This post is a rework of my response to this thread in the LiveScribe forums.

When developing an app, I have a frequent (maybe a little *too* frequent in some cases) edit/compile/deploy/start-app/test cycle.  The nav cross can be used to start an app.  You double tap on the cross, then tap the down and right arrows as required to find your app in the menu, then tap right to start it.  If you have a few apps you are working on, this quickly becomes EXCRUCIATING!

There is a scrub-n-flick feature available to more quickly navigate through the menu structure. You can draw an up/down line and use it to scroll through menu items instead of using nav up/down arrows. It does work, but I never use it.  I cannot even remember how to set it up (its in the manual if you want to find out how to use it).  It is however faster than tapping ‘next menu item’ over and over again.  But there is a better way.

The approach I prefer is if you double tap the cross of the nav cross, you can then write the application name. (Look for a little “*” to appear on the right side of the display when “main menu” is displayed – this means you can write the app name.) It will show the match the pen will use as you write. You can then later tap on the word (or the first few characters if that is all you wrote) to restart the application again.
For example, double tap on the nav cross, then write “calc” on the page. The calculator app starts. Later you can tap “calc” again to restart the calculator application.

Well, this works for your applications as well.

There was concern expressed in the forums (I was one of them) about collisions between app as the names could not be changed by end users. Developers pick the names.  What if two apps used the same (or nearly same) name?  I am starting to suspect this is not a big deal.  I now just use a longer name resulting in a low propability of identical name collisions.  It is important to note you don’t have to write the whole name, and, importantly, after writing a character or two, the user can use the Nav cross up/down buttons to scroll through the matches if there is a collision on what the user has written so far. (You must then tap the right nav arrow to confirm the current selection is what is wanted.) So its not hard to pick the variant you want (without writing the full application name down).

For example, I have applications called “testa” and “testb”.  I wrote “t” (display showed “testa”) then tapped nav-down (display showed “testb”) and tapped nav-right to confirm.  The “t” became bound to “testb” (not “testa”). To start the app again, I just tap on the “t” again. *Much* better than going through the menu structure each time.

When debugging an app, I always now create one of these short cuts, then I can restart the application over and over again after each deployment with a single tap.

Oh, how do you change the app name?  Look for the “app.name” property in the project’s “build.properties” file.