Shortcutter

From the Pittsburgh Pebbles PDA Project

by Brad A. Myers and Jack Lin

• Purpose
• Palm Version Updated for version 5.0
• Pocket PC Version Updated for version 0.5

Purpose

Shortcutter allows you to draw panels of controls (buttons, scroll bars, knobs and other widgets) on the handheld and then use them to control any PC application. The buttons can be big enough to hit with a finger, or tiny so that many will fit on a screen. Key features of Shortcutter include that it can provide customizable interfaces on the PDA even for applications that do not have a customization facility on the PC. You can use Shortcutter to build custom extensions to applications. Since these are on the PDA, you can take them with you and use them even on other people's computers.

For the newest PDAs, such as the Palm V, Palm IIIc and most PocketPC devices, that have rechargeable batteries, you are supposed to leave the device connected to the PC whenever the user is next to the PC since it is recharged in the cradle. Therefore, using Shortcutter to create panels of controls that might be useful for the PC's applications makes even more sense.

Please send us examples of interesting panels you make with Shortcutter so we can find out what people find it useful for. Let us know if it is OK to share these panels with others. Send to pebbles@cs.cmu.edu.

There are both Palm and Pocket PC versions of ShortCutter. See the specific documentation for the version you need:

Palm version

Pocket PC version

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