MPG




Preface
Even though some people never look at documentation a few of you expressed an interest in documentation.  If you donÍt read all the documentation make sure you read the Legal Stuff section. 

Thank-you to Steve Nygard, Allan Marcus, and Stefan Vorkoetter. 

Thank you all for taking the time to look at my product. 

This manual is written assuming U.S. distance and volume measure, but U.K., Canadian, and metric users can just replace the mpg, mph, distance, and $ with your own countryÍs units in the manual. L/100km is the metric standard,  mpg(UK/Imperial) is the UK and Canadian preference both are supported.


Contact Information

US Mail

Catamount Software
P.O. Box 8276
Essex VT 05451, USA

Telephone

(802) 372-9512

E-Mail

support@catamount.com



Legal stuff

MPG (the software that this documentation describes), the related software that is included with MPG, and this documentation are all Copyright ©1994-1997 Catamount Software and Catamount Software's Licensor(s). MPG» is a trademark of Catamount Software. All rights reserved.

Apple and Newton are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. NewtonMail and MessagePad are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

Here is the software license that Apple Computer, Inc. requires that Newton software written with the Newton Toolkit carry. It isn't exciting reading but I advise you to read it since it does apply to all users of MPG and the related software that accompanies it.


1. License. 

The application, demonstration, system and other software accompanying this License, whether on disk, in read only memory, or by any other media (the "Software"), the related documentation and fonts are licensed to you by Catamount Software. You own the media on which the Software and forts are recorded but Catamount Software and/or Catamount Software's Licensor(s) retain title to the Software, related documentation and fonts. This License allows you to use the Software and fonts on a single Newton Product (which, for the purposes of this License, shall mean a product bearing Apple's Newton logo), and make one copy of the Software and fonts in machine-readable form for backup purposes only. You must reproduce on such copy Catamount Software's copyright notice and any other proprietary legends that were on the original copy of the Software and fonts. You may also transfer all your license rights in the Software and fonts, the backup copy of the Software and fonts, the related documentation and a copy of this License to another party, provided the other party reads and agrees to accept the terms and conditions of this License.


2. Restrictions. 

The Software contains copyrighted material, trade secrets and other proprietary material and in order to protect them you may not decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise reduce the Software to a human-perceivable form. You may not modify, network, rent, lease, loan, distribute or create derivative works based upon the Software in whole or in part. You may distribute for a nominal download or duplication charge the unregistered Shareware version of MPG as long as it is accompanied by this documentation. 


3. Termination. 

This License is effective until terminated. You may terminate this License at any time by destroying the Software and related documentation and fonts. This License will terminate immediately without notice from Catamount Software if you fail to comply with any provision of this License. Upon termination you must destroy the Software, related documentation and fonts.


4. Export Law Assurances. 

You agree and certify that neither the Software nor any other technical data received from Catamount Software, nor the direct product thereof, will be exported outside the United States except as authorized and as permitted by the laws and regulations of the United States. If the software has been rightfully obtained by you outside of the United States, you agree that you will not re-export the Software nor any other technical data received from Catamount Software, nor the direct product thereof, except as permitted by the laws and regulations of the United States and the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction in which you obtained the Software.


5. Government End Users. 

If you are acquiring the Software and fonts on behalf of any unit or agency of the United States Government, the following provisions apply. The Government agrees:
  (i) if the Software and fonts are supplied to the Department of Defense (DoD), the Software and fonts are classified as "Commercial Computer Software" and the Government is acquiring only "restricted rights" in the Software, its documentation and fonts as that term is defined in Clause 252.227-7013(c)(1) of the DFARS; and
  (ii) if the software and fonts are supplied to any unit or agency of the United States Government other than the DoD, the Government's rights in the Software, its documentation and fonts will be as defined in Clause 52.227-19(c)(2) of the FAR or, in the case of NASA, in Clause 18-52.227-86(d) of the NASA Supplement to the FAR.


