Reminders

ReminderPro is used to schedule reminders for yourself. To be reminded, you do not need to have the ReminderPro application running. When you create a reminder, the application requests the ReminderPro scheduler to schedule it. The scheduler works in the background and reminds you at the appropriate time.

Scheduling Reminders

To schedule a reminder, you launch ReminderPro, and click on the reminder button in the list window, or select “A Reminder…” in the Schedule menu. A dialog box appears that prompts you for the following information about the reminder:

• Title

Every scheduled item must have a title. The list window displays the titles in the list of scheduled items. A title can be up to 30 characters long.

• Message

This is the reminder message text. It can be up to 120 characters long.

• Sound

You can associate one of the built-in sounds for a reminder. Alternatively, you can record a voice message and associate it with a reminder. The associated sound is played when a reminder goes off.

• Time

Every reminder must have a time (obviously!). This is the time the reminder goes off. The scheduling dialog automatically selects a time which is 5-10 minutes ahead of the current time. You should set the correct time for the reminder.

• Once/Repeating

A reminder can be for once, or repeating. A reminder can repeat every half hour, every hour, every day, every week, every month or every year. By default, a reminder is for once. Use the popup menu to specify if the reminder should be repeating.

• Other Options

You can have other options for a reminder. These are described below in the section “Reminder Options”. To specify these options, click the “Options” button in the dialog.

When a reminder goes off, a dialog box is displayed in the front that contains the title and the message of the reminder. If a sound is associated with the reminder, it is played at that time. You must reply to the dialog before you can do anything else. At that time, you can acknowledge and clear the reminder by simply clicking the default button. Or, you can choose to have the reminder go away for a period of time, and then appear again (snoozing). In this case, you specify the time for which the reminder must snooze (see “Snoozing Reminders” below).

You do not need to have the ReminderPro application running to receive a reminder. A reminder is displayed at the correct time regardless of the application you are working with at that time.

You can specify a reminder to be non-interrupting so that it appears in the background when it goes off, and does not stop you from whatever you are doing at that time. See “Non-Modal Reminders” in the section “Reminder Options” below for details.

Reminder Options

Advance Reminders:

Every reminder can have an advance reminder associated with it. You can specify the advance time in minutes, hours, days or weeks.

Non-Modal Reminders:

Normally, when a reminder goes off, it is displayed as a dialog box in the front. You have to reply to the dialog before you can proceed further. This operation is termed “modal”.

You can, however, specify a reminder to be non-modal. A non-modal reminder is a reminder that does not interrupt your work. It is a reminder that appears in the background. This is in contrast to a modal reminder, which appears as a dialog box in front and requires your immediate attention.

In order to receive non-modal reminders, you need to have the ReminderPro application running.

A non-modal reminder is displayed in a window by the ReminderPro application. If ReminderPro is not the active application, a notification sound is played that informs you that a non-modal reminder just went off. To see the reminder, you bring ReminderPro to the front.

If the ReminderPro application is not running at the time a non-modal reminder goes off, the reminder is displayed as a modal reminder.

You can close a non-modal reminder window. Just closing the window does not dispose the reminder, however. It will be displayed again, the next time ReminderPro is launched. You must click on the “Trash” button in a non-modal reminder window (or type command-T) to close the window and dispose the reminder.

ReminderPro can display up to 50 non-modal reminders. If there are 50 reminders already displayed, all non-modal reminders that follow are displayed as modal reminders. Similarly, if ReminderPro cannot display a non-modal reminder for any reason (if it is out of memory, for example), the reminder is displayed as a modal reminder.

Snoozing Reminders

This applies to regular reminders, and not to non-modal reminders.

Whenever you get a reminder, you get the option to snooze it, much like an alarm on a typical alarm clock. To snooze a reminder, you specify the time interval after which you wish to be reminded again. This time interval cannot exceed 1 week. If you do not specify a snooze time, the reminder is discarded for ever, once you hit the default button, titled “Clear”, in the reminder dialog.

Whenever you specify a time, the default button in the reminder dialog changes from “Clear” to “Snooze”. The reminder appears once again after the specified time. When a reminder snoozes and appears again, a little clock icon appears in the bottom left corner of the reminder dialog. You can use snooze for a reminder any number of times.

The snooze feature requires a little more memory than reminders shown in simple dialog boxes (as in ReminderPro 1.0). If ReminderPro runs out of memory, it will attempt to show the reminder in a simple dialog box without the snooze feature.

Missed Reminders

If your computer is shut off at a time when a reminder is supposed to go off, the reminder is displayed when you turn your computer on. If the reminder is a repeating reminder, and it misses several times (when it is supposed to go off) while the computer is off, it is displayed only once when the computer is turned on.