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Northglide Cloner - How to use

Overview

Northglide Cloner is a truly unique program that lets you extend your favorite applications like never before. By making exact replicates of selected applications, Northglide Cloner lets you create your own multi-user Palm! Keep multiple Address Books, Date Books, accounting programs with multiple accounts, games with different difficulty levels and so much more. You can create replicates just to play with, without damaging the original data, and even create shortcuts to launch applications with a selected profile directly from your favorite launcher screen. If one of your favorite applications is limited to a single profile, or you are relying on an old program that will never be updated again, Northglide Cloner is for you!

When you switch between replicated profiles of a certain application, you can use and change anything you want, without affecting any other profile. The new additions and changes are saved for the next time the chosen profile is activated. Northglide Cloner creates exact copies of the application preferences (settings) and database files. Then, it lets you switch to different profiles while saving all the changes made to the active one. You can choose to create the profile in the main memory (RAM) or multiple profiles on the expansion card: Profiles in the main memory are much faster to activate, but since the additional profile database files are kept in the main memory, every application will occupy almost double the amount of space (only its database files, without the application file itself). This is why you can only create a single additional profile in the main memory. You can create up to four different profiles on the expansion card. Card profiles are slower to activate, since the data used by the active profile has to be first moved to the card and then the new profile files have to be copied from the card to the main memory. You can even create additional profiles to applications that require desktop synchronization (such as the Calendar and Contacts programs) and have Northglide Cloner switch back to the default profile, just before the HotSync process beings, so that the correct data will be synchronized with the desktop computer. Northglide Cloner lets you to link profiles to each other and activate several different profiles at once (especially useful when creating additional profiles to 3rd party PIM replacement applications).

Important Notes:

To switch back to the default profiles before the HotSync process beings, Northglide Cloner must be installed to the main memory.
Do not delete Northglide Cloner before making sure all of the active profiles are the correct ones. Deleting Northglide Cloner will also delete all of the additional profile files and settings in the main memory.
Not every application can be replicated. Make sure to download the trial version first to see if the applications you‘d like to extend can be replicated.

Features:

Create multiple profiles for your favorite applications.
Extend applications limiting you to a single profile.
Keep your wife/husband/boss/employee Address books (Contacts), Date books Calendar) and more.
Play with, change and delete information from any of the additional profiles without damaging the original one.
Create different profiles for your most entertaining games so that if you ever let anyone play with it, they won't go over your high score table!
Create profile shortcuts: Launch applications with a selected profile directly from the launcher screen!
Link several different application profiles together and activate all of them at once.
Create the profiles in the main memory (RAM) for instant switching between application profiles.
You can create multiple profiles on the card, which also serves as backup for all of the application profiles just in case anything goes wrong.
Select the Default Profiles and switch to all of them in a single step, or just before the HotSync process begins, if one of the application you created additional profiles for requires desktop synchronization.
Immediately launch a selected application as soon as you activate one of its profiles.
Choose a unique name to describe the profile, such as: Dave's Calendar, Kate's Address Book, Bejeweled-Easy, etc.
Supports full screen display and one-hand navigation on compatible devices.
There are many more things Northglide Cloner can do to help you with your daily work. Download the trial version today and check it out for yourself.

How to Use

When you first launch Northglide Cloner, you will see the main screen shown above. You can now start creating additional profiles for your favorite applications by pressing the Add button:

The Select Applications dialog lets you select the applications you want to create additional profiles for. You can select multiple applications by tapping (with your stylus) the application icons. Scroll the list using the Page-up and Page-down buttons, or find an application in the list by entering the first letter it begins with.

Note: Applications with existing additional profiles will displayed in bold font at the top of the list. When you select one of these applications, Northglide Cloner will ask you if you want to delete all of the additional profiles and create new ones with the active profile data (this will synchronize the extra profiles with the information found in the active one).

Once you select the desired applications, press the Next button to open the Profiles Destinations dialog:

In the Profiles Destination dialog you can choose to create the additional profile (a single one) in the main memory (RAM), or multiple profiles on the expansion card.

Profiles in the main memory:

When you create an additional profile in the main memory, Northglide Cloner will create exact copies of all of the selected application settings (Preferences) and database files. The additional files and settings will occupy the same amount of memory space the current ones do. Switching between RAM profiles is done very quickly, since Northglide Cloner instantly create backups for the current/active preferences records (application settings) and renames all of the profile files. Create profiles in the main memory if you have enough memory to spare, and speed is an important factor when switching between different application profiles.

Profiles on the expansion card:

You can create up to 4 different profiles on the expansion card by selecting the appropriate button: 2 Copies, 3 or 4. Card profiles are slower to activate, since the data used by the active profile has to be first moved to the card and then the new profile files have to be copied from the card to the main memory. However, keeping the profiles on the card lets you have more free memory available for installing new applications and also makes sure the additional profiles are backed-up on the expansion card in case anything goes wrong.

Click Finish to create the profiles.

Note: Occasionally, profiles will not be created for all of the selected applications. In these cases, Northglide Cloner will let you know what went wrong. Please note that Northglide Cloner can't create additional profiles for all applications.

The newly created profiles for the selected applications are now shown in the list:

Profiles displayed in Bold font are the active ones: Active profiles are the ones used by their parent application. This means, the visible Contact records that are shown when you open the Contacts application, etc.

