Butler Instructions
From Hobbyist Software
The Ultimate Assistant for your Centro or Treo
The assistant who thinks of everything. Alarms,Attention Grabber, Navigation, Launching, LED, Keyguard and Much More.
It's free to try - but please register if you like it. That will stop the annoying nags as well!
Read on for details on what each feature does!
Installation
Just click [1] then hotsync!
If you have any problems with installation or hotsync, then there is extensive help
Registration
Please purchase a registration code [2]. This will entitle you to a year of free upgrades (only applies to this site, and others that send me your details)
Once you have purchased, simply click on the register button and enter your registration code.
If you have problems with the code, there is extensive help
Instructions
Most features in Butler have instructions and documentation within the app. Just tap on the (i) icons beside the controls, or at the top right of the screens.
Alarms
Butler offers 6 alarms that can repeat on days you select and can play alerts from Mp3s to the old alarm tones as often or as loud as you want!
Settings are mostly self explanatory.
Remember to Enable an alarm if you want it to work.
If you select 'Repeat on', you can specify days for an alarm to repeat. If you don't select 'Repeat on' (or don't select any days), the alarm will sound once only. If you want the alarm to sound at the same time again later - just come back to the alarm page and press 'set and close' again.
If you select snooze in the attention manager, you will be given a 5 minute reprieve.
The alarm is designed to work with the keyguard, to interrupt other attention manager messages (such as voicemail and SMS) and to survive a soft reset.
Note: In order to be able to sound repeatedly through the keyguard, the alarm will simply turn the keyguard off. To avoid this - it is recommended that you use the Butler's alternative keyguard.
Attention Grabber
The Attention Grabber makes sure you know about calls, sms, voicemail, appointments and other alerts by reminding you as often as you ask it to. (A bit like a pager does)
You can set the attention grabber to play a tone, vibrate, play an MP3 or set the LED (or any combination).
You can choose what sets off the attention grabber.
- Attention manager: This is the application that displays most alarms and alerts (and that flashes the asterix in the top left of the screen). On some neworks, sms messages and missed calls are notified this way. Similarly, some email applications notify of arrived emails this way.
- Incoming call: This sets off the attention grabber when a call arrives - but it is cleared when you answer a call (by pressing the centre button). That makes this alert useful for telling you that you have missed a call.
- NB: this does not function as an mp3 ringer to alert you of calls - though Phone Technician (also from HobbyistSoftware) does that job admirably!
- Incoming SMS: Nags you until you nitice an arrived SMS. Note that if your network notifies you of sms through the attention manager, then it will also set off the attention grabber.
- Voicemail Notification: Nags you when you voicemail arrives.
- Butler's Alarms: Although Butlers alarms do use the attention manager - they will not set off the Attention grabber unless you select this option. This allows you to use the Butler snooze options without being nagged about waking up!
If you select 'Leave Screen Off' then the screen will not turn on to grab attention - However ring-tones _Will Not Play_ - even if they have been selected normally. MP3s _Will Not Play_ if you use an mp3 player other than the build in Hobbyist Mp3 player. This is useful for people who want to avoid battery drain from turning the screen on.
Please Note: 1) The attention grabber does not replace the existing alert. It does not go off immediately. It is intended to nag you after you miss the original alert. The first attention grabber alert will go after the delay you have set between repeats. e.g. Attention grabber set to nag every 10 seconds, and set to trigger on 'Attention Manager' events. Calendar alarm goes off (with normal alert), 10 sec later, the attention grabber will start nagging.
2) To stop the attention grabber, you must press the centre button or tap on a button on the screen. The alert will be fully cleared when the next alert would have gone off. This means that if your treo is off, it will wake up once to turn off the LED - then turn itself off again.
3) In order to be able to sound repeatedly through the keyguard, the tone alerts will simply turn the keyguard off. To avoid this - I reccomend that you use the alternative keyguard.
LED Control
You can set the default LED state - this is great if the flashing light drives you nuts at night and was in fact the original reason why I wrote Butler!
Butler allows you to set the state for both day and night for various states of your Centro/Treo.