6. Disclaimer of Warranty on Software. 

You expressly acknowledge and agree that use of the Software and fonts is at your sole risk. The Software, related documentation and fonts are provided "AS IS" and without warranty of any kind and Catamount Software and Catamount Software's Licensor(s) (for the purposes of provisions 6 and 7, Catamount Software and Catamount Software's Licensor(s) shall be collectively referred to as "Catamount Software") EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Catamount Software DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE SOFTWARE AND THE FONTS WILL BE CORRECTED. FURTHERMORE, Catamount Software DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE AND FONTS OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY Catamount Software OR AN AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF Catamount Software SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU (AND NOT Catamount Software OR AN AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF Catamount Software) ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION IF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.


7. Limitation of liability. 

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL Catamount Software BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF Catamount Software OR AN AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF Catamount Software HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. In no event shall Catamount Software's total liability to you for all damages, losses, and causes of action (whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise) exceed the amount paid by you for the Software and fonts.


8. Controlling Law and Severability. 

This License shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States and the State of California, as applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within California between California residents. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of this License, or portion thereof, to be unenforceable, that provision of the License shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to effect the intent of the parties, and the remainder of this License shall continue in full force and effect.


9. Complete Agreement.

This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the use of the Software, related documentation and fonts, and supersedes all prior or conterporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, regarding such subject matter. No amendment to or modification of this License will be binding unless in writing and signed by a duly authorized representative of Catamount Software.

About

Have you ever wondered if expensive gas works better in your vehicle than cheap gas? How many times have you looked down at your odometer just to discover that it has been 20,000 miles since your last oil change? Do you need to keep track of the mileage you put on your personal vehicle for business/tax purposes?  These are some of the reasons I started writing MPG.

MPG is a log book for your vehicle. It lets you keeps track of fuel, oil changes, tune-ups, inspections, tire rotations, windshield wipers, vehicle washes trips, and other miscellaneous expenses for your vehicle. It gives status such as average miles per gallons, total cost of gas, and average price of gas. Fuel economy is calculated for the fuel entries. Time, distance and time per distance are calculated for trips.

MPG will keep track of everything you use your vehicle(s) for.  ThatÍs right vehicles. If you are in charge of maintenance of your companyÍs fleet of vehicles MPG can keep track of it all for you. 


Installation

MPG is shipped as a Newton package, which is a Newton program file.  To install the MPG package onto your Newton you will need either the Newton Connection Utilities, the Newton Package Downloader, or the equivalent.  Refer to the instructions that came with one of these applications to determine how you need to proceed.


Requirements

MPG uses 200k of storage space and about 0.5k of heap memory when not opened. 



Opening MPG on the Newton

Once you have installed MPG onto your Newton, you can proceed to track your vehicle's information more effectively!  To access MPG, simply tap the Extras button, then tap the icon labeled MPG.  

 





Registration Screen & Registering

The second time you use MPG (and until you register it), you will be presented with MPG Registration screen.   If you are simply evaluating MPG and have not registered yet, simply press the Not Yet button and continue into MPG.  After you register, you will be sent a registration code to "unlock" your copy of MPG.  MPG is not crippled in any way except for the Registration screen appearing each time you run MPG.

If you have registered, enter your registration code on the Registration screen.  Enter the code exactly as it appears on your registration notice.  When your code is entered correctly, press the Register button. 



Cost & Payment

The price of MPG is $30.00 (US). MPG is shareware. Shareware is freely distributable software which you must pay for if you continue to use it more than testing the program to see what it does.


Cash, Check, & Money Order

Send $30.00 via snail mail to: 

Catamount Software
PO Box 8276 
Essex VT 05451, USA
 

Canadians Cheques

Canadian residents can send a check payable in Canadian funds, but make sure you have the current exchange rate + 2% included. It was about 35% at the time of this writing.
 

CompuServe

Compuserve members can register online (GO: SWREG) for $34.00.  Look for ID # 2695.


Credit Cards, Register, and e-mail

Kagi Software accepts Catamount Software's credit card payments for MPG. Catamount Software cannot process credit card orders directly. To purchase MPG online goto <http://order.kagi.com/?HM>.


Creating New Entries

The first time you open MPG it will ask you for a vehicle name. Enter the name of your vehicle and tap the [x] to close the window. After you pass the Registration screen you will be in the Overview screen because you have not entered any data yet. To enter data tap the New button and a popup of three choices will appear.

 

Fuel

Keeps track of your fuel consumption, economy, and costs.


