Using Memos

Pimlical Android Help

Using Memos

In addition to displaying appointments and tasks, Pimlical/Android can also display memos or notes. Each memo is stored as a separate record in the Memos.dat file which is stored in PimlicalMemos. Memos are edited with a built-in Pimlical memo editor. Memos can be displayed in a list sorted either by last modification date, alphanumeric by title, or by category.

Appointments or tasks can also be linked to any number of memos (as well as contacts) and easily recalled when needed. This is useful when you have many items which all need the same text. By using a link, you can have just one copy of the memo, so that any change there is then reflected any time you recall the link from an appointment.

Displaying Memos

To display the list of memos, use Menu | View/Edit Memos.

Remember that if you are upgrading from an earlier version of Pimlical/Android that did not contain this menu item, you will need to go into Menu | Commands/Functions | MenuCommandsAndOrder in order to select the new menu option for display. This also applies to the popup command Set Link to Memo, where you may need to edit the preference PopupListCommandsForEvent in the Commands/Functions section of preferences.

A list is then displayed of all the memos in the PimlicalMemos folder. At top left is the category the memo is in, and at top right is the least modification date/time for the memo. This is then followed by the title which is the first section of the filename, and some number of lines of text from the memo itself.

There are several buttons at the top of the memo selection list to aid in the navigation and selection of memos:

[↑L+] This button controls the sorting of memos. tap this button and you have six sort options - Allphanumeric, category and date either of which can be in either ascending or descending order. If you briefly tap this button, the database is temporarily sorted the way you select, but the default sort of the database remains the same as that set in Preferences. If you long-press this button, you can also set the selected sort as the new permanent sort preference. The arrow indicates whether the sort is ascending (up arrow) or descending (down arrow). The letter is either A-Alphanumeric, C-Category, or D-Date.

[] The green plus button is used to create a new memo A new memo is created in the default memo category (see preferences) and the Edit dialog is opened up so you can enter all the appropriate information for the memo.

[] The red Find button is used to select just those memos that match on the specified search string. If you long-press this button, then ALL matches are displayed (as opposed to matches that are displayable based upon the current filter in effect (if any).

[] The green checkmark button simply exits the memos application and returns to the Pimlical Calendar.

[ All+] The All button displays all memos, removing any other filters with the exception that inactive and deleted records are not displayed (but category, text filter etc. are removed). A long-press on this button displays all memos in the database, including inactive and deleted records.

[] The Category button pops up a list of available memo categories for selection. Tap on a category to select just those memos in that category, or tap the CANCEL button to display all categories. There is also a New button to create a new category. This function only displays memo categories that are present in the memos database, or any new categories created in the current session.

[] The Favorites button displays all your favorite memos (as indicated by a checkbox in the Edit Dialog). Typically, you would mark any memos you need on a regular basis as Favorites.

[] The Recent button displays all the memos that have been recently accessed in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent memo. This is very useful when invoking the memos application and you want to look at a memo that you were just looking at earlier the same day. Each memo is displayed with the time you accessed you the memo (for today's date) or the date (for items accessed yesterday or earlier). This list is limited to the number of days specified in the Preference RecentUpdatesCutoff). You can also long-press this button to display all memos in reverse chronological order of access.

[] This ScrollTo button allows you to scroll the list very quickly to the first memo which begins with the designated location string. For example, if you are sorting alphanumerically in ascending order and type in Dew then the list will immediately scroll to the first entry whose last name begins with Dew.

[] This button pops up a menu of general commands for the memos database (see section below)

Editing a Memo

To edit a memo, briefly tap the memo in the list. The memo is then displayed in Pimlical's built-in memo editor. A protected memo will display a warning, but then allow you to view (but not edit) the text.

Deleting a Memo

To delete a memo, long press the memo in the list. A selection list then appears - select Delete This Memo and then confirm that you want to delete that memo. Note that this does not remove the record - it merely sets the deleted status on the record. The memo is no longer displayed in the list of memos. This is done so that the activity of deleting the memo can be carried through on a subsequent SYNC operation. Protected memos cannot be deleted.(you have to first unprotect the memo).

Changing the Title

To change the title of a memo, long press the memo in the list. A selection list then appears - select Change Memo Title. An edit dialog then appears where you can type in the new title for the memo. You can not change the title of a protected memo.

