This tutorial is designed for people who want to customize LifeLog for their particular needs. If you are like most people, one of the supplied templates will work just fine, and you can start using LifeLog with just a few taps.
This tutorial will show you the quickest way to learn how to customize LifeLog. We start by creating a custom slate, based on one of the supplied templates, and then show how to enter the data. Finally, we analyze the data.
1. Start at the main menu. The first time you run LifeLog, it starts at the main menu. You can return to the main menu from anywhere in the program by repeatedly tapping the Back or Main Menu buttons.
2. At the main menu, go into edit mode. The first time you run LifeLog, it starts in edit mode. You toggle edit mode on and off by tapping the Edit button (which changes to Done Editing when in edit mode).
3. In edit mode, the three items in the Actions section are enabled. A "slate" is a collection of related questions that LifeLog will analyze and compare. In many cases a single slate will be sufficient for each person. Multiple slates allow information from multiple users to remain independent. In this tutorial, we will create a new slate (even if you already have existing ones). Tap on "Add new slate from template".
4. The Create Slate From Template screen will list all available templates, including any that have been downloaded. If you are connected, you can tap the Download button to update the list. Each template shows the name and the description. Tap on Chronic Pain Tracker to choose that template.
5. This returns you to the main menu. Chronic Pain Tracker should now appear in the list of Active Slates. The number in parenthesis after the description shows how many data entries have been made; it should be zero. We want to customize this slate. Make sure it is still in edit mode (the Done Editing button is visible), and tap on Chronic Pain Tracker.
6. The slate editing screen has two sections. The top section shows Slate Properties, which include the name and the description. Tap on the name to edit it; a keyboard will be displayed. Change the name by adding "My" to the beginning, or if you might have multiple people using the app, add your name, e.g. "Mike's Chronic Pain Tracker". You can also edit the description if desired.
7. The bottom section shows the Variables. There are four variables in this slate, as well as a selection called Add New Variable. We will start by editing an existing variable. Tap on Pain.
8. There are four properties of each variable that you can change; the name, the description, the minimum value, and the maximum value. For this tutorial, change the name to "Pain Level", just to prove it can be done. Any change you make here is automatically saved. When you are finished, tap the Back button, and you should see the new variable name.
9. Now we will add a new variable to our slate. Tap on Add New Variable. Tap on the name and enter "Fear" (only because it\s short; "Nervousness" might be more accurate for most people). Tap on the description and enter "How afraid are you right now?", or something else descriptive. Then tap on Back. You should now see five variables listed.
10. Now we will delete one of the variables. Tap on Start Delete, and small delete icons will appear next to each variable in the list. Tap on the delete icon for "Mood - Happiness", and a Delete button will appear next to it. Tap on the Delete button, and the variable will appear ghosted. LifeLog does not actually delete variables, but simply marks them as deleted, and will not show them in the rest of the application. The green icon that appeared when you deleted this variable allows you to add it back into the slate. Of course, instead of adding our own variable, and deleting the existing one, we could have simply edited the existing one, but it makes for a duller tutorial. Tap on the Back button to return to the main menu.
11. We've finished creating and modifying our new slate, and will now start using it.
12. On the main menu, make sure you are not in edit mode. If there is a Done Editing button visible, tap it to turn edit mode off. Edit mode will start in off mode every time you run LifeLog. With edit mode off, tap on one of your active slates to show the data entry screen.
13. The data entry screen is where LifeLog will start when you run it. Simply tap on a value from 1 to 10 for each question in the slate. Tap on Comment to type in a short remark. When you have entered all the data, tap on Save & View. Note that this button is not enabled unless all of the questions have been answered.
14. The results screen should now be displayed. With only one entry, the results are not meaningful. In fact, it may take several dozen entries before you can learn much from them. For this tutorial, you may want to tap the Back button, enter more values, and repeat until you have at least several, before trying to analyze the data. (Note: You must wait 60 seconds between saving data. LifeLog will over-write an existing entry that is less than 1 minute old, allowing you to save over an entry made by mistake).
15. In ordinary usage, you can quit the app after saving the entry. After about 100 entries, it may take some time to calculate the results, in which case LifeLog will display a message while it does the math. If you do not care to view the results at that time, you may safely quit the app during the calculations.
16. The first section of the results screen shows the individual questions (or queries). The average, minumum, maximum, and standard deviation values are shown. Tap on the query to see a graphical analysis, including a histogram, a box plot, hourly averages, and daily averages, on a single screen. You can tap Snapshot to save the screen as a picture in your pictures folder.
17. The second section allows you to display all variables on a single graph, or a chart of the correlation values, by tapping on the corresponding item. Each of those screens has a help document explaining how to use them.
18. The third section is a listing of all the raw data entries, including the optional comments.
19. The fourth section allows you to delete all the data you have entered. This operation cannot be undone.
Copyright 2009 by Mike Berro. All rights reserved.