On HandOn HandVersion 2.1
July 2000
On Hand is a powerful tool for performing inventories using a Palm Computing platform handheld device. Inventories can be taken manually on a standard unit, such as a Palm III, and can also be taken using the built-in barcode scanner of the Symbol SPT 1500. The software is designed to be entirely button driven, so that a complete inventory can be taken not only without requiring knowledge of Graffiti (tm), but without even using a stylus; this allows the user to hold the device in one hand while positioning items to be inventoried with the other hand. Inventories can be taken using a catalog of items which has been downloaded into the handheld device, in which case the items will be identified by name as seen at the left, or they can be taken "from scratch," collecting barcodes (and quantities) of any items at hand. In either case, the resulting information is then HotSync'ed back to the desktop, creating a simple text file (tab-delimited or comma-separated) which can be easily imported into any existing desktop database, spreadsheet, or other business management software.
The complete software package consists of the following items:
For Windows, the following two additional files are used:
For Macintosh, the following one additional file is used:
Windows:
If you should ever wish to deinstall the conduit, you'll find a program named SCS Conduit Uninstaller.exe inside the On Hand folder which contains the conduit. Run (by double-clicking) the uninstaller and the conduit will be uninstalled.
Macintosh:
Verify that the standard Palm desktop software, including the "HotSync Manager" software, is installed on your computer. If HotSync Manager is not installed or running, do not proceed, but return to the manual that accompanied your Palm, Symbol, or Handspring handheld unit, and follow the instructions there to properly install the desktop software.
Drag the file On Hand Conduit into the Conduits folder inside your Palm folder (or wherever your Palm software is stored). Now start the HotSync Manager application (most typically using the "instant Palm menu" on the right end of your menu bar). In HotSync Manager, select Conduit Settings under the HotSync menu. You should now see the conduit named "On Hand" listed. Double-click on it to bring up the settings window. We'll discuss the settings for the On Hand conduit below. Verify at this time that the "Install" conduit is set to "Install files". Close the Conduit Settings window by clicking on the close box in the upper left corner.
Now select Install from the HotSync menu, click on the Add To List button, and use the file browser to locate the file OnHand.prc, and click on Add File. Close the Install Handheld Files window by clicking on the close box in the upper left corner.
The next time you HotSync your handheld unit, two things will happen. First, the On Hand software will be installed into the handheld unit. Next, a folder named On Hand will be created in your user directory (see below for a diagram of where this folder is located). It is in that On Hand folder that subsequent actions (uploading inventories and downloading new catalogs) will occur. Each handheld unit into which you install On Hand software will have its own user name, its own user folder, and its own On Hand sub-folder. After you install the software and the conduit and this folder has been created by the HotSync, then you'll be able to set up a "catalog" to be installed into the software as described below.
To de-install the conduit, simply drag it out of the Conduits folder.
If your software is not licensed, the handheld software is completely functional,
but, when you HotSync the data, only the first five items on the list will be HotSynced
back to your desktop. To license your software, select About On Hand from
the Configure Menu in the On Hand software. In the screen which appears (below),
enter your serial number (SN). If you enter the correct number, your software will
be licensed (and you'll see this indicated if you return to the "About"
screen).
In general, you will want to set up a catalog of items to be installed into your handheld unit. As noted in the introduction, this is not absolutely required if you will be collecting inventory information using barcode scanning only, but even in that case it is recommended.
In order to set up a catalog, you first prepare an appropriate text file containing the information on your desktop. You can create this file by simply typing it in using a simple text editor (e.g., WordPad or NotePad on Windows, SimpleText on Macintosh), or, in many cases, you can export the information from an existing database or spreadsheet which already contains the information.
The text file you create must be given the name Catalog.txt or CatalogQ.txt (Windows) or Catalog or CatalogQ (Macintosh), and it must be placed in a special folder (discussed in the next section). This file must be a simple tab-delimited or comma-separated (CSV) text file, containing two, three, or four columns of information, one line per inventory item. The two different file names (Catalog and CatalogQ) represent two different formats. Catalog contains information about barcodes, product names/descriptons, and, optionally, an additional note as well. In this format, all initial quantities are assumed to be zero. CatalogQ adds quantity information (hence the Q) to the file, so that you can download a file with initial quantities other than zero if that better meets your needs.
If you are creating a file (CatalogQ) with quantity information, the first piece of information is the initial quantity. This must be an integer (no decimal points) from 0 to 32767 (the maximum number On Hand can handle). The next piece of information (or the first piece in the Catalog file) is the barcode. The barcode must be entered without any punctuation (spaces or hyphens), just a simple series of numbers (for most barcodes) or numbers and letters (if appropriate). Check digits are optional, as will be discussed below (the check digit is the last digit in some barcode formats, e.g., UPCA). If the product in question does not have a barcode, the barcode can be left completely blank (don't use a space or spaces instead).
