Copyright © 1998-2005 by Stormgate Communications
email: storm@sgsw.com
Check our website at palm.sgsw.com for updates and additional products.
Contents:
*** This software should NOT be used as the
PRIMARY checklist in any safety-critical application including, but not
limited to, aviation and medicine. Always use an approved written checklist!
***
Super simple sample checklist. If you are really anxious to create a checklist without reading any of the rest of this manual, copy this to a memo and modify it as desired! It does not use many of the possible features, but it has the bare minimum needed to be a valid checklist source file.
AvCheck Vacation ===Prepare Stop mail delivery Arrange lawn cutting
See the change history for a list of what's new in this release!
See the Change History section for a list of new features and bug fixes in this release.
Aviators: The PalmPilot for Aviators webpage has a nice list of aviation-related PalmPilot software. (no affiliation with them other then AvCheck being listed there!)
AvCheck is a program designed for anyone who needs to follow a fixed sequence of steps to perform some task. This may be something as simple as shutting down your house before going on vacation, or as complex as preparing an airplane for flight.
All normal functionality once a checklist is selected and prepared for use can be accomplished via the hardware pushbuttons - the stylus is not needed. This makes for easy one-hand or one-finger use.
AvCheck suports the Lefty standard that allows telling Lefty-aware applications that the user prefers scrollbars to be on the left instead of the right, etc.
The preferences screen is accessible from the opening screen (the screen that lists the checklists) by making a menu selection.
This screen allows configuring the following items:
Use Application Keys
A checklist consists of a sequence of items in a text file (normally a "memo" in the memopad).
There are really only four types of lines in a checklist source file.
1) Phase markers
2) Section markers
3) Checklist items
4) Notes for an item
Checklist items can be divided up into multiple "Phases". Examples of phases for an aviation checklist might be "Preflight" and "Starting Engine". Items that are skipped intentionally (deferred) can be re-visited as though they were moved to the bottom of the list when the end of the phase is reached.
===This is a phase line
Each phase may be further divided into "Sections". These sections merely
show up as additional information and have no effect on program operation as do the phases. Examples of a section
for the Preflight phase of an aviation checklist might be "Cockpit" and "Left Wing".
Sections labels can be blank.
Items can have a brief description attached to them which is displayed on the screen
in a smaller font. These lines begin with a colon ":" character.
Comments can also be placed in the source text file. A line beginning with a pound sign "#" is considered to be a comment and will not be in the resulting checklist file. This can also be useful to "comment out" an item without actually deleting it. It can then be put back in to a checklist easily if you change your mind about taking it off the list.
If an item begins with an exclamation point '!' then that item will be shown in BOLD if the Palm OS version supports that font (PalmOS 3.0 and later). The exclamation point will be removed from the beginning of the text when the item is displayed.
===Phase 1
Item
:A note about the item
---I'm a section
Item 1
Item 2
---
Item 3
:A Note - This item and all following items have no section label
Item 4
:Note about item 4
:Additional line of notes about item 4
Item 5 of phase 1
===Phase 2
# This is a comment. It will no be in the resulting checklist. This is a good
# place to put notes about why certain lines are in the checklist perhaps.
Item 1
Item 2 of phase 2 !Item 3, which should be BOLD.
A checklist can contain descriptive header information which can be viewed by selecting the "Info"
menu item. This should contain such things as a description of the checklist's purpose, the author, date, revision
etc.
This header information is anything in the source memo before the first phase line.
Create the checklist as a memo on your Palm device (or by using the Palm Desktop application).
The Tools menu contains the item Convert From Memo which will display a list of memos which begin with the word "AvCheck". For example, a memo titled "AvCheck Cessna 152" will show up on this list and when converted, become a checklist titled "Cessna 152".
The format of the memopad checklists text files is the same as that used by the Java converter.
Take a look at this Sample Checklist. Copying it from your browser and pasting it into a new Palm Desktop memo is a quick way to start creating your own checklists on your Palm device.
The checklist is created using a text editor on any personal computer and then converted using a utility program which runs on Win95/98 systems. There is also a Java version which can be used on most platforms which support Java.
This utility can be downloaded from our website at palm.sgsw.com/utilities/utilities.html
Before re-using a checklist, clear all checkmarks using the menu choice.
The up and down buttons will move through the list item by item.
The "Info" menu item will display information about the current checklist.
If you enable the 4 physical application keys for use by the software (the default), almost all features can be performed via these keys. Use these keys and the up/down keys to select a phase, check and item off as done, defer an item, show and exit the overview or scroll through a list etc.
The following checklist can be copied into a Palm Desktop memo. After a HotSync is performed, use the convert menu choice in the AvCheck software to convert the memo to a checklist. Note that for a memo to be recognized as a candidate for conversion to a checklist, the title MUST begin with "AvCheck".
AvCheck Vacation 28-Apr-1998 Don Meyer This is a checklist for shutting down the house to go on vacation. # # First line of file must be the checklist name # # # phase is === # section is --- # notes are : # pound signs are comments. # ===Prepare ---Services Stop mail delivery Arrange lawn cutting :Billy next door --- Make reservation to board dogs ===Before Leaving Stow pation furniture Turn off water to washing machine Set thermostat :60 degrees for winter :80 degrees for summer !Turn off ice maker #I added this item after that disaster in 1996!
Flush toilets! :Important if you have kids! Lock all doors Lock all windows Set burglar alarm
The opening window:
This is where the checklist to be used is selected. Each checklist is a separate PalmPilot database which you create on your PC or obtain from someone who has created it.
Checklist screen: 
This is the screen you will usually see when using the program.
At the very top is the checklist title and the number of the currently show item as well as the total number of items in this phase.
Next is the phase selector which displays and can be used to select a phase.
Below that is the optional section label. If the checklist does not use sections, this area will be blank.
In the center is the main feature - the text of the current checklist item. It is in a larger font. Checking this item as done can be accomplished by taping the checkbox with the stylus or clicking on the "Chk" button. If enabled in the preferences, the item can be "checked" by pressing the application key also.
You can also un-check an item by tapping the checkbox with the stylus. Since this is a rare thing to do (and to avoid it happening by acident), the only way to un-check is via a tap!
Defer: 
This box will pop up when an item in the current phase has been deferred and we reach the end of the phase.
When we go back to the item or items that was deferred, note the asterisk next to the item number which indicates that this is a deferred item we are viewing.
Overview: 
The overview button "Ovr" will show a screen like this which provides an overview of the current phase.
Items which have not been done are preceded by an underbar. Items already completed are preceded by a "/" character.
Info: 
This is an example "info" screen showing whatever notes the author of the checklist placed there. Normally this should have the author's name, version of the checklist, date etc.
Pick a phase: 
Phases can also be selected by bringing up this screen.
The Publisher grants to the Licensee purchasing this software a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use
the software and documentation, if any, for use in accordance with this License. This License allows use of the
software by the number of users and on the platform specified by the description provided at time of purchase.
The Licensee is cautioned that copyright laws apply and that the software shall be classified as proprietary material.
The software is supplied as is. The Publisher disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without
limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. Neither the Publisher nor anyone
else who has been involved in the creation, production or delivery of this product assumes any liability for damages,
direct or consequential, which may result from the use of the software.
If the software or written materials are defective the Licensee, and not the Publisher or its dealers, distributors,
agents, or employees, assume the entire cost of any and all necessary servicing, repair, or correction.
*** This software should NOT be used as the primary checklist in any safety-critical application including, but not limited to, aviation and medicine. Always use an approved written checklist! ***