Ideas/Uses for Apt

[PaulLMurray]

Edit after thread became large and stickied:  The advice in this edit is meant primarily to help users approaching Aot for the first time ( and because a moderator asked me to edit it and I'm a good little boy  ). If you are an long time Apt user please peruse the thread for ideas on using Apt in ways you haven't thought of and hopefully you will contibute your own ideas. 
1. If used incorrectly Apt can put your device in a reset loop. If this happens just follow the instructions for doing a warm reset here http://mytreo.net/how-to-guides/resetting-your-palm-device/ and disable Apt until you can locate and erase the problem macro.
2. When first installing Apt install from the zip file and make sure you also install the aptassist.prc  If you don't Apt will not correctly.
3. Please don't get scared off. Apt came be very overwhelming when you first approach it but as you look through the examples in this thread and create a few simple shortcuts of your own the fog will begin to lift. Also excellent information and tutorials on using Apt can be found here http://apt-palm.wikidot.com/
4. If you are having trouble with Apt feel free to ask for help. That's what this forum and this thread are for.



With Apt I have
Made a few speed dials and a shortcut to weatherbug universal.
In messaging made holding d delete all.
In TouchLauncher made pressing spacebar bring up the option to soft reset.
In TouchBook made the phone key call the highlighted person and the mail key sms the highlighted person.
Did the same in Contact.
In Blazer made spacebar bringup the bookmarks screen. Made the backspace key activate the back button. And made several shortcuts to my bookmarks like pressing m takes me to mytreo.net
In World Clock made pressing spacebar popup the set alarm menu.

If anyone that uses Apt wants to know how I did these just ask and please post your own uses for Apt so I get more ideas for using this amazingly cool and free program.

[fstopstigmata]

In Blazer made the.. backspace key activate the back button.

It already does that without Apt

Great thread, I've always searched for one for ideas, never considered actually creating my own   This could be a very nice resourse if we get enough users involved (Paging Dr. DickieD).

I'll post back with a list of mine when I'm at home & have more time.

For now, I'll give a pointer to those who are just getting interested in using Apt: when installing the program, make sure you download the .zip file, it contains a helper app called AptAssist.prc that is necessary for Apt to operate correctly on your device.  I was frustrated for days until I realized it.  I (for the second time ) urge a moderator to add a note in the download description warning new users of the importance of the AptAssist.prc.

[sw99]

couple of things I did:
1) auto update 'MyLocation' in GoogleMaps
2) disable/re-enable 4cast updates when entering certain apps (such as TomTom).
3) re-enable pxaClocker (free version) upon reset.

[PaulLMurray]

Fstop- I had no idea backspace already did that. Guess I'm still a noob.
SW- That's exactly why I started this thread. Auto Update Google Maps is brillant. I just set mine to update my locatiin after app launch. Great idea.

Kudos for both of you.

[sw99]

Actually, I have a trigger to make google maps auto update every 10 seconds - so it actually tracks my driving - showing traffic and acting sort of as a GPS if you've already programmed a route.  I'd be happy to share my setup if you're interested.

[fstopstigmata]

Kudos for both of you.

I bought the next round.

sw: could you please? I still haven't tried doing any '*'s, '>'s, or '&'s (or whatever it is) yet, just cause I haven't had the time to sit down & do a full manual read-thru yet.  Maybe your explanation will get me started on some more tinkering

[sw99]

it's quite simple.  Firstly since I don't always want this capability on, I programmed two of the hard keys, one to enable, and one to disable the auto update (actually its Button3 for on, and opt+Button3 for off).



The enable button also immediately does the fist find.  I also like GoogleMaps to zoom in after finding MyLocation, so I have Apt hit the "+" key twice.

I control the refreshes with a 10 second timer, and a variable (a) which is checked, and as long as it is non-zero, the refresh continues.  Disabling it is done by just reseting this variable back to 0.  This is also a good idea to do before exiting the app (I had in the past received a phone call and could not figure out why I kept hearing key presses in the background - it was the 0 firing off every 10 seconds).



I found that I could not tell if the zoom was working if I was not moving fast enought between towers, so I had apt hit the letter "q" (any key not used by GoogleMaps would work), which cause the "Your position within..." to dissapear.  The next MyLocation update would make it reappear even if there was no update.  You do need to but some delay in before hitting q ( I use 2 seconds).

