becomes the leftmost column.
- Up - The up arrow shifts the icon or selection up one row of pixels. The
top row of pixels wraps around and becomes the bottom row.
- Down - The down arrow shifts the icon or selection down one row of pixels.
The bottom row of pixels wraps around and becomes the top row.
- Mirror - This mirrors the icon or selection left-to-right.
- Flip - This flips the icon or selection top-to-bottom.
- Rotate - This rotates the icon or selection 90 degrees clockwise. Only the
leftmost square region of the icon or selection can be rotated. The rest of the area is
cleared.
- Undo - This undoes the previous change you made. The last 8 changes can be
undone.
- Redo - This redoes the last thing you undid. You can redo the last 8 undoes.
- Revert - This reverts the icon or selection to whatever it was when you
opened the icon.
- Clear - For color (8-bit or 16-bit) icons, this clears the icon or selection
to the transparent color. For monochrome or grayscale icons, this clears the icon or
selection to white.
Other Menu Commands
Here are additional menu commands that haven't already been covered above:
- Edit -> Save as New - Adds a new icon at the end of the icon set,
containing only the current image. The new icon gets assigned the next available icon
ID number. Any further changes are saved to the new icon rather than the original icon.
- Misc -> Toggle Gridlines - Toggles whether gridlines are drawn in the icon
editing grid.
- Misc -> Set ID number... - Allows you to assign a specific icon ID number
to the icon. You can also tap the ID number just to the right of the form's title bar.
- Misc -> Delete bit depth... - Allows you to delete the current image from
the icon. If the icon only contains one image, then you can't delete the image, instead
you need to delete the icon from the Icons View.
How To Assemble Your Set Of Favorite Icons
Remember that when you purchase an icon set, it's a violation of copyright law to give
the icon set (or the icons in it) to other users. Support the artists who work hard to
draw those icons. If a friend wants a copy of your icon set, ask them to purchase the
icon set themselves, rather than giving them an illegal copy of the icon set.
Adding and Removing Icons
You can use the Copy and Paste commands on the Record menu to copy
icons from one set to another and build up an icon set with your favorite icons. You
can make apps use the icon set by copying or renaming it to one of the
special names, or by setting it as the
default icon set.
If the icon set is for DateBk5, be careful about removing icons because it can
wreck the associations between the icons and item records (see DateBk5 and icon ID numbers). If the icon set is
for Agendus or HandyShopper you can remove icons without messing up the icon
associations.
Rearranging Icons
You can drag icons or use the clipboard commands to rearrange the order they appear in
the icon list.
If the icon set is for DateBk5, be careful about rearranging icons because it
can wreck the associations between the icons and item records (see DateBk5 and icon ID numbers). If the icon set is
for Agendus or HandyShopper you can rearrange the icons without messing up the
icon associations.
Known Issues
- dbIcon+ - Icon sets created or edited with Icon Manager are very
likely to cause dbIcon+ to crash or mistakenly claim the icon set is corrupt.
This is because dbIcon+ only understands icons that contain a single 8-bit
color image. This is a limitation of dbIcon+, not a bug in Icon Manager.
- DateBk5 - You can download the latest official version of DateBk5
from Pimlico
Software. In order to successfully use icon sets that contain any images
other than 8-bit low resolution color images, you'll need to download at least
5.0c preview 6 or higher. Older versions of DateBk5 have the same limitation
that dbIcon+ has, and either crash or mistakenly report that the icon set is
corrupt. This is a limitation in older versions of DateBk5, not a bug in Icon
Manager. 5.0c preview
8 includes support for high resolution icons on Sony OS 4.x devices, tiny
fonts mode can show tiny icons, and several other enhancements and fixes. Be
sure to check the Pimlico
Software site for newer official releases (it may have been updated since
this writing).
- Agendus for Windows - The Agendus for Windows HotSync Conduit does
not understand compressed icons, high resolution icons, or icons that contain
multiple images. This is a limitation of the Agendus for Windows HotSync
Conduit. Contact Iambic Software to
report the problem and ask them to add support for the full Palm OS Bitmap
format specification.
- Sony Clie devices and 16-bit icons - On Sony Clie devices,
compressed 16-bit low-res icons can draw garbage on the screen or crash the
device. The Sony CLIE Developers
FAQ confirms that this is due to a bug in the Sony ROMs, not in Icon
Manager or other apps. Icon Manager provides a Sonyize command to analyze an icon set and if
necessary modify it to avoid the Sony hardware bugs.
- Palm Tungsten T devices and 16-bit icons - On Palm Tungsten T
devices, normal (low) resolution 16-bit icons with a transparent color do not
work correctly unless the transparent color is either white or black. This is
a known bug in OS 5.0, and should be fixed in OS 5.2. Visit PalmSource for more information about OS
5.2.
- Icon ID number conflicts with applications - Applications contain
bitmap images which they draw on the screen at various times. When an
application wants to draw a bitmap, it asks the Palm OS to find the bitmap by
looking up the bitmap ID number. Icons are really just plain old Palm OS
bitmap resources of a certain size (10x9 or 20x18). So, if an icon set and an
application contain icons/bitmaps with conflicting (same) ID numbers, then the
Palm OS gets confused about which one to return. Generally the icon will win,
and this can lead to strange looking displays or even crashes. As long as
your icon ID numbers are less than 1000 then it's very unlikely you'll run
into any problems. But there's no way for Icon Manager to make sure an icon
set won't have any icon/bitmap ID number conflicts with other applications.