Following the barcode is the name (description) of the product. There are no limits on the name, other than that it cannot contain a tab character (or, if using CSV format, the name must be enclosed in double quotation marks if it contains a comma). Following the name you have an option to include a "note" to attach to the item, which might be used for informational purposes on the handheld unit, or to indicate location in asset tracking applications, or may also be used when HotSync'ing the information back to the desktop (notes will be discussed further below).
Between each of the items on the line is a comma or tab, as you prefer (but the
same format must be used throughout the file, of course!). If an item is missing,
you can leave that spot ("field") blank, but you must then have a tab (or
comma) at the beginning or end of the line, or possibly two in a row in the middle
of the line, so that the number of spaces (fields) is constant.
The length of the items other than the quantity is not limited; the database stores
the information in a variable rather than a "fixed length" format. In the
handheld unit itself, the only limitation is that the display of items may be truncated
on various screens if the lengths are too long; you'll need to decide whether that
is important or not.
So each line may look like any of these options (where
represents the tab character):
Catalog/Catalog.txt (file format without initial quantities)
1565924207PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide
Introduction
to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
1565925254Palm ProgrammingCheck for missing CD
Or, if you prefer to use CSV format:
1565924207,"PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide"
,Introduction to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
1565925254,Palm Programming,Check for missing CD
CatalogQ/CatalogQ.txt (file format with initial quantities)
141565924207PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide
2Introduction
to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
0
1565925254Palm ProgrammingCheck for missing CD
Or, if you prefer to use CSV format:
14,1565924207,"PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide"
2,,Introduction to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
0, 1565925254,Palm Programming,Check for missing CD
Each line in the file does not need to be the same; for example you might have barcodes next to most items, but not next to a few.
The software determines whether this is a tab-delimited or comma-separated file based on the presence (or absence) of a tab character in the very first line. If a tab is found anywhere on the first line, the software assumes this is a tab-delimited file; otherwise it is treated as a CSV file.
The order of items in the database is up to you. As you'll see below, the On Hand software on your handheld unit will let you sort the items in three different ways - in the way in which they were setup, alphabetically, or by barcode. If you are collecting inventory with barcode scanning, the software can locate the items most quickly if the items are in barcode order If you are collecting the inventory manually, you might, for example, want to store the items on the list in the order in which they are stored on the warehouse shelves, so that the operator can simply go down the list recording quantities of each item as they walk past the shelf. Or perhaps you might want to store them alphabetically but in groups, with items in one location first, then items in another location, etc.
It isn't enough to create the Catalog (or CatalogQ) file; it
must be saved into the correct folder (directory). To download data into the handheld
unit, you must create a series of tab-delimited text files containing the information
and place them into a special folder (directory). A typical setup is shown in the
diagram below, but many of the names may be different. First, you must locate your
"Palm" folder, that is, the folder in which all the standard Palm software
is stored. This may be called Palm (e.g., C:\Palm), or possibly
something else. On Macintosh only, you next locate the folder named Users
(this isn't present on Windows). Next, you must locate the folder within that folder
which corresponds to the handheld unit to which you are installing the software.Whenever
you HotSync a handheld unit to that desktop computer for the first time, a new sub-folder
is created (shown here as Boris). If the name of the handheld unit is short,
and has no spaces, the name of the folder will be exactly the same as that of the
handheld unit, as in this example (Boris). This is also always true if you are using
a Macintosh. However, if you are using Windows, and if the name is longe or if there
are spaces, the name of the folder will be different. The folder for a handheld unit
named "Natasha," for example, will be named Natash. The folder
for a handheld unit named "John Smith" will be named SmithJ. So
your first task is to identify the proper folder.
|
Macintosh Macintosh HD
Palm
Users
Boris
On Hand
Catalog/CatalogQ
Catalog (downloaded)
Inventory
Inventory01...Inventory09
|
Windows C:
Palm
Boris
On Hand
Catalog.txt/CatalogQ.txt
Catalog.bak
Inventory.txt
Inventory01.txt...Inventory09
|
You won't need to create any of these folders (shown in black) yourself. When you install your Palm (or related, e.g., IBM, Franklin, Symbol) desktop software, the main directory (shown as Palm above but this name may vary on your system) will be created, and, on a Macintosh, a sub-directory (or folder) named Users will also be created. Whenever you HotSync a handheld unit to that desktop computer for the first time, a new sub-folder is then created (shown here as Boris). After you perform two HotSync operations (one on Macintosh) during the install of the software as described above, the On Hand folder is automatically created.
