SharkPoint for Windows was the centre of the DreamDives range: a professional digital dive log that went well beyond recording dive data and printing a page. It was an easy-to-use, full-featured diver's logbook built on a proper database engine, and it held more dive log fields and more kinds of linked data than the dive log software around it attempted.
The design principle was that nothing about a dive should have to be left out because the software had no field for it. Whether it was a buddy's birthday or an instructor's middle name, there was somewhere for it to live and a way to find it again.
An all-in-one logbook
The Windows edition brought together, in one linked dataset:
- Dives — multiple logbooks, each with an unlimited number of dives, and multi-level logging so that a shore dive and an expedition dive did not need the same amount of typing.
- Buddies — proper records, linked to every dive shared.
- Dive places — sites with notes, history and co-ordinates.
- Log categories — the diver's own way of grouping entries.
- Photo album — images attached to the dives they came from.
- Personal information — certification, medical and insurance records.
- Equipment management — a gear log with servicing history.
- Dive computer import — profiles pulled in through the DCU modules.
- Dive planner and enhanced statistics.
Designed for divers, not for database users
The interface deliberately did not confront the user with endless options. A diver could enter as much or as little as they liked and still get a clean printed page out of the other end. The customisation that made the software flexible was all visual — no programming and no database expertise, which was unusual for something with this much structure underneath it.
The features page goes through the individual capabilities in detail.
What version 2 introduced
- Password protected files — meaningful given that the logbook holds medical and insurance detail.
- Enhanced profile charting — depth-against-time rendering for imported and manually entered profiles.
- Photo album support — images as part of the record rather than a folder on the side.
- 100% synchronisation of all dive log data with the handheld companions.
- The VDAF engine — Virtual Dive Agency File, DreamDives' open standard for describing repetitive dive planning parameters in a file rather than fixing them in code.
GPS and mapping
With a GPS unit connected over Bluetooth, serial, an internal receiver or USB, dive site co-ordinates could be recorded to within a few tens of feet, used with the Windows edition's mapping features, or exported to a mapping application for viewing. Over a few seasons this turned a logbook into a personal chart. What civilian GPS can and cannot promise is set out plainly on the official GPS performance pages.
Statistics worth having
The statistics and search tools were what made the electronic log more useful than a paper one. Up to seven histograms, a set of personal records, automatic tracking of accumulated bottom time both per dive and per log, and automatic calculation of air consumption rate. A new logbook could be initialised with a starting dive number and a starting accumulated bottom time, so divers arriving from a paper book did not restart at dive one.
Printing
The EPF (Easy Print Format) system let divers design their own logbook page and print entries into it — a real advantage for anyone who needed a physical record for a course, an operation or a folder that already had a house style.
Careful with the numbers
SharkPoint's dive planning features let a diver sketch or check a plan against the common recreational table systems, and the statistics summarised what had already happened. Neither replaces training, a current set of tables or a dive computer, and no logbook output should be treated as a decompression authority. The Divers Alert Network is the reference for dive safety and dive medicine.
Editions and availability
Three different editions of SharkPoint for Windows v2 were published, each aimed at a different kind of diver — from those using simple logging features to those organising large volumes of records with the advanced options.
The software is no longer distributed. This page is kept as a record of what it was. For the platform pairings see the DualPack (PocketPC & Windows), and for what it would talk to see compatibility.