Initiate lets you launch just about anything, from applications to bookmarks.

To get you started, you are initially in the Apps view. This only shows you applications and works like most application launchers.

To see how Initiate differs from other launchers, type the first letters of the application you want to launch. Initiate immediately finds what you need - and if auto launch is on, it will launch the application.

Now tap on the views icon to switch to power user view. You can now type a couple of letters to find any application, contact, memo, bookmark or mp3.

There's a lot more - read on to find out...

Using the main view

You can also do all of these actions by tapping and holding on an item, or by using the menu commands (menu/Record or menu/Views)

Browsing vs. Launching

There are two main ways to use Initiate: Browsing, and Launching.

Browsing:
-This is what most other launchers are designed for, and Initiate can work just like they do.
Browsing is when you want to answer the question 'What game shall I play', or 'What was that document reader I downloaded?'.

For Browsing it is useful to arrange things in categories and then select the category you want and scroll through your options.

In Initiate, browsing is best in a view where you show the category gadget, and perhaps only show applications. The 'Applications' view is initially set up to do this like (much other launchers).

Launching:
-This is where you know what you want. Initiate is optimised for this.
Launching is when you have a need 'Launch Filez' or 'Open my SalesFigures.doc file'

For launching, you don't want to have to select a category, or type of item. You just type a couple of letters and quickly find what you want. To launch Filez, you could type 'Fz' to launch the SalesFigures.doc, you could type 'Sfg'.

In Initiate, launching is best in a view that lists everything and doesn't waste space with the categories. The 'Power user' view is initially set up to do this.

Views

Views are a powerful feature unique to Initiate. They let you switch between operating modes; browsing, launching, managing music, or whatever you want!

Initiate defines your default views, but you can customise them as you wish. See the view preference section below for details.

You can select the view to use in various ways

1. Use the 5-way to navigate to the left or right to switch views (after changing columns if there are more than one)
2. Tap on the view icon (shows a list of views)
3. Tap on the Applications view, or Power User view buttons.
4. Select a view from the menu
5. Assign a button to switch views in the 'Navigation in Initiate' preferences.

In most cases, the best view is the one set up as 'Power User' everything is listed, and with a couple of letters typed, anything can be quickly found.When you don't want to launch a specific item, but want to browse a category of items, then you might want use the Applicationss view to browse.

Searching

The most powerful way to search for an item in Initiate is type-to-search. Simply type a few letters of what you are looking for.

If you select 'Smart Search' in the 'Launching Items/Miscellaneous settings' preferences, then you can search much more efficiently.

With Smart Search turned on, you can search for items 'txt style' by leaving out letters that are common. So to search for 'Filez', you could

Smart Search takes a little getting used to, but Initiate will underline the matching letters to show how it is working. To get started, try skipping vowels and just typing consonants. Generally, you will find what you want with two or three letters typed.

Not everyone likes Smart Search - you can turn it off in the Launching Items/Miscellaneous settings' preference, in which case, you simply type the first few letters of what you are looking for to find it.

Example Search using 'Smart Search'

Launching

Initiate gives you different launching options for different devices. You can:

1. Tap on the item you want to launch
2. Press the enter key or write <return/newline> when the item you want is selected
3. Scroll to select the item then select (centre key). If you don't have a centre key you can assign a button to this job in Preferences.
4. Type enough letters to uniquely identify yur item with AutoLaunch turned on...

AutoLaunch:
If AutoLaunch is turned on, then when you type enough to uniquely identify an item, that item is launched. This is great for launching - but you might want to turn it off when you are selecting files that you want to use in another way (e.g. beam, move to sd card, assign as favourite)

AutoLaunch makes most things faster - but you must turn it off when you want to manage files

Launching Mp3s:
When you launch an mp3 with AeroPlayer, Pocket Tunes or MMPlayer, a mini audio console will appear at the bottom of the screen. This lets you set the volume and stop the mp3.

Launching Contacts:
When you launch a contact, you will be shown a secondary screen giving options for that contact (shown on right).

You can call, email, sms or just open the contact in your contact application provided you have an appropriate helper installed and defined.

To launch the option you want, either press the letter corresponding to the action, tap on the action you want or scroll and select.

Voice Launching : (Pro version only)
You can use Initiate to launch anything Initiate can launch, simply by telling it to!

Here are the steps to set up voice launching.

(NB - Voice launching requires the Pro version of Initiate, and a device that supports the extended sound API like the Treo, Centro or the lifedrive)

1. Record voice commands
   • Select Menu/Application/Preferences, then select Voice Commands
   • Tap on 'Create a voice command' to record a new command and follow the prompts to:
   • Tap on 'Pick Action' to select an action
   • Provide a name for your command
   • Record the command one or more times
   • You will now be returned to the main list. Just launch an application, phone call, bookmark (or anything else) as you normally would. This action will be captured and you'll be brought back to the Voice menu.
   • That's it
   
   
2. To assign a button for voice launching when Initiate is open (the side key by default)
• Select the 'Navigation in Initiate' preference
• Make sure that one of the buttons is assigned to 'Voice Launch'
  
  
3. To assign a button for voice launching when Initiate is closed (the side key by default)
• Select the 'Launching Initiate' preference
• Select a button as a 'launch trigger' tap on the 'launch type' to make it a voice launch

Press your 'Voice Launch' button and speak your command!

