Visual IT © 2002

Simple SMS is a Pocket PC application that enables you to write, send, receive and store SMS messages on a Pocket PC by connecting to your mobile phone via serial cable, infra red port or Bluetooth.

You can write your SMS messages on your Pocket PC using the soft keyboard, character recognizer, transcriber or cut & paste text from other documents avoiding the tiresome use of the phone keypad. You can quickly choose the recipient of your SMS message directly from contact information that has been stored in your contacts database.

One unique feature of Simple SMS is the ability to send messages of any length, the application will break the message up into multiple parts (set to the maximum characters per message allowed by the telecom operator) and send as multiple messages which can then be reassembled at the receiving end, this will be done seamlessly if the recipient is also using Simple SMS. 

Select View > Inbox or tap on the Inbox button, this will open the Inbox message window, a list of all messages previously received will be displayed. In the lower list box you can scroll through these messages using the stylus or the up/down rocker switch. The content of each message is displayed in the upper text box. The date and time of the received message is displayed in the format Month Day and Hour Minute. The "From" field will contain the number of the sender or if the sender's number is listed in your "Contacts" database the number will be replaced with name of the sender.

Delete messages - Select the messages to be deleted then Actions > Delete.

Reply to a message - Select the message to be replied to and select Actions > Reply. This will open the New message window with the relevant fields filled in.

Forward a message - Select the message to be forwarded then select Actions > Forward. This will open the New message window with the relevant fields filled in.

Receive messages - Select Actions > Receive and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display. All SMS messages that are currently in your phone’s Inbox memory will be transferred to your Pocket PC and all new unread messages will be highlighted with an * in the message list box. The messages will be deleted from the phone if you have the View > Options > SMS "Delete messages after receive" ticked.

Send and Receive messages - Select Actions > Send and Receive or tap the red button and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display.

Sort messages - Select Actions > Sort by > Date to sort the messages by date order or Actions > Sort by > Sender to sort the messages by sender order.

Simple SMS has the unique feature of being able to send messages of any length, the application will break any large message into parts and send as multiple messages which can then be reassembled at the receiving end, this will be done seamlessly if the recipient is also using Simple SMS. Please note depending on your telecom operator you may be charged for each message part.

Recipients for your message are added by entering the recipient's number manually into the appropriate field and tapping the "Add" single entry button (one chevron pointing down) or by choosing a contact from your "Contacts" database. Select the category then touch the list box to display all the contacts in that category. Highlight the required contact name and then tap the "Add" single entry button (one chevron pointing down). To add all the contacts from the selected Category tap the "Add" multiple entry button (two chevrons pointing down). Use the "Delete" single entry button (one chevron pointing up) to delete the selected recipient or the "Delete" all recipients button (two chevrons pointing up) to remove all recipients.

Please note by default the contact names and numbers displayed will only be the numbers in your contacts database associated with mobile communications i.e.. Mobile, Car Tel, Pager, Radio Tel, if the number you require is listed differently you can switch on "show all contact numbers" from the View > Options > General dialogue box.

Move message to Outbox - Select Actions > Move to Outbox the current message will be moved to the Outbox and the "Message" and "To" areas cleared.

Move message to Outbox and Send - Select Actions > Move to Outbox and Send and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display. Messages successfully sent will be transferred to the Sent folder.

Send and Receive messages - Select Actions > Send and Receive or tap the red button and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display.

Select View > Outbox or tap on the Outbox button, this will open the Outbox message window. All messages not yet sent are listed in the Outbox, each message can be viewed, edited, deleted or sent. Multiple messages can be selected for deletion or sending by highlighting one of the messages and then dragging the stylus to select others.

Delete messages - Select the messages to be deleted then Actions > Delete.

Edit message - Select the message to edit then select Actions > Edit. This will move the message from Outbox and display it in the New message window.

Send all messages - Select Actions > Send All to send all messages in the Outbox and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display.

Send selected messages - Select the messages to be sent and then select Actions > Send Selected and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display.

Send and Receive messages - Select Actions > Send and Receive or tap the red button and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display.

Select View > Sent or tap on the Sent button, this will open the Sent message window. All messages sent using Simple SMS are saved in the Sent window. The sent messages can be viewed, deleted, resent, copied back to Outbox, New or exported.

Delete messages - Select the messages to be deleted then Actions > Delete

Copy message to New - Select the message to be copied and select Actions > Copy to New the message and recipient will be copied to the New window.

Copy messages to the Outbox - Select the messages to be copied then Actions > Copy to Outbox. Copies of the selected messages will now be placed in the Outbox.

Resend messages - Select the messages to be resent and select Actions > Copy to Outbox and Send and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display. Messages successfully sent will be transferred to the Sent folder.

Send and Receive messages - Select Actions > Send and Receive or tap the red button and monitor the progress on the status bar at the bottom of the display.

Sort messages - Select Actions > Sort by > Date to sort the messages by date order or Actions > Sort by > Recipient to sort the messages by recipient order.

Select View > Options > General , this will open the "Options - General" window.

Contact name order - Select First then Last to display contacts as First name then Last name or Last then First to display contacts as Last name then First name.

