Birthdays and Such… is an application meant to be launched on daily startup, to remind you of the important birthdays and anniversaries in your life. It works for me, which has made me the envy of all my friends and relatives. By setting reminders 10 or so days ahead, I find I’m as on the ball as the best of the rest of my friends and relatives in remembering to buy cards and presents (and to actually send them)—and way ahead of the date-impaired.
Now admittedly you’re going to have to type in a list of all the important dates you want to remember. But this is a one-time task. From then on, you’re home free (ok, ok, you still have to add and remove friends and relatives as they’re born and die...). But that certainly beats my previous annual efforts to write every date onto the family calendar or into my day-timer. And it results in a list that, printed out from your word processing program, makes it easy to buy your whole year’s cards in one shopping trip!
The steps are simple (with details below): Install Birthdays and Such by copying a few files to your hard disk. Type your list of important dates into a text file you call “Reminders” (yes, the name is required). Put the Reminders file where Birthdays and Such… can find it. And set Birthdays and Such… to run every time you start your Macintosh.
Then every time you turn on your Macintosh, it will start up Birthdays and Such… The program will look up the current date, scan the Reminders file for upcoming events, and display just those you need to do something about.
It’s at this point—before I choose Quit from the File menu in Birthdays and Such…—that I write myself a little note (and put it in my pocket) to buy a card, or I pull out the card I bought earlier.
And if you leave your Macintosh running for days at a time, just leave Birthdays and Such… running: its window will update to the next day’s reminders every night on the stroke of midnight. (I specifically designed Birthdays and Such… both to launch super quickly and to run all the time: it’s absolutely the smallest executable I could make it. In fact, it’s probably the smallest executable on your machine! It’s only 17K.)
The program name “Birthdays and Such…”
Birthdays and Such… ends with an ellipsis character because there are so many dates beyond birthdays and such to remember… (I have added reminders for such purposes as filing for reimbursement of certain recurring expenses, changing my 401K contributions, paying for my Grand Canyon reservations, and visiting my dentist, for example.)
Version 1.0
Version 1.0 has been extensively tested, and it is my belief that there are no bugs of any kind (I know, I know, famous last words and all). Well, how about this: I’ve been using Birthdays and Such… for almost two and a half years now on Macs ranging from SEs to Quadras, Performas to PowerMacs, and from System 6 to System 7—all without a glitch.
What you need to run Birthdays and Such…
Birthdays and Such… runs on almost every Macintosh computer that’s been made. There is almost no Macintosh in use today that does not meet the following minimum system requirements:
• a Macintosh computer made in 1986 or later (that is, not a Mac 128 or Mac 512)
• system software version 6.0 or later (actually, System 6.0.4 or later may be required)
If you’re not sure which system you have, choose the About The Finder or About This Macintosh command from the Apple menu (these commands only appear when you’re in the Finder).
Distribution
Birthdays and Such… is shareware. (No, not for my relatives and friends. Don’t be silly. I sent it to each of you as a gift. But if you’re not already one of my friends, relatives and acquaintances, Birthdays and Such… is shareware.)
Birthdays and Such… is NOT a free or public domain program.
As with most shareware, please try it for yourself for a day, a week, a month. Unlike most shareware, however, Birthdays and Such… is What’sItWorthWare—that is, I believe in user-determined pricing. You decide what Birthdays and Such… is worth. Then send me a money order or a check (see Chapter 7). (What’s it worth to save your marriage? What’s it worth to maintain your relationship with your parents? OK, maybe Birthdays and Such… won’t do that all by itself, but... :-)
Please keep Birthdays and Such…, the sample Reminders file, the manual, and any addendum or readme files bundled together, if you pass it on to someone else.
Chapter 2 : Installing Birthdays and Such…
To install Birthdays and Such… from a floppy disk (or CDROM) onto your hard drive (you can skip these steps if you downloaded and uncompressed Birthdays and Such… from a network source):
1) Turn on your Macintosh.
2) Insert the floppy disk labeled Birthdays and Such in the floppy disk drive of your Macintosh.
3) Copy the folder labeled Birthdays and Such folder to your hard disk.
