Leslie Franke

Over the last few years ZZTechs has made many additions and modifications to the ZLauncher theme structure. As a result, many of the old available themes do not include some of the functionality that a newer theme may include. For example, if you are a Treo user, you will not find the wireless signal indicators in many of the old themes. Fortunately, if you are a Windows user, it is not hard to add the additional functionality you need to an older ZLauncher theme.

Enhancing a old ZLauncher theme requires the use of a free piece of software from Robert Eaton entitled PFCD. Download this piece of software, the newest version of ZLauncher from ZZTech, and the theme you are looking to change. For this example we will use the Plass theme by halamjin available from 1src, adding the ZLauncher wireless signal indicators to the theme. Once we have acquired the necessary software, we can begin creating our modified ZLauncher theme. While the steps below may look imposing at first, give them a try, they are really straight forward. It will not take you long to get the hang of it.

The steps are as follows:

1. Extract PFCD to your computer using a piece of compression software (some good software to unzip files is located at File Hippo). I choose to unzip PFCD to C:\PFCD, you may wish to unzip it into your Program Files directory.

2. In the PFCD directory create two new directories: ZLBuild and ZLDefault.

3. Extract the ZLauncher theme file (ZLT_AquawoodXP_Hi_64K.prc), from the ZLauncher archive you downloaded, into C:\PFCD\ZLDefault.

4. Extract the Plass theme into C:\PFCD\ZLBuild.

5. Open PFCD.

6. Decompile the default ZLauncher Theme, it should be located in C:\PFCD\ZLDefault, changing the following text boxes from their defaults:
Input File: C:\PFCD\ZLDefault\ZLT_AquawoodXP_Hi_64K.prc
Bitmap Output Directory: C:\PFCD\ZLDefault
RCP File Name: ZLDefault

Then click on the ‘Extract’ button.

7. Decompile the Plass theme changing the following text boxes from their defaults:
Input File: C:\PFCD\ZLBuild\ZLT_Plass_OS5_64K.prc
Bitmap Output Directory: C:\PFCD\ZLBuild
RCP File Name: ZLBuild

Then click on the ‘Extract’ button.

8. Copy the wireless bitmaps from the ZLDefault directory to the ZLBuild directory. You will need to copy over bitmaps Tbmp5620-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5621-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5622-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5623-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5624-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5625-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5626-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5627-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5628-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5629-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5630-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5630-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5632-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5633-8-d144.bmp, and Tbmp5634-8-d144.bmp, Tbmp5635-8-d144.bmp.

This will add the ZLauncher default wireless bitmaps to the new theme. This may not always look the best. If you want you can edit any of the images you copied over to better match the theme you are recreating.

9. Using a text editor, such as Notepad, edit the .rcp file in the ZLBuild directory, adding the wirless bitmap entries from the .rcp file in the ZLDefault directory. For this example you will need to use BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5620 through BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5635. Place the necessary entries in their numerical order in the ZLBuild.rcp file.

—————————–
BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5620
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5620-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5621
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5621-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5622
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5622-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5623
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5623-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5624
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5624-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5625
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5625-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5626
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5626-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5627
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5627-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5628
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5628-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5629
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5629-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5630
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5630-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5631
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5631-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5632
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5632-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5633
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5633-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END

BITMAPFAMILYEX ID 5635
BEGIN
BITMAP “Tbmp5635-8-d144.bmp” BPP 8
DENSITY 2 COMPRESS
TRANSPARENTINDEX 5
END
—————————–

10. Compile the new Plass theme by changing the default RCP filename to C:\PFCD\ZLBuild\ZLBuild.RCP. The Palm database information should automatically be filled in for you.

Then click on the ‘Compile’ button. PFCD will ask you to give the new file a name. For this example choose, ‘ZLT_Plass_OS5_64K.prc’ (without the quotes) and then click on ‘Save’. PFCD will complie the new theme. The PRC file to load onto your Palm should now be availabe in the PFCD directory on your computer.

11. Hotsync the new ZLauncher theme to your Palm. A word of warning: if you gave your newly compiled theme the same name as the orginial theme, the new theme will replace the original theme on your Palm. Your modified theme should look like this the screenshot below.

There are probably more elegant ways to modify a exisiting ZLauncher theme. The above method is a free, quick and fast way to update a theme without having to learn the intricaties of an additional piece of software. For additional help, take a look at that ZLauncher theme manual and the generated .rcp files. You will quickly catch on to how to make any necessary changes.

Note: There is nothing wrong with modifying a theme for your own use. Theme authors often spend alot of time and effort to create a theme, espically ones created from scratch. If you plan on redistributing the theme you have created, please get permission from the original author first.

Alexander Pruss, the creator of mySkin, has recently released a new keyboard entry system for the Palm. myKbd adds a customizable hex keyboard to mySkin. The application comes with two different hex keyboard layouts, including the ATOMIK layout optimized by IBM researchers for speed of typing in English.

In addition to the keyboard, the user can define up to 10 macros. Macros allow you run a variety of commands in one step. For example, this macro will open up Memo Pad, write the text ‘This is a macro.’ and then enter the date stamp in the memo, and finally exit the memo to the main screen in Memo Pad.

<run Memo Pad> –> choose run… and then select Memo Pad
This is a macro. –> enter this text in directly
<date> –> choose datestamp
<tap Done> –> choose tap button… and type in the word Done

For those of us who use the del.icio.us bookmarking site there is a new way to get del.icio.us on the go. Mobilicio.us is a online tool that combines del.icio.us with Google’s Mobile Search tool. Any del.icio.us link that has been tagged with ‘mtag’ will show up in the in Mobilicio.us by default, or you can choose to view all your del.icio.us links. This is a quick and easy way to take access all of one’s mobile bookmarks, whether it be just on the Palm or between a Palm and a mobile phone, etc. The main advantage I see with this approach over just running the regular del.icio.us site through Google Mobile is that you get a much cleaner interface with all of the extraneous information stripped out. If you are using a Palm with wireless access, I would highly recommend an approach like this, whether it be with Mobilicio.us, a regular del.icio.us, Furl, etc. to store bookmarks across multiple computers and devices. It is a much cleaner and easier approach then something like Chapura’s “Pocket Favorites”.

Note: For those who are concerned about del.icio.us going away and loosing all of your bookmarks look here to find ways to back up del.icio.us.

The Palm Noia DIA has been updated to now include WiFi buttons for use on Palm handhelds such as the TX when running mySkin. You can download the Noia DIA here.

The Palm Crystal DIA has been updated to now include WiFi buttons for use on Palm handhelds such as the TX when running mySkin. You can download the Crystal DIA here.

Writing on Palm Addict with a healthy dose of skectpicsm, Peter Wolchak recently posted a news release from Symantec announcing a new anti-virsus solution for the Palm OS. Anti-virsus software, on a Palm, is a classic case of a solution without a problem. No real viruses have infected a Palm device. They may exist in theory, but not in the wild. There was one Trojan horse program, of note, that was limited to a specific application, the Liberty emulator, and was quickly withdrawn. This trojan arrived as a crack for PalmOS application called Liberty, claiming it would convert a shareware version of the application to a registered version. Anti-virus software for the Palm is doing one thing and one thing only, cashing in on people’s paranoia of viruses. At this junction I would not waste my time or money to install any anti-virsus software on your Palm.

I have made several small changes to the Crystal DIA skin. Basically I fixed the size of the status icon in landscape mode and in portrait mode made the bluetooth icon move to the right a little farther than the default skin (on the T3 at least) to cover up some of the background space. The updated Crystal DIA skin can be found here.