Let me know if any of this is confusing, and I'll be happy to clarify.

[fstopstigmata]

Here's a few I've done:

--I have TealWheel assigned as the side key, & I have an upward pen stroke assigned to trigger it, so my TealWheel now launches just like the old TealOS wave launcher did.

--I have the 2, 5, & 8 keys assigned as Dig+ to change the screen brightness to 40. 125, & 255, respectively.

--For Blazer, I've got the volume keys assigned as pen taps on the up/down scroll bar arrows, so I get smooth scrolling in 'Optimized Mode' instead of that annoying choppiness (still have no idea why they only made 'Wide Mode smooth scroll )

--Ive got the space bar set to trigger a quick launch of BatteryDA, since I'm constantly checking it.

--My Pics & Videos is set to go 100% brightness on launch & return to default when exited (I believe that's in the wiki, no?

**I'll be the first to admit that the Hobbyist Software apps are amazing, but I'm obsessed with optimization, & I've managed to completely replace every single feature that I use (pretty much everything) & use up less memory, have less (in fact zero!) effect on speed, & (best of all!) cost absolutely nothing.  Here's a couple ways Apt helped:

**I can't live without KeyCaps 600, & Butler's workaround to keep the Favorites keys working is great! But the exact same things can be assigned within Apt, so I can delete all those Favorite buttons from Phone (& make tab navigatuon within TAKEphONE much less annoying, to boot)

**Butler's Volume Keys feature can also be reproduced with Apt, & actually even improved with Blazer to be set as right/left instead, so each link on the page can be scrolled through with the volume keys.

**I also have brightness set to decrease at 2200 & increase at 0700, afeature I used to use with Power Hero. 

There's more, but my thumb is getting tired

I'm still very new to the app & I've got a lot of ideas clunking around in my head, so I'm looking forward to learning to write macros & really push this app to it's full potential.

[fstopstigmata]

Oh! Forgot to mention one of my favorites:

Per-app Khroma themes for those pesky buggers that don't agree with my black SkinUI theme

[fstopstigmata]

--Ive got the space bar set to trigger a quick launch of BatteryDA, since I'm constantly checking it.

Arg! I just noticed the DA launching warning & tested it & it turns out to be true.  Guess BatteryDA gets moved back to the top of a DBLP list, for now.  At least now I know for sure where those two crashes came from last night

[Arnie]

Can I replace KeyCaps600 with Apt? If I can, would someone please show how to set it up?
Thanks!

[fstopstigmata]

Can I replace KeyCaps600 with Apt? If I can, would someone please show how to set it up?
Thanks!

I'm thinking that's probably not possible- even if it were you'd have to program a separate macro for all 26 buttons- but like I said, I'm still pretty new to this.

What is it about KC600 you don't like?

[PaulLMurray]

SW- Nice work with the variables. Don't need anything that complicated myself. Just want it to know where I am when I open it but I'll use your example to play with variables in other macros.

FStop- I think I'm going to do the opposite of you in Blazer and program the side keys to nav. up and down 20 or 30 presses. Sort of replace the scroll jump hack that only works half the time. I currently have this in a star menu in Blazer but the menu sometimes pops up in other apps that I don't want it to.

[PaulLMurray]

Okay I set up 1TouchTimer to set a timer for 5 minutes if I hit 0, 10 minutes if I hit 1, 15 minutes if I hold 1, and so on up to an hour. I use it a lot for cooking and wanted to be able to set it quickly without having to pull out the stylus.
I set spacebar to start a manual backup in NVBackup.
I wanted to set Versamail to sync at different frequencies at different times of the day but I can't get VM to respond to anything I do in Apt.

[Arnie]

I'm thinking that's probably not possible- even if it were you'd have to program a separate macro for all 26 buttons- but like I said, I'm still pretty new to this.

What is it about KC600 you don't like?

I want to set up Apt for a keylauncher - with a long press of each letter opening a list of Apps starting with that letter; that's straightforward. But KC600 takes a long key press to be a capital/number.

Alternatively, maybe I can set up my Apt keylauncher to begin with an 'Option' press and then a long key press. Does anyone know if that can be done - I can't see how?