Changing the Category

To change the category of a memo, long press the memo in the list. A selection list then appears - select Change Memo Category. A dialog listing of all the existing category names appears so you can select the new category for the menu. There is also a New button in that dialog that allows you to create a new category. You can not change the category of a protected memo.

Changing the Protection

To change the Protection of a memo, long press the memo in the list. A selection list then appears - select Change Memo Protection. The protection status of the memo is toggled (if protected, it's now unprotected and vice-versa). Protected memos can be viewed, but not edited in the internal editor as a safe-guard.

Creating a New Memo

To create a new memo, tap the button with the blue plus sign at the top of the dialog. An edit dialog then appears where you can type in the title for the new memo. Pimlical always creates a default title consisting of the word 'Memo_' and the date and time in YYYYMMDDtHHMMSS format (to ensure each title is unique). It is also selected, so as soon as you start to type anything else, what you type replaces the default title After you specify a title, an empty field appears where you can type in the text of the memo. By default, all newly created memos are placed in the Unfiled category.

Find Items Linking to Memo

To find all events/tasks that link to a memo, long press the memo in the list and select this option. An Event Selection List is then displayed of all events and tasks that were linked to that memo.

Restore from Backup

To restore the memo database from a backup copy, tap Menu button and select RESTORE MEMOS (DAT). A list is then displayed of all backup copies of the memo database. The most recent backup will have the extension bk1, then bk2, bk3, etc. There will also be a weekly and monthly backup as well of the memo database (how many backups are taken is controlled by the general preference: NumberOfBackups. You can also force Pimlical to backup the memos database at any time with MENU | BACKUP MEMOS (DAT).

Share Memo text

To share the text of the memo with other applications on your Android device, long press the memo in the list and select this option. Pimlical/Android will then submit all the text of this memo to any other Android application registered on your device to handle the editing of text.

Filtering List by a Text String

To only list memos that contain a specific text string, tap the button with the red Find icon and enter the text string you want the list filtered by. Only memos that contain that text string in the title or in the body of the memo will be displayed in the list. The search is not case-sensitive. When a filter has been set, the background of the Find button turns red to alert you to the fact that a filter is in effect, and the text of the filter is also displayed at the top of the dialog.

A long press on the Find icon displays a list of all active categories so you can quickly filter the display by a category (the presence of the long-press function is signaled by the + sign after the icon). You can also enter a category filter as [CategoryName] or if you have several category names that start the same way, you could use something like [Book to find [Books-General], [Books-Fiction], [Books-NonFiction] etc.

To remove the filter, click on the red Find icon and tap the Remove button.

Linking Appointments or Tasks to a Memo

To link an appointment or task, long-press the item in the Event Selection List and select the popup command: Set Link to Memo. Pimlical then displays the list of all the memos. At that point, tap the memo that you want to link to and a link will be set to that memo in the selected event. An event can be linked to any number of memos (and/or categories). To view a memo linked to an appointment, use the popup command Show Linked Contact. This command normally displays linked contacts, but will also display any memo links as well. Simply tap on the memo to display it for viewing or editing.

Editing Memos

Pimlical uses its own internal editor to edit the text of a memo. The text field responds to the standard Android text selection commands (long press to select text and copy and paste, etc.). The top of the display features checkboxes and buttons to perform useful functions:

[] This checkbox is checked (or can be checked) to mark the current memo as a Favorite memo (favorite memos can be selectively displayed).

[] This checkbox is checked (or can be checked) to mark the current memo as a Secret/Private memo (secret/private memos can be selectively hidden from display, etc.).

[

] This checkbox is checked (or can be checked) to mark the current memo as a Protected memo (Protected memos are write protected, and therefore protected against inadvertent modification).

[] This checkbox is checked (or can be checked) to mark the current memo as a Deleted memo (Deleted memos are normally hidden from display, but maintained in the database for a period of time in order to manage the synchronization of the deletion with other Pimlical Platforms.

[

] The green checkmark button locks in all editing changes made to the memo and returns to the main memo list.

[] The Red X discards all the editing changes and returns to the main memo list. If any change has been made to the memo, a confirmation dialog will appear asking you to confirm that you want to discard all the changes.

