Pocket PC Creations software has wide application for both industry and the community, some of the scope is indicated on the Projects page of this web site.. 

Control

Projects are created with Pocket PC Creations open on a Windows desktop or laptop PC. The Project Control Menu presents as:

Project covers the key functional areas. Each of which will be covered in this tutorial. The major functional components are:

• Properties - Properties, including read/write control, wireless, licence.

• Design - Project Pages (Add, Edit, Delete), Points (Add, Edit, Delete).

• Install - Install projects to Pocket PC.

• Synchronise - Synchronising data between Pocket PC and desktop

• Database - View, Export to Excel, HTML, XML, Export to Databases (eg SQL Server, Access, Oracle etc) via ADO, custom automate with Data Script.

Pocket PC Creations operates both as a 'server' on the desktop and a 'client' on the Pocket PC. The local/New Session Window can be expanded for convenience on Desktop, Tablet and Notebook PCs (drag frame) and used as a powerful data entry portal on Windows Tablet and Notebook PCs.

Adding Pages and Points are the main tasks in creating or designing a Project.

Project   

Properties   

To create a project, New... is selected from the File menu. Pocket PC Creations asks for a filename for the new project, and assigns a .ppc file extension.

Following this, the Project Properties window appears with the opportunity to fill in the appropriate fields. The project properties are for information, with the exception of the Title, which will be used to identify this project to the user. 

Options provides customised properties for each project running in Mobile Data (the 'client' side of Pocket PC Creations) on the Pocket PC or Smartphone and sets up the presentation of sessions in the Session Window on the Pocket PC; see options below. 

The add project to Start Menu option enables display of a projects Title or name in the Start Menu on the Pocket PC; when checked the Title will show after the project has first been opened and closed on the Pocket PC. However, Windows Mobile up to and including 6.1 will only allow up to seven programs to be shown in the Start Menu, thus space may need to be generated via Settings > Personal > Menus. Windows Mobile 6.5 combines the previous separate ‘Start’ and ‘Programs’ menus for management of links to Programs. With Windows Mobile 6.5 uncheck ‘Show in Start Menu’ after the first install of project, then updates don’t cause replicates of project Title in Start. Set Auto-scroll for projects with long pages; note the scroll activates with data points (eg Selection, Drop List) and may be interrupted with Layout and Sketch points. Immediately start new session after previous session has closed. Useful for repetitive operations such as bar code scanning. Tap 'Finish' within 2 seconds to end automatic start cycle. When the Read Only box is checked changes cannot be made to data collected in the field; the default unchecked setting is to enable both read and write to the project after a user session is finished. Sessions cannot be deleted on the Pocket PC, only synced, prevents accidental and deliberate deletion. Set Unit ID of sessions on Pocket PC client that may have originated via a 'broadcast' to all Pocket PCs from wireless server; enabling identification of Pocket PCs on return of sessions to wireless server (see Wireless page 6). The Lock Data Pathway option enables systems managers to reduce accidental changes to Data Pathway settings by users. 

Session List Columns is an important Option and enables the selection of a point/s from which data will be presented in the Session Window on the Pocket PC to identify particular sessions, alongside the date and time of the session.  The columns on the Pocket PC can be widened to see data, and data can be sorted by tapping the top of the column/s. The width of columns is set when the project is closed, and the settings can be preserved by use of Lock Columns in the Session Menu; after the project has been re-opened with columns set, apply Lock Columns. Note, the Lite edition can display data from a point with the name "SessionName".

The Visual Style tab allows the visual style of the project to be modified (see below). Pocket PC Creations provides a default colour scheme and graphics set, but these can be replaced with a custom design. Custom visual styles consist of a set of colours, fonts and graphics that are used to display pages, and are stored within the project file.