Show all Contact numbers - Ticking this box will enable you to see all your contact databases phone numbers and contacts instead of just the numbers associated with mobile communications ie Mobile, Car Tel, Pager, Radio Tel.

Remove (x) from contact numbers - Ticking this option will automatically remove numbers in parentheses from contact telephone numbers ie "+44 (0) 123 456789" will be displayed as "+44123456789".

Turn off sounds - Ticking this box disables the confirmation beeps associated with the Pocket PC to mobile phone communication.

Port - This drop down lisbox allows you to select the communication port to use when communicating with the phone. The description of each port will vary slightly dependent on the Pocket PC OS and hardware configuration but as a general guide:-

Serial Cable - Select "Serial Cable on COM1:" or similar.

Infra Red - Select "Infrared Port" on Pocket PC CE3.0 or "COM3" on Pocket PC 2002 or similar.

Bluetooth - Select "Bluetooth Phone" or similar

If you are communicating over a serial cable you must also click the "Setup" button and set the serial communications parameters (see the operating instructions for your particular phone for details).

Select View > Options > SMS , this will open the "Options - SMS" window.

Service Centre Number - SMS is a store and forward service, in other words, short messages are not sent directly from sender to recipient, but always via an SMS Centre instead. Each mobile telephone network that supports SMS has one or more messaging centres to handle and manage the short messages. You can set the phone number of your telecom operators SMS centre in this box. The number must be in the international format e.g. +441234567890. Look at your phone handbook or contact your service provider if you do not know this number.

Use phone Service Centre - Ticking this box uses the phone number of your telecom operators SMS centre that is stored in your mobile phones memory. Please note this option may not work on some models of phone, if this is the case with your phone please view the number stored in your phones memory and enter the number in the Service Centre Number box.

Validity period - This option sets the time period the message is valid for within the SMS centre if the message cannot be delivered immediately e.g. recipients phone not switched on etc. The validity of the message can be set to 1 hour, 12 hours, 1 Day or 1 week. Note, a limit smaller than you request may be set by your telecom operators message Service Centre.

Request status report - Ticking this option will request the SMS Service Centre to notify you when the message is delivered. This option is telecom operator dependent and is normally an automated text message returned to your phone stating delivery was made.

Request reply - Ticking this option will prompt the recipient to reply to your message when they read it. This option relies on the feature being supported on the recipients phone model.

Delete messages after receive - Ticking this box will delete any messages in the phones Inbox memory after they are transferred to your Pocket PC.

Select View > Options > Clear Database , this will clear the Simple SMS database and set all Option settings to their default values. This action should be performed if installing a newer version of Simple SMS or you suspect the message database is corrupt.

Export messages - Select Actions > Export and follow the on-screen prompts to save all Inbox and Sent SMS messages to a tab delimited text file.

Creating a new Category on the PC

It can be useful to create a separate category for mobile phone numbers or your regular SMS message recipients. To do this use the Pocket PC "Contacts" application as follows:-

1. From the Pocket PC "Contacts" application main window select New.

2. From the list of new contact details scroll down to and tap the Categories entry.

3. From the categories selection window select the Add/Delete tab at the bottom.

4. Type in the category name you wish to use say "Mobile Phone" then select Add and OK.

5. Select OK again to create this contact.

6. If you selected only the category for this new contact it will now show as "Unnamed" in your list of contacts and you can now delete it if you wish.

7. Now add this category to any existing contacts.

Now when you run Simple SMS this category will appear in the drop down list box for you to select , you can then copy any contacts from it as an SMS message recipient.

Communication Problems

If you are experiencing problems communicating with the phone some points to consider are:-

1. The phone is busy especially if just powered up and talking on air. After powering on the phone leave for 2-3 mins before using Simple SMS.

2. The Pocket PC is still connected to the desktop PC. This will slow the performance and may prevent Infra Red access altogether if using the same COM port.

3. Other Infra Red or Bluetooth devices/phones are in range.

4. Sometimes the phone can get confused and think it still has a connection try powering the phone off and on.

5. The Infra Red or Bluetooth has turned off on the phone because it has not been used for a fixed period.

6. Most phones allow you to turn on the Infra Red or Bluetooth permanently, because of intermittent access it maybe best set to always on while using Simple SMS.

7. Low power on the phone battery or Pocket PC will cause the Infra Red or Bluetooth to shut down.

If you receive this error message when attempting to send a message try each of the following :

1. Check that you have the number for your telecom operators message Service Centre set correctly in your phones memory (contact your telecom operator and see your phone manual for details).

2. Go to View > Options and set the Service Centre number in the appropriate box and deselect 'Use phone service centre number'.

3. Ensure you have good signal strength.

It is advisable to permanently delete all unwanted messages from the Inbox and Sent windows so as not to use up unnecessary storage memory on your Pocket PC. If you have any problems associated with message storage or message corruption it is possible to clear the message database file by selecting View > Options > Clear Database , this will clear the Simple SMS database and set all Option settings to their default values.

Below is a list of some commonly used SMS abbreviations and their meanings.

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