Trip

Keeps track of your trip information. You can keep track of business trips in your personal vehicle, you can use it to measure distance and time of getting from home to work by different routes, and you can use it to enter precise directions for later recall.


Misc

Keeps track of maintenances and other expenses to your vehicle. Maintenances include oil changes, inspections, brakes. You can setup customized reminders to change your oil every 3000 miles or 3 months.




Setting Up Vehicles

Initially you will not have your vehicles in MPG. You will need to add your vehicle to the vehicle popup. LetÍs setup my new Porsche. IÍm saving up my shareware payments for it as I write.

Tap the [i] button and select vehicle. This will open up the vehicle preference screen. Here you can enter a few things about your vehicle. The vehicle preference screen will automatically open for you if you are using MPG for the very first time.

Starting Mileage is for your reference only. MPG does not use Starting Mileage for any computations. I would enter the number of miles on the vehicle when you bought it. A new vehicle would be 0 and an used vehicle might be 32,328. 

VIN - stands for Vehicle Identification Number.

License Plate, Engine Size, and Tire Size are all for your reference. These are some of the things that I never remember when I need to.

Set Alarm/Reminder for:  tapping this label popups your list of misc. categories. By selecting one of these you can then enter the Alarm Days and Alarm Miles. For example, the recommended oil change for your vehicle is every 7500 miles or 3 months. Select oil change from the Set Alarm/Reminder popup, select 3 months from the Alarm Days popup (notice this is translated into days), and select 7500 from the Alarm Miles popup. 

These alarm settings are used in the Overdue Statistics screen. You must have an oil change service entered into MPG before it can tell you when your next oil change will be overdue or upcoming. You can back date an old oil change entry. For a new car you need to enter a new oil change at 0 miles.


Filling in the Entry Screen

 

The entry screen is where the majority of your editing will take place. The field descriptions for the entry screen are:


Vehicle

These are the vehicles that you have created and are tracking.


Payment

This is the method of payment that you use to pay for a service.

(see Appendix A for using the list editor)

If the ñUse PocketMoney Accountsî is checked in the preferences then you will see your list of PocketMoney accounts. The PocketMoney accounts are not editable from within MPG you must edit the list from PocketMoney. The advantage of using the PocketMoney accounts is that you can post your service transactions to PocketMoney and the transaction will show up in PocketMoney as a withdraw. No more double entry!!!!!!


Location

The location that you had the service performed on your vehicle at, or in the case of trips it would be the start or stop of your trip.

(see Appendix A for using the list editor)

Odometer

An odometer is the distance gauge on your carÍs dashboard. The odometer entry accepts a number for input. 


Quick Odometer

When the turtle icon is displayed, whatever number you write into the odometer field is entered. When the rabbit icon is displayed, the Quick Odometer Algorithm (QOA) is used to allow speedier entry. The Quick Odometer Algorithm allows you to enter the last few digits of the odometer reading and it figures out the beginning digits for you.

Quick Odometer Samples

The Quick Odometer Algorithm (QOA) calculates the high ordered digits of the odometer when you enter the low ordered digits. 

	Last Odometer	You enter	QOA
	32,550	60	32,560	50 < 60. Replace 50 with 60
	32,550	600	32,600	550 < 600. Replace 550 with 600
	32,550	200	33,200	550 > 200. Flip thousands

	Last Odometer	You enter	QOA
	39.820	????	40,050

	??? = if you follow the pattern you think you should enter "050", but the Newton only understands "050" as "50" so Newton gives you 39,850. You need to enter a bigger number, but the next biggest number that doesn't have leading zeros is 40,050 so you should enter 40,050 (you do not need to switch to tutle mode to do so). 


Cost

The cost of the service performed. For example $10 worth of gas or a $500 insurance bill. Trips do not usually have a cost associated with them, but occasionally I will put the enter I spent on tolls.


Notes

Just a general area for adding additional notes.


Folder

The folder that the current entry is filed in.	


Service Type

The type of the service (Fuel, Trip, Misc)



Specialized Fields

The following three sections explain the fields related to Fuel, Trips, and Service/Repair screens respectively.

Fuel Fields
 
$/gal

Price per gallon is the amount for one gallon of gas. 

