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CHAPTER 8
Newton Services
Intelligent Assistant 8-27
In addition to the Please picker and an input line, an Assist slip has a How
Do I? button in the lower left corner for accessing the Newton online help
service (see “Help” on page 8-28). In the lower right corner of an Assist slip
are a Do button for initiating the action specified in the slip and a large Close
box for canceling the action.
The primary function of an Assist slip is to specify an action. If the Assistant
can determine an action to take based on words a user writes or selects
before tapping the Assist button, then the Assistant does not display an Assist
slip. Once the Assistant knows what action to take, it can resolve other
missing or ambiguous information with a task slip.
Task Slips 8
Quite often the Assistant knows what action to take but does not have
enough information to complete that action. The Assistant tries to fill in
as much of the required information as it can, but the user may still have
to resolve ambiguities or provide additional information. In that case
the Assistant displays a task slip.
For example, if a user writes the request “fax Bob,” the Assistant can get
Bob’s fax number from the Names File application. But what if Bob has
no fax number or more than one fax number? What if there is more than
one Bob or no one named Bob? Even if there is only one Bob with one fax
number, the user may want to add another fax number, another Bob, or a
message on the fax cover page.
The task slip for any built-in action is the same as or similar to the slip a user
sees when performing the action without the Assistant. For routing actions—
printing, faxing, mailing, or calling—the task slip is a routing slip (see
“Routing Slips” on page 7-12). For scheduling meetings and remembering
To Do items, the task slip is similar to the slip the Date Book application
displays for creating a new meeting or To Do task. For finding, the task slip
is the standard Find slip (see “Find” on page 8-6).