Pocket Internet Explorer Start Page v3.0

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.beauvais1.com/ppc/pie_start_page/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.beauvais1.com/ppc/pie_st...page/index.html</a><br /><br /></div>Our very own <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2037">Dave Beauvais</a>, one of the few people I'm aware of that's more "Type A" than I am :lol:, has put together a cool little page about his Pocket PC Pocket Internet Explorer start page. Worth a look!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/0_ppc.png" /> <br /><br />"Well, now that I've upgraded my iPAQ h5455 to Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC (a.k.a. Pocket PC 2003,) I modified my Start Page to use Cascading Style Sheets instead of directly formatting each page. Now if I want to make a change to something, I can just edit the style sheet and the change is reflected on all the pages automatically. CSS rocks and I'm happy that Pocket IE now supports it! I can finally turn off hyperlink underlines on the page, too!<br /><br />The default "Start Page" page on all Pocket PCs is pretty lame. You can go to the built-in AvantGo client and to three or four other pre-defined locations, and that's about it. Having an assortment of locations quickly available without having to use the Favorites dialog is important to me, so I set out to create a new Start Page for my Pocket PC that was both attractive and functional. The screenshots below show the results of my work. A description of the page follows the four screenshots. (Yes, I am aware that the screenshot drop shadows are broken in every browser except IE. I'll fix that soon.)"

[Terry]

I would be happy if Dave would share the code for his talents...
Dave, are you listening? :drool:

[townsendtribe]

Very, VERY nice page.... I'm sure it gives a lot of us ideas as to what we can do for our pages...

Thanks for sharing with us.

[thanos255]

Hmmm yes, it would be great if there were some instructions on how to edit these pages or if he just let us download his code and tell us how to install it....that would be even better :)

Thanks
Thanos

[dean_shan]

Too busy for me. Although it is really nice. I have links to news sites, mini sites, and a google search field. At the top I have a header with my pic, the text 'Welcome Dean' and a javascript to display the date.

[Dave Beauvais]

Wow! I hit the front page before going to bed and had to do a double-take; I was a little surprised to see an image of my Start Page there! Thanks for the compliments, everybody! :oops:

I would be happy if Dave would share the code for his talents...
Dave, are you listening? :drool:
As I mentioned in the other thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17999) which probably triggered this one, I will try to get something put together to post for others to use, but I'll need some time. This was one of those little personal projects that I did for my own use, but never really intened for anyone else to have to work with. I'll add some comments to the HTML and CSS (http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/) files and maybe whip up an example or two of how easy it is to change the "theme" of the pages with just a simple swap of the CSS file and/or background image.

Also as I mentioned in the other thread, this version of the page will only work properly in Windows Mobile 2003's version of Internet Explorer. Because of its reliance on CSS for styles and such -- a feature which previous Pocket IE versions lack -- it will look horrible in anything but WM2003's IE. I may be able to restore from a backup a copy of the previous version which used tables for formatting and spacing, but I haven't have time to deal with that just yet.

I'm trying to finish up a review of a product that I was supposed to return to the vendor two weeks ago. (Don't worry, Jason... they know. ;)) Once that's done, I'll have some time to put a little package together for all of you to play with. I would like to request, however, that I not be flooded with questions. I'll try to comment the files enough that you'll be able to figure out what goes where and why, but for the most part, you'll be on your own. This is going to be one of those freeware things with very limited support.

Oh, and I hereby grant everyone permission to call me anal-retentive. :lol:

--Dave

[juni]

This is my custom pocket IE home:

http://koti.welho.com/kruohio/ppcdefault/default.htm

:)

[jkarpen]

Juni, I really like your home page. Can I add it to my Mobile Directory?

(http://www.pocketpcmag.com/mobile.htm)

Jim

[juni]

Sure, go ahead. But I'm sure people would want to modify the links on it :)

[Reza]

This is mine: http://www.elghazi.com/mobile/ :)

[Birdman]

Can someone post a primer on how to develop such a start page in PPC2K2?
I would be particularly interested in setting up my XDA to present me with such a page.
TIA

[bradolson]

I agree that custom start pages is the way to go. Much easier than dealing with bookmarks cause the links are right there. CSS makes it much easier as well. I'll have to post mine as well once I clean it up a little.

