Métro
User guide
The easiest solution : you
write down the names of the departure and arrival
stations (you need only enter the first letters,
Métro will complete the names for you) then
"tap" on the (go) button. Part of a name may
be enough (in Paris, "Etoile" will find the
station "Charles de Gaulle-Etoile").
Assisted solution :
"tap" on the (stop) button, a list appears
with all the stations. Just "tap" on the one
you're looking for, it is displayed as the departure
station. When you "tap" on the arrival field,
you can do the same for the arrival station. Finally,
"tap" on the
(go) button.
Intelligent assistance : same
as above but before you "tap" on one of
the button, enter the first few
characters of the name of the station. The
position in the list is updated to the name closest to
your entry.
Permanent assistance : after the list is displayed (as above), simply enter text in the Departure or Arrival field. The position in the list is updated to the name closest to your entry.
The fastest: write down the first characters of your departure station, enter the graffiti linefeed sign, enter the first characters of your destination station then again the graffiti linefeed sign: the calculation is done!
The icing on the cake:
the program memorizes the last stations you used. To
display the history list, "double tap" on the (station).
One-hand operation (currently on Handera and Sony devices only): push the JogDial, search your start stop in the list (scroll with the JogDial), push again to select your stop, select your arrival station (same operation), push to compute the route and scroll through the results with the JogDial.
In some cities, you can search a place of interest instead of a subway station (how do I go to the Eiffel tower, for example). These sites appear in bold in the stations list.
Tap on the
(info) to display some information on the start or end station
(whichever has the focus). On the places of interest in the
"tourist" databases, you'll even get detailed
information such as address, phone number, opening times...
The (back)
button is a simple way to compute your route back from Arrival to
Departure without having to enter the names of the stations
again.
The
(clear) button resets the "Métro" GUI: it clears the
departure and arrival station, the stations list and the result
field. It also optionnally resets the current time (see options).
This feature is available only with some of the databases.
When using these cities, the day of the week and time are
displayed on screen. You just have to "tap" these
fields to change your travel time. The (clear) button
can optionnally reset the current time (see "Options").
On the currently selected day and time, some lines may not operate; "Métro" takes this into account to compute a route.
The button
displays the list of lines in the current city. Select a line to
list its stations. You may then "tap" on one of these
stations to enter it in the "From" or "To"
field (depending on the one where the caret is). Arrows (up or
down) before the name of a station denote a stop in only one
direction.
A line is "operating" (that is, used for calculating a route) only if the box next to it in the list is checked. If there is an "X" mark, it means the line is closed on the current day and time. You can also uncheck the box if you don't want to use the line (in case of a temporary interruption for example). This feature is a work in progress: the personal closed lines are not saved between uses.
In some cities, the database contains a list of
"Interesting places": the program can give you
directions to go to these places, just as for a station. To see
the list, "tap" on the (sites) button next to the line popup.
The button is grayed out if there are no interesting places in
the current database.
You may have noticed the
(address) icon: you can use it to compute a route from
or to one of your contacts' address. When you "tap" on
the button, a list is displayed containing all the contacts in
your address book with a "metro" field. If you select
one of the names, it appears in the "from" or
"to" field, prefixed with an "@".
You can also directly enter a contact name (with an "@" prefix) in the "from" or "to" fields.
For this feature to work:
On Palm devices, you'll have
to create a custom field named "metro" (check your
device user's guide to learn how to do this) in your address book
and fill this field for your contacts. You can enter more than
one stop, separated by semi-colons (";").
On PocketPC devices (except
Windows CE 2.0 devices), add a note to your contacts in the form <METRO>station1;station2</METRO>
where "station1" and "station2"
are the closest stops from the contact's address. To distinguish
between addres types you can create 3 different
"fields": <METRO
type="BUSINESS">station1</metro>
for the office address, <METRO
type="HOME">station2</metro>
for
the home address and <METRO
type="OTHER">station3</metro>
for
another address.
On these devices, the contacts list is resizable and sortable.
When you "tap" on the (go) button (or enter the linefeed
graffiti in the "to" field), the calculation starts. If
it's taking some time (more than about 2 seconds), a progression
bar is displayed on screen. You can "tap" on it to stop
the search, you'll get the best route calculated so far.
After a search, the results lists displays 1 or 2 different routes for your request: the shortest route and the route using the least number of connections. If they are the same, only the shortest is displayed. Sometimes, both may take the same time and number of connections but have some other difference.
PalmOS: Tap once in the results text to copy to the clipboard. You can then paste it in a memo or a mail.
Tap once on the icons (left column) to get detailed information on your route:
The button
(informations) shows informations on the selected city, along
with the names of the people who contributed to the database. It
also shows the city release date (useful to check if you have the
most recent version).
In the "Options" menu, the "Preferences" item has 3 choices :
For those who don't know how to access the menus on their Palm, check the silk-screen button bottom-left of the graffiti zone... And take a break to read your device user guide :-)
Tap on (OK)
to save your changes
(Cancel) to go back to the main view.
On PocketPC, you can also:
windows/fonts
folder, then select it here!The "Network" option shows the list of cities you
have installed with "Métro". Select one city in the
list (tip: enter its first letter for faster scrolling)
and tap the
button (OK) to query a route in that city subway (you can also
"double tap" on the city name for fast
selection). Or use the
button (Delete) to erase the selected
database from your Pilot's memory (you cannot delete the database
currently in use or the databases on an extension card).
You can also access the "Network" option simply by "tapping" on the city name in the "Métro" main form title.
A "*" after a city name denotes an obsolete
database: you can delete it or you must upgrade to a newer
version to use it. Those cities found on an extension
card (in the /PALM/Programs/metro
directory only) are displayed with a special icon (see the installation guide for more
instructions).
Another button appears in the window when the soft is
installed on a Pilot with an IR interface : (Beam). Using it,
you can transfer a database (except from an extension card) from
your Palm to another one where "Métro" is installed.
The actual transfer is realized only if the database you send is
not already present on the receiver.
Tap on
(Cancel) to go back to the main view without changes.
This one creates a new mail, where you can enter your comments (or simply write a thanks note), and send it to Frank.
This will create a mail that will register your address on our mailing list, where we announce every new release as it comes out!
These 2 options let you exchange your city files with other PocketPC user through the IR (infrared) port on your device.