 
Gallons

The number of gallons pumped into your vehicle during the fillup. Gallons or $/gal will be computed for you automatically is you have cost and one other field entered.

 
Gas Can

The Gas Can button allows you to specify that you did not fill the gas tank up all of the way. If you only put a couple dollars worth of gas into the tank, but have the Gas Can showing a full tank then the mpg calculations will be off. The gas can will toggle between full tank (all black) and not full tank (half black). When MPG calculates mpg, if it sees that you did not fill up your tank completely then it will go back until it does find an entry that you filled up completely and use the sum of all of the entries to compute your mpg.

 
Octane

The octane of the gas. The U.S. uses numbers 87,93,... Some countries use Red, Green, and Black. The statistics will break down your fuel economy based on the different octane fillups. These statistics arenÍt super accurate if you donÍt let your tank get close to empty and completely fill before you enter the different octane of gas, but the stats are interesting.

 
mpg

Is the fuel economy calculation based on the prior tank of gas.

 
Distance

Similar to the trip odometer found in some cars, it shows you how far you drove between fillups.




Trip Fields


 
 
Purpose

Used for the statistics to generate how many miles you used your vehicle for a specific purpose. The main use for this field is to allow you to categorize trips for tax purposes.

Trip Lookup (Gas Can with magnifying glass)

The Trip Lookup button will look up the last trip that has the same purpose as the trip you are entering and will enter the end trip record for you. You must enter the current date and time and the current odometer then tap this button to have the end trip automatically filled in for you. This is very useful if you make the same trip daily or weekly. Create a new purpose called "Post Office" and make a normal trip entering the start and end times correctly. Then the next time you need to go to the post office, enter your odometer, select "Post Office" as the purpose, and tap the Trip Lookup button.  

Trip Point

Trip PointÍs popup is based upon the last trip entry. Depending on what your last trip entry was the popup will change accordingly.

 
Start Trip

When you start a trip you set trip point to Start Trip.

 
Pause Trip

This allows you to take breaks in a trip. It can be used for pit stops or meetings with clients. Time and distance are ignored for mph and distance calculations during a pause/resume trip entries.

 
Resume Trip

The companion of Pause Trip is resume. When you start traveling again enter a new Resume trip entry.

 
Distance Marker

Distance Markers are used for measuring out directions. It gives you a good way to enter landmarks if you are giving directions. If IÍm using MPG to record directions I would start trip, distance marker (turn right), distance marker (turn left at 3rd light), ..., end trip.

End Trip

When you end a trip you set trip point to End Trip.


Time

The time elapsed since the start of the trip. (Does not include the time wasted in the Pause/Resume pit stops.)


Distance

Similar to the trip odometer found in some cars, it shows you how far you drove since the start of the trip. (Does not include the distance wasted in the Pause/Resume pit stops.)

 
mph

Miles per hour is calculated since the last trip point. The average mph can be more useful than just a fancy fact...the next time a cop pulls you over you can show the officer that you have only been averaging 65 miles per hour since mile marker 23 which was 15 miles back. I havenÍt had to try this yet, but if MPG gets anyone out of a ticket because of this I would like to know about it and possibly receive a big Christmas present for the money that MPG just saved you. ;-) (I can now say that I sort of tried this. I was stopped for speeding. A demo of the Newton got me off with a warning)

Trip Example
Question from user: <<Maybe it's just me, but I can't seem to figure out how the Trip screen works.  Do you create one for the start and one for the end? What info goes into the cost? Could you give me an example so I might understand it. >>

