First, you need to learn all the icon buttons. On the main page, along the bottom from left to right:
Add new entry (Plus sign).
Totals (calculator looking thing)
Databases (arrow and dropdown)
Filter (kind of a coffee filter)
Currency (Clock and Calendar)
Preferences (checklist)
(This brings up another point…if anyone has a better idea for the icons - Black & White, Grayscale and Color, they are 16x16 with one line on the right and bottom edge to simulate a shadow)
You'll also notice that several items respond to taps. The column headers can be changed by tapping, you can choose a saved filter by tapping on "Filter:", tapping on the record count will bring up some options and tapping on the upper right field allows you to select date based filters.
I suggest you start by tapping on the database icon and entering an aircraft or changing the field names. The dropdown on the upper right allows you to select which database you are editing.
Checkmark Icons mean "OK" and will return you to the previous form saving changes. The X is cancel and will abandon changes and a TrashCan deletes the entry.
The fields come in 2 sets. You can change the names of all of the fields (right now 72), but they need to be unique in each set. The columns setting will be more clear when you see the Layout section. Although you can change the name of all the fields, some perform a specific function which cannot be changed. The Acft, Tail, Note, From & To fields should be self-explanatory. The date field is the only one in this version. The first set of clock values is considered actual time on the current date or in the past and scheduled time in the future. The first DUR value is the actual duration used for automatic calculations. Although you can change the Sim and Cmd checkmarks labels, they will always be filtered by their related dropdowns. The first counter field is used as Leg# by default and is used in the sort solution to keep entries in order for the same day if the time is not input.
The aircraft page is more complex. Important aspects are:
Type - this is what appears in dropdowns.
Alt Labels - if this is checked, the second set of labels is used along with the alternate edit layout.
Home - not used now, but will later be used for time away from home calculations.
The H:M dropdown determines both the time format and automatic calculations.
The Acft and Sim tabs allow you to enter bulk aircraft and simulator hours and the first 6 counter fields. The DUR in the upper right is for the tab that is currently highlighted.
The Auto section is very complex and will be explained in the Aircraft Section.
Once you have entered an aircraft, proceed to the Preferences section from the main page.
The Preferences are broken into 4 sections through the upper right dropdown. Important ones to set are:
Lock Entries - prevents accidental change when viewing old entries
Hide Num in Filter - Selecting this will speed things up since it doesn't have to cycle through all the records to see how many are in the filter set.
Defaults are self-explanatory
Set the lists you want to automemorize. You can edit them later.
Smart Ordering - Since the picklists may get large, you can set the sort order…I suggest most used or most recent.
Smart Popups (new for v1.2) - When this option is set, dropdowns use current text and seek to a spot in the database. If you set this option, you might want to use "Alphabetical" ordering.
Home at top - This will always be near the top of dropdowns (must have the airfield memorized to set it).
The layout button takes you to the edit page in layout mode. See the Layout section for details on this advanced feature.
Now put in your first entry…From the main screen, tap the Add (plus) button. The edit page comes up, drawn according to the layout file. You'll notice that there are no dropdown arrows. These were dropped because they took up too much space. Instead, you tap on the labels of fields to bring up the appropriate dropdown. Tap on the Acft label and you'll see the aircraft you entered third in the list.
A quick general rule on dropdowns…the top is usually the current field value and the second is usually Blank to clear the field. Then the sorted database entries popup (with the Home from the preferences page coming up third in the afld dropdown).
Tapping on a date field will bring up the date selector and tapping in a numeric field will bring up scrollers. They are somewhat small, but useful for quick changes without having to resort to Graffiti. Many of the fields are automatically set based on other fields. The rules for this are left to the Automation section.
Tapping the numeric tabs along the bottom right bring up successive pages of information. You'll notice that the top 2 rows don't change, so you can put the more important reference information in these rows.
That's it for the Quick Start. Good Luck and Happy Flying!