4) Eject the Birthdays and Such disk.
Basic installation is now complete.
Auto-Startup Installation:
Most people will want Birthdays and Such… to run every time they turn on their Macintosh computer, so they’ll be reminded of upcoming birthdays and anniversaries at least that often. If you would like the program to run every time you turn on your Macintosh, continue with the following instructions.
1) Open the Birthdays and Such folder on your hard disk (the one you just moved there)
2) Select the icon labeled Birthdays and Such… (click once on the icon).
Remaining installation instructions for System 6 users:
If you use System 7, skip to the section titled “Remaining installation instructions for System 7 users.” This section is for System 6 users:
3) Choose the Set Startup command from the Special menu.
4) Click the radio button labeled Birthdays and Such… (If Birthdays and Such… is not one of the options, click the Cancel button and go back two steps in these instructions to step 1.)
5) Click the OK button.
If you’re a System 6 user, auto-startup installation is now complete. Now every time you turn on your Macintosh computer, Birthdays and Such… will start up, look through the Reminders file, and remind you of the upcoming events in your life.
Remaining installation instructions for System 7 users:
3) Choose the Make Alias command from the File menu.
4) Drag the new file labeled Birthdays and Such… alias into the Startup Items folder, which is located inside the System Folder.
Auto-startup installation is now complete. Now every time you turn on your Macintosh computer, Birthdays and Such… will start up, look through the Reminders file, and remind you of the upcoming events in your life.
Optional Step: To force the Birthdays and Such… reminders window to appear as the top window (to be “in your face”, so to speak), rename the application and the alias to begin with a ‘•’ (type the key combination, option-8). (This works because the bullet sorts alphabetically after all the letters and numbers, and after many special characters.) (Note, however, that Startup Items that are desk accessories or documents will foil this plan: they will open on top anyway, since DAs and documents open after applications.)
Now double-click Birthdays and Such… The four changes of season are in the sample Reminders file, each with a long enough reminder period to guarantee there’s a reminder every single day—so you can get a flavor of Birthdays and Such… right away.
Chapter 3 : Setting Up Your Reminders
The file you create of all your important dates, a text file which must be named “Reminders”, is the source of information for Birthdays and Such…
Each Reminder in the Reminders file can be assigned its own number of days ahead that you want to be reminded that the event is upcoming.
Acceptable locations for the Reminders file
The Reminders file (which must have the name “Reminders”) must be located in one of two places:
• in the same folder as Birthdays and Such… , or
• in the System Folder
Birthdays and Such… reads in the file, looks through all the reminders in it, and evaluates them to find those which are, today, applicable (those for which today’s date is within the reminder period). Then it displays those reminders in a list on the screen.
How to edit the Reminders file
Reminders is a text file that can be created by any word processor that can save a file as ‘text’.
The simplest way to edit Reminders is to use TeachText or SimpleText, one of which is located on almost every Macintosh. (Instructions for using other word processors to edit Reminders can be found at the end of this chapter.)
The sample Reminders file was created in SimpleText (on earlier Macintoshes called TeachText). To edit Reminders, simply double-click its icon. If you have TeachText or SimpleText, it will launch, opening the Reminders file. When you’ve made your changes, choose Save from the File menu. Then close the document (choose Close from the File menu). Double-click Birthdays and Such… to see the results (if any would be displayed today) of your changes.
The format for each Reminder
The format in the text file named “Reminders” is a series of records, each several lines long, each line a single field. You have to press the return key when you add new lines to the document, and not just let the line wrap (Nerd translation: each line must be terminated by a carriage return character).
The fields are in the following order:
date date of reminder
warning-period number of days prior to date to begin reminding (0 to 99)
Reminder the text to display as a reminder
- record separator (a dash as the first character on the line)
Reminders consist of just the first three fields, followed by the record separator line (a single dash as the first character on the line). No blank lines are permitted.
Here’s an example file with three reminders:
January 14
2
David’s birthday (1955).
-
January 23
0
Grandma’s birthday .
-
July 19
10
Author Ron Lichty’s birthday, P.O. Box 27262, SF, CA 94127.