Answer: You need to create one entry for the start of the trip and one for the end of the trip. The majority of the time you will not enter anything into the cost field, but I left the cost field there because once in a while I will enter the amount I pay for tolls in the trip section. An example would be (I'm at home, go to work and return home):
   1. I'm still at home and I get into my vehicle. While I'm waiting for my vehicle to warm up I add a new trip item. Tap new-> tap trip.
	a. it defaults to start trip - unless you have a start trip entered without a corresponding end trip in which case it will default to end trip.
	b. the payment method will be blank - most of the time you will not be entering a cost, hence no payment method.
	c. enter "Home" for the location. You can either write it into the location field or if it is a common starting or end point then you can add it to the popup list. (tip: if you enter many different locations and you find yourself constantly scrubbing out the default value then you might find it easier to add a blank item to the location popup and set this to the default. This way it will always be blank on new entries and you will not need to scrub.)
	d. enter the odometer. If the check box is checked next to the odometer for intelligent entry then I will just enter the tens place of the odometer "14.3". This will be converted to "66314.3". If you don't have the box checked then you must enter the whole odometer number "66314.3".
	e. if I know the route to work I will be taking I enter the route into the notes field. Most of the time I leave this blank until I am actually taking the route I think I will be taking. I also enter weather conditions and traffic conditions. (rain/heavy traffic/accident)
   2. When I arrive at work I enter the end trip. Tap new-> tap trip.
	a. it should default to end trip - because start trip was the last trip item I entered.
	b. enter "Work" for the location.
	c. enter the odometer. "26" converts to "66326.0"
   3. I'm current at work or a job site and now I must enter a new trip to continue on. The easiest way to do this so that you do not need to re-enter a lot of data is to choose "Duplicate" from the action envelope button.
	a. it should default to start trip because end trip was the last trip I entered.
	b. the location will still be "Work"
	c. the odometer will still be the same
	d. I change the time to the current time for you



Misc - Category

A category for service reminders or any other miscellaneous item that Fuel or Trip entries do not cover. For example Parking fees are not covered. You can setup reminders in the Vehicle preferences to check your Brake Fluid Level or your Tire Pressure every 2 weeks. 


Overview Screen

The overview screen gives you a quick look at your data, a fast way to get to a specific entry, and a way to clear a large number of entries quickly.

 

To try to fit as much useful information as possible Vehicle and Service columns truncate the data display. Tap the scroll up and down arrows to see more data. To see all of the data for one entry tap on the entry.


Status Bar Buttons

Info Button

 

The info button popup has a list of choices that show additional info. 


About

About will display a screen with the version of MPG that you are using and my address and technical support phone number.	


Prefs

Opens the prefs screen. 



Vehicle

Opens the vehicle prefs screen. You can set up alarms in here.

 
Statistics

Calculates a lot of interesting statistics. 

New

Creates new Fuel, Trip and Misc transactions.



Show

Custom
	
Allows you to see a subset of the transactions. (see Using Filters)

Item at Date

Opens the date picker so that you can select the date you wish to go to. Tapping the set button will bring you to that date or the next date found if your selected date wasnÍt found.

First Item

Moves you to  the first entry.

Last item

Moves you to the last entry.


Keyboard 

Like in the Notepad tapping this icon will display the built-in keyboards in sequence (numeric, alpha-numeric, date, telephone).


Filing Folder  

 

MPG supports standard Newton filing.  To file an item, display it in the Entry View, then press the filing button and file the item.  See the Newton MessagePad User Guide for more information about Filing.


Action Envelope 

 
 

 
Print/Fax

Print or fax a single entry, trip report for, or MPG report. The trip report was designed to list trips for tax or business reimbursement purposes. MPG report will list any transaction you have entered in MPG. You can limit the report's scope by setting a custom filter.

Beam

Will beam an item to another Newton.

 
Reset Alarms

Checks all of the MPG entries to make sure the alarms are set correctly. If you enter a large value for odometer by mistake it can mess up the service alarms. Basically, if the alarms aren't working correctly try running this to fix it.

Upload

Will open the MPGUploader program that allows  you to upload MPG data to WildCat on you desktop.

Post To PocketMoney

Will enter the current transaction into PocketMoney so that you donÍt have to!!

 
Duplicate

Will duplicate the current item.

Delete List

Will delete all of the items currently being displayed. Use this to delete old data that you don't need anymore. For example, set the filter to show only trips from last year and choose delete list to remove all of the trips.

Delete

Will delete the current item.

 

 
Move To/From Card

Will move an item to or from the memory card. (This is located in the Filing Button if you are using Newton OS 2.x)


 

Quits MPG. (Little [x] just closes a window)

 
Scroll Up and Down Arrows

Will move to the next or previous entry when in the entry view. When in the overview then it will scroll a half screen of entries if possible. If it is not possible to scroll any further in either direction then a beep will sound. The filter or the balance screen are closed if you scroll when they are open in the overview.

