Home page

Home : Noah Pro manual

Table of contents

  1. Installation
  2. Using Noah Pro
  3. Bookmarks
  4. Copy & paste
  5. Resident mode
  6. Preferences
  7. Display preferences
  8. Selecting database
  9. Troubleshooting

Installation

Noah Pro comes in a noah_pro.zip file that contains:

To install the program:

Using Noah Pro

Upon startup Noah Pro displays by default About screen. This behavior can be changed via Startup action preference.

Starting to type a word or pressing the spyglass icon brings the screen with list of words. The list will automatically scroll to the nearest word matching entered text.

List can also be navigated in following ways:

  • on screen up/down arrows and left/right arrows scroll the list by a screen
  • using Treo 600's or Tungsten's 5-Way Navigator, up/down scroll by one word, left/right scroll by a screen, center selects a word

Pressing Cancel button returns to main screen.

Tapping on a word or pressing "return" (in Graffiti it's a move from upper right to lower left corner) brings word definition. If a definition doesn't fit on one screen it can be scrolled using hardware up/down buttons, scrollbar or 5-Way Navigator's up/down buttons (available e.g. on Treo 600 or Tungsten). You can either scroll by line, half a page or the whole page (depending on preferences).
You can move to next/previous word by using left/right arrows.
Tapping twice directly on the word brings its definition.
A history of recently looked up words is available by using pop-up list located next to a spyglass icon.

Noah Pro Main menu:

  • Random word - shows a definition of a random word
  • Find word - brings screen with list of words
  • Select database - if more than one database is installed, allows selecting the database
  • Copy to clipboard - copies currently selected part of definition to clipboard (whole definition if nothing is selected) so that it can be used in other Palm programs
  • Lookup clipboard - tries to lookup a word currently in the clipboard

Noah Pro Options menu:

  • Preferences - brings preferences screen
  • Display preferences - brings display preferences screen
  • Help - displays short instructions
  • About - displays About screen

Bookmarks

Noah Pro allows bookmarking words for future reference, deleting bookmarks and selecting a word from the list of bookmarked words. When viewing bookmarks, they can be sorted alphabetically (by name) or chronologically (by the time they were bookmarked, the most recently bookmarked words at the top).

Copy & paste

It's possibly to copy a part of definition to clipbard and use it in other application. To do that, select a part of definition to copy with a stylus and select "Main\Copy to clipboard" menu item. If there is no selection, the whole definition gets copied. You can then paste copied text in other applications that support clipboard (e.g. Memo Pad).

Resident mode

Noah Pro implements resident mode which allows direct lookup of word definition from many applications. Example below is based on built-in Palm OS Memo Pad application. To lookup words directly from another application:

  1. select a word (if the application supports that)
  2. bring a Command Bar using Command Stroke
  3. select Noah Pro's icon
  4. if Noah Pro knows the definition of the word, it'll be automatically displayed. If not you'll be taken to the list of words positioned at the closest word matching selected word
  5. to go back to previous application press the "X" button in lower, right corner

Due to Palm OS' limitations, resident mode offers only partial functionality compared to when Noah is run as a stand-alone application.

Preferences

Startup action preference defines what happens when Noah Pro start:
  • Nothing - displays default About screen
  • Clipboard - tries to automatically lookup the word from the clipboard.
  • Last word - will display last accessed word
When more than one database is installed, Startup database preference defines which database should be selected at startup:
  • Ask - each time ask the user to select a database at startup
  • Last - use last used database
Up/Down buttons and 5-Way buttons preferences define how a word definition should be scrolled when using up/down hardware buttons or tapping on the screen:
  • Nothing - don't scroll
  • Line Scroll - scroll by one line
  • 1/2 Page Scroll - scroll by half a page
  • Page Scroll - scroll by whole page

Display preferences

Definition display is highly customizable. There are 3 different layout to choose from. Font and color of each part of every layout can be changed.

Selecting database

Noah Pro can read databases in both internal memory and external memory such as SD/MMC card or Memory Stick. Noah Pro will scan all files on external memory card looking for databases. If there are a lot of files on the card, this process takes a lot of time so it's only being done once, when program is being run for the first time. If you install the database after that, you need to explicitly tell Noah Pro to find databases on external memory card. To do that select menu "Main\Select database". You'll see the following screen. Pressing "Find database" will re-scan files on external memory card to find a database. In order to use a given database, tap on the name to highlight it and press "Select" button.

Pressing "Cancel" will return to the main screen without making any changes.

Troubleshooting

If upon startup Noah Pro shows "Cannot find database. Please see manual for more information." error message it usually means that the dictionary database file (full.pdb or medium.pdb) has not been installed on the device. Please verify that the file is present either in internal memory or on external memory card such as SD/MMC card or Memory Stick.