[] The red Find button is used to find a text string in the memo. At this time, there is no special function associated with a long press on the button (in spite of the + being present).

[] The blue double arrow will find the next occurrence of the find string set above.

[ ] The double-headed arrow alternately moves the cursor position from the top of the memo to the end of the memo.

[ ] This button (to the left of the memo Title) will toggle the display of the Create/Modified/Checkbox/button bars at the top of the screen to open up more room for the display and editing of the text of the memo (the triangle then turns upside down: [ ] . Tap the button again to restore the display of those items. This feature was added in V-3.5.14.

Syncing Memos

Memos can be synced via Pimlical/Desktop's DirectSync or AutoSync to the desktop. Just check the box to Include Memos in DirectSync, or select memos in the preference AutoSyncOptions.

Deleted Records

Deleted records stay in the database for a period of time determined by the preference DaysToKeepDeletedRecords. Deleted records MUST be kept in the database until syncing takes place, as otherwise those records would be restored from the device being synced. You can include or exclude the display of deleted records by using MENU | HIDE DELETED RECORDS or MENU | SHOW DELETED RECORDS ONLY.

Other Menu Functions

Import Memos from Folder (Text FIles) - Brings up a file navigation dialog where you can select a folder in which there are one or more text files (files with a .TXT extension). Pimlical will then import ALL the memos in that folder.

Export Memos (Text Files) - Brings up a file navigation dialog where you can select a folder into which all memos are exported as individual text files. The filename is taken from the subject line and a .TXT extension is provided to each file. Only memos that are currently displayed are exported, so be sure to select ALL memos if you want all of them to be exported.

Backup Memos (DAT) - This menu item backs up the entire memo database as a DAT file using the standard Pimlical backup mechanism (i.e. using extensions .bk1, .bk2, .bk3 etc. as well as monthly and weekly backups)

Restore Memos (DAT) - This menu item restores the entire memo database from the designated backup file.

Show Deleted Records Only - This menu item only displays deleted memos

Hide Deleted Records - This menu item causes all deleted memos to be hidden from the display

Remove All Blank Records - sometimes, blank records can appear in the database - this function removes them all.

Delete All Displayed Records - This function will delete ALL records in the current display (mostly useful after a filtering operation of some kind). Note that deleted records stay in the database (for syncing).

Remove All Displayed Records - As above, except that the records are completely removed from the database (if syncing to another device that has these same records, they will of course get restored back to the device).

Re-Sort Memo Database - this function immediately resorts the memos database. In most cases, this function should not be needed as the database is sorted automatically.

Clear All Last Access Dates - This resets the last access dates of all memos (last access dates are used to create the Recent list).

Check & Fix Duplicate IDs - under some error conditions, memos might acquire a duplicate ID (i.e. the ID that identifies a memo is the same as that of some other memo). This function will check for this error condition and automatically fix it by assigning a new unique ID.

Importing Memos from Outlook

Most versions of Outlook export all the notes into a single CSV type file with some of the other fields (such as color) specified. You can convert that file to separate memo files that you can then export into Pimlical with this VBA Macro. Just edit the single line starting with "FolderPath = ...." to specify the folder where you want all the separate text files put for import. You will need to consult the Microsoft documentation on Outlook (or Google for it) to enable the display of Macros in Outlook.

Sub Export_Notes_as_Text_Files()
    Dim outFile As String
    Dim notesFolder As Folder
    Dim itemNo As Long
    Dim thisNote As NoteItem
    Dim fileNo As Integer
    Dim MemoNumber As Integer
    Dim nText As String
    Dim FolderName As String

    '
    ' In quotes, put the path to the folder where you want all the memos put.
    '
    FolderPath = "C:\Adata\My Documents"

    fileNo = FreeFile
    Set notesFolder = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI").PickFolder

    For itemNo = 1 To notesFolder.Items.Count
        Set thisNote = notesFolder.Items(itemNo)
        outFile = FolderPath + "\Memo" + Format$(MemoNumber) + ".txt"
        Open outFile For Output As #fileNo
        Print #fileNo, nText
        Close #fileNo
        MemoNumber = MemoNumber + 1
   Next

   MsgBox "Notes have been saved in" & vbNewLine & "C:\My Documents\Memo...txt", vbOKOnly + vbInformation, "Exported Notes"

End Sub