-
So in the example, you would be reminded of David’s birthday from January 12-14, Grandma’s birthday only on January 23rd itself, and Ron’s birthday from July 9-19, long enough to buy him lots of presents.
While the example shows the birthdays in date order, that’s not necessary. But I personally find it easier to look through the Reminders file and keep track of everyone by doing it that way.
The date Field: International Date Formats
Dates should be written in a form that is native to the language and region of the system software you are using. (Nerd note: a part of system software called the Script Manager is used to read the dates from the file; the date routines weren’t added to the Script Manager until version 2.0, which was released with System 6, which is why System 6 or later is required.)
The most common valid English date formats, for example, would be:
September 20
Sept 20
Sept. 20
9/20
European French systems, on the other hand, would probably expect (try it and let me know):
20 septembre
20 sept
20 sept.
20.9
I tested how well this works in other regions, but that is the point of the routines, so I would expect them to work fairly intuitive to your language and region.
The warning-period Field
This is the number of days prior to the reminder’s date that you’d like the program to remind you about it. It’s a one- or two-digit number from 0 to 99.
The number ‘0’ indicates that you want to see the reminder only on date itself—no prior days. The number ‘1’ means you want to be warned the day before in addition to on the date itself. And so on. If the reminder’s date is October 30, and the warning period is 2 days, you’ll be reminded from October 28th through October 30th.
I often set warning periods of 10 days for distant relatives for whom I need to buy a card and send it. But I may set only a 2-day warning for local friends, to remind me I will want to call them on their actual birthdays.
The Reminders Field
This one line of text is the line that Birthdays and Such… will show you when the reminder is valid—from the beginning of the warning period through the date of the reminder itself. It’s limited to a single line—a maximum of perhaps 70 or so characters. If you get too many, they’ll just disappear off the right edge of the window.
Using other word processing programs to edit the Reminders file
Here are instructions for using various common word processing programs to edit a text file. Note that the instructions may change as word processors are updated with new versions.
To use Microsoft Word, choose Open from the File menu, make sure the “List Files of Type” popup is set either to Readable Files or to Text Files, navigate to the Reminders file, select Reminders, and Open it. When you’ve made your changes, choose Save from the File menu; provided you haven’t tried (even inadvertently) to use bold, underlining, another font, or other formatting commands, Microsoft Word will maintain the TEXT file type.
If, instead, you were to start a new Reminders file in Microsoft Word, the first time you save Reminders, select Text Only in the popup menu labeled “Save File as Type”; if you forget (or if Word forgets, which it occasionally does), choose Save As... from the File menu, type in Reminders again as the filename, and select Text Only in the popup menu labeled “Save File as Type” (you’ll be prompted to confirm that it’s ok to replace the previous Reminders file). (Special power user note: As a power Word user, I have a custom Work menu; since I tend to add birthdays to Reminders all the time, as I meet people, I added Reminders to my Work menu; that way I don’t have to think about where the file is actually located—I just choose Reminders from Word’s Work menu to open it; then I edit it, save it, and close it.)
To use MacWrite 5.01, choose Open from the File menu, navigate to the Reminders file, select Reminders, and Open it (select the “Paragraphs” button to the Carriage Return prompt; and “OK” to the Document Being Converted prompt). When you’ve made your changes, choose Save from the File menu, click the “Text Only” radio button, type in Reminders as the file’s name, and click Save. (You’ll additionally have to click Replace to “Replace existing ‘Reminders’?”; and “Paragraphs” to the Carriage Return prompt.) Then close the document in MacWrite 5.01 (you’ll additionally have to click No to “Save changes before closing?”).
To use MacWrite II, choose Open from the File menu, make sure the “Show” popup is set either to All Available or to Text, navigate to the Reminders file, select Reminders, and Open it. When you’ve made your changes, choose Save As from the File menu, set the “Save As” popup to Text, type in Reminders as the file’s name (or simply delete “ (Converted)” from after “Reminders”—be sure to remove the space character between “Reminders” and “(Converted)”), and click Save. (You’ll additionally have to click Replace to “Replace existing ‘Reminders’?”) Then close the document in MacWrite II (you’ll additionally have to click No to “Save changes to ‘Reminders (Converted)’ before closing?”).