Wenever you HotSync, the On Hand Conduit looks for a file named Catalog or CatalogQ (to be precise, it looks for Catalog first; if it doesn't find that, it then looks for CatalogQ) in the appropriate folder. If the file is found, the contents of that file will be downloaded into your handheld unit to serve as your catalog, either replacing any existing catalog, or being appended to it, depending on how you configure the software. The file will then be renamed as Catalog.bak (Windows) or Catalog (downloaded) (Macintosh), so that subsequent HotSyncs will not reinstall the same catalog, but the file is still there in case you need it. If you later create another file named Catalog in order to install new information, when that file is renamed, the previous backup file will be deleted.
Once you have created the Catalog file and placed it in the folder, you need to configure the conduit settings. Run the HotSync Manager program, and select Custom (Windows) or Conduit Settings (Macintosh). Double-click on the On Hand conduit and you'll see a window that looks like this (Windows and Macintosh look slightly different):
For purposes of downloading a catalog, there are two relevant settings. Download new catalog to handheld (labelled Macintosh overwrites handheld on the Macintosh) downloads your catalog as is into the handheld unit, replacing any existing catalog (and any collected inventory information!). Synchronize will append the data in your desktop file to an existing catalog on the handheld unit. If you work with very large (thousands of items) catalogs, you will undoubtedly find that appending new items to a catalog is much faster than installing an entire new catalog; with smaller catalogs it won't make much difference.
Once you have selected the proper choice and clicked on OK, the next time you perform a HotSync the catalog will be installed in your handheld unit.
Once the software (and, optionally, the catalog) is installed on your handheld unit, go to the Applications window of your handheld and look for the On Hand icon:
Tapping on the icon will start the application, and you'll see a screen like the one shown below. Let's review the basic controls:
In the upper right are three boxes, labelled Show All, >0, and =0. You select an option by tapping on the appropriate box. Show All displays your entire catalog in the main screen, while >0 displays only those items whose quantity is greater than zero.If you are collecting inventory on an SPT 1500 with barcode scanning, you can use the >0 Only mode; as you scan items, they will appear on the screen. To select items manually, you must use the Show All mode, so that you can find the item you want to select (and enter a quantity for); at the end of the process, you can switch to >0 Only mode if you want to so that you can get a view of only those items that were actually in stock. The =0 mode displays only those items whose quantity is equal to zero, and is ideal for "pick list" applications. Download a catalog of items to be selected, and then as you select each one (manually or by scanning), it will disappear from the list, showing only those items remaining to be found.
The main part of the screen shows the list of items. At the very left edge may be a right-facing "highlight arrow"; if present, this arrow indicates the "active" item which will be modified by the quantity buttons. In the next column appears the quantity of the item; zeroes are omitted. The rightmost 3/4 of each line shows the name of the item (if known), or the barcode (if the name is not known).
Below the list of items are a series of buttons labelled 0 through 9 and C (for Clear). Tapping on one or more of these buttons will adjust the number of the active (highlighted) item, but as we'll see in a second, you'll rarely need to do this.
At the bottom of the screen are four buttons and two scroll arrows. Each of these buttons and the scroll arrows are "tied" to the physical (hardware) buttons which appear directly below them on the handheld unit. The "+10", "-1", and "+1" buttons, which change the quantity of the active item by +10, -1, or +1, respectively, can either be tapped on (like a normal button in the Palm operating system), or you can simply press the Datebook, Address Book, or ToDo List buttons on the case. The rightmost button is a "scan" button, which triggers the barcode scanner (if the unit has one); like the other buttons, you can either tap it directly, or push the MemoPad button immediately below it on the case to trigger its action. Use of the scan button is essential if you are using a Handspring Visor with the plug-in Symbol CSM150 scanner, which has no dedicated trigger button. If you are using a Symbol SPT1500 or SPT1700, there are two dedicated trigger buttons on the case of the unit itself, but you may find the placement of the MemoPad button on the lower right hand corner of the case provides an even easier way to trigger the scanner.
If you are using the software on a unit which does not have a barcode scanner (that is, on a "normal" Palm), the bottom of the screen looks like this:
The scan button is missing, replaced by a "0" button which can be used to set the quantity of the active item to zero (this can also be done by pressing the "C" button above it, or by pressing the "0" button, so this 0 button provides redundant functionality.
The scroll arrows (or the hardware rocker switch below them) perform two different kinds of actions. The scroll down arrow, for example, will first move the active item (the highlight arrow) down the screen; when the active item is at the bottom of the screen, pressing the down arrow one more time scrolls to the next screen. The up arrow works the same way.
The final element of the program are the menus (shown above), which appears either when you tap the Menu button (in the lower left of the screen), or when you tap on the title On Hand in the upper left of the screen. The menus will be discussed below, as appropriate.