 
Overview Dot (Belly Button)

Toggles the screen between the overview mode and the entry view.

 
Undo

Undo up to 2 items. When you scroll to a new item in the single entry view the Undo buffer is cleared.

 
Find

Will allow you to search for any text in the MPG soup. The only items you can not find are costs. Costs are stored as real numbers and can not be searched on. See your Newton documentation for more information on Find.

 
Assist

Using Newton Intelligent Assistant. The synonyms are ñfuelî,îtripî,îrepairî. An expression with one of these keyword will open MPG. MPG does not parse the expression, but it will put it in the notes field so that you can parse it.



Statistics

There are probably more statistics than you care about, but all can be interestingly useful.

Remember: All statistics are only as good as the data that was used to compute it.  

There are 5 screens of stats. General, Fuel, Trip, Last Service, and Overdue Service.

Most of the statistics assume that you have the filter set for only one vehicle. This is up to you to make sure your filter is set correctly. 

One time that you would probably not want the filter set for a specific vehicle is if you want the Total Vehicle Costs for all vehicles.

If you get figures for Maximum Miles per Gallon or Minimum Miles per Gallon that are really high or really low you should check your data and make sure that you are not missing any fuel entries.

The Save To NotePad button will save a copy of the Stats to your notepad.


Setting Preferences

The preferences allow you to change the default behavior of some items.


Defaults for New Entries

Changing the Payment, Vehicle, Fuel&Misc Location, Location, Purpose, Octane, and Category pick list will change the default behavior of New. 


Fillup Decimal Places

Different countries use a different number of decimal places for the price for a gallons of gas. The default is 3 in the U.S.

Compute for Fillups

You can either have gallons or the price per gallon computed for you when the cost field is changed. This is how you set it. The default is gallons. When IÍm filling up my tank I enter the odometer, price per gallon while IÍm waiting for the tank to fill. When the tank is full I then enter the cost as I walk up to pay for the gas.

[ Ì ] Scroll full page in overview

The overview will scroll a full page of entries minus one when this is checked. If unchecked it scrolls an half page of entries at a time.


[ Ì ] Use PocketMoney Accounts

Uses the accounts set up in the currently installed finance package if the finance package follows the (PM-FPS) PocketMoney-Financial Posting Standard. PocketMoney is PM-FPS compatible.


[ Ì ] Confirm Posts to PocketMoney

When you post data to PocketMoney with this item selected the PocketMoney confirmation slip will always appear. If you do not have this item selected then the confirmation slip will only appear if PocketMoney thinks you are missing important data.

Post in Category

If PocketMoney is installed and you have Use PocketMoney Accounts selected then you also have the choice of which category to enter data into in PocketMoney. Choose the default category you want MPG to send to PocketMoney.

Snooze Overdue Alarms

The number of days MPG will wait until it reminds you about overdue services. MPG only checks for overdue services when you open MPG so you might want this set to 30 days so MPG only reminds you every thirty days instead of every time you open MPG.

Delete List

Deletes all of the items from the current filter. Since, it deletes multiple items this is NOT UNDOABLE so be certain this is what you wish to do.

Using Delete List. Set the filter to select the items you wish to rollup and choose Delete List. The found items will be counted. You will be prompted if you wish to delete x number of items. Tap ok. You will be reminded that this is NOT UNDOABLE and if you wish to continue. If you wish to delete all of the items then tap ok.



Using Filters

Filters are a powerful way to display and report on subsets of entries. You can set the filter to show you only the fuel entries between Dec. 21 and March 21 to see your fuel economy for winter driving and then you can set the dates to be from March 21 to June 21 to see how your spring fuel economy compares to your winter fuel economy.  

MPG dynamically updates the views every time the Newton redraws the screen.  This means that if you change a value that does not conform to the current filter, the items will not appear in the Overview or Entry View until after you scroll.  

 

Using the filters is very easy. You just pick which items you would like displayed and tap Set Filter. Tapping the close box will leave the filter unchanged. The Dates From and Dates To filters are inclusive.  If you want to see all dates both Dates From and Dates To must be blank. 

