Private Notes User Guide
Thank you for downloading and installing Private Notes. Below is the
complete set of user instuctions for Private Notes. This includes
typical application usage and scenarios, limits and restrictions, and
defintions for application settings.
All mobile versions should behave similarly;
any differences will be noted where they occur.
Purpose
Private Notes Mobile Software is meant to gently encode the personal
notes and hide them from rapid deciphering from prying eyes. It also
allows you to share these notes with others should you choose to. This is
accomplishd via re-coding the note and sending it by using your mobile
device's email system. A desktop client application is available for
decoding, or a web interface is also available to decode the note.
PLEASE NOTE: Private Notes does NOT use strong
mathematical encryption. It is NOT intended to be a protection
from serious cyber decryption, only as a way to protect your notes
from being easily read by prying eyes. The allowed actions and recommended
settings also
help to secure your notes and reduce the exposure to hacking.
Unless you work for CTU this protection scheme
is probably OK most of the time.
Creating a note
After starting Private Notes, the first screen is a list of notes. When first
installed the only note is a note titled "Welcome Note" that is pre-loaded
before distribution. This note has a link to this web site and uses the standard
default PIN.
To add a note press the new note button in the Navigation bar, which looks like
a "+". This will take you to the "New Note" screen. This screen has two text fields
for the title and the note text. Tap in each field and enter text in a normal fashion.
Be aware that each field has a maximum length; for
title this is 32 characters, for the actual not field it is currently 480 characters.
When done editing press the "Done" button on navigation bar. The keyboard will
disappear and a "Save" button is shown below the note field. If you need to continue
editing, tap the "Edit" button
again to continue editing. Once you are completely satisfied with your note, tap "Save".
Depending on your preferences you will either be taken directly back to the main list
screen or you will be presented with a dialog to enter a 4 digit pin. Preferences
are more thoroughly descibed below.
Viewing and Editing a note
From the main list screen, tapping on a note or its respecive detail indicator will
take you to the note detail screen. The title of the note will be in the navigation
bar and the encoded note will appear in the yellow sticky note-like area near the
top. Below the note there will be a slider control and two dates; when the note was
created and when the note was last viewed. On the toolbar at the bottom will be the
email button and the trash button; both of these are disabled until the note is decoded.
The slider control is set to "ON", meaning that the note above is currently encoded.
Tapping the slider will move it to the "OFF" position and will bring up a screen to
allow you to enter the 4-digit PIN used to encode the note. If the PINs match the
note will be decoded. Once the note is decoded the eMail and trash buttons become
active, the "Last Viewed" value is updated, and an "Edit" button is available on the
navigation bar.
To edit a note simply tap the "Edit" button on the navigation bar. A screen similar
to the "New Note" screen appears and allows you to edit both the title and the note
text. When done simply tap "Done" on the navigation bar.
The note will be saved with the original PIN.
Emailing a note
After a note has been decoded it can be emailed. Simply press the "eMail" button
on the bottom toolbar to lauch your defaul mail program with a preconstructed email
containing the note and instructions on how to decode it. The default "TO:" address is
simply "someone@domain.com"; this will need to be edited before sending. Please note
that once the email application is launched, any modifications made to the actual
note text may corrupt it. The email can be edited as you wish, just be sure not to
edit the sections between the dashed lines ("-------").
The recipient of the note can either download the client appliction (currently
available only for Windows) or use the Online decoding page
to decode it.
NEW! The latest release available on the App Store
allows direct decoding on your iPhone or iPod Touch. If you receive a note
via an email system that supports html, a link is embedded in the note that will
directly open PrivateNotes at the decoding screen, allowing you to view the note
immediatly on the device.
Settings/Preferences
Settings for PrivateNotes are accessible under the iPhone/iPod "Settings" icon in
a section labeled "PrivateNotes".
There are currenly 5 settings grouped into two sections. These
are "Note Settings" and "Email Settings". Each will be described below.
Note Settings
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Default PIN (4 digits)
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The default PIN is the PIN that will be applied to each message if the "Use Default
PIN" setting is Yes. This can be changed to
be any 4 digit combination. Note that if this value is set to less than 4 digits,
the "Use Default PIN" setting will be ignored and a PIN will have to be manually
entered for each note. If the entered value is longer than 4 digits only the first
4 digits will be used.
The preset default value is 5678.
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|
Use Default PIN
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If this is set to "YES" the default PIN will be used when saving notes. As
noted above there are resrictions on the PIN value that could override this setting.
The default preset value is "YES".
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Email Settings
|
Default Email PIN
(4 digits)
|
The default Email PIN is the PIN
that will be applied to each message if the "Use Default Email
PIN" setting is Yes. This can be changed to
be any 4 digit combination. Note that if this value is set to less than 4 digits,
the "Use Default Email PIN" setting will be ignored and a PIN will be randomly
generated for each email message. If the entered value is longer than 4 digits
only the first 4 digits will be used.
The default preset value is 1234.
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Send Current PIN?
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This setting determines whether the current PIN for the note is sent with the
email. If "YES" a new PIN is NOT generated and the PIN the note was encoded with
is sent along in the email.
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Use Default Email PIN?
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If this is set to "YES" and "Send Current Pin" is "NO" then
the default PIN will be used when emailing notes. As
noted above there are resrictions on the PIN value that could override
this setting.
If this setting is "NO" in conjunction with "Send Current PIN" also being "NO"
a random PIN will be used when emailing the note. This
PIN will be included in the email and will not have any relationship to the
original PIN.
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Recommended Settings and Rational
The following settings are recommended along with the rational for each.
Use Default PIN: YES
This allows for quick entry and
encoding of notes.
Default PIN: Your choice.
Pick a number you can easily remember.
Default Email PIN: Your choice.
Pick a number you can easily remember.
Send Current PIN: NO
Sending the current PIN for a note is
convenient but is also a security risk. This really only would make sense when
sending a note to yourself, but even then the default PIN or the randomly generated
PIN would be included in the email.
Use default PIN: NO
A randomly generated PIN is more secure
than using a default PIN when emailing.