Before you use the software for the first time, you'll want to select Scanner in the Configure menu to make this screen appear:
There are four things you can configure on this screen:
Configuring the Note/Location in the Configure menu can also be a critical item to do before collecting any data, but we'll defer discussion of that function until later in the manual.
Also the first time you use the program, you may want to sort the inventory to make data collection easier; this is particularly true if data are to be collected by hand. To do this, select Sort from the Inventory menu, and you'll see this screen:
Select the option you prefer, and click OK. When you download inventory catalogs into your handheld in the future, the next time you run On Hand the catalog will automatically be sorted into your preferred order, even if it wasn't in that order on the desktop. An explanation of the various sort modes:
Now you're ready to start. If you are collecting inventories with an SPT 1500 via barcode scanning, simply point the unit at the barcode and press one of the two green scan buttons on the upper left and right of the unit, tap the scan button on the lower right of the screen, or press the MemoPad button immediately below that. As you do so, items which are scanned will appear on the screen (we'll assume you have selected the >0 mode so that only scanned items appear, and set the quantity to increment when scanned, as shown at the right). If the scanned item is in your catalog, its name will appear; otherwise (or if you have no catalog), the barcode will appear (or not, depending on your configuration of what to do when an item is not found).
Once an item is scanned and highlighted, you can change the quantity in several different ways. The most convenient is to press the +1 or Address Book button (the one with the phone on it) repeatedly to increment the count (or the +10 ToDo button if the quantity is large). You can also scan the item repeatedly (note that this will drain the batteries more rapidly), use a stylus (or your fingernail) to tap the 0, +1, +10, or -1 buttons, or use a stylus (or your fingernail) to tap on the numeric buttons just below the list. These numbers act as a numeric keypad, so if you want to enter "45", just tap "4" and then "5". The only "non-standard" behavior is the C (Clear) button. If the display is in Show All mode, then tapping C sets the quantity to 0, as you might expect. If the display is in >0 mode, however, setting the quantity to 0 would cause the item to disappear from the screen, which would be unexpected, so in this case tapping C sets the quantity to 1 (you can set the quantity to 0 by tapping the 0 button). The maximum quantity that you can enter is 32767.
If you are collecting items by hand, you will need to be in the Show All mode,
as shown below. You select an item by moving the highlight arrow (using the scroll
buttons, or simply by tapping a stylus or your fingernail on the desired item) to
the desired item, then setting the quantity of that item in the ways described in
the previous paragraph.
If the items are sorted alphabetically by name or main name (as described above)
the screen will look slightly different, as shown below. In this case, just below
the list of items you will see an alphabet, from A to Z. In this mode, you can scroll
very quickly to any part of your catalog simply by tapping on the appropriate letter.
For example, if you want to set the quantity for an item beginning with M, you could
repeatedly scroll down the list with the scroll buttons, or you can use our IntelliScroll
(tm) technology to just tap on "M" to go right there. Tapping other
letters within a short time (about one second) takes you to a second (and third,
and so on) level search, so if you tap "M" followed by "O" you'll
go right to the items whose names start with the letters "MO".
There is one final way in which you can change the quantity (or other information). Once an item is the active (highlighted) item, tap on it, and this screen will appear:
You can use this modify screen in many ways. First, you can enter the name of an item. This would be particularly appropriate if you scan the barcode of an item which does not appear in your catalog; entering its name would allow that information to be passed back to your desktop. Second, you can change the quantity (although you can usually do that more easily on the main screen). And third, you can add a note to the item, which again will be passed back to your desktop software during the HotSync. You can use this note for any purpose. Data can be entered into the four fields (name, barcode, quantity, note) in the "normal" Palm ways (Graffiti, pop-up keyboard) and also by barcode scanning. If you place the "focus" (the blinking cursor) in a particular field by tapping on the field and then scan information using the barcode scanner, the information will be written into that field, assuming it doesn't violate the limits of that field (for example, you can't enter a 6-digit number in the quantity field). The focus is automatically placed in the first blank field when the screen appears, and advances to the next blank field when information is scanned in.
Note that even though the Name and Note fields appear as two lines on the screen, they are really one long continuous line of text. You CANNOT enter either a "new line" or a tab character into either field. If you do, when you tap Update, the software will replace the new line or tab character with a simple space.
This feature not only allows the software to be used by personnel untrained in the use of Graffiti, but also can be used for barcode capture of known items. Let's say you have a list of items on your desktop but you don't have the barcodes in your database. Create a catalog (see above) where the barcode field is blank, and the name of the item is entered, and download it to your handheld unit. Now find (physically) each item, find the item on the list (by name), and tap on it to activate the Modify screen above. The "focus" will be automatically placed in the first blank field, which will be the barcode field. Now scan the barcode and it is captured; tap Update and then repeat for the next item. When you're done, you'll be able to upload to your desktop a list of items with matching barcodes.
