Snapshot from European dialing code map

Snapshot from Russian subway map

The Basics -- Create and Install a Map

This section is also covered in your FireViewer Suite manual.  If you already know how to make and install FireViewer maps, you can safely skip to the next section.

FireViewer maps are stored in a special "PDB" file format.  To create them, you need to use the FireConverter desktop tool included with FireViewer Suite.

Assuming you have already installed FireViewer Suite, simply:

1. Run FireConverter on your PC.
2. Click "Open" and choose an image on your PC.  GIF, JPEG, BMP and TIFF all work fine.
3. Click "Auto-install" and select your Palm's name (you only need to do this the first time you run FireConverter).
4. Click "Save" to save the PDB image file onto your PC's desktop.  The PDB file will also be placed in your Palm install directory for the next HotSync.
5. HotSync your Palm.

The map image will now appear on when you run FireViewer.  You can zoom it, drag it, attach notes, etc., just like any other FireViewer image.

Snapshot from Tokyo city center map

Where to Find the Best Maps

Thousands of ready-made FireViewer maps are available on the Web.  If you can find what you need out there, you save time by eliminating the need to create your own PDB file with FireConverter, as described in Step 1 above.  Simply download the PDB file you want from the Web, and HotSync to your Palm.

The biggest repository of reference maps is at fireviewer.com, a community site provided by FireViewer as a free service.  Over the years, Fireviewer Suite owners have contributed thousands of maps, especially in these categories:

• City center and downtown maps
• Subway routes and stops
• Airport terminals
• University campus maps

Be advised that fireviewer.com is a victim of its own success:   there are so many maps available that it can be hard to find what you are looking for.  The "search" function can be slow, because there are so many files -- but it does work.  FireViewer will be improving the categories and search functions in the future to keep up with the volume of material on the site.  In the meantime, please persevere!  Whether you need a map of the Atlanta Braves ballpark or the Bratislava city center, you're very likely to find a solution at fireviewer.com.  

Another place to look for ready-made FireViewer maps is at PalmGear and Handango.  Visit either site and do a search for "FireViewer" -- you should get back a long list of items.  There are some real gems there, such as huge dialing-code maps of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Finally, there exist sites devoted entirely to handheld content -- Memoware and FreewarePalm, for example.

Many public service organizations offer FireViewer maps from their own websites.  For example, a seating chart of PacBell park is available in FireViewer format at the San Francisco Giants website;  a FireViewer route map of the Silicon Valley Transit Authority is available from their site.

Comisky Park, zoomed out to approximately 25% scale

Rolling Your Own FireViewer Maps

If you use the FireViewer platform in an industrial application, or if you don't find what you need at fireviewer.com, then you'll need to create your own map.  This is fast and easy.

Start with a source image in any common format, such as GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, PCX, etc.  To find such an image, the Web is your oyster -- billions of pictures, including millions of maps, are readily available.  Be sure to obey copyright laws when copying images, however.

Example -- Yahoo! Maps.  You're meeting your friend Antonio at the Bangkok City Restaurant in Hoboken, New Jersey.  You've never been outside Manhattan, so you'd like to carry a map.  You figure that, while walking the dark streets of Hoboken, a map on your bright Palm screen will be easier to see than an old-fashioned piece of paper.  FireViewer Suite can solve this problem as follows:

• Visit Yahoo! Maps.  
• Enter the address of Bangkok City Restaurant, and see the map come up.
• Drag the map from your web browser into the FireConverter window (FireConverter must be running on your PC).
• Save the image and HotSync it to your Palm.

You now have an easy-to-use reference map on your Palm, covering an eight-block radius around your destination.  It can be zoomed in and out, or dragged around to show areas of detail.

Example -- National Park Service Trail Maps.  You plan to impress your girlfriend or boyfriend with a moonlight hike at a national park (yes, people actually hike lonely trails in the dark, though we're not advocating it).

• Visit http://www.nps.gov and find the park you're planning to visit.
• Click on the map section and navigate to the trail map you want.
• Drag the map from your web browser into the FireConverter window.
• Save the image and HotSync to your Palm.

You now have a high-resolution trail map for personal use in the park.

Snapshot from Badlands National Park trail map

Make Your Maps Take Up Less Space

Dedicated FireViewer users know that maps can take up a lot of space on your Palm, unless you know a few tricks.  If used wisely, these can let you store as much as 10 times more map content on your Palm.

• In FireConverter, turn on "High compression," not "Standard Compression" or "No Compression."  High compression, also known as GIF-Killer, compresses about as well as GIF, but decompresses five times faster.  It will generally make your images much smaller than Standard Compression.
• In FireConverter, set the output image to be 8-bit color instead of 16-bit.  This will automatically double the number of images you can store on your Palm, and for most maps, there is little or no compromise in quality.

In addition to the above, here are a couple of options for advanced users.  They require editing the source image with an image editor such as Paint (preinstalled on every PC) or Photoshop, prior to converting them with FireConverter.

• Remove areas with dithered pixels from your source image before converting it in FireConverter.  "Pixels" are the dots that make up any electronic image.  "Dithering" just means adjacent pixels of alternating colors, i.e. blue, red, blue, red, etc.  By getting rid of dithered areas before using FireConverter, the resulting FireViewer image can be up to 10 times smaller.
• Resample your image to make it slightly smaller.  If you resize the input image to be 10% smaller in each dimension, the resulting FireViewer image will take up 19% less space. 
• Crop areas near the edge, if you don't need them.

Using all these tricks together can vastly increase your image storage capacity.  The advanced ones require some time, so they are most useful to FireViewer customers who are publishing images for others. 

Make Money Publishing FireViewer Maps

Do you have a commercial-grade FireViewer map of your own creation?  Selling it online is dramatically easier than most people think, and can be a virtually hassle-free way to generate income.

First of all, to answer a question many people have asked us:   you do not have to pay FireViewer to distribute or sell your own FireViewer images.  When you create a PDB map file from your own original image, you own it, and can do anything you want with it.  (If you want to resell FireViewer or FireConverter software, it's a different story.  To do that, contact us through our support center to request a partnership with FireViewer.)

One easy way to sell your map is by listing it at an online reseller such as PalmGear or Handango (the two most popular for handheld software, neither affiliated with FireViewer).

Online resellers allow you to register as a "developer" (which means the same as a publisher, in online reseller lingo) simply by visiting their site and filling out a Web form.  Approval generally comes back within a couple of days.  Online resellers charge no fee.  They simply keep a percentage, usually 20% to 40%, of the money generated by your product at their website, and send you a monthly check for the rest.

• Join Handango Developer Program
• Join PalmGear Developer Program

Once you are registered with an online reseller, you simply upload your map to their website, set a price, and wait for customers.  The reseller takes care of all the credit-card and customer service hassles for you, so that you can just sit around and collect checks.  Most resellers allow you to advertise inexpensively.  And if you list your product at Handango, it also automatically appears for sale at several other websites, including the heavily traveled Palm corporate site.