Brad

[Canuck]

I like Juni's site a lot, especially the Finnish specific links. I know there are a lot of Canadians who use this site, and I was wondering if you have any Canadian specific mobile sites. For example, that weather section Juni has is great. I can't even find out the temperature in Toronto in Celsius (Yahoo)! How about mobile sites on news for example (other than through AvantGo). Movies or TV listings? Sports? Shopping's not bad... (though I wish there was more non-tech available, like Amazon.ca for example), PPC related sites are obviously very good. With the amount of power users we have here, and the wi-fi push, there must be content out there, but I can't find it...

So what links would you use for a Canadian start page?

- Derek

[Dave Beauvais]

This is mine: http://www.elghazi.com/mobile/ :)
That's a very cool design; I like it a lot!

I was pleased to see the link which provides online mobile access (http://surreal-time.com/IMDb/) to the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/). I didn't know such a thing existed. I have the nearly 20 MB TomeRaider version (http://www.memoware.com/?screen=doc_detail&doc_id=3698&p=title^!imdb~!description^!imdb~!author^!imdb~!) of the IMDB on my SD card, but it would be nice to be able to do a mobile search of the live database as opposed to a static copy that can become somewhat dated between quarterly updates.

--Dave

[MultiMatt]

Wow - some very cool ideas!
Here is a screen shot of the page I've been using for a while (just a screenshot - non-functioning here).
http://pocketpclouisville.com/images/ie_screenshot.jpg
Very simple (and needing some updating too!).

I had WM2003 on my iPAQ 5555, but have since switched to a Samsung i700 Pocket PC Phone (absolutely NO regrets!), so I will have to wait until the 2003 upgrade before doing anything super-fancy, but still, these pages are giving me some great ideas!

Matt

[ctmagnus]

Here's a suggestion for anyone who feels like tweaking Dave's code, once it's released:

Frames!

Personally, I'd have the tabs in a non-scrolling frame set to the width of the Start button and the content referenced in a main frame. That way, you're only a tap or two away from anything else on your start page, regardless of how far you've wandered.

[Evee Ev]

birdman,

if you know how to use html you could create a "default.htm" document in either notepad or dreamweaver. once you add your design, links, etc. then just copy that file over the one that is in your /windows directory on your ppc. make sure you save the "default.htm" file on your ppc first though just in case you wanna go back to it later.

question to fellow dreamweavers: i can't get my table with all of my links to center on p.i.e. using the centering option for the table in dreamweaver doesn't work. it loads my table off the to left side. any clues? :)

[Dave Beauvais]

Frames! ...
And reduce the horizontal space available on the screen even more? No thanks. :) I hate frames on desktop browsers and they suck even more on the Pocket PC. Even if you have the frames set to be "invisible" in the frameset, Pocket IE still draws the frame border on the screen, taking up even more screen real estate.

Maybe if you stuck the tabs along the top or bottom of the screen it would be more tolerable, but I'd never want to chop off more pixesl on the horizontal axis.

--Dave

[Dave Beauvais]

... copy that file over the one that is in your /windows directory on your ppc. make sure you save the "default.htm" file on your ppc first though just in case you wanna go back to it later.
No need to do that. Just copy the HTML file(s) to a subfolder in your My Documents folder, open one of them in Pocket IE, and set the "Current page" as the default home page in Pocket IE's options.

--Dave

[ctmagnus]

Even if you have the frames set to be "invisible" in the frameset, Pocket IE still draws the frame border on the screen, taking up even more screen real estate.

I didn't know that. There goes my idea!

[bigray327]

Dave, nice work. Please consider putting out an uncommented or lightly commented version for those of us that don't need heavy tutorials but are extraordinarily lazy. Thanks! :D

[islandsnow]

Here's a suggestion for anyone who feels like tweaking Dave's code, once it's released:


sooooo, where and when is this "code" going to be released? dave's page is pretty nice.

[Dave Beauvais]

Dave, nice work. Please consider putting out an uncommented or lightly commented version for those of us that don't need heavy tutorials but are extraordinarily lazy. Thanks! :D
I'm releasing it with enough comments or documentation that most people should be able to tweak it themselves without bombarding me with private messages. :) If you don't need the comments in the HTML please feel free to delete them in your copy. :)

I am planning on making a couple example "themes" whereby you can change the overall look of the page by simply replacing the background image and the stylesheet, but may make those examples available separately depending on my schedule.

sooooo, where and when is this "code" going to be released? dave's page is pretty nice.
When I have time to finish it up. I've got a couple billable projects on my plate this week which must take priority over volunteer projects such as this. I'm going to try hard to get something posted so people can play this weekend. It'll all be in a single zip file which will be on my site with a link to the page posted here when it's ready.