Another use for this feature is when you have different kinds of information to be entered into the Note field, for example, a list of possible locations. Create a page containing barcodes (CODE39 or other) containing the names or codes of the locations. Now after you scan an item to capture it on the main screen, tap on it to bring up the Modify screen. Since the name, barcode, and quantity will be filled in, the focus will automatically appear in the Note field, so you just need to scan in the location code and tap Update to add that information to each item.
From time to time you may come to an item whose barcode will not scan, but either the item is not in your catalog or else you're not using a catalog at all. In this case, you can add the item "by hand" (or using scanned in information as described in the previous section). Tap on the Menu button, select Add New Item, and you'll see the screen shown above, but entitled "Add Item" instead of "Modify Item." Enter the information and tap Add (or Cancel).
There are two ways to collect serial numbers, which might be appropriate when taking inventories of items such as PalmPilots or cellular phones where each individual serial number is to be recorded. The first alternative is appropriate when you are collecting a SINGLE type of item, and only need to record the serial numbers (SNs) themselves, not the associated barcode. To do this, you simply take advantage of the fact that when you scan a barcode, if that barcode is not found in your catalog (which it presumably won't be if it's a serial number code), then a new item is added corresponding to the new barcode. So if you simply scan in fifty serial number barcodes, you'll end up with 50 items in your catalog, each with quantity one.
A second alternative involve selecting Note from the Configure menu,
which will show this screen:
If you select "Use scanned SNs", you will now be able to scan in both the
regular barcode and the serial number for an item. Scan the barcode first and the
item will be located in your catalog (if it is there) and identified by name. Now
scan the serial number and the number is added to the most recent item. To scan subsequent
copies of the same item, you do NOT have to scan the barcode again, just keep scanning
the serial numbers for each item. As you do, new items will be added to your list,
each with the originally scanned barcode and the new serial number. The serial numbers
you are scanning in this way (alternative #2) are added to the "Note" field
of the database, not the barcode field, so when you configure the HotSync (see below)
you'll need to be sure to configure it to transfer the note back to the desktop.
For purposes of the "Use scanned SNs" mode, a barcode is identified as a serial number if it is a CODE128 or a CODE39 type barcode. Any other barcode type is considered a product identifying barcode, and will be used by the software to identify a new item for the inventory, rather than to add a serial number to the previously scanned item.
If items from which SNs are to be collected do not have regular product identification barcodes (e.g., UPC codes) on them, you can still select the item from your database list by hand (you'll need to be in "Show All" mode, of course), and then scan in the SN barcodes.
In some situations your inventory is in one place, or perhaps any particular item is in one place. In other situations, however, you may be taking inventory in multiple locations of the SAME item. On Hand can handle this situation, as described here. First select Note from the Configure menu as shown above. Select "Copy to items when scanned," and enter a note which describes the first location, for example STORE1 (note that this can be done with Graffiti or the pop-up keyboard, but also can be done by scanning in the information from a printed card, making it more suitable for use by personnel untrained in the use of Graffiti). Now every time you scan an item, STORE1 will be inserted in the Note field of that item. After you're done with the first inventory, select Note from the Configure menu again, and change the note to STORE2. If you now scan an item which was not found in the first location (STORE1), STORE2 will simply be inserted in the Note field of that item. If you scan an item which was found in the first location, On Hand will add a copy of that item to the database, and mark it as STORE2 in the Note field. There is no limit to the number of locations you can inventory at once in this way.
If you use the CatalogQ format to download data into your Palm with starting quantities, it's perfectly ok to download multiple instances of the same item, each with the same barcode but a different note field (STORE1, STORE2, etc. in this example). Now when you scan the item, the software will require a match in both the barcode field and the note field, as you might expect.
There is a way you can change the location (the fixed note) which is completely barcode-controlled, not requiring use of menus, buttons, or Graffiti. First create barcodes which read LOC_XXX (if using CODE128 barcodes) or LOC-XXX (if using CODE39 barcodes), where "XXX" is the actual location. For example, if you were using On Hand to capture items on a loading dock, some of which were being shipped and others received, you could have two printed barcodes, LOC_SHIP and LOC_RCV. Now when you want to capture an item to be shipped, first scan the LOC_SHIP barcode and the location will be changed to SHIP. You'll know this because "SHIP" will appear on the upper left of the screen in place of the words "On Hand" (if you scan a long location name, only the first 7 characters will appear in the upper left, but all of them will be part of the location). You can scan as many of these as you like, there is no need to scan the LOC_SHIP for each item. Only when you need to switch to "receive" mode do you scan LOC_RCV and the note (location) will be changed accordingly. If you are taking inventory in multiple stores, or multiple departments of the same store, just prepare a series of these LOC_XXX barcodes and put them in a convenient place (a laminated plastic sheet works great), ready to use when you start collecting inventory at a new location.