- If you just want one set of LED states, then just make day run from 0.00 (12.00am) until 0.00 (12.00am) and the night settings will vanish.
Should the LED get stuck - reset LED should reset it (you can also trigger this with a shortcut app).
On some networks, you can also set the colour that the led should take when there is voicemail waiting. The LED will turn this colour until you have actually listened to the voicemail.
- Unfortunately, on more recent Treos and the Centro - Palm have severly limited the available LED colours. On the centro for example, you can only use 'Leave as is', 'Off*' and 'Green'. Even this is limited - Off won't work if the Centro is plugged in...
Keylauncher
The Key launcher gives you easy access to the favourites you have defined in the Phone Application - but from any application, at any time.
Holding down any key will launch the favourite you have allocated to it in the phone application. e.g. launching an application, contact, SMS, etc
You can map favourites to keys by opening the favourites section of the phone app (just tap on 'set up favourites') and use menu/new favourite to create a new favourite with a Quick Key.
Keylauncher and shortcuts
Many Hobbyist Software apps support shortcuts which can do small jobs (like flushing the cache, or toggling the bluetooth state) whilst running in the background. The keylauncher will run these correctly without exiting your existing app.
Keylauncher on the Centro
The Centro has finally copied Butler and implemented a basic Keylauncher. However it will not launch if you are on a screen where you can type something (e.g. the calendar). Butler will deal with this sort of screen perfectly, so is definitely an improvement. Butler will also honour shortcut apps and make sure they are launched in the background.
KeyLauncher and KeyCaps600
KeyLauncher works with KeyCaps600 - but you will have to do the following: 1) Set the number of repeats to ignore to 1 or more. The larger the number - the longer the delay before the KeyLaunch. 2) Select 'disable in phone app' in KeyCaps600 3) Enable keylaunch AFTER enabling KeyCaps600. Note: non-KeyCaps600 users should set number of repeats to 0.
Volume Keys
This feature allows you to do something more useful (and less annoying) than the standard volume button functions.
You can also use the side key as a select key.
In 'switcher' mode, pressing the down button will switch you back through the previous applications you launched. Pressing the up button will move you forwards through that list. Of course - you won't be able to switch forward unless you have just switched back! If applications are stored on the SD card, then you will not be able to switch to them.
Selecting 'Ignore Launchers' will make butler skip applications that it recognises as launchers
In 'Scroll' mode, volume buttons will scroll up and down. These exactly mimic the rocker up/down keys - but might be more comfortable in some situations (e.g. reading documents)
Pressing Shift plus Vol Up switches between alternative modes - 'Switcher' and 'Scroll' mode.
If you want to access the standard volume controls to change the ringer volume, you can do so by pressing option+volume up/down.
Buttons
Assign the apps of your choice to each hard key, and option+hard keys - including the ones that Palm doesn't normally let you set!
Use the all-in-one phone key to let one key do the job of the green key and the phone key on the 680/700. You can use the other key for something more useful!
Speedy Keys
Speed up your key repeat rate so you can scroll around faster. This allows you to change the delay before the autorepeat happens on your keyboard (this is the delay before the keylauncher kicks in too!) as well as the speed that keys repeat after that delay.
Keyguard
The Butler keyguard goes on whenever the normal keyguard tries to (if you disable the normal keyguard, the alternative keyguard will also stop working).
It replaces the default keyguard with a ne that shows the time and gives you a set of status indicators. As it is transparrent, you can easily see what is beneath it - which makes it really easy to check your calendar or tasks quickly without needing to unlock.
- Auto Off - this defines how many seconds the keyguard should stay on if you don't unlock it.
- Option + Centre - this makes it harder to unlock so you can't do it accidentally
- Block Hard Keys - this stops the hard keys from switching applications when the keyguard is showing. (It doesn't stop them from turning on the screen)
- Slide keyguard to unlock - inspired by the iPhone, this lets you unlock with a slider that will even switch sides if you are a Lefty!
Keyguard Auto Unlocking
Some apps trigger automatically (like backup apps) and don't disable the keyguard. Depending on how they are written, they may not run properly. Butler lets you pick two apps which will automatically disable the keyguard when they run. I use this to disable when my gps mapping software is running...
