Setting ArcPad Studio preferences

You can change the ArcPad Studio preferences to suit your development needs. Currently there are three areas that can be modified via the ArcPad Studio user interface: the General, Compile, and Scripting preferences. Preferences are stored in the ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx file, in the My Documents folder. Additional preferences can be set by manually editing ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx.

Accessing the Preferences dialog box

To access the Preferences dialog box, click the Tools menu and click Options. The Preferences dialog box appears as shown in the following screen shot:

Setting general preferences

General preferences are saved in the ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx file, in the My Documents folder.

Steps:

1. Click the Tools menu and click Options.

   The Preferences dialog box appears.

2. Click the General tab.
3. Check or uncheck the Show startup dialog check box, depending on whether or not you want ArcPad Studio to display a helper dialog box on startup.
4. Type or select the location of the ArcPad executable file (ArcPad.exe) in the ArcPad application executable file text box.
5. Click OK.

Setting compile preferences

Compile preferences are saved in the ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx file, in the My Documents folder.

Steps:

1. Click the Tools menu and click Options.

   The Preferences dialog box appears.

2. Click the Compile tab.
3. Type the project output paths for Applets, Configurations, and Layer definitions in their respective text boxes.
4. Type the remote output paths for Applets, Configurations, and Layer definitions in their respective Remote Path text boxes. The remote path is the path on the mobile device.
5. Check or uncheck Encode, Package, and Download for each project type.
   • Encode encrypts the project files to protect source code.
   • Package compresses the project files into .zip format.
   • Download downloads the project files to a connected mobile device.
     Note:

     If Download is checked for a Project Output Folder and a mobile device is not connected via ActiveSync (XP) or Windows Mobile Device center (Vista or later), a "Please Connect Device" message will be displayed.

6. Click OK.

Setting scripting preferences

Scripting preferences are saved in the ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx file, in the My Documents folder.

Steps:

1. Click the Tools menu and click Options.

   The Preferences dialog box appears.

2. Click the Scripting tab.
3. Select the Default Scripting Language—JScript, Python, or VBScript (VBScript is the default).

   The default scripting language preference dictates the scripting language used when you add a new script source code file to a project.

4. Click OK.

Setting preferences manually in ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx

Refer to ArcPadStudioXML.doc for a list of Extensible Markup Language (XML) elements and attributes that are supported by ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx. ArcPadStudioXML.doc is installed in the \Developer\Help folder inside the ArcPad installation folder.

Steps:

1. Open ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx in a text or XML editor.
2. Add any desired elements and attributes to modify the ArcPad Studio development environment.
3. Save ArcPadStudioPrefs.apx and restart ArcPad Studio for your changes to take effect.