When the software is in "Copy [note] to items when scanned" mode, the >0 and =0 display modes work in conjunction with the note. That is, if the fixed note (location) is STORE1, the >0 mode will display only those items whose quantities are greater than one AND whose note fields reads STORE1; the =0 mode will display only those items whose quantities are equal to zero AND whose note fields reads STORE1.
Pick List applications can be accomplished by combining features in a different way. Let's say you have three jobs to be picked. Create a CatalogQ file on the desktop, containing a list of items from all jobs, with the job (e.g., JOB1, JOB2, JOB3) in the note field, and download them to the handheld. Set the note/location to JOB1, the mode to >0, and the scan mode to Decrement. The display will show everything on your list of items to be picked for JOB1. As you scan items on the list, their quantities will decrement; when the quantity goes to zero, the item will disappear from the list, and list will gradually show fewer and fewer items until all items have been picked and the list is empty. Now set the note/location to JOB2 and repeat the process.
By combining the last two features, Serial Number capture and location recording, On Hand can be used for the purpose of asset tracking in addition to its other functions. To do this, you'll be using the Note field of the software to record the location (as described in MultiLocation Inventory Collection), and the barcode field to record the serial number. There should be no need to download a catalog into On Hand. First use the Note menu to select "Copy to items when scanned." Now start at the first location, record the location using the Note menu, then scan the S/N barcode of each item at that location. Go to the next location, change the location using the Note menu, and scan the S/N barcodes of those items.
There is one more possibility for using the note field on On Hand, and that is for date and or date/time stamping collected items; this option is set by checking the appropriate box in the Configure Note screen. Note, however, that the note field can be used for only one thing, so if the note field is already going to be used to record location or serial number, it cannot also be used for date/time stamping.
When you are ready to upload inventory from the handheld unit to the desktop, you need to configure the HotSync settings. Bring up the settings window as described above. There are two settings which are relevant. Syncronize uses the standard "Palm paradigm" and uploads only the information from the handheld unit which has been changed since your last HotSync. That means, for example, if you inventory 7 items, do a HotSync, and then inventory 3 more items, only the last 3 will be uploaded when your setting is Syncronize. The alternate setting is Upload Handheld Data to Desktop. With this setting, all the data which has been collected on your handheld unit is uploaded, whether or not it has been changed since the last HotSync. Of course, if you want to temporarily disable the conduit, you can also select Do Nothing from the configuration window.
In either configuration, whenever you transfer data back to the desktop, it is written into a text file named Inventory.txt (Windows) or Inventory (Macintosh), which will be located in the On Hand folder described above. This file can then in turn be imported into your desktop inventory management software (or into any database, spreadsheet, or even word processor). Each time you HotSync, the previous file is renamed, from Inventory (or Inventory.txt) to Inventory01 to Inventory02 and so on up to Inventory09. Thus you will always have available not only the most recent inventory list but the previous nine lists as well, just for safety.
Tip: You probably will be using some other desktop software to import the information from the Inventory file and merge it with your corporate data. You may wish that the Inventory file were placed in the same folder as your other files, rather than in the On Hand folder where it is uploaded. The solution is simple. Just create a shortcut (Windows) or alias (Macintosh) and place that shortcut in the folder where you would like the information to be found. Because of the way the files are renamed (described in the previous paragraph), your alias will always point to the latest Inventory file, and you'll be able to access it as if it were in your desired folder.
Yet another feature of the conduit allows you to automatically execute a program (Windows) or AppleScript (Macintosh) following the upload of the data. On Windows, create a file named OnUpload.txt inside your On Hand folder. The contents of that file should be a single line of text, containing a typical Windows command line (such as might be entered using Run), for example, Notepad C:\Palm\Natash\On Hand\Inventory.txt (which would automatically open the newly uploaded Inventory file using the Notepad application). Of course, if you want to execute more than one command, you can simply make a batch file of commands, and use your one command to execute the batch file. On a Macintosh, the file is named OnUpload and should be an executable AppleScript file; anything you can do with AppleScript can be used in this file. The creation of suitable batch files and AppleScripts is left as an exercise for the reader.
The actual data which is sent back to the desktop is controlled by the Export item in the Configure menu. Selecting that menu will display the screen below, which will allow you to configure the exported Inventory file in exactly the way you need it for subsequent use on your desktop. In the "What to export" section, you have two choices - exporting all items (regardless of quantity), or only exporting those items whose quantity is not zero. Next, in the "Separator" section, you can choose between having items separated by tabs or commas.