After setting the Vehicle, Service, Location, Dates From, Dates To, Category, and Purpose options you have 2 choices. You can either Save the current settings by tapping save. This will prompt you for a filter name which will be added to the popup list of filters. Or, you can tap Set. Tapping set will close the filter window and set the filter to options that you have selected.

Remove will popup the list of saved filters allowing you to delete one. I do not prompt you if you really want to delete the filter because it is simple enough to enter it again.

Clear will reset the filter to show all entries.

Filters are saved across reboots.




Changing Payment/Location/Category/Purpose Lists

The editable popup list is one of the outstanding features of PocketMoney and MPG. These popup lists are completely user definable using a fairly simple interface.

 

Picking Edit out of the popup list will bring up the list editor so that we may add, change or remove list items. 

 

Above (starting at top left -> top right -> bottom left -> bottom right) is a sequence of steps that was used to change ñFirst Fidelity Savingsî to ñSavingsî. This example is from PocketMoney, but the same sequence applies to MPG. On the Edit Me line you can either write in or select from the popup the item you wish to add, change, or remove. If your entry is in the popup list then the soup is searched and returns the number of items found.  If no items were found, but your entry appears in the popup list then the button will change to Remove allowing you to remove it from the list. If your entry does not appear in the list then the button will change to Add allowing you to add it to the list.  If items were found then the Change To appears as in the above graphic. You can then write in or pick from the list an item to change it to. If the item written in is not in the list then a new item will be added to the list when you tap the Change button.

The latest version of the Array Editor allows you to change or remove an item if it finds matches in the soup. This allows you to keep your lists small if you have a lot of closed accounts, but still have your data stored in the soup.
MPG Button

MPG Button installs into the background application on Newton OS 2.x. The MPG Button includes the Quick Trip Slip and the Quick Fuel Slip.

Quick Trip Slip

Tap the MPG Button once to open the Quick Trip Slip.

If you only need to enter the start and end trip points then you can use the Quick Trip Slip. If you need to enter distance markers or pause the trip then you need to use MPG. 

Tapping the close box on the Quick Trip Slip will save the current data so you can fill out the start odometer and time, close the Quick Trip Slip, and at the end of the trip open the  Quick Trip Slip to enter the ending odometer and time. To save the data to MPG you must tap Save.

Quick Fuel Slip

Press the MPG Button for one second to open the Quick Fuel Slip.

Tap Save to save the fuel data to MPG. 
Desktop Connectivity

MPG supports WildCat and Revelar Connection Utilities  for uploading data to the desktop. 

WildCat

The WildCat connectivity consists of a WildCat application on the desktop and MPG Uploader package on the Newton. The Macintosh and Windows versions of WildCat are freely available from Catamount Software's website. MPG Uploader is included with MPG. The MPG Uploader only supports uploading data to the desktop. 

Follow the directions included with WildCat for setting up the desktop side. 

MPG Uploader

Set the customer filter to show the data you want to be uploaded, tap the action button, select Upload, set the Connection option in MPG Uploader to the appropriate option, and tap Connect. 

There are three settings for MPG Uploader: Format, Connection, and Direction. Format and Direction only give one choice. This might change in the future. The Connection popup gives you three choices.
	WildCat - Serial (Mac) : if you are connecting to WildCat on a Macintosh
	WildCat - Serial (Win) : if you are connecting to WildCat on a Windows PC
	Terminal Emulator : if you are not using WildCat or you are not on a Macintosh or Windows computer. For terminal emulators you need to setup your terminal emulator and the correct settings should be baud: 19200, parity=none, databits=8, and stopbits=1. 
Uninstalling MPG

Hopefully everyone will think MPG is the most useful package ever written and no one will ever need to uninstall MPG, but for those of you who must uninstall MPG I will give you instructions. You will need to install an utility such as TrashPak or StewPot. I recommend TrashPak.

1. Run TrashPak!
2. Set the display to packages, select MPG:VtHick and tap remove item.
3. Set the display to soups, select MPG:VtHick (internal) and (the Card), and tap remove item(s).
4. Set the display to system soup, select MPG:VtHick and tap remove item.

The above instructions will remove every trace of MPG from your Newton. If you delete only the MPG package your data will be preserved.