Reviewing your Voice Commands

tap on the 'View Commands' tab to see all your voice commands. You can test the voice recognition, delete commands, add new recordings or change the launch action assigned to a command.

Voice Launching Tips

• It's a good idea to record a couple of clips for each command. To add a recording to a command - just tap 'Add' in the Voice page. The number by the command shows how many clips are recorded for each command.
• You can adjust how the matching works in the Voice preference panel (Menu/Applications/Preferences/Voice). Here you can set the confidence that is required to launch a matched command, the microphone sensitivity and the strictness of the matching algorithm.
• In the trial, you can record 10 clips, and use voice Launching for 10 days. After that, you need to purchase the full version of Initiate.

Voice Dialing :

Initiate supports up to 15 voice dial commands - though there is no limit on how many commands you can have for launching other items (like applications, bookmarks, mp3s, etc)

Voice Dial commands are set up in exactly the same way as normal voice launching. Follow the instructions in voice launching (above) but when you tap on 'Pick Action', simply select a number to call. To do this, you may have to change the view to 'contacts' or 'power user'.

So you want your side key back!

You don't need to use the side key for Initiate voice launching. You just have to adjust your preferences.

Initiate uses two sets of preferences to set voice launching - One for when Initiate is open (Nav preference) and one for outside Initiate (Launch preference).

To change these, just do the following:

Preferences

Just tap on menu (or press the menu button) and select Application/Preferences to access the various preferences in Initiate.

They are all covered in detail below:

Preferences - Register

The most important preference of all!

Please purchase a registration code and enter it here.

You can also use this page to select whether you want to use the Pro version or the Standard version.

Preferences - Text format

In this and many other preferences, you can choose to have the same settings for every view. If you do this, the view selector will be hidden. I won't comment on this option in following preferences.

This allows you to define how the text in the main list is shown

'Show shadows' will make the text be drawn with a seperate colour around it. This makes it easy for text to stand out on a background if you use one colour of text and a contrasting shadow.

Preferences - Status Icons

Select the format for text in your status icons, and select which icons to show.

For SD and RAM icons, you can decide whether to show used or free and % or ammount (e.g. Megabytes free)

Preferences - Views

Define what items you want to show in each view -and change the name of your views if you like.

If you select 'include when cycling through views' then this view will be shown when you navigate left or right to change views, and when you use a key assigned to 'toggle views'

All views will show in the menu and view selector

The bottom items to include are defined in the 'Programs to use' preference

Note that Applications and Apps on SD card are shown as separate options.

Preferences - Backgrounds

You can use the default background for your skin, a solid colour or a JPEG.

If you have a recent Palm device, then you will have the option of using a live jpeg. This means that the jpeg is converted from your SD card every time the view is shown. This does save ram - but it is slower to launch. Generally, using a converted jpeg is better.

Tick the 'show preview' option to see how your background looks

Select the 'Restrict applications area' if you want applications to only show in part of the screen. This is great if you want to make part of your background permanently visible (see the example for how that can work)

Preferences - Layouts

Pick a skin

Select the columns for List or Icon mode

Hide text if your icons are enough (Initiate will still show the text for the selected item, and for any items that don't have their own icon)

If you have a high resolution device, then instead of showing icons with more detail, you can show them smaller and fit more on the screen.

Preferences - Plugins (Pro version only)

Download plugins here

Some plugins are free - others are included with applications that you have to buy from other developers

Initiate supports plugins in the 2Day format or the Datebook6 format

Plugins in the DateBk format will show an icon when you select them which lets you set display preferences for that plugin.

Preferences - Display elements to show

You can choose which elements are displayed in the main screen

Turn off tips if you don't want the 'helpful' text that explains if a view is empty or you have no favourites (this allows you to create a view where your background is shown in full until you type-to-search.

Lefthanded mode will display your scrollbars on the left of the screen

Animation speed controls the speed at which tips are shown, and if you hide the view control, this controls how long the new view name is shown when you switch views.

Preferences - Programs to use

One of the most important preference screens - this lets you tell Initiate what application to use for a given item type

The filetype options at the bottom of the page depend on what is available on your device. When you select a filetype, the following happens:

1) Initiate checks for applications that can open the filetype directly by using the filename. If it finds an application or applications, then these are displayed. In this case, you will see an icon related to the filetype on the right of the screen.

2) If no application can open the file directly, then Initiate checks for an application that can open that type of data. This is launching method is not as good as Initiate has to copy the data and send it to the application. The application doesn't know what file it came from, so you have to save changes in a new document. If this program type is shown, then you will see two red arrows next to the application name.

Initiate can only send files to applications that are in RAM (not on the SD card)

If an application does not appear, then I will happily work with the developer to make the small changes that they need to make to work with Initiate. It's up to you to write to them and ask them to work with me. Click here for more details on how Initiate launches files, and what developers need to do.