The bottom of the screen offers a series of checkboxes which lets you specify up to four items per line which will be saved to the Inventory file. In the example at right, for example, the user has chosen to save the quantity, barcode, and name in that order (omitting the fourth item). Putting the checkbox in column 3 opposite the word "Blank" would export only two items per line (quantity and barcode). Putting the check in column 1 opposite "Barcode" and the check in column 2 opposite "Quantity" would save the same two items, but in the opposite order on each line. In some cases, the desktop software into which the Inventory file is later imported will be able to deal with any possibility, but if not, this screen allows you to configure the export exactly as needed.
Note that if you have the boxes checked as shown in the example above, or the box in column four opposite "Note" instead of "Blank", the Inventory file which is uploaded will be in exactly the same format as the CatalogQ file which can be downloaded later, so you can restore into the unit a previous inventory (perhaps the one taken last month) just by renaming the file.
The final item which can be exported is the "note." The note serves
many functions. One possibility, discussed above when we discussed modifying items,
is to attach individual notes to relevant items (like "damaged" or something
like that). The more common use is to attach a fixed note to each item, and to do
this, we must select Note from the Configure menu, which will show
this screen:
The contents of the note are up to you. The note might contain fixed text which is required by your desktop software (e.g., "PHYS" might indicate physical inventory), it might contain the initials of the person collecting the inventory and the date (as in the example above), it might contain a code representing the location of the item as discussed in the previous section of the manual, or any other relevant information. There are three options which affect how this information is used and where it comes from. "Copy to all items during HotSync" means that when you perform the HotSync, the note you enter will be added to every item that is written to the Inventory.txt file (assuming that you have "Note" checked in one of the columns of the Configure Export screen, of course). This means that the same note will appear on every item. The second alternative is "Copy to items when scanned"; the use of this feature was discussed in the previous section, MultiLocation Inventory Collection. The third option, "Use scanned SNs," was discussed above in the Serial Number Collection section; with this option, there is no need to enter anything in the Note section of this screen, since it will be ignored and replaced by the scanned SN in any case.
For "normal" inventories, you'll probably only need to export the quantity and barcode (you can of course export the item name as well, but chances are that the barcode will be sufficient information for your desktop database). For serial number inventories, you'll almost certainly want to export the note which will contain the S/N (the quantity might not be necessary in this case, since it may always be 1). For multi-location inventories, the note will also be essential, since it records the location. And finally, for asset tracking, the barcode and note are probably all you want to export.
There is one additional optional item that is written into the Inventory file during the HotSync process - a "header." Select Header in the Configure Menu and you'll see this screen:
If the header is anything but blank, the information on these lines (80 characters maximum) will be written at the top of your Inventory file. This allows you to label the inventory with any information you choose - the date, the time, the operator, the location, etc. You'll notice that buttons on this screen allow you to quickly enter the date or date and time without having to write them in; any other information will need to be entered in the "normal" way (using Graffiti or the pop-up Palm keyboard). You can also fill in this field by barcode scanning. When this screen is active, any information captured by the scanner will be entered into this field. This feature allows personnel untrained in the use of Graffiti to scan "canned" barcodes to enter appropriate information.
For some applications you'll need to print results in the field after the information collection process is done. On Hand supports this, providing you also have a copy of Stevens Creek Software's PalmPrint application installed on your handheld unit. Assuming that you do, and you have configured PalmPrint for printing to your printer, you simply need to select Print List from the Inventory menu to print a list of your items. What you print is governed by what appears on the screen. The printing format is governed by the export format, so which elements (quantity, barcode, name, and/or note) print and in what order is up to you. If the export format is set to comma-separated, printing will also use commas between elements. If the export format is set to tab-delimited, the software automatically determines the needed width for each column and prints in a "fixed-format" output of the appropriate width, truncating first the name and then the note if the necessary width is wider than the number of available columns on your printer. In all cases, if you have created a header in On Hand, it will print at the top of the inventory.
In addition to actual printing, this feature of On Hand has another use. Perhaps you wish to transfer the captured information to a computer which is not running Palm's HotSync software. This might be a customer's PC on which HotSync software is not installed, or even a Unix workstation for which HotSync software is not available. In either case, if you have some sort of terminal emulation software running on the other computer, you can connect the Palm or Symbol unit via its serial port to the serial port of the other computer, and "print" the data (you'll want to configure PalmPrint to "Plain Text" output so no special printer "control codes" are sent).
