BabyMelodyPilot Documentation
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BabyMelodyPilot
(shape graphics & lyrics) | BabyMelodyPilot
(lyrics-only) | BabyMelodyPilot
(Spiropath graphics-only) | BabyMelodyPilot
(flag graphics & song title) |
Introduction
BabyMelodyPilot is a music program for the PalmPilot that plays simple melodies, presents karaoke-style lyrics, and draws eye-catching graphics. BabyMelodyPilot is intended for all ages, from babies on up (but please note: NEVER leave your baby unattended with or without your PalmPilot! The author declines any responsibility for either).
Table of Contents
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| BabyMelodyPilot Info |
BabyMelodyPilot stores songs in songbook modules. Each songbook has an associated playlist that tells it which songs should be played and in what order. Only one songbook can be active at a given time (see Menu Options for information on selecting a songbook). BabyMelodyPilot has many options that can be set by choosing the Preferences menu item.If no songbooks are installed, BabyMelodyPilot will create a default songbook with a handful of songs in it.
Each songbook can hold up to 128 songs, each of which consists of a title (song name), the notes of the song itself (see Song Format document for details), and optional lyrics (NOTE: only songs whose titles end with an asterisk have lyrics).
On the main BabyMelodyPilot screen, there are three menus:
- Options - Play/Pause, Preferences, Select Songs, Select Songbook, Edit Songbook Info, Delete Songbook, and Registration options.
- Beam - Beam the BabyMelodyPilot application, the current songbook, or all songbooks.
- Help - View BabyMelodyPilot help, songbook information, or BabyMelodyPilot information screens.
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| Options Menu |
The Options menu on the left has the following choices:
- Play/Pause - Pauses or unpauses playback. The Graffiti shortcut for this option is "/P".
- Preferences... - Displays the BabyMelodyPilot Preferences screen where you can set General, Graphics, Lyrics, and Sound preferences. The Graffiti shortcut for this option is "/R".
- Select Songs... - Displays a screen from which you can choose which songs in the current songbook to play and in what order. The triangular buttons in the lower right (if available) scroll the list of songs, while the arrow buttons to the left of them move the highlighted song up and down in the playlist. The Graffiti shortcut for this option is "/S".
- Next Songbook - Goes to the first song in the next songbook. If at the last songbook, goes to the first songbook. The Graffiti shortcut for this option is "/N".
- Previous Songbook - Goes to the first song in the previous songbook. If at the first songbook, goes to the last songbook.
- Select Songbook... - Displays a screen from which you can choose which BabyMelodyPilot songbook to use (listed alphabetically). See the section below on BabyMelodyPilot songbooks. You can also create a new songbook from this screen. The Graffiti shortcut for this option is "/M" (think 'M' for "module").
- Edit Songbook Info... - Displays a screen from which you can edit the current songbook's information (name, author, creation date, updated date, version, and comments).
- Delete Songbook... - Displays a screen from which you can delete BabyMelodyPilot songbooks from your PalmPilot.
- Set VFS Directory... - Displays a screen on which you can set a specific directory where BabyMelodyPilot should search for songbooks. Tap on the "Card Default" button to use the current external card's default directory (usually "/PALM/Launcher"), tap on the "Alternative Directory" button to use "/PALM/Programs/BabyMelody", or enter any specific directory you want. If you don't use the card's default directory, you will need a utility such as McFile (freeware) to place files there.
- Registration... - For unregistered copies of BabyMelodyPilot, displays a screen on which you can enter your registration code after you have paid. This removes the occasionally registration reminder on startup. See the section below on Registering BabyMelodyPilot.
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| Beam Menu |
The Beam menu in the middle allows you to beam BabyMelodyPilot and its songbooks to another Palm device. The three Beam menu choices are:
- Beam Application - Beams the BabyMelodyPilot application (BabyMelody.prc).
- Beam Current Songbook - Beams the currently selected songbook.
- Beam All Songbooks - Beams all loaded BabyMelodyPilot songbooks.
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| Help Menu |
The Help menu at the far right has the following three choices:
- BabyMelodyPilot Help - Displays help screens for BabyMelodyPilot (a very small subset of this document).
- Songbook Info - Displays detailed information about the currently selected songbook, including the name, author, creation date, modification date, version, and number of songs.
- About BabyMelodyPilot - Displays information about BabyMelodyPilot. The Graffiti shortcut for this option is "/I".
You can bring up the Preferences screen by using the Preferences... menu option or using the "/R" Graffiti shortcut. Select one of the 4 pushbuttons at the top of the screen to display the current General, Graphics, Lyrics, or Sound preferences.
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| Preferences Form |
The General Preferences options are:
- Auto Play - Sets whether BabyMelodyPilot will automatically begin playing when it is first run or not.
