A very powerful (and sometimes dangerous) feature of PalmLog Pro is the automation. You can set how the automation works in both the Aircraft Auto section and the Preferences. This section will discuss how it all works together.
First, the preferences have 2 pages that deal with automation (see details in Preferences). The Defaults section applies ONLY to new entries. So, once an entry is created and these defaults are later changed, they do not affect the old entries.
The "Quick-Fill" section has several options, but the important one to understand here is "Enable Auto for Scheduled." If this is unchecked, automation is disabled for "scheduled" (in the future) events. The defaults mentioned earlier WILL be applied when the entry is created, but none of the other automation will occur. Keep in mind that "scheduled" status is based purely on the date field for the current record. This means, if you create a new record and enter information without changing the date, automation will apply if the default date is today or in the past. Once you set the date to a future date, automation will stop. We suggest you set the date FIRST before moving to any other fields. Note also that automation will be re-enabled if you change the date again to today or the past.
Now, the Aircraft Auto options!
Naturally, these options only apply if the current aircraft has a record in the database with some Auto options set.
The crew position only applies when the record is initially created. In other words, if you change that crew position's value to something else, it won't change back.
The second option is the "If X checked, then Y = Dur, else Z = Dur" WARNING: This option will override whatever you enter for a value. If the specified checkbox is checked, then the first field will ALWAYS become the Dur AND the second field will be zero. Likewise, if the field is not checked, the second field will equal Dur and the first field will be zero. Any changes you make to these fields manually will be overwritten. Be very careful with this option.
Like the option above, the next option (field X = Dur) will force the value to always equal the Dur field. WARNING: As before, this option will overwrite any manual changes you make. This value can be overridden by the option above. Say , for example, you have a Dur value of 1.0 and you have PIC = Dur set and you also have IF Sim checked, PIC = Dur Else SIC = Dur. Now you uncheck Sim. The first option wants to set PIC to 1.0, but the second automatic rule wants to set PIC to zero since SIC will be 1.0. The second option wins and PIC is set to zero.
The next option is Split the times. Once again, these values will overwrite changes that you make, but only to the second field of the set. The program gets the value of the first field and sets the second field to Dur minus the first value. Also, the "If X checked" option above overrides this setting. In other words, that options sets the values then applies this rule to calculate. The split option WILL override the XXX= Dur option above, however. For example, say you have PIC = Dur set and also Split SIC PIC (in that order). While editing, PIC becomes equal to Dur and you manually set SIC to a value (say 0.5 when Dur is 1.0). The program will overwrite the first calculated PIC value of 1.0 and make it 05. (which is Dur of 1.0 minus SIC of 0.5). WARNING: Once again, this auto setting will overwrite manually set values.
The next option is very simple. You choose a counter field and set a numeric value. When editing, if that field is zero, it will be set to the given value. If you change it to anything but zero, the program will NOT overwrite your manually set value.
The final option allows you to pick an expense field and it will be set to the Dur field times the value you set on the aircraft page (NOTE: the Tail # override setting, as you might imagine, overrides the aircraft setting using the same field). As with the previous option, it only sets the value if it is zero and any changes you make manually are not overwritten.