HandyShopper does its best to avoid the problem by being very explicit when it
asks the Palm OS for bitmaps; the technique is imperfect but does make it very
unlikely you'll run into problems with icon ID numbers less than 10,000 (the
Palm OS has built in bitmaps in the 10,000 range). If you suspect that you've
encountered an icon ID number conflict, look at the display to figure out
which icon is causing the conflict, then launch Icon Manager and select that
icon, and use the Set icon ID number... menu command to choose a
different icon ID number.
History
v1.3 (build 5205) April 5, 2003
Features:
- By popular request, the Conversions screen now has a Bulk
convert images... button that converts and adds the indicated image format
to icons that don't already include that format.
- Any device can convert any image format to any other format, even if the
OS version on the device doesn't support that image format (but a device can
still only edit an image format if the OS version on the device supports it).
- The Cut command now remembers the icon ID numbers, and Paste
assigns the pasted icons their rightful ID numbers (as long as the icon ID
number hasn't been already used by some other icon in the set you're pasting
into).
- Added a scrollbar to the 8-column view and the Details view.
- Several of the bulk operations are cancelable now.
- Removed some limitations from the Free Version:
- Can cut/copy any number of icons at a time to the clipboard now.
- Can bulk convert images now.
- Can convert white backgrounds to transparent backgrounds.
Fixes:
- Fixed selection after paste & insert.
- Fixed showing the icon set name when it contains no icons.
- Fixed various image conversion bugs on Sony devices.
- Fixed several OS 3.5 bugs (mostly in the color picker).
- Fixed the (very) broken grayscale support.
- Fixed the fatal error when there are more than 32 icon sets (this also
fixed a potential crash when exiting).
- Fixed the crash after deleting an icon set.
- Various obscure fixes.
v1.2 (build 5123) March 23, 2003
Features:
- The new Paste special... menu command pops up a screen where you
can paste & replace selected icons with icons from the clipboard,
or paste & insert icons from the clipboard inserting them in front
of the selected icon.
- The popup menu when you drag an icon includes two convenient new commands,
Copy & insert and Copy & replace.
- The color picker now supports the full 16-bit range of colors when editing
16-bit color icons.
- Low resolution devices are now able to convert high resolution icon images
into low resolution images if necessary.
- There is a new "view select" button in the upper right corner of the
screen. Tap it to cycle through the available views: 13 rows (DateBk5), 8
columns (HandyShopper and Agendus), and the Details view (showing all
available images for each icon).
- The clipboard commands are available for quick access from the new
clipboard button in the lower right corner of the icon list screen.
- The Cut and Copy clipboard commands now add icons to the
clipboard (instead of clearing the clipboard first, like it used to). To
clear the clipboard, use the Show/clear clipboard... command from the
Misc menu, or tap the clipboard button in the lower right corner of the
screen and select the Clear clipboard command from the popup menu.
Fixes:
- Fixed crash on OS 3.0 through 3.3 devices when using the Copy to...
command.
- Fixed bug where it didn't ask to save changes after using the Set icon
ID... command.
- Fixed bug that accidentally renumbered icons when saving the icon set, if
ID #0 occurred anywhere other than at index #0.
- Fixed bug on low-resolution devices that caused the Remove Extra
Images... command to have no effect on an icon if it contained any high
resolution images.
- Fixed a fatal error and reset if Icon Manager was unable to open an icon
set, for example if the icon set is marked as read-only.
- Fixed bug where the shift/rotate/flip/etc buttons didn't work right in the
icon editor after doing some steps involving copy+paste.
Other:
- Added some Known Issues to the readme.
- Icon Manager now uses registration codes - this makes it possible to post
beta versions that still allow all the features to work for registered users,
and also makes it possible to beam Icon Manager to other users and have it
automatically revert to the Trial Version for them.
- Sony OS 4.x devices have a hardware bug that causes them to crash if they
try to draw low resolution 16-bit icons that are compressed or have
transparent backgrounds. Your friendly neighborhood Icon Manager sports a new
Sonyize... command that analyzes an icon set and modifies it if
necessary to ensure it won't cause lockups on Sony OS 4.x devices.
v1.1 (build 5009) February 9, 2003
- Compression features to help save memory.
- Conversion features for convenience.
- Can set the ID for an individual icon in the Icons View, without having to open the
Icon Editor.
- Support for editing high resolution icons on Sony OS 4.x high resolution devices.
Be sure to read the important note to Sony OS 4.x users.
v1.0 (build 4931) January 31, 2003
- Initial release.
- Supports all devices with Palm OS 3.0 and higher (including OS 5.0 ARM devices).
Trial Version Limitations
- The Trial Version has the following limitations compared to the full
purchased version:
- Ten second delay when launching Icon Manager.
- Can't beam icon sets.
- Can't cut/copy/delete more than 15 icons at a time.
- The Remove extra images... menu command is disabled.
- The RGB quick-adjust arrows are disabled in the icon editor.
- The bulk compress and bulk uncompress commands are disabled.
- The Make transparent backgrounds command is disabled.
Free Version Limitations
- The Free Version is included with many third party icon sets. It lets you
organize your icon set(s) without a nag screen. It has the following
limitations compared to the full purchased version:
- Can't edit individual icon images.
- Can't beam icon sets.
- The Remove extra images... menu command is disabled.
- The bulk compress and bulk uncompress commands are disabled.
Hints of What Is To Come
Here are a few of the things planned for a future version of Icon Manager: