Instruction Manual
version 1.0.1
Designed, developed and distributed by Pleco Software
Table of Contents
Though every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data in these books, some mistakes are inevitable and therefore PLECO SOFTWARE AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER AS TO THE PERFORMANCE OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRODUCT OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE ; USE OF THIS PRODUCT IS ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Thank you for using Berlitz® Phrase Books for Palm OS®. We at Pleco Software are frequent travelers ourselves, and we take great pride in producing products that we actually use. We hope you will find this product useful on your own journeys, whether you're going halfway around the world or just to the restaurant down the street.
We welcome your feedback, anecdotes, or anything else you'd like to say to us at feedback@pleco.com.
For technical support questions, contact us at support@pleco.com. You can also find an FAQ on our website at http://www.pleco.com/support.html .
This product is only compatible with handheld devices and smartphones running the Palm OS; these include devices by palmOne, Sony, Handspring, Tapwave, AlphaSmart, Symbol, Samsung, Kyocera, and Garmin. Pocket PC devices, such as those by HP, Compaq, Dell, and Toshiba, are NOT compatible.
In addition to running the Palm OS, your handheld must have Palm OS version 3.5 or later installed in order to use this software. Palm OS 3.5 was released back in 2000, so nearly all devices use it at this point. The following models do not include OS 3.5: Palm III, IIIx, IIIe, V, VII, and Handspring Visor Solo and Visor Deluxe. (see note below) If your handheld is not on that list, it should easily be able to run our software.
In order to install every phrasebook simultaneously, your Palm must have 8MB or more of built-in memory; however, the software will function perfectly well on devices with less memory as long as you only install a few phrasebooks at once. Each phrasebook requires 150-240 KB of free memory, and the software to view them requires another 240 KB (or 750 KB if you have a device with a high-resolution screen and want to use high-resolution fonts). To check your Palm's free memory, go to the application launcher screen by tapping on the 'house' icon at the upper left corner on the Graffiti area (on some devices this is accessed by pressing a button) - then, bring up the menu bar by tapping the 'menu' icon (right below the 'house') or by tapping on the clock at the top of the display, and choose "Info" from the "App" menu. The amount of free memory will be listed under 'free space'.
Note: Palm III, IIIx, and V models can be upgraded to OS version 4.1 with a palmOne upgrade CD . Some Palm Vx devices shipped with OS 3.3 instead of 3.5; those can be upgraded to 3.5 for free at this site . If you have any questions about hardware requirements please contact us and we'll be happy to help you.
There are two ways to install the phrasebooks to your handheld:
The steps for each of these installation methods are detailed below. If you're using Windows and are inexperienced at installing Palm software we strongly recommend that you use the automated option. And please don't hesitate to contact us at support@pleco.com if you encounter any problems during installation.
• Check free memory. See the instructions under System Requirements to determine the amount of free memory in your handheld, and delete files if necessary to free up more memory. You can delete files by choosing "Delete" from the "App" menu in the application launcher.
• Download the phrasebook software if you have not already done so; it's available online at http://www.pleco.com/berlitzdownload.html. You'll want to download the “automated installer”.
• Run the installer program. The file you just downloaded is not a Palm program; rather, it is a Windows installer program that sets up the phrasebooks to be copied over to your Palm. Double-click on that file to bring up the installer program. Press “Next” on the first page, and on the page that follows, click on the name of each phrasebook that you want to install. At the top of the list of phrasebooks are three “Application” files; select the appropriate file for your particular model of Palm OS handheld. If you're using a Sony Clie N, NR, SL, SJ, or T series handheld, select “Sony High-Resolution Application”; if you're using any other high-resolution handheld, select “Palm High-Resolution Application”; if you're using a low-resolution handheld or don't know which option to pick, select “Low-Resolution Application”. Skip through the next screen, and then under “Select account for installation” make sure that the username of the handheld that you want to install the software to is highlighted. Click on the “Install” button to complete the installation.
• HotSync. The installer program does not actually copy the files over to your handheld, it simply queues them up to be copied over the next time that you HotSync it with your PC. To HotSync, either press the button on your handheld's cradle, or if it doesn't have a cradle, connect it to your PC and then go to the “HotSync” application (tap on the house icon at the lower left corner of the screen to bring up the application launcher, then tap on the “HotSync” icon) and tap the large button in the center of the display.
Once you've installed the software, to run it simply tap on the “Berlitz” icon in the application launcher.
• Check free memory. See the instructions under System Requirements to determine the amount of free memory in your handheld, and delete files if necessary to free up more memory. You can delete files by choosing "Delete" from the "App" menu in the application launcher.
• Download the phrasebook software if you have not already done so; it's available online at http://www.pleco.com/berlitzdownload.html. Be sure to download the correct file for your desktop computer platform (Mac, PC, or Linux).
• Extract the software to a folder. The file you just downloaded is a compressed archive, which means that it's actually a bunch of smaller files wrapped up in a single, larger file to make it easier to download. You cannot install this file to your handheld directly; you have to extract the smaller files from it first. On most computer systems, simply double-clicking on the file will allow you to extract its contents; if not, download and install an appropriate program like WinZip, Stuffit Expander, or the free ExtractNow.
• Prepare the software for installation. Go into the “Phrasebooks” folder of the extracted archive, and in that folder double-click on the file for each language that you want to install. Then, go into the “Application Files” folder and double-click on one and only one of the three files in that folder. If you're using a Sony Clie N, NR, SL, SJ, or T series handheld, choose “Berlitz (Sony HR)”; if you're using any other high-resolution handheld, choose “Berlitz (Palm HR)”; if you're using a low-resolution Palm or don't know which option to pick, select “Berlitz (Low Resolution)”.
• HotSync. All that double-clicking you just did has now queued up the phrasebooks to be copied to your handheld the next time that you HotSync it with your PC. To HotSync, either press the button on your handheld's cradle, or if it doesn't have a cradle, connect it to your PC and then go to the “HotSync” application (tap on the house icon at the lower left corner of the screen to bring up the application launcher, then tap on the “HotSync” icon) and tap the large button in the center of the display.
Once you've installed the software, to run it simply tap on the “Berlitz” icon in the application launcher.
The first time you run the Berlitz application, you'll be presented with a screen that looks like this:
At the top right of the screen is the Book List. Tapping on this will pop up a list of the currently installed phrasebooks; to switch to a different book, simply tap on its name.
At the top left of the screen are the Section Lists. These allow you to navigate to a particular section of a phrasebook. Tap on one of these to bring up a list of sections; then, tap on the name of a section to jump to that section. If the “Cascade Section Lists” option is enabled (as it is by default), when you select a new book or section the next list in the hierarchy will immediately pop up; this allows you to quickly jump between sections without having to separately open up each list.
The phrasebooks are organized hierarchically, so to navigate to a specific section, first choose the general subject area from the top list and then choose more specific ones from the lower lists. For example, if you want to navigate to the “Breakfast” section of a particular book, you first choose “Eating Out” from the top list; this will change the middle list to list subjects under “Eating Out”, such as “Reservations”, “Ordering”, “Drinks”, etcetera. Choose “Course by Course” from that middle list and the bottom list will change to a list of courses: “Appetizers”, “Soups”, and of course “Breakfast”. Choose “Breakfast” from the bottom list to bring up the “Breakfast” category.
Another example that you can try in the demo version: choose “Basic Expressions” from the top list, and the middle list changes to some basic topics like “Questions”, “Exclamations”, and so on. Choose “Questions” and the bottom list will change to a list of different questions; choose “When” from that list to bring up the corresponding section of the phrasebook.
Some areas of the phrasebook do not use all three lists, so you may encounter a situation where one or more of the Section Lists is hidden; this is perfectly normal.
To the right of the section lists are four buttons. The Back and Forward buttons work just like they do in a web browser; tapping the back button will allow you to quickly return to the previous section you were looking at. The uses of the Notes and Expand buttons are explained below.
The remainder of the screen is called the Main List , and this is where you can actually view phrases along with their translations and pronunciation guides:
Initially, only the English phrases are displayed; to see a phrase's translation, simply tap on the English text and the translated text and pronunciation will appear below. A box is drawn around the selected entry and the translated text appears in large, bold letters; if you can't pronounce a phrase correctly, simply show it to the person you're trying to speak to and the bold text will make it obvious which phrase you're trying to say. The pronunciation guides are designed to closely approximate English, so simply pronounce them like you would English words; the underlines indicate stressed syllables.
To close a phrase, simply tap on it again and it will return to the English-only listing, or tap on another phrase and that phrase will open instead.
At the bottom of the first Section List you'll find a listing for Recent Phrases – this lists the last 10 phrases you've selected. This is particularly useful for stringing together multiple phrases; simply select each phrase you want in turn and they will all appear under Recent Phrases.
The Scroll Arrows at the right of the screen allow you to scroll up and down through the phrases in a particular section.
If you prefer to view all of the phrases and their translations simultaneously, tap on the Expand button; to return to English-only viewing, tap it again. Even with the phrases expanded, you can still tap on entries to select them and add them to the Recent Phrases list.
Some sections of the phrasebook include additional notes relating to proper usage or useful travel information; in these sections, the Note button will appear. Tapping on it will bring up a separate screen with the relevant notes:
You may also see a Note icon at the bottom of some phrases. This indicates that either the phrase was cut off because it was too long or that additional information and/or usage notes are available for this particular phrase; tapping on the icon will bring up a screen with the relevant information.
When browsing through the phrasebooks, you may encounter phrases where only the translated text is displayed; these can easily be spotted by their large bold text or non-English characters. There are three types of these:
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This icon at the left of a phrase indicates that this is a phrase you're likely to encounter on road signs or printed materials. |
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This icon at the left of a phrase indicates that this is a phrase you're likely to hear spoken out loud. |
(no icon) |
These are phrases for which no simple English translation exists or that are more commonly known by their translated than by their English name. |
Tapping on any of these will bring up its English translation and (if available) a pronunciation guide.
Some sections in each phrasebook are arranged alphabetically into dictionaries; in such a section, the screen will change slightly to look like this:
The only new item here is the “Input Field”. Enter text in this field to immediately jump to the closest matching entry in the dictionary. For non-standard letters in a foreign language, simply enter the closest English equivalent (c for c, i for i, etcetera).
Some additional features are available by choosing commands from the menu bar. To bring up the menu bar on a Palm OS handheld, simply tap on the menu icon at the lower left corner of the Graffiti area (the silkscreened patch on the bottom of the screen, where you enter text). If your handheld has a keyboard instead of a Graffiti area, there should be a hardware menu button located somewhere on that keyboard (you may have to hold it down for a few seconds).
When you bring up the menu bar the following four choices appear:
Brings up the preferences screen, which looks like this:
The line “Show … lines in unselected entries” allows you to choose how many lines of text to show in an unopened, unexpanded phrase in the list; you can pick anywhere from 1 to 6. “Show … Eng Lines in all entries” allows you to set a cap on the number of lines of English text that will appear in each entry when expanded; if the text gets cut off, tapping on the Note button at the bottom of that phrase will bring up the extra text.
“Hide Pronunciation Info” hides the pronunciation information from all phrases in all modes, leaving only the English and the translated text.
“Slow Scrolling”, enabled by default, limits the speed at which the scroll buttons scroll through the phrasebooks; this is very useful on some newer Palm devices which have a tendency to scroll too fast.
“Cascade Section Lists” is also enabled by default; see the earlier information on “Section Lists” for details.
Brings up the file manager, which looks like this:
This screen allows you to delete individual phrasebooks from your handheld's memory and to copy phrasebooks to and from a VFS memory expansion card (such as an SD, MMC, or CompactFlash card or a Memory Stick). The files are copied to and from the /PALM/Launcher directory on your card. At present the software cannot access files from a card directly, they have to be copied into RAM first.
Pressing one of the “Copy” arrows will copy a file from RAM to a VFS card (or vice versa) without deleting the original file. “Move” is similar but does delete the original file, and “Delete” simply deletes a file without copying it first. Note that you cannot delete the currently active phrasebook from RAM.
Brings up the ordering screen, which looks like this:
This screen contains several useful pieces of information related to purchasing and unlocking the phrasebooks. At the top of the screen are two lists indicating which of the currently installed phrasebooks are paid and which are demo versions, allowing you to quickly determine whether or not a keyfile or serial number worked correctly. Below this are several lines listing your HotSync username and RegCode ID. You'll need your HotSync username when ordering the phrasebooks, since we use it to generate your unique serial number. The RegCode ID is not normally necessary, and is included only for diagnostic purposes; if you encounter any problems with unlocking the phrasebooks we'll ask for the RegCode ID to verify that we sent you the correct serial number. There is no need to enter the RegCode ID on the order form.
Brings up an about box containing version and copyright information.
To order phrasebooks, visit this page; contact us at sales@pleco.com with any order-related questions.
When you first install the phrasebooks to your handheld, you will only be able to access the demonstration versions of the phrasebooks; in these versions, you're limited to the “Basic Expressions” section of each book along with entries in the first dictionary that begin with the letter 'a'.
To unlock the full versions of the phrasebooks, you must purchase a license key from our website. After you finish placing your order, the confirmation page will include a serial number for each book you purchased, along with a download link for a special "keyfile" which contains all of those serial numbers in a format that your Palm can understand; the serial number(s) and keyfile will also be sent to you by e-mail. You can use either the keyfile or the serial numbers to unlock your phrasebooks; you do not need both.
The easiest way to unlock the phrasebooks is to install the keyfile to your Palm; simply download and double-click on the keyfile to queue it up for installation, and then HotSync just as you did when you originally installed the software. The keyfile contains the serial number for each book you purchased, and when you run the Berlitz software on your handheld it will automatically detect the keyfile and unlock the full version of each book. If you purchase a book that isn't installed on your Palm, its serial number will be saved and it will automatically be unlocked when you do install it.
If you don't have an easy way to copy files to your Palm from the computer where you check e-mail (perhaps because you're ordering the books from an internet café), you can also enter your serial numbers manually. To do this, choose “Ordering” from the “Berlitz” menu (to bring up the menu bar, tap on the menu button located at the bottom left of your handheld's Graffiti area) and tap the “Manual Serial Entry” button. You can enter the serial numbers from the e-mail on this screen.
1.0.1 Fixed a bug that could prevent manually-entered serial numbers from being saved correctly.
1.0 Initial Release
Software, converted data files, and documentation Copyright © 2004 by Pleco Software Incorporated, all rights reserved.
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‘Pleco' and ‘Pleco Software' are trademarks of Pleco Software Incorporated.