This shows the dates as monthly calendars from 1980 to 2030. You can move forward one month by clicking the dog-eared page at bottom right (or go back a month by clicking on its lower right half or Option-clicking any part of the bottom right corner).
The currently selected date will be hilited. A scheduler for the selected date will appear at right if you have elected to have the scheduler showing (see below). You can type in meetings and appointments here (up to 32K for each day). You can change to a different day of the current month either by clicking its date in the calendar directly, using the popup menu underneath the date (in bold type at the top), or using the comand-key and arrow keys. You can make more substantial date shifts by clicking on the Month or Year titles at the top (these are popup menus). You can use the default Schedule (stored in the System folder of the boot volume), or any other valid Schedule file (including on distant mounted volumes), but see below for detailed instructions.
The current date and time appear below the currently displayed month's calendar. To return to the current date's month, just click on this date. You will also note that the displayed date's Day & Week of the year appear below its date at the top. Note that the week is an exact one, ie it works on the number of days from the start of the year, not how many weeks beginning from either Sunday or Monday. This means that there may be 53 weeks signalled for most years (if you look for such things!).
You can alter the first day of the week by clicking on the left most day's label (then it should toggle the calendar from Sun first, the default, to Mon first & back again. The relative locations of the calendar days then also adjust appropriately). You can make this change permanent by checking the appropriate box in the Preferences dialog.
Click the small alarm clock icon at top left to open and update the Alarm Clock window. Clicking the dates will update the currently displayed date on the Alarm Clock window too. This is a convenient way of setting a date for an alarm. Note that if you have entered a reminder, and have followed the format described below, your reminder (when selected) will be entered in the Alarm window ready to be saved!
The Text menu allows you to set the font, size, style and color of all the text in the scheduler (ie not individual words), and the Change Selection options are also available (change case, or delete carriage returns).
Scheduler
The downward pointing arrow to the top right of the Calendar is a pop up menu allowing you to Show (or Hide) the Scheduling field (& other options) to the right of the Calendar window. This is also a text editor and allows you to record important dates and events for any day (but to a maximum of 32K per day). To select the day of interest, click on the calendar's date, then type your important events in the schedule. Note that days with existing schedule entries will be hilited in bold type in the Calendar.
You can resize the whole window by dragging on the grow box at bottom right, or clicking the zoom window at top right. When you click on another day in the calendar, your schedule will be saved to disc (also when you quit). The Text menu will affect the appearance of the text in the Scheduler (just like in the NoteBook except that the FSSC selection affects all scheduler text). If you wish to save your customized FSSC and size of scheduler window settings, you should do so via the appropriate Preferences dialog option.
You can have more than one Schedule file. To create a new schedule either (i) select the calendar window (you must have the schedule field showing), choose the Save Schedule As... menu option in the File menu and save a copy (using any name you like) somewhere else (including over a network), OR (ii) copy the original System folder Schedule.prefs file to a new location in the Finder. To open a previously created but different schedule file, you can use the Open Schedule... menu option under the File menu (only present when the calendar window is active). Only valid schedule files will be available to be opened, and then all their saved schedules (and FSSC, schedule window size settings) will replace the current schedule in the calendar window. One more thing, you can make the currently shown schedule file the default (ie the one DeskMates looks for first at start up), but checking the appropriate Preferences dialog option. If it cannot be found (eg being on an unmounted volume at start up) then you will be asked if you want to locate it.
You can add an alarm to the Alarm Clock from the Schedule window by selecting the typed text in the schedule field, then clicking the small icon of the alarm clock on the top left of the calendar. You will be shown the Alarm Clock window with the text already entered in the "Text to Display" field and the correct time set if you put one at the beginning of your entry (see below). Just click any further options you need (pre-alarm time warning, repetition interval etc) and click the Set button. I have tried to include most common formats you can use for the time, but you should note the following points if you want to have these put in automatically correctly:
•the time of day must be the first entry of the line
•the time should be separated from the text by a colon, space or comma.