As an extra feature, On Hand allows you to print bar code labels from items in its catalog (or items it simply scans) to barcode printers (most receipt printers have barcode printing functionality, and there are also dedicated barcode printers). Each label is printed in a format which is specified by the user using the Configure Label menu. Selecting that menu displays this screen:
The first thing to understand about the format is the notation used. "Regular" material, to be printed as is, appears in a normal way, like the word "ITEM:" in the example above. Many of the characters which are required to print barcodes, however, are "non-printing characters" (like the "Escape" character) which you can't enter directly using Graffiti. These characters are enclosed in a special notation, surrounded by double angle brackets as shown in the figure (Note: in this manual, we use "<<" and ">>" which are each two characters, but the real characters are a SINGLE character each - ONE "double less than" or "double greater than" character, not TWO "less than" or "greater than" characters). Three of the most common non-printing characters, ESC (character 27), GS (character 29), and FF (Form feed), are inserted into the label by tapping on the corresponding button at the bottom of the window. Any other non-printing character is inserted using the # button, which inserts the beginning and end double angle brackets and leaves the insertion point in the middle of the two, where you can enter any number that is needed.
There is one special rule. You cannot put character "0" (that's the character with the value of zero, not the "0" digit, which is a perfectly normal character) into the label to printed, that is, you cannot have <<0>> in the label. Whenever you need to use zero, and there are times when it is required, you must substitute the number 255 instead (as occurs several times in the label above). The printing software will replace the 255 with 0, so that 0, not 255, will actually be sent to the printer.
Four of the remaining buttons insert special codes into the label which substitute in pieces of information from the collected data when the label is printed. Name prints the name of the item, Note prints the contents of the note field, Barcode prints the complete barcode, and Barcode without Check Digit (Barcode w/o Check Dig.) prints the entire barcode except the last (check) digit. Since most barcode printers calculate their own check digit, they expect to be sent a barcode to print which does not include the check digit, so the second of these two barcode choices will probably be the most common.
OK, Cancel, and Clear should be self-explanatory.
The example shown in the figure above prints a barcode label onto barcode printers
using the ESC POS system, such as the Datamax E-3202 (from which this example is
taken). <<ESC>>a<<255>>, which should be interpreted
as <<ESC>>a<<0>>, sets left justification on this
printer. We then print the word ITEM: followed by the name of the item (in
English). On the next line, <<ESC>>a<<1>> sets centered
justification. <<GS>>H<<2>> tells the printer to
print the numeric barcode below the actual barcode. <<GS>>h<<50>>
sets the height of the barcode (to 50/200th of an inch in this example). Then finally,
<<GS>>k<<255>><<BarcodeNCD>><<255>>,
which again should be read <GS>>k<<0>><<BarcodeNCD>><<0>>,
prints a UPCA barcode.
For the exact sequence you will need to print barcode labels on your printer, please consult your printer manual.
To actually print the labels, select Print Barcode Labels from the Inventory menu. Every item in the inventory with a quantity of 1 or greater will have a label printed, with the quantity of each label printed equal to the quantity. Thus if you want to print 10 labels for an item, simply select the item (manually or by barcode scanning an existing label), set the quantity to 10, the select Print Barcode Labels.
After you perform a HotSync, and before you perform the next inventory collection, there are two options, both contained in the Inventory menu:
Reset sets the quantity of all items in the database (on your handheld unit) to zero. It also removes any notes which have been automatically added to any items in your database; these would include locations added using the "Copy to items when scanned" feature, and serial numbers added using the "Use scanned SNs" feature. Purge New Items removes any items which have been added to the database since you downloaded a database into your handheld unit from the desktop. New items are added to the database under three circumstances. First, when you scan any item whose barcode is not in the database, it is added. Second, when you perform serial number collection, the first serial number for any item is added to the original entry in the database, but if you scan a second or more SN for the same item, new items are added to the database to hold those SNs. And third, when you perform multilocation inventory collection and the same item is found in multiple locations, the second (and additional) times the same item is inventoried, an entry is added to the database. All of these added entries can be removed using Purge New Items.
In many circumstances, you will want to do both of these operations, but they are not linked, so that you may wish to first select Purge New Items, and then Reset (or vice versa, the order doesn't matter).
Both Reset and Purge New Items will require that you confirm your request, in order to give you an opportunity to change your mind.
There is no menu item to delete all items from the list. If you download a new catalog into the unit (see above), that will have the same effect.
If you need technical support for On Hand, you should first check our support web page, http://www.stevenscreek.com/palm/support.html, where we have tried to assemble answers to all the most commonly encountered problems with downloading, installing, and using our software. If that doesn't solve your problem, we encourage you to do so by email at support@stevenscreek.com. You can also call Stevens Creek Software technical support at 1-408-725-0424 during regular business hours (9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Pacific time, M-F).
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