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Roberts VII Multimedia PDA Edition Tour

Introduction

The PDA edition is the ultimate electronic field guide, with all the essential modules, functionality and multimedia data of the full PC edition. Included are field guide pages, bird pages, bird calls, identification of birds, sounds, nests and eggs, and over 270 birding spots. You can also download and upload lists to your PC edition.

New functions include large finger-sized function buttons for easier ‘on-the-go’ navigation, improved search function, larger font sizes for bird lists and texts, a drop-down menu for changing bird lists, an interactive map for both bird lists and birding spots, a GPS setup module, and GPS and Pentad co-ordinates added to bird lists.

The multimedia data includes entirely new and expanded texts, new illustrations with identification pointers, distribution maps updated with the distribution of subspecies, the photo database expanded to over 8000 quality photos, over 900 completely re-edited bird sounds, rare bird records updated to over 6000 records, and alternative bird names expanded to include many languages. In fact not much of the data has been left untouched.

The Home Page

Tapping the Start button opens the new Home Page Menu. Our new menu screens are available for each module and feature finger-sized buttons for easy on-the-go navigation. Home, Help, Back and Exit are standard buttons on all screens. About lists the program version, and all the credits and copyrights. The program uses colour-coded buttons for different modules and functions. Smaller buttons are also available on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen.

The Bird List

The Bird List is the most frequently used function. You can scroll or search for a species, add a species to your personal list, play a bird sound directly from the list, or load the bird page. The drop-down at the top of the list allows changing of the selected list to a region or birding spot.

Bird List Options

On this page you can change the bird list, the language and the sort order (alphabetical or systematic), and the font size in the list. Increasing the font size helps with both finger-tip navigation and reading the names. Check Personal List compares the current list to your personal list, and ticks off the birds already recorded.

Searching the Bird List

The improved search function allows finger-tip typing for searching on the go. Tapping Search loads a keypad with finger-sized buttons for typing a bird name. Re-tapping search cycles through all occurrences of the name.

Language and Text Options

To aid use in the field, both the text font size and list font size can be adjusted from small to very large. An Afrikaans language option changes the bird list and field guide text to Afrikaans.

The Family List

The Family List displays a short-list of bird families, and can be used for quick navigation to the bird list or for browsing the family pages. The family pages can be zoomed to a large size image and scrolled to view individual birds.

The Bird Page

Individual bird pages are opened with the Picture button, and include buttons for more pictures and photographs, text, distribution map, sound, add record to bird list, similar species, and summarised species information.

Bird Page Text

In addition to the field guide and handbook text, the text includes Notes for the sound and Rare Bird Data for around 200 rare species.

Bird Page Distribution

Distribution maps are colour-coded green, orange and blue to indicate resident, breeding migrant and non-breeding migrant species. The maps are also density-shaded to indicate abundance, and subspecies indicated by dashed lines. Pink with red dots indicates the distribution of sightings of rare species. The status bar under the distribution maps indicates the time of year a bird is present or breeding, while red data and endemic species are indicated with a red and green icon respectively.

Resident Breeding Migrant
Non-breeding Migrant Rare Bird
Vulnerable Endemic

Personal List

Personal lists are created by adding a bird from the Bird List to your Personal list. You can create any number of lists, and add place names, dates, GPS fields and the full suite of sighting details. Personal lists from your PDA can be uploaded and integrated into the PC edition.

GPS options

The GPS option can be used with an internal or external linked GPS. In addition to Longitude, Latitude and Altitude, for atlassing purposes the GPS data is converted to a Pentad and the time recorded. You can select to automatically add the GPS data each time you add a bird record, or add the last GPS if you are in one position, or not add GPS at all.

The Map List

The new Map List function uses an interactive map to zoom in or out or drag the map. The pick tool generates a bird list for a pentad-sized area tapped on screen.

Birding Sites

The birding sites module uses the interactive map or alternatively the full list of birding sites to select a birding locality. Descriptive text, maps, photos and site-specific bird lists are available.

Identification Module

The ID module uses distribution, habitat, GISS (general impression, size and shape), plumage, sounds, activity/behaviour, nests, and eggs, for an identification. Distribution uses the interactive map, habitat a checklist, GISS the shape of the bird, and the other options a checklist again. The program is sophisticated in that it allows multiple selections in one category (ie forest and woodland for habitat), but sorts between categories to generate a shortlist. In addition, the plumage options highlight characteristics that are useful for identification, rather than a general overall description.

The Help Option

The Help option covers all modules and functions. It is also available for reading on the PC, as part of the PDA List Manager software.

PDA List Manager

This PC-based module is designed to integrate with the PC edition and includes functions for transferring PDA bird lists to PC, and a PC-based Help module. Functions include viewing and copying lists to PC, downloading lists to PDA, and backing up both PC and PDA lists. The module can be run independently of the PC Edition for both viewing and copying PDA lists to your PC.

 


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