Keyguard display items
This is a seperate page that lets you decide what shows in the keyguard, from the time to the transparrency to the weather forecast (requires 4Cast by shsh.com)
Keyguard status items
This is the third keyguard page and allows you to pick what status items display in the top row of the keyguard.
Phone Keyguard
The Phone keyguard lets you require an extra key to answer or hang up so that you don't do it accidentally. Instead of using the green button, you have to use option and green.
Old Features
Lurking in the Phone Keyguard page, these are some old features that may work on older devices (click on the 'compatible devices' button for more info
On older devices, they can stop the volume keys, or normal keys from stopping the ringer and they can also let the 's' key activate a disabled touchscreen during a call.
Remote Lock
If you've ever worried about someone else getting access to your data if you treo was lost or stolen, then Remote lock will give you some peace of mind.
Send Butler an SMS with your pre-defined lock message and Butler will perform one final service for you.
There are two passwords to know about here:
- The system password. This is set in the System Security App (launch Security from your normal launcher). Butler will require that you have a password set, and it will require that you give this password before opening the Remote Lock page. This is to stop other folks from changing your remote lock settings.
- The remote lock trigger. This is the trigger that you will send by sms when you want to remotely lock/wipe/etc your device. It is set and shown in the Remote Lock page.
As an example, if you set your remote lock trigger to
DIE
then you will see the commands available in the lock screen. They will be
ButlerLock:DIE ButlerWipeRam:DIE ButlerWipeSD:DIE ButlerWipeAll:DIE
so you could send as your sms 'ButlerLock:DIE' and your Treo would lock, or you could send 'To whoever stole my treo: ButlerLock:DIE Ha Ha!'
| Action | Command | Command with trigger (DIE as trigger) |
|---|---|---|
| Lock & Turn off | ButlerLock: | ButlerLock:DIE |
| Wipe Ram , lock and turn off | ButlerWipeRam: | ButlerWipeRam:DIE |
| Wipe SD , lock and turn off | ButlerWipeSD: | ButlerWipeSD:DIE |
| Wipe Ram & SD , lock and turn off | ButlerWipeAll: | ButlerWipeAll:DIE |
Remote Lock after Locking
Once locked, your device will display your owner information (set in the system preferences). You will have to enter your device password to unlock it.
If you triggered the wipe ram feature, then only few files will be left in RAM - the files that show your owner message when the treo is turned on, Butler, and any applications (though not their data or preferences) which were locked in RAM when Butler tried to delete databases.
Even if Butler is interrupted by a reset while 'cleaning' your device - It will keep trying after the reset is over.
If you're having problems:
Are you confusing the device password and the remote lock trigger. These two are different and seperate! If you're having trouble, try these troubleshooting steps
NB - Don't test this in a mode that deletes data unless you are confident you can recover your data.
Simply doing a normal hotsync after deleting data will NOT completely recover your data. NVBackup or BackupMan are two apps that will do complete backups.
Old Palm Features
The old palms had some handy features that you can now access through Butler You can now access the command bar with shift+menu, or menu hold. Holding the phone key beams your business card again (you set your business card in the phone/contacts application)
Hiding incoming SMS messages is less important now that you can turn on sms privacy in the messaging app. For old devices though - this lets you keep your sms messages more private.
Auto-Off Preferences
You can now customise the auto off timeout and set your device to stay on if connected to a charger
Lefty Preference
Many apps support the Lefty preference (including Hobbyist Software apps). Hobbyist apps will switch tables and scrollbars to the opposite side of the screen. Similarly, it will swap the direction that the slider unlock works.
If your favourite apps don't support the Lefty API, then send them to this page for info on how they can do it (it's easy!)
Butler Preferences
Various settings for how Butler will work.
Pick Mp3 player
Butler has an mp3 player built in (the hobbyist mp3 player). This will work for most mp3s and will work on all devices except the treo 600. If you want the advanced features of other mp3 players (such as the abolity toplay .wav or .ogg files) then you can use other players such as Pocket Tunes.