To use MacWrite Pro, choose Open from the File menu, make sure the “Show” popup is set either to All Available or to Text, navigate to the Reminders file, select Reminders, and Open it. When you’ve made your changes, choose Save from the File menu, set the “Save As” popup to Text, type in Reminders as the file’s name (or simply delete “ (Converted)” from after “Reminders”—be sure to remove the space character between “Reminders” and “(Converted)”), and click Save. (You’ll additionally have to click Replace to “Replace existing ‘Reminders’?”) Then close the document in MacWrite Pro (you’ll additionally have to click No to “Save changes to ‘Reminders (Converted)’ before closing?”).
To use ClarisWorks, choose Open from the File menu, set the “Document Type” popup to Word Processing (make sure the “File Type” popup is set to All Available or to Plain Text), navigate to the Reminders file, select Reminders, and Open it. When you’ve made your changes, choose Save from the File menu, set the “Save As” popup to Plain Text, type in Reminders as the file’s name (or simply delete “ - Converted” from after “Reminders”—be sure to remove the space character between “Reminders” and
“- Converted”), and click Save. (You’ll additionally have to click Replace to “Replace existing ‘Reminders’?”) Then close the document in ClarisWorks (you’ll have to click No to “Save changes to ‘Reminders - Converted’ before closing?”).
To use Microsoft Works, choose Open from the File menu, click the Word Processor icon, click the Import File check box so the Reminder icon will be visible, navigate to the Reminders file, select Reminders, and Open it. When you’ve made your changes, choose Save As from the File menu, click the Export File checkbox, type in Reminders as the file’s name, and click Save. (You’ll additionally have to click Yes to “Replace existing Reminders?”) Then close the document in Microsoft Works.
Chapter 4 : Birthdays and Such… options
Birthdays and Such… is so simple that it has only one menu option. Nonetheless, balloon help (System 7 or later) is available for Birthdays and Such… Choose Show Balloons under the Help menu to browse the capabilities of Birthdays and Such…
The AutoQuit option
Some users who launch Birthdays and Such… every day would prefer not have to look at an empty list, then manually quit the program, when there are no reminders that day. For these users, there is an AutoQuit option.
When the list of reminders is displayed, you will see, in addition to the three standard menus (the Apple, File and Edit menus), a Reminders menu. Pull down the Reminders menu and you’ll see a single option:
AutoQuit If No Reminders
If you choose this option, the next time you pull down the menu there will be a checkmark in front of it. And the next time you launch Birthdays and Such…, it will automatically immediately quit if there are no reminders to display.
You will want to choose this option only if you launch Birthdays and Such… daily (whether by double-clicking it, or by making it part of your Startup Items).
If today is a date with no reminders, and the AutoQuit option is turned on, then Birthdays and Such… will launch and automatically quit. Unfortunately, the only way to disable the feature is to have Birthdays and Such… running, but it won’t run until there’s a reminder to display. Catch 22. You can solve this in one of two ways:
• Change the date in the General Controls or Date & Time control panel to a date for which there is a reminder (be sure to change the date back after unchecking the AutoQuit command).
• Add a reminder to the Reminders file that is applicable today.
If you leave your Macintosh running for days at a time, then you should:
• leave Birthdays and Such… running all the time (its automatic update feature—re-evaluating the Reminders file at midnight every night—means that whenever you look at its window, the reminders will be correct)
• leave the AutoQuit option unchecked (checking this option will stymie your intentions: Birthdays and Such… will, some midnight, hit the first hole in your reminders, quit, and never reappear)
Note: Birthdays and Such… does not know how to relaunch itself. It knows only how to update its window once it is running. I specifically designed Birthdays and Such… both to launch super quickly and/or to run all the time: it’s absolutely the smallest executable I could make it. (It’s probably the smallest executable on your machine! It’s only 17K.)
There’s one caveat to its window always being correct. If you change the Reminders file, you will have to quit and relaunch Birthdays and Such… to see the new ones. I could have added code to constantly monitor the disk and check whether the Reminders file had been changed, but opted to keep Birthdays and Such… small...