Sorry for taking so long to get this done, but whenever I get a paying job, it's gotta take priority over the things which don't help me pay my bills. :)

--Dave

[Brad Adrian]

This is mine: http://www.elghazi.com/mobile/ :)
Reza, after seeing the tiny print on your start page, I can understand the expression on your avatar!

[islandsnow]

Sorry for taking so long to get this done, but whenever I get a paying job, it's gotta take priority over the things which don't help me pay my bills. :)

--Dave

hey totally understandable that something you get paid for takes precedence! thanks for all the hard work!

[Reza]

This is mine: http://www.elghazi.com/mobile/ :)
Reza, after seeing the tiny print on your start page, I can understand the expression on your avatar!
:lol: It actually reads better on a Pocket PC screen!

[bigray327]

Dave, when you get this out, be sure to let us know your PayPal account, so I can lob a few dollars at ya.

[Dave Beauvais]

Dave, when you get this out, be sure to let us know your PayPal account, so I can lob a few dollars at ya.
While certainly not necessary, I appreciate the thought. I'll stick a donation button at the end of the page in case anyone has the sudden urge to part with a little of their hard-earned money. :)

--Dave

[Birdman]

I have been able to make a page of some favourite links, save it as an html document and then set it as my default when I open PIE. It looks terrible, but it does work.

What I have not been able to do is make a "link" to my Avantgo pages, in the same way that the default html PIE "welcome" page has a direct link to my "off-line" Avantgo pages. (Does this make any sense?)

When I press on the Avantgo logo on the deafult PIE page it takes me to avantgo//avantgo/home which then shows me all of my sync'd Avantgo pages. I have not been able to replicate this link on my crappy looking page of personal favourite links.

What would be simpler would be just to edit the default html page and leave the Avantgo link, for example, but just edit/change the T-Mobile link, for example, and replace the URL to which it connects with one of my favourite links. (Sorry if my terminology is imprecise, I know very little about html coding, but I do not know what I want to try to accomplish.)

Thanx in advance.

[Dave Beauvais]

I'm happy to announce that the download is now available! There are five "themes" included, as well as a very extensive readme file which explains how to work with it. Please read it. I have a Theme Gallery page which shows off the five themes.

I would also ask that if you do have support questions that are not addressed in the readme file, that you please post them in my forums instead of here.

Please see the Pocket Internet Explorer Start Page (http://www.beauvais1.com/archives/2004/04/10/pocket-internet-explorer-start-page/) page for details and a download link! Links to the Gallery page and readme are also on that page.

Thanks for your support and patience and I hope you enjoy this project!

--Dave

[Steven Cedrone]

Great job!!! Your read-me seems to cover everything (as far as I can see)...

Sometimes being Anal-Retentive is a good thing. :way to go: It should drop the amount of "help me" questions considerably...

That is, if anyone actually reads it - you know how we all just like to jump in and "mess" with things...

You need a "RTFRM" emoticon for your forums... :wink:

Steve

[dean_shan]

Nice. I think I need to take some of your code and tweak it for my PIE start page. I really like the blue theme.

[Birdman]

Thanx for all the hard work. If anyone wants to convert it to PPC2002 friendly format, I am sure there would be lots of people interested in that as well.

[easylife]

Dave has uploaded the source code:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=169144#169144

Lookin' good! 8)

[stitics]

Thanx for all the hard work. If anyone wants to convert it to PPC2002 friendly format, I am sure there would be lots of people interested in that as well.

I, for one, would be quite interested.

[js]

:?:

Could someone post the exact file path associated with .css files in ppc2003?

I believe I inadvertently messed things up.....

Thanks.

[Dave Beauvais]

Could someone post the exact file path associated with .css files in ppc2003? I believe I inadvertently messed things up.....
CSS files don't actually run or load in any applications on the Pocket PC. They are loaded by Internet Explorer when called from an HTML file, but the files themselves aren't associated with anything.

--Dave

[js]

Thanks, but restored from a backup and all is fine now.

[Stephen Beesley]

Thanx for all the hard work. If anyone wants to convert it to PPC2002 friendly format, I am sure there would be lots of people interested in that as well.

I, for one, would be quite interested.

As would I - any html gurus out there with a bit of time on their hands?

[Stephen Beesley]

For anyone interested, I have found that Dave's start page works just fine with Netfront 3.0

[Dave Beauvais]

For anyone interested, I have found that Dave's start page works just fine with Netfront 3.0
Cool! I'll make a note of that on the site Thanks for letting us know!

--Dave