XPOSTIT(1)

NAME
xpostit - X window system Post-it® notes

SYNOPSIS
xpostit [ -toolkitoptions ... ] [ -options ... ]

DESCRIPTION
Xpostit provides a mechanism for manipulating on-screen Post-it® notes. All six sizes of Post-it notes may be displayed, edited, and saved to disk files. In addition, any on-screen note may be resized to any arbitrary size either when it is created or at a later time.

When xpostit is first invoked, it creates a small window with a plaid background. This is the control window for xpostit. Additionally, if any notes were stored in the save directory (see below), these will be placed on the screen at their last locations. Each Post-it note, when created, makes another window on the screen. Xpostit is controlled using the mouse buttons and a menu. The Post-it notes are controlled using buttons (Command widgets).

OPTIONS

Xpostit accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options along with the additional options listed below.

-bs number
    Specifies the size of the character buffer in which to save each Post-it note. A note may not contain more than this number of characters, including newlines. The default is 1024.

-dir path
    Specifies the path name of the directory in which to store saved Post-it notes. If path begins with a `/' it is taken as-is; if it does not begin with a `/', the path is taken relative to the home directory. The named directory must already exist if notes are to be saved in it. The default is .postitnotes.

-sb Enables scroll-bars. If specified, a scroll bar will be attached to each Post-it note.

-sv Enables save-on-exit. When specified, this option tells xpostit to save all Post-it notes to disk files when exiting. If not specified, notes will only be saved to disk files when saved manually by the user.

WIDGET USAGE

Xpostit uses several widget types to construct the objects it uses.

The control window is a Plaid widget called ``Plaid''.

The menu is a pop-up shell called ``Menu'' containing a SimpleMenu widget.

Each Post-it note is a pop-up shell called ``PostItNote'', containing a Form widget called ``Note'' which contains a Text widget called ``NoteText'', and three Command widgets called ``Save'', ``Erase'', and ``Destroy''.

The confirmation box is a pop-up shell called ``Confirm'', containing a Form widget called ``Buttons'' which contains two Command widgets called ``Confirm'' and ``Cancel''.

RESOURCES

Xpostit understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names and classes as well as those listed below, which are all of class Xpostit.

.bufSize
    Specifies the size of the character buffer used to store a Post-it note. The default is 1024.

.noteDir
    Specifies the path name of the directory in which to store saved notes. The default is .postitnotes.

.saveNotes
    Controls the state of the save-on-exit option. The default is false.

.scrollBar
    Controls placing scroll bars on Post-it notes. The default is false.

ACTIONS

It is possible to rebind the mouse buttons in the Plaid widget to perform different functions by changing the widget's translations. The raise() action, normally bound to the left mouse button, raises all notes. The lower() action, normally bound to the middle mouse button, lowers all notes. The menu raising function, normally bound to the right mouse button, is performed by calling the actions XawPositionSimpleMenu(Menu) and MenuPopup(Menu).

THE CONTROL WINDOW

Xpostit allows three operations to be performed from its control window. Pressing the left mouse button in the control window will cause all Post-it notes on the screen to be raised to the top. Pressing the middle mouse button in the control window will cause all Post-it notes on the screen to be lowered to the bottom. Pressing the right mouse button in the control window raises the xpostit menu.

THE MENU

The xpostit menu provides the following selections:

Create 1.5x2 Note
    Create a new Post-it note, 1.5 inches tall by 2 inches wide. The window will normally need to be positioned using the window manager.

Create 2x3 Note
    Create a new Post-it note, 2 inches tall by 3 inches wide.

Create 3x3 Note
    Create a new Post-it note, 3 inches square.

Create 3x4 Note
    Create a new Post-it note, 3 inches tall by 4 inches wide.

Create 3x5 Note
    Create a new Post-it note, 3 inches tall by 5 inches wide.

Create 4x6 Note
    Create a new Post-it note, 4 inches tall by 6 inches wide.

Raise All Notes
    Raise all Post-it notes to the top. This is equivalent to pressing the left mouse button in the control window.

Lower All Notes
    Lower all Post-it notes to the bottom. This is equivalent to pressing the middle mouse button in the control window.

Save All Notes
    Save all Post-it notes to disk files in the save directory.

Exit
    Exit xpostit . If the -sv command line option was given, or the saveNotes resource is true , all Post-it notes will be saved to disk first.

To select an item from the menu, drag the mouse cursor to that item and release the mouse button.

THE POST-IT NOTE

Each Post-it note is made up of four parts (plus an optional scroll bar): a text window where the text of the note is stored, and three buttons labeled ``Save'', ``Erase'', and ``Destroy''.

To enter text into a Post-it note, simply move the mouse cursor into the text window and start typing. Since the text window is actually a Text widget, all the Text widget translations are accepted. Essentially, this means you can use most of the EMACS control keys in the window. Additionally, the various mouse buttons used for manipulating the selections and cut buffer are understood.

After entering text in the Post-it note, you may wish to save the note in a disk file. This way, if the machine goes down, or if you exit xpostit, the Post-it note can be restored when you restart xpostit. (Post-it notes are also saved automatically (if saveNotes is true) if a SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGTERM, or SIGQUIT signal is received.) To save the note to a disk file, move the mouse cursor to the button labeled ``Save'' and press the left mouse button. The note will be saved as the file ``noten'' in your save directory, where n is some sequence number. NOTE: it is important to remember that until you have pressed the ``Save'' button, the data stored in the Post-it note is not saved on disk and can be lost if the system goes down or xpostit exits.

To erase the entire contents of the text window, you can press the left mouse button in the ``Erase'' button. This will bring up a confirmation window, which has two buttons labeled ``Confirm'' and ``Cancel''. If you press the ``Confirm'' button, the text will be erased. If you press the ``Cancel'' button, the operation is canceled, and nothing will happen. NOTE: erasing the text in the window does not affect any contents of the note you have saved on disk unless you press the ``Save'' button again.

To destroy a Post-it note, getting rid of its window on the screen and the disk file it is saved in, move the mouse cursor to the ``Destroy'' button and press the left mouse button. This will bring up a confirmation window as described above. If you confirm the operation, the Post-it note will disappear from the screen and the disk file it was saved in will be deleted.

SEE ALSO
X(1)

BUGS

The sizes of the Post-it notes are only as accurate as the display dimension and resolution returned by the server. On the Sun server and possibly others, this means they aren't all that accurate.

Without a color display for canary yellow notes and red plaid, the aesthetic value of xpostit cannot be fully appreciated.

AUTHOR
David A. Curry, SRI International

``Post-it'' and the plaid design are registered trademarks of 3M.