Activate different profiles by selecting the Activate Profile button:

Notes:

You can also Tap & Hold for 2 seconds to activate the desired profile.

Create a shortcut to the profile in the application launcher screen. See the Shortcut menu help below for more.

Profiles on the card are displayed in blue font.
Profiles in the main memory are displayed in black font.
Inactive profiles in both the main memory and card are displayed in a light gray color.
A profile marked with the Green (D) icon, drawn on top of the application icon, is the Default Profile for that application (see below for more).

Select the Edit Profile button to change the profile's name to a more descriptive one.

Select the Remove Profile button to delete the profile files from the main memory or the card. Please note: You can't delete active profiles in the main memory. You can delete a profile that is marked as the active one when it's on the card, but this will only delete the files from the card, not the ones available to the application the profile belongs to.

Profile Links

The Profile Links feature allows you to activate several different profiles together, when activating a specific one (via the program itself or by using a shortcut). For example, if you're using a 3rd party PIM replacement application, such as DateBk6 or Agendus, you can create additional profiles to the main app (DateBk6, Agendus, etc), clone the Calendar, Contacts, Memos and Tasks applications. Change all of the profiles to the desired names (Agendus-Main, Agendus-Boss, Contacts-Main, Contact-Boss, etc), select one of the profiles and choose all of the other profiles that should be activated when activating the selected one. When selecting profiles to link to the chosen one, the profile will appear in red. To end the linkage process, select the main profile (shown in red) again.

When renaming a profile that has other profiles linked to it, you will have to re-link them.
You can clear the linkage between profiles by selecting a profile with a link icon and then the Link button.
A red link icon indicates that the profile has other profiles that link to it (profiles that will be activated when activating the profile). A blue link icon indicates that the profile is linked to a different one and will be activated alongside it.

Profile Links - Cloning DateBk6 - Example

Start by creating replicates for DateBk6 and all the rest of the PIM applications: Address, Date Book, Memo Pad and To Do List. You can change the profile names by choosing one of them and then selecting the Rename button (see above).

Choose DateBk6 - Personal (the profile name in this example), select the Link button and select the OK button.

DateBk6 - Personal will now be shown in red to indicate that subsequent selections of different profiles will link them to DateBk6 - Personal.

Select all the other personal profiles to link to DateBk6 - Personal. The selected profiles will now show a blue link icon drawn on top of the application icon.

From now on, every time you activate DateBk6 - Personal, all of the profiles that are linked to it will be activated as well. You can also create a shortcut to activate DateBk6 - Personal directly from the application launcher screen (see below for more).

To remove the links from DateBk6 - Personal:

Select DateBk6 - Personal.
Select the Link button.
Select the [Links] button.
Select [Clear All] and OK.

To remove a single link from DateBk6 - Personal:

Select the profile you'd like to unlink from DateBk6 - Personal.
Select the Link button.
Select the [Clear] button.

Menu - Main

Settings:

Launch on Activate:

Select this check-box to immediately launch the selected application when you activate one of its profiles.

Activate Def. Profiles on HotSync:

Activate all of the default profiles before stating the HotSync process. Keep this option checked if you have replicated the PIM apps (Address Book, Date Book, etc), or any other app that requires desktop synchronization, and you want to make sure only one of the profiles (the selected Default Profile) is synchronized with the desktop computer.

IMPORTANT: Northglide Cloner MUST be installed in the main memory (RAM) for this option to work.

Menu - Main

Select Card: Select the destination card for keeping Card Profiles. This option is meant to be used on devices that have more than one expansion-slot or an internal drive.
Add to UM Ignore List: Adding Northglide Cloner to Uninstall Manager's Ignore List will prevent UM from monitoring application files created by Northglide Cloner when switching profiles.
- WARNING: RAM profiles that are currently inactive (files that are unused by their parent application) are STILL associated with Northglide Cloner since they have the same Creator ID. If you delete Northglide Cloner, using UM or any other program, make sure that all the active profiles are correct.
Delete All Profiles: Delete all inactive profiles from the main memory and all of the different profile files on the expansion card. This command will also delete all profile shortcuts in the main memory.

Menu - Shortcut

Northglide Cloner lets you create shortcuts to different profiles so that you can launch applications with a chosen profile, directly from the Launcher screen. When selecting a profile and then the Create Shortcut command or the Create Shortcut button, , the shortcut will be created under the application launcher screen with the name you select for it. To delete a shortcut: Select a profile with a shortcut (indicated by an asterisk icon, "*") and then select the Delete Shortcut command.

If you start the application itself, not via a shortcut, the active profile for the selected application will be visible.
When renaming a profile, you will have to create a new shortcut.

Menu - Defaults

The Default Profiles feature allows you to easily switch to multiple different profiles at once. You can also select the Activate Def. Profiles on HotSync check-box from the Settings dialog, to activate all of the default application profiles before the HotSync process begins.

Activate Def. Profiles: Activate all of the default application profiles. Default profiles are marked with a green circle with a 'D' inside, drawn on top of the application icon.
Make All Active Defaults: Set all active profiles (shown in bold font) as the default ones.
Selected to Default: Set the selected profile as the default one.
Clear Default: Clear the Default Profile tag from all of the selected application profiles.