Alphasmart Manager for Dana User manual

Getting Started with Dana
AlphaSmart, Inc.
www.alphasmart.com

AlphaSmart Services
Please contact our Technical Services Center at 530-528-7200 for tech-
nical questions or problems. You may also contact us by email at:
[e-mail].
To purchase AlphaSmart products, see our online store at:
www.alphasmart.com or call [phone].
For general information or sales questions, please call:
[phone] or email [e-mail].
Nothing in this manual may be reproduced in any manner, either wholly
or in part, for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from
AlphaSmart, Inc.
Be sure to make backup copies of all important data on other media to protect against
data loss. Important: Please read the End User Software License Agreement with this
product before using the accompanying software program(s). Using any part of the
software indicates that you accept the terms of the End User Software License Agree-
ment.
AlphaSmart is a registered trademark and Dana by AlphaSmart and AlphaSmart
3000 are trademarks of AlphaSmart, Inc. Microsoft Word and Excel are registered
trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Ap-
ple Computer, Inc. Palm OS is a registered trademark, and Palm, the Palm and the
Palm Powered logos are trademarks of Palm, Inc. or its subsidiaries. Third-party
products and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their re-
spective owners.
Copyright 2002, AlphaSmart, Inc. All rights reserved.

1
Contents
Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
A Dana Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Using Palm applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
WritePad basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Using the screen’s backlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Adjusting the LCD contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Upgrading from a Palm OS handheld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Preparing to use Dana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Charging Dana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Dana first time set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Installing desktop software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Connecting Dana to a computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Synchronizing data with HotSync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
AlphaWord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
AlphaWord Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Creating an AlphaWord document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Using Spell Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Using Thesaurus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Connecting to your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Send versus Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Synching a new AlphaWord document to your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Sending text to your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Synching a desktop document to AlphaWord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
AlphaWord In-depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
AlphaWord controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Deleting a document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Installing additional fonts on Dana. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Onboard Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Launching Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Using Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Creating an Address Book entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Viewing and changing an Address Book entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Deleting an Address Book entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Using Date Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Creating an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2
Creating an untimed event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Creating a repeating or continuous event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Rescheduling an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Changing the calendar view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Deleting an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Using To Do List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Creating a To Do List item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Changing a To Do List item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Marking a To Do List item complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Deleting a To Do List item. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Using Memo Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Creating a memo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Reviewing and changing a memo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Deleting a memo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Preferences and other settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Changing the Applications Launcher display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Setting Date and Time preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Setting General preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Changing Formats preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Customizing keyboard settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
Dana In-Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Beaming information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Beaming data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Beaming applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Receiving beamed information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Beaming your business card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Installing applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Resetting Dana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Performing a soft reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Performing a hard reset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Installing alkaline batteries: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Using expansion cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Inserting an expansion card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Removing an expansion card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Online Help and additional information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Keyboard Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

3
International and Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Appendix C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Warranty, Return Procedures
and Guarantee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Return Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Guarantee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

4

Getting Started with Dana 5
Chapter 1
A Dana Tour
Dana™by AlphaSmart®is the versatile laptop alternative for
students, researchers and professionals on the go. It combines
the convenience and affordability of a Palm-Powered™device
with the ergonomics of a lightweight laptop. Dana is easy to
use, rugged and has exceptional battery life to keep you com-
puting while away from your PC. Use your new electronic note-
book to do the following:
•Compose documents in AlphaWord, a full-featured word processor
•Enter your schedule in Date Book, and set alarms to remind you of
important meetings
•Keep contact names, addresses, and phone numbers in Address Book
•Prioritize and assign your tasks a due date in To Do List
•Synchronize your data with Palm™Desktop software on a Windows or
Macintosh computer so you always have a copy
•Insert Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMedia Card (MMC) expansion cards
to add additional software applications or hardware, or to back up data
•Beam information to another Dana or Palm OS ®handheld that has an
IrDA (infrared) port; beam printable files to an IrDA-equipped printer
This guide, Getting Started with Dana, provides information about per-
forming basic tasks on Dana and with Palm Desktop software. For infor-
mation about performing more advanced tasks, read the Dana User’s
Guide. On a Windows computer, open the guide by clicking DanaUsers-
Guide.pdf in the Palm folder on your computer. On a Macintosh
computer, double-click DanaUsersGuide.pdf in the Palm folder.

6ADanaTour
.

Getting Started with Dana 7
Note: When Dana is connected to the AC Adapter or computer,
the USB Printer port can also be used to power devices with
USB.
Using Palm applications
Dana utilizes all the power and efficiency of the Palm operating system,
and expands its capabilities with a larger screen, the inclusion of the
AlphaWord word-processing application and many other features.
AlphaWord functions at the full Dana screen resolution of 160x560 pix-
els, and most of the standard Palm applications like Address Book, To
Do List, Memo Pad and Date Book have also been updated to take
advantage of the larger screen.
However, other Palm programs might not have been revised to run on
Dana's larger screen. The functionality of the Palm program won't be
restricted in any way, but the program will run in narrow mode (centered
in the middle of the Dana screen.)

8ADanaTour
WritePad basics
The WritePad provides a quick means to access applications, their
menus and some special functions. The illustration below gives a
functional overview of Writepad features.
Note: WritePad is only displayed for applications running in
narrow mode.
Entering data
The most obvious way of entering data on Dana is using its full-size
keyboard. You can also enter data using the onscreen keyboard or
Graffiti®writing on the WritePad. To find out more information,
launch the Graffiti application. You can also accept beamed data
from another Dana or Palm OS handheld that has an infrared port.
See “Beaming information”on page 49 for details.
Adjusting the Writepad
You can select the side of the screen where the Writepad displays by
clicking on the right or left arrow at the bottom of the Writepad
screen.
Home – displays
Applications
Launcher
Menus – displays
command menus
for active applica-
tion
Calculator – dis-
plays onscreen
calculator
Find – displays
Find dialog