- Auto Advance - Sets whether BabyMelodyPilot will automatically go to the next song when the current one is done. You can use the up and down arrow hardware buttons to move between songs in either case.
- Endless Loop - Sets whether BabyMelodyPilot will automatically continue playing from the top of the playlist when the bottom is reached. NOTE: BabyMelodyPilot overrides your Palm device's Auto Off setting, so checking this option can drain your batteries.
- Post Song Delay - Sets the amount of time that BabyMelodyPilot will pause between songs from 1 (shortest) to 4 (longest).
- Hardware Btns - Sets whether the hardware buttons can be used. On the main screen, the Datebook hardware button moves to the previous songbook, and the Address Book button moves to the next songbook. On most other screens the 4 hardware buttons correspond to the buttons at the bottom of the screen, from left to right (E.g., Datebook hardware button for OK and Address Book hardware button for Cancel). (NOTE: does not work for warning dialog boxes.)
- Tap To Pause - Sets whether tapping on the screen will pause play. Tapping on the screen will always unpause play regardless of how this option is set.
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| Graphics Preferences Form |
The Graphics Preferences options are:
- Display - Sets which graphics will be displayed. The choices are:
- None - white or black screen
- Clock - analog or digital clock
- Fireworks - exploding fireworks
- Flag - U.S. flag
- Gravity - user-interactive gravity demonstration (tap and drag to play)
- Logo - bouncing logo
- Shapes - random circles and rectangles
- Spiropath - Spirograph(R)-like graphics (Spirograph is a registered trademark of Hasbro Inc.)
- Spokes - like spokes on a wheel
Only the clock graphics continue to update after the songlist has ended. NOTE: no graphics will be displayed if lyrics are set to full-screen mode (see Lyrics Preferences). - Animation Speed - Sets the speed at which graphics will be drawn from 1 (slowest) to 4 (fastest).
- Black and White - On color Palm devices, forces the graphics to be drawn in black and white (which some say is better for younger babies), ignoring the Color Scheme preference set below.
- Color Scheme - Sets the group of colors used for drawing most graphics. The choices are:
- Boldly Blue - shades of blue
- Groovy Green - shades of green
- Pretty Pastel - light colors
- Really Rainbow - primary and secondary colors
- Showy Sunset - reds, oranges, and yellows
Tapping on the Options button next to the Display pop-up will bring you to a screen where you can set options for the currently selected graphics type. Tap on the Info tips button ("i") for specific details on each set of options.
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| Lyrics Preferences Form |
The Lyrics Preferences options are:
- Display Area - Sets the number of lines of lyrics to display. The choices are None, 1 to 5 Lines, Maximum (full-screen), and Titles Only (display only the song name). If necessary, the song name will be truncated to fit on one line, except in full-screen mode, where the title will be wrapped onto as many lines as needed.
- Hide Hyphens - Sets whether hyphens will be drawn in lyrics or not. Hyphens are still used internally to denote syllables (to keep the lyrics and music in sync). NOTE: there are both hidable and non-hidable hyphens; only hidable hyphens are affected by this option.
- Lyrics Placement - Sets whether the song title and lyrics will be displayed at the Top or Bottom of the screen.
- Overlap 1 Line - Sets when the next page of lyrics will be displayed. If checked, a new page will be displayed when the bottom line of lyrics is reached. If unchecked, a new page will be displayed after the entire page has been played.
- Always Save Edit - Sets whether changes will always be saved when editing songs or not. If this option is not checked, you will be asked to save changes whenever you switch between editing a song's title, notes, and lyrics.
Tapping on the Set Font brings up the Font form on which you can set the font used for drawing the lyrics and title on the main screen as well as on the Edit Song screen.
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| Sound Preferences Form |
The Sound Preferences options are:
- Sound - Sets whether sound is turned On, Off, or set to match the System Game Sounds preference.
- Music Speed - Sets the speed relative to the tempo specified by each song. You can slow down each song to as slow as 50% or speed it up to as much as 200%.
- Random Play - Sets whether songs will be played randomly from the selected songs in the current playlist instead of from top to bottom. NOTE: random play order is not stored in the database and is also reset if you edit the play list.
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| Edit Song Form |
On the Select Songs screen you can use either the New Song menu option to create a new song or the Edit Song menu option to edit an existing song. This will bring up the Edit Song screen, where you can change the song's title, notes, and lyrics.Use the popup menu in the lower right to change between editing the title, notes, and lyrics. NOTE: changes are saved whenever you switch what you are editing, or when you tap the OK button.
Tap on the information button ('i') in the upper right corner of this screen for on-line help, including a complete description of the syntax for notes.