Preferences - Launching / Miscellaneous settings

Smart search is great - read about it under searching

Updating the list in the background means you never have to wait while your list is updated when your launcher opens. If you find it slows your device, then you may want to disable it.

You can do a complete list update automatically after a hotsync

Only SMS numbers labelled as M will work if you correctly label your mobile numbers as such in the contacts app!

Launch clears keyguard will let you launch Initiate and clear the keyguard in one keypress.

Return to contact allows you to automatically return to a contact if you don't get through after trying one number. Rather than having to select your contact again, you automatically load into the contact page and can try another number.

Preferences - Categories

Manage your categories!

This is the same category list as in the standard application launcher, so changes made here will reflect there (except from the visible/not visible option)

Use the up/down arrows to change the order of your categories

Preferences - Favourites & Hidden

You can make items into favourites (they will show when the favourites button is pressed), or hide them (they won't show at all).

If you have 'lost' an item, it is probably here! Hidden items are at the bottom of the list - tap on the 'show hidden' button to jump to them.

Preferences - Launching Initiate

These options control what buttons do when you are outside Initiate

You can select a normal launch, or a voice launch. For normal launches, you can specify a view to start in.

'Start as an overlay' makes Initiate start and immediately show another application (like 2Day). You can see the info in that application, but as soon as you start to 'type-to-search' then you will immediately switch to Initiate's view with the selected items shown.

This lets you launch directly from an app like 2Day or perhaps a graphical clock.

Preferences - Navigation in Initiate

This controls what buttons will do when you are in the main launch page.

Preferences - Navigation options

'Navigation to edge of main list...' allows you to switch views by navigating left or right in the main list. If you deselect this option, then navigation to the side will put the 5-way into selection mode to move around the screen.

'I am using a numeric keyboard' allows you to type with numbers and Initiate matches items in predictive text style

'Don't launch on L' is useful if you use graffiti 2 as the letter l is changed to T or I when you perform another stroke. It's annoying if Initiate autolaunches on the wrong letter...

'No Re-launch' allows you to set the home key so that from Initiate it launches a secondary launcher. Pressing home again will change categories (in most launchers) and won't re-launch Initiate until after you exit the secondary launcher.

Preferences - Voice Launching

See Voice Launching above

Preferences - Manage Registration

see 'Registration' above

Preferences - Help

useful help tips

Preferences - Updates and Downloads

download other Hobbyist Software application, Bookmarks, Skins, Backgrounds and Plugins

Getting the most out of Initiate

Initiate is at it's best helping you find things really fast.

The fastest way is to stick to a view which shows everything you regularly use, turn off categories and the view bar (to give you the maximum list space)

Now use type-to-search with 'Smart Search' turned on . You'll be amazed at how fast you can launch calls, apps, bookmarks and more.

Now select a few (not more than 6) items as your favourites so you have immediate access when you open Initiate.

You'll occasionally want to browse contents games, mp3s etc. When you do, simply tap and hold the view icon and select the view you want.

Advanced: Smart Guess

Smart Guess gives you more ways to enter phone numbers and web addresses

If there is no item that matches what you have typed, Initiate will try to guess what you have typed, and either perform the right action, or give you some options.

Guesses:

If you type a search beginning with www or ending in .com, .co..uk, .net, .org then Initiate will complete a web address and open the web page. If there is no http:// or no www. then Initiate will add those. If there is no domain at the end, Initiate will add .com

• type www.gmail and Initiate will open http://www.gmail.com
• type gmail.com and Initiate will open http://www.gmail.com

If you type a search containing an '@', Initiate will open your email helper with the given search as an email address

• type me@mail.com and Initiate will start an email to me@mail.com

Options:

If there isn't an obvious action, then Initiate will give some options.

The first option is made by translating letters into numbers using the standard phone letter/number mapping

e.g. 1800 CALL ATT becomes 1800 225 5288

The second option is made by translating letters into numbers using the way that letters are placed on the treo/centro smartphones

e.g. ert dfg xcv becomes 123 456 789 (this makes it slightly faster to type numbers to dial on a treo/centro)

The third option is made by turning the search into a web address

e.g. gmail becomes www.gmail.com

This makes Initiate helpful even if what you want isn't already in your list!

Advanced: Creating Bookmarks

Bookmarks are stored as memos in the memo pad. The simplest way to see how they are formatted is to download some example bookmarks from www.hobbyistsoftware.com.

Once you have loaded bookmarks, just type the name of the bookmark to find it in your list (e.g. type 'goog' to find the google mobile bookmark)

The full description of the bookmark format is given at www.hobbyistsoftware.com.

If you create a cool set of bookmarks that you'd like to share, send them to me and I'll put them on the site.

Advanced: Commands

Initiate has a few commands that can occasionally be useful

Advanced: Keeping it Fast!

Some features make Initiate work harder. If you want it to run at maximum speed, you may choose to disable them. Read about them here.

That's It

If you've read this far, drop me an e-mail at rob@hobbyistsoftware.com and I'll tell you a secret...