PalmCue help

Getting a talk in

Tap New talk and paste what you wrote. Every line break starts a new card and a bullet becomes its own, so the shape you typed is the shape you get.

Nothing is cut down or reworded. A card that runs long splits at a sentence, never in the middle of one, and a line that is mostly a name, a date or a number stays whole however long it is.

If one sentence is too long for a single card, it breaks at a comma and the first half is marked, so you know not to breathe there.

No draft yet? Start from a template instead. It hands you the cards a talk like yours usually takes, each one saying what goes on it, and you type over them.

Recutting the cards

Tap a talk in the list to open its cards. Drag the handle at the bottom of a card to break it in two, or drag a card’s grip onto another card to join them. The buttons under each card do the same thing if dragging is fiddly.

Tap the star under a card to star it. Starred cards are marked, so the parts you cannot miss are findable at a glance.

Finding out how long you really take

Open the deck and tap Practice run. It times you while you step through the cards the way you would on the night, and tells you what you came in at when you stop.

PalmCue keeps that number and offers it as the talk’s target. Drafts run longer out loud than they look on the page, and it is easier to cut a card now than to rush the end later.

The volume buttons do nothing

On Android the volume buttons move the cards only while a deck is open and the screen is on. Anywhere else in the app they are the volume again. If another app is holding them, close it and reopen the deck.

On iPhone they never move the cards, and that is not something we can fix. Apple keeps those buttons for the system and gives no app a way to read them. Tap the card instead, or pair a Bluetooth clicker.

The pulses

There are two of them, and that is the whole language. A short tap means the clock has got ahead of where you are in the cards, so pick it up or drop something you can live without. A long buzz means you are at time.

You will never get more than three taps in one talk, and never one in the few seconds after you turn a card. Open the talk’s pacing settings to say how long you have, or to switch either one off.

If you feel nothing at all, check that your phone’s own vibration and haptics are on, and that Low Power Mode is off on an iPhone. PalmCue cannot override a phone set to no haptics.

It buzzed on the podium

Tell PalmCue the phone is on a stand and it stops buzzing. The pacing turns into a quiet fill along the edge of the card instead, which nobody hears and no camera catches.

The screen you see right before the deck asks once whether the phone is in your hand or on a stand, and the answer is remembered for that talk.

Going blank

Hold anywhere on the card and it jumps to the next card you starred. That is what the stars are for: the names, the thank you, the line the whole thing is building to.

Swipe down and you get the talk as plain text, scrolled to where you were, so you can find any line by eye. Pick one and you are back on the cards at that spot.

The screen

PalmCue keeps the screen awake for the whole talk and holds its own brightness, separate from the rest of the phone. Set it on the same screen that runs the check before you stand up.

Leaving the deck puts your phone back the way it was. If a call comes in, you come back to the card you were on, not the top.

Starting over

Tap the delete button next to a talk in the list. To clear everything, open Settings and hold the clear button.

Buying, refunds and a new phone

You buy PalmCue once through Google Play, and Google handles refunds. On a new phone, sign in to the same Google account to download it again. The iPhone version will work the same way through the App Store.

Your talks stay on the old phone, because nothing is ever sent anywhere.

Still stuck

Email pettigrewlabllc@gmail.com.