•periods & colons can separate hours & minutes (ie 935 = 9.35 = 9:35)
•afternoon hours must have some indication that they are after 12 pm. The possible options are to add "pm" or "PM" or "p" or "P" or use 24 hour clock notation ie hrs or HRS, otherwise they will be interpreted as being in the wee hours of the morning!
•you do not have to put a time in the line, but then the present time will show in the Alarm Clock window.
•Do not leave a space after a digit, ie 3pm and 3 pm are not the same time; the latter will be read as 3am.
eg 3.20p: Go home early due to Boston's weather! <- Select this in the scheduler then click the Alarm clock icon and watch the result.
The pop up Calendar menu has other options also. You can display this help window with the Calendar item showing by selecting the Show Help... item.
The next menu item is a way of storing recurring templates for each day of the week (so you dont have to type them in repeatedly). If you have a recurring schedule each week (eg of meetings etc), you can create a prototypic day, then click this button to store the current day's schedules as a template for that day of every week (old & new). Note that this will only affect previously empty days. If you subsequently add to a template schedule the full day's events will be saved as a specific schedule for that day. Other options allow you to delete all prior schedules up to but not including the selected day, or just delete the selected day or the current day's template. You can also achieve the same results by selecting all of the text, then pressing the Delete key (for schedules) or selecting the Delete This Schedule option in the pop up menu. To erase all your current schedules, find the DeskMates "Schedule.prefs" file (in the system folder under system 6, and in the Preferences folder under system 7) or any other one you are using and drag it to the trash. Note that this will erase every single schedule setting (forever!).
Schedules are stored as resources in the "Schedule.prefs" file in the system folder (or Preferences folder) as a default, and should take up a minimum of disc space (certainly less than comparable text files). Each schedule cannot be more than 32K in size. If you wish to put a text file into a schedule, you can open text into the Notebook and then cut and paste it. The Page Setup..., and Print items work the same as for the NoteBook. There is an exception worth noting: if you use a menu extender of some sort which adds hierarchical menus to the Open... menu item be aware that these usually use the routines which open files from the Finder, and hence a file will be opened into the NoteBook, not the Schedule field. Note that the Find... item will present a simpler search dialog box to search through different days, but you can do more complex searches using the usual text search methods within any one schedule by clicking the appropriate option in the presented Find... dialog box.
The Multi-Day Schedule menu option is for those people who wish to print out (or see all in one page) their schedules for consecutive days. To use it, first select the day at which you wish the report to commence (eg a Monday for a weekly schedule), then select this menu option. A dialog prompts you for the actual starting date (the default is to match the selected date in the calendar), and number of days to print (or send to a new text file). You can also choose to include days with templates if there is nothing specific entered for that day, and to remove all unnecessary carriage returns if needed. The text will be compiled and then appears in a Notebook window (or in the new text file). From the Notebook you can then print, export or trash it! If you have large schedules, then you may wish to export the report as a text file without using the notebook at all (mandatory if you anticipate your report to be larger than 32K, which the NoteBook maximum for any one file).
You can also use the Change Case menu items on some selected text, and the Time Stamp and Date Stamp (which also add a carriage return), and whose options can be preset (& saved) via the Preferences dialog box.
There is an automatically created backup of the "Schedule.prefs" file in the same folder, called "Schedule.prefsbak". This is created for emergencies only. If you have a system crash whilst DeskMates is open (probably only if you are programming in another application), you might find your Schedule.prefs file (containing all your important appointments) has been corrupted! In this event, DeskMates will not open your Schedule.prefs file but will inform you of the error. DeskMates will not then alter the backup file either, allowing you time to make reparations as follows. To restore your appointments, you must quit at once, trash your corrupted "Schedule.prefs" file, make a spare copy of & then rename the "Schedule.prefsbak" file to "Schedule.prefs" and reopen DeskMates. I do not suggest you try ResEdit...ing the original file since most crashes I have had have made this file unsalvagable -> hence the need for the backup copy! Hope this helps in the rare instance of a catastrophic crash.
If there are any other features to this calendar/scheduler, that either I haven't explained, or you would like, please tell me!
