ButtonBar Plus is an enhancement for the Newton 2.1 OS. It adds functionality to the on-screen button bar. New icons can be added to the button bar, and icons can be arranged to the users preferences. The icons can also be shrunk down to half size, allowing twice as many buttons to be available at once.

ButtonBar Plus also gives the users more choices as to how the button bar is displayed. The button bar can be closed, so that it shrinks to a floating window that can be positioned anywhere on the screen. The floating window shows only the basic buttons, leaving the most space as possible free on the screen. ButtonBar Plus also saves button bar configurations, so an individual bars can be set for specific applications.

Button Bar Plus gives you the ability to close the Button bar and use the full screen of your MP2000. Any time you want it open, it's just a tap away and your button bar reappears as a floating palette.

Now you can create quick-access menus for virtually any part of your Newton Handheld screen. Vitamin A provides a flexible, easy-to-use interface for creating menus which may be assigned to any silk-screen button, the text carat, or any of the four corners of the screen. Have up to eleven different menus available at once!

Vitamin A makes menu editing easy. At all times, a WYSIWYG view of your menu in progress is displayed in the left half of the screen. You can edit the number of icons, add functions that don't have icons, and even insert three different kinds of line breaks to control the menu's appearance.

Choose from the host of functions Vitamin A makes available. Once you've selected a function to add, simply drag it from the list on the right into the menu on the left. Vitamin A is compatible with many other programs. For instance, if Super Caps is installed on your Message Pad, Vitamin A adds its icon to the list of functions.

Like any personal computer, a Newton PDA has a limited amount of RAM called "heap". Just like its larger desktop cousins, Newton PDAs use the heap to run programs and the more heap available for use when launching an application, the better. More available heap space equals faster load and execution times which means LESS WAITING FOR YOU!!! BackDrop + frees up more memory by removing the Notepad app from the background. Notepad ties around 20-30 K of heap which is then unavailable to other applications when you try to run them. In place of Notepad, BackDrop + installs the BackDrop + Desktop. The Desktop is more than a memory saver, it serves as a control station for most system functions on Newton PDAs.

1. Keep track of the current time and date with the on-screen display. Tap here to reset time/date.

2. This is the amount of heap currently available. The Newton OS sometimes needs a little coaxing to collect unused heap. Tap this number to free up all available memory. The new amount of heap will then be displayed.

3. Always know how much battery power remains with the battery power display.

4. The standard screen graphic is the PMI Newt. It can also be changed to the Stand Alone figure, or No Graphic. For $30 PMI will take any business logo and convert it to a format displayable as the BackDrop + Desktop graphic. Contact PMI via email below for more info.

5. Personalize the Desktop with a name, phone #, fax #, email, company name, etc.

6. On MP130 PDAs, tapping this small PDA icon will toggle the backlighting function on and off. The icon has been updated in the new version of BD+.

Tapping the speaker icon will allow the sound level to be set.

8. If you have a data card and hate the hassle of installing to the internal storage and then moving the new app to the card, now it is easy to toggle between saving to the internal storage or the card. Tapping this icon will switch the saving function from whatever it is currently on, to the other storage option. If the icon shows a small MessagePad, tapping it will change the icon to a memory card, and new items will be saved to the card; and vice versa.

9. Tapping this small note icon will bring up a quick entry note. Tap and hold this icon to bring up a list of all types of Newton stationary which are currently installed: Note, Checklist, Outline, etc. From this list any type of new note may be selected.

10. Tap the large note icon to launch Notepad.

11. Tap the i icon to set pref and edit the displayed apps list.

12. Tap the circular arrow icon to rotate the screen. Tap and hold to restart the PDA.

13. Tap the box icon to bring up a list of all folders in the Extras drawer. Tapping a folder name opens it.

14. The Apps icon is a user-definable list of applications. Tap the Apps icon to bring up the list of apps and tap the name of the app you wish to launch. Applications can also be placed right onto the BackDrop + Desktop where they may be launched by simply tapping the appropriate icon.

15. The up/down arrows activate a set of silk-screen buttons which appear on the screen (for MP130 users who use their PDA in the dark, where the Names, Dates, Extras, Undo, Find, and Assist, icons are difficult to see. The silk-screen buttons also work in landscape mode on MP130 units.

The preferences are set by tapping the i in the bottom left corner. From this icon, you can edit Personal Info, Edit App List, and set the Prefs.

The Displayed Applications window shows a list of all currently installed apps, and allows you to select which will appear when the Apps button is tapped (check In List), and which will appear on the Desktop (check In Dock).

The BackDrop Plus Prefs screen allows you to set all the text which appears on the Desktop Set the text size, font, face, and the actual text itself from here.