When loading over the default graphics, ensure the JPG or Bitmap image used for the page Header image is 240 pixels wide (but may be up to 480 pixels wide for use in Landscape view, and on desktop, Tablet and notebook PCs), and between 40 and 60 pixels high so it fills the required area on screen. The page Background pattern will be tiled vertically down the page, and can be any width and height. Below are the 480 pixels wide Header and Background JPG images used in the Sales Force project.

Licence enables presentation of the licensing conditions for the project, see below. An important facility for commercial developers of Pocket PC Creations projects for sale.  Lock Project secures a projects design so that it can neither be seen nor amended. There are a number of cautionary steps to Lock a project, most importantly, a separate copy of the unlocked project must be retained by the author. While one of the features of Pocket PC Creations is the ease with which projects can be amended, sometimes it may be desirable to prevent amendments by parties other than the author/developer.

Design    

Next, double clicking the Design icon causes the Design Window to appear. A project will be empty to begin with, but once created, this is what the design area will look like. Features of the three panelled Design Window are:

• the left panel shows the Pages contained in the Project;

• the central panel is a WYSIWYG preview ('what you see is what you get') of the Project Pages being created, showing the page highlighted/selected in the left panel; 

• the right panel shows the Point types and titles on the selected page; 

• the bottom toolbar is a quick link to design functions; and

• the design settings can be managed via top toolbar, Edit and Design Settings.

Design - Page

Clicking the Add Page button on the Design window (at the bottom) causes a dialog box to appear prompting for details. The Caption for the new page - "Location and Test" is entered. Avoid using long page captions, as they don't wrap down a line (or reduce Page Caption font size via Visual Style). If required, Introductory Text can be added. The check box control for 'This page can be reached with Previous/Next' is set by default, when unchecked the page is 'hidden' and not part of the normal navigation, and can only be reached via Link points (see page 3). 

The Guidance field in the dialog box can be used to enter information to guide or 'help' the user of the project page in the field. If guidance support is provided with the project points described below, it can be helpful to copy it onto the page guidance field for quick reference. The Guidance area on a page can be accessed by a tap on the top of the page, and tap page to return. Text cannot be added to the Guidance area from the Pocket PC, it must be added or amended in the Project Design phase. Guidance can be formatted by a limited subset of HTML, for bold (b), underline (u) and headings (h1); headings reflect the Visual Style for page Title.

Design - Point

Clicking Add Point button on the Design window (at the bottom, or right mouse click with cursor in right panel) causes the list of point functions to appear within the Add New Point window. When installed, Custom Points will also appear in the Add New Point window. Pocket PC Creations version 6 installation now includes all custom points, thus there is no requirement for separate installation of the included custom points.

Design - Point - Properties

Clicking one of the Point Types causes the appearance of a Point Properties dialog box, see below. Point Properties provides three components:

• General -  a Caption for the point, and unique ID Name derived from the Caption, this is important for managing data, duplications are not accepted within a project so a little creativity may be required in describing point ID Names. The Caption and ID Name do not have to be the same. The Caption can be dynamically expanded by parsing from a point on another page using <%OtherPointID%>, the Captions will then present what is entered in the other point.  Point Style enables control of point presentation and use. Required prompts the user to enter text and numeric data before leaving the project page; Hard both prompts the user and prevents leaving the page without entering data in the point. 'Required' and 'Hard' are not responsive to images and other 'binary' data. Visible on Page and Include in Data Store are default functions, but can be varied depending on the project. Visible on Page is particularly important for Conditional Logic (see Page 3). Retain Session Value enables the value of the point(s) to become the default for new sessions, until the project is closed on the Pocket PC, a time saver in the field;

• Function - Drop List in this case below, other options are Boolean, Selection, Edit, Date Time, Outlook, Math, Sketch, Link, Layout, Logic, File, UltraDrop, GPS, Camera, Numpad, Incrementor, Print, Telegram, Voice, Formatter, Stopwatch, Event Counter and Slider. Each are described on the following pages; and

• Guidance - the opportunity to include guidance on use of the information collection point.