• 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").
  If the option is activated in the Preferences (see below), the closest stop name will be filled automatically by the program as you enter characters in the field.

• 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 on Handera and Sony devices: press the JogDial, search your start stop in the list (scroll with the up/down button and change the selection with the JogDial), press again to select your stop, select your arrival station (same operation), press to compute the route and scroll through the results with the JogDial.

• One-hand operation on palmOne devices (Tungsten & Treo 6xx): press the "select" button, search your start stop in the list (scroll with the up/down button and change the selection with the left/right button), press "select" again to select your stop, select your arrival station (same operation), press "select" a last time to compute the route and scroll through the results with the navigator.

• Multiple stops: on PocketPC devices (not on Palm), you can enter 2 or more stops as a start or end point (useful if you are close to 2 stops and don't know which one will get you to your destination faster). Separate the stop names with a semi-colon: ";". You can even specify the walk time from your location to the stops, by adding a "%" and the time in minutes after the stop name (example: "République%5;Goncourt%3", meaning I am 5 min. from République and 3 min. from Goncourt).

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 with most databases but not all. 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 trip time. The (clear) button can optionnally reset the current time (see "Options").

On the currently selected day and time, some lines may not operate or have a different route; "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 (for some cities, the title background reflects the line color). 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).

In some cities, an icon shows the transport "type" (subway, railway, tram, bus, funicular, trolley or boat) and the line color. In this case, clicking a second time on the button will show the list of line "groups" that lets you easily de-/activate the corresponding lines: for instance, if you don't want to take the NJ Transit lines in New York, just uncheck its "group" in the list and the program will not try to use them and the calculation will be faster.

On Palm devices, the activation state is saved between uses for line groups but not for individual lines.

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. The "auto-fill" feature is then available, if the option is activated in the preferences (see below).

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 (";").

You can specify the city the stops applies to: prefix the stop names with the city name or its first characters (exactly as it is spelled in the program) and a colon (":"), the contact will appear in bold in the list if the current city matches the city specified. Example: Paris:République;Gare de l'Est ("Paris" will match the Paris as well as the Paris-Bus databases).

You can even add the walk time between the contact's address and each stop: enter the time (in minutes) after a '%' just after the stop name. Example : République%4;Gare de l'Est%10 (the address is 4 minutes from "République" and 10 minutes from "Gare de l'Est"). If you don't enter a value, the program adds a 5 minutes walk.

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.

You can specify the city the stops applies to with this syntax: <METRO CITY="cityname">station</METRO> (example: <METRO CITY="Paris">République</METRO>). In that case the contact list will only show the contacts with a stop in the current city.
Of course, you can use both the "type" and "city" attributes in the same tag (example: <METRO TYPE="BUSINESS" CITY="Paris">République</METRO>)

You can even add the walk time between the contact's address and each stop: enter the time (in minutes) after a '%' just after the stop name. Example : <METRO CITY="Paris">République%4;Gare de l'Est%10</METRO> (the address is 4 minutes from "République" and 10 minutes from "Gare de l'Est"). If you don't enter a value, the program adds a 5 minutes walk.

On these devices, the contacts list is resizable and sortable. The stop names should be entered exactly as they appear in the program.

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 fewest connections. If they are the same, only the shortest one is displayed. Sometimes, both may take the same time and number of connections but have some other difference.

For some cities, the vertical bar next to a line name reflects its color. An icon may also show the transport "type" (subway, railway, tram, bus, funicular, trolley or boat).

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:

• On a contact name: display the contact's address (and stop information on PocketPC devices)
• On a line (displayed with the line color when the information is available): show the stops you'll pass
• On a stop or a connection: display the lines going there and the places of interest (and the contacts linked to the stop on PocketPC devices)
• On a place of interest: display the closest stops and detailed information if available in the selected city

The button (informations) shows information 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).

Preferences

In the "Options" menu, the "Preferences" item has the following choices:

• Check the "'Clear' resets time" box if you want the (clear) button to automatically set the travel time to the current day and hour.
• Check the "Auto-fill station name" box, the program will fill the "from" or "to" field with the first match after you have entered 3 letters (also works with contact names if you enter an '@' prefix).
  Not recommended when using non-western langugage databases (Japanese, Chinese, ...).
• Check the "Filtered stop list" box to fill the stop list with only the stops whose name contains the text you have typed, if it has 3 characters or more.
  Not recommended on slow machines and when using non-western langugage databases (Japanese, Chinese, ...).
• Check the "fewest connections" box if your prefer to see the route with least connections first in the results. Otherwise the shortest route will appear first.
• [PALM] Check "Force Black & White" if your device loses contrast in grayscale mode (known issue on Palm IIIxe devices). You must restart the program for that option to take effect.

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:

• Select the font to use in the program (especially useful for asian people with an english device): copy your Windows font file to the windows/fonts folder, then select it here!
• Select your language.

Network

The "Network" option shows the list of cities you have installed with "Métro".

You can also access the "Network" option simply by "tapping" on the city name in the "Métro" main form title.

A little "" after a city name denotes an obsolete database: you can delete it and 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).

• 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).
• Use the button (Delete) to erase the selected database from your Palm's memory or expansion card.
• Another button appears in the window when the soft is installed on a Palm with an IR interface : (Beam). Using it, you can transfer a database from your Palm to another one where "Métro" is installed. The transfer will abort if the database you send is already present on the receiver.
• The button moves the selected database to the expansion card (if present).
• Tap on (Cancel) to go back to the main view without changes.

On PocketPCs, these additional options are available:

Send comments
This one creates a new mail, where you can enter your comments (or simply write a thanks note), and send it to Frank.

Subscribe to the Métro mailing list
This will create a mail that will register your address on our mailing list, where we announce every new release as it comes out!

Receive network & Beam current network
These 2 options let you exchange your city files with other PocketPC user through the IR (infrared) port on your device.