The Edit Song screen has two menus:
- Edit - Standard Edit menu for manipulating text (Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste/Select All/Keyboard/Graffiti Help).
- Options - Options menu with three choices:
- Font... Set the font used on both the edit screen and for drawing lyrics.
- Insert Normal Hyphen - Inserting hidable hyphens into the lyrics.
- Insert Permanent Hyphen - Inserting non-hidable hyphens into the lyrics.
NOTE: use the large bold font (rightmost font selection) to see the difference between the two types of hyphens visually (permanent hyphens appear short and thin in this font).
BabyMelodyPilot comes bundled with 11 songbooks containing almost 700 tunes (NOTE: if you do not install any songbooks, a small default songbook will be created). Songbooks can be stored in main memory or on any VFS-accessible card (e.g., SD or MMC card). However, songbooks accessed via VFS are read-only; songs cannot be edited, and changes such as which songs are played and in what order are only kept until the songbook (or BabyMelodyPilot) is exited. Songbooks can be moved to main memory, edited, then moved back to a card if necessary.
The bundled songbooks are:
- Baby Beat - Nursery rhymes and other children's music. All songs in this songbook have lyrics.
- Christmas Complete - Christmas songs with complete sets of lyrics (all verses).
- Classical Compositions - Classical music. No lyrics.
- Holiday Hits - Birthday, Christmas, and wedding tunes. Most songs in this songbook have lyrics. Christmas songs include only the first verses.
- Patriotic Potpourri - U.S. and Canadian national anthems and other songs. Some songs in this songbook have lyrics.
- Short Stuff A-B - Short song fragments, titles beginning with the letters A and B. No lyrics. (NOTE: the songs in the last 6 songbooks were originally written to be used as ring tones on Ericsson cellular phones. See the Credits section for more details)
- Short Stuff C-E - Short song fragments, titles beginning with the letters C through E. No lyrics.
- Short Stuff F-K - Short song fragments, titles beginning with the letters F through K. No lyrics.
- Short Stuff L-N - Short song fragments, titles beginning with the letters L through N. No lyrics.
- Short Stuff O-S - Short song fragments, titles beginning with the letters O through S. No lyrics.
- Short Stuff T-Z 1-9 - Short song fragments, titles beginning with the letters T through Z or a number. No lyrics.
You can create a new songbook from the Select Songbook screen by tapping on the New Songbook button. This will bring you to the Edit Songbook Info screen where you should fill in details about your new songbook (name, author, version, etc.). The new songbook will start with 1 blank song, which you should edit or replace.
BabyMelodyPilot is $5 shareware. All future upgrades are free.See the Purchasing.html document or tap on the Help button on BabyMelodyPilot's Registration screen for details on how obtain a registration code.Once you have your registration code, go back into BabyMelodyPilot and use the Registration menu option to bring up the Registration screen. Enter the code and click on the OK button. You should get a confirmation window indicating that you're all set. Thanks!
In the "Apps" folder, the file BabyMelodyPilotDoc.prc is a Doc-formatted version of this file. This file can be installed on your PalmPilot for reference if you have any Doc reader installed. You can download the free PalmReader (http://www.ereader.com/ereader/software/browse.htm).
In the "Docs" folder the following files can also be found:
- BabyMelodyPilotDoc.html - (This document.) Documentation for BabyMelodyPilot readable in any web browser.
- BabyMelodyPilotDoc.txt - Documentation for BabyMelodyPilot readable in any text editor.
- VERSION.txt - Release history for BabyMelodyPilot.
Many thanks to:
- My parents - who are probably still wondering why they wasted all their money on my piano lessons.
- Ed Keyes - who contributed the source code for the Gravity graphics option. HackMaster, Dinky Pad, and Ed's other excellent Palm software can be found at http://www.daggerware.com.
- Jeff Wheeler - who helped me get the Sony 320x480 screen support working.
- Tan Kok Mun - whose port of the Music Box BASIC program to the Palm partly inspired BabyMelodyPilot.
- http://ericssontones.tripod.com - the web site where many of the songs in the 6 "short" melodies songbooks were found (a non-trivial conversion to BabyMelodyPilot's format was performed).
BabyMelodyPilot Version 1.3.2, July 22, 2003
BabyMelodyPilot is Copyright (C)2001-2003 by Robert Jen.
The latest version of BabyMelodyPilot, BabyMelodyPilot songbooks, Melody Pilot, and other PalmPilot and Macintosh software can be found at http://www.rjen.com (specifically http://www.rjen.com/Pilot/BabyMelodyPilot.html). Questions, comments, and any other email can be sent to the author Robert Jen at mailto:rjen@rjen.com. Your feedback is much appreciated.