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Alarm Simple version 1.3 for 1999.

A simple alarm program with lots of alarms!

For Windows 95/98

This program is freeware.

By Patrick Dugan (patrickd@ipa.net or patrickd@usti.com )

About Alarm Simple

Using Alarm Simple

Trouble Shooting Alarm Simple


About

VERSION HISTORY

  1.3 February 2, 1999

  Corrected a bug that kept Saturday from remaining checked.  Also added the adjustable timer to set how often the program checks the time.

  1.2 July 7, 1998

  Added the date fields so an alarm could be set only for a specific date.  Also corrected some bugs regarding the way the alarms were saved.

This was written because I never remember meetings or other important times (like when to go home.)  This program allows you to set several alarms (up to 1440 of them!) and use a separate WAV file for each.

You can contact me at:

patrickd@ipa.net or patrickd@usti.com


Trouble
Trouble Shooting

I set the alarm but it does not go off when it is supposed to.

There can be several reasons why this happens.

Be sure that your computer can play a WAV file.  Try loading a WAV file into any alarm setting and click on the “test WAV” button and listen.

Be sure that you have specified a WAV file and that the file can be tested and heard.

Be sure that the time you specified is correct.  The hours are in military format and any hour after noon should be the hour plus twelve. (Example 3 p.m. would be 15 in military format.)

Be sure that a “Day of Week” has been checked.  Any alarm MUST have a day of the week checked or it will not sound.  If you are setting for a certain date and do not know the day of the week or you simply want it to go off every day simply check all of the day of the week boxes.

If you specify a date the alarm will only sound for that date and time and day of week setting.  If you do not wish to use a date set the fields (day, month, year) to zero.

If another program is using the Multimedia device at the same time that Alarm Simple tries to play the alarm, the alarm may not be heard.  For example you might be playing a game or listening to some wav file playing in the background.   This can cause the alarm not to sound.


Using

When you first start Alarm Simple it will place an alarm clock shaped icon in the system tray.

By pressing the right mouse button on that clock you will see the settings window.

The first item is the alarm number.  This is the text box in the upper left.  You can use the up/down arrows next to that box to alter the number of the alarm.  There are 1440 alarms (one for every minute of the day) and each can have specific settings.

The next item is the Hour field.  This is where you set the hour that the alarm will go off.  The hours are listed in military time format.  For example 5 p.m. would be 17 (5+12.).

Next to that is the Minute field.  This is the minute setting for the alarm.

Below those three items are the days of the week setting.  Simply check the day of the week that you want the alarm to go off on.  The order is Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Below that is the Date fields.  You can specify a specific day, month and year for your alarm.  If any of the date fields is left at zero then that field is ignored.  If you set a certain date, be sure that you have the appropriate day of week set correctly.  For example if you set July 7th and it falls on a Friday but you don’t have the Day of Week set with Friday checked it will not go off.  If you are uncertain which day it will fall on then simply check all the Day of Week boxes.   The year setting is a 2 digit year setting.  Dates before 80will be considered to be past the year 2000.  (i.e. 23 would be 2023 not 1923.)

The text field below that is the WAV file that will be played when this alarm goes off.  Leaving this blank or with an incorrect filename will result in no sound when the alarm goes off.

The “Browse” button brings up an open dialog window where you can choose the alarm WAV you desire.

The “Test WAV” button allows you to hear the WAV file currently shown in the WAV file text box.

The “Exit” button will quit the program entirely.  If you press the close button (upper right corner) the settings window will disappear but the alarm program itself will remain active and in the tray.

The “Timer in millsecs” field allows you to adjust how often the program checks the time.  The lower the value the more often it will check and the more demand it will make on your CPU.  The time is denoted in milliseconds, so 500 milliseconds would be one-half a second.

The “About” button displays the help file you are reading now.

The small button in the middle between the other larger buttons allows you to reduce the default font size so the display will look normal if you use large fonts on your system.  Pressing the button will toggle the font size from small to large and it will remain that way the next time you restart the program.

Note:  The program creates a file called AlarmSimple.als which contains all the information about the alarm settings.  This file should reside in the same directory as the main program (AlarmSimple.exe) or it will not be seen.   The AlarmSimple.hlp should also be kept in the same directory as the main program.

There isn’t a lot to this program but there isn’t supposed to be.  The program is just a simple way to set many alarms.  I prefer to launch the program in my start menu so it starts when Windows does.