Welcome to the Daily Planner, the popular calendar and personal organizer for FileMaker Pro. FileMaker Pro 3.0 offers new power and flexibility for database development. The file structure of the Planner is radically changed from the previous version to take advantage of FMP’s new relational capabilities. I would like to thank all of the registered users who sent me their comments and suggestions, many of which are included in this version.
Help screens are available. Look for the [?] button on most layouts. The help screens will explain most of the available features and mechanics of the template. I recommend, however, that you read this document to get an overview of the Daily Planner system. The Help screens will probably be easier to follow after reading this.
REQUIREMENTS
FileMaker Pro 3.0 • 13 inch monitor (640 x 480), 256 color
FEATURES
1. The Daily Planner is based on a perpetual calendar meaning that entries can be made for any date, past, present, or future. Daily records are created on an “as needed” basis. This approach makes the Daily Planner a more efficient file system and eliminates the need to update or reset the Calendar for each year.
2. Provides Daily, Weekly, and Monthly views. The Daily view features a monthly mini- calendar with the selected day highlighted for easy reference.
3. The monthly calendar in the Daily view also serves as a navigation tool. Each day in the monthly grid is a button that will select that date. The monthly calendars in the Yearly view are also buttons that will take you to the selected month in Daily view.
4. A Holiday calculator is available from the Menu or Daily view. You are shown 27 holidays and annual events. You can enter the year and view the calendar dates for the listed holidays. Check the boxes by the desired holidays and click on the [Post Holidays] button to place the selected dates on your calendar. This file will calculate holidays for any year. Christian and Jewish holidays are available for the years 1996 thru 2100. I did a lot of research to come up with date formulas for the religious holidays........So if you want to know about the cycles of the Moon and Easter or info on the Jewish calendar, don’t call me!
Note that posted holidays will remained marked in the Holidays file. Whenever you return to the Holidays screen, you will always be able to see what has been posted. If you decide later to add more holidays in the same year, the [Post Holidays] script will post only the items that you add and will ignore previously posted events, thereby avoiding duplicate Holiday entries.
5. The Weekly view offers two layouts, one showing your Schedule and To Do list and the other, your Schedule and Daily Notes. You can also choose to include or exclude Sundays by selecting your preference in the main menu.
6. The Monthly view is in the traditional grid layout with all dates visible on a 640 x 480 monitor (13 inch). An expanded monthly view is also available for easier viewing and entry. The monthly view can be printed as a full 8 1/2 x 11 landscape format, using the [Print] button in the Calendar header.
7. The Calendar Maker can be reached from the main menu or the monthly view. It can quickly generate a calendar for any month in any year.
8. The Daily Planner provides a full featured system for your Schedule, To Do list and Notes. All three can be viewed at once in the Daily view.
9. The Daily Planner offers an easy way to schedule repeating items. You can post events to your schedule or a task to your To Do List based on a repeating pattern. Five repeating patterns are available.
- By Weekday (ex: every Monday)
- Monthly by Weekday (ex: 2nd Monday of each month)
- By interval (ex: every two weeks)
- By monthly date (15th day of every month)
- Consecutive days
After the repeating schedule is specified, you can view the list of selected dates before posting, to change a time, change a date, or omit a date. You are warned when a repeating schedule coincides with a posted holiday, so you can change or omit a date if needed.
10. The To Do List offers unlimited entries, priority sorting, rescheduling and automatic tracking of “Open” items or tasks not completed. You can assign priority to your To Do entries as A, B, or C. The task is highlighted in corresponding yellow, green, or blue for easy viewing. Please see more information on “Highlights” in this document.
11. The To Do List Manager allows you to manage your list in three ways. You can schedule or reschedule tasks from your Daily List, Open List (Items not completed), or Project List.
12. The Daily Planner provides two methods or systems for organizing your notes. Make entries for incoming calls, journal of work performed, reminders for future dates, and other miscellaneous information using the Daily Notes system. You can also create and recall notes by topic. A convenient search utility is included for searching the text of your notes on file. See more information on notes in this document.
13. Create and manage projects using the Project Manager. This feature provides a way to link To Do List items and Notes to a specific project name or subject. Create a To Do List and an unlimited number of notes linked to the project. Nothing real fancy going on here. - This is not a full featured project manager, but it does provide basic organization to keep you on track.
14. The Daily Planner offers a special miniature view, a small window that you can move around on the desktop while keeping your view of other files and applications. The MiniViewer provides access to your Schedule, To Do List and monthly mini calendar. When called from the menu or daily view, the MiniViewer will open and all other Planner windows will close. When called from other layouts, the current window will remain visible.
15. File Maintenance - This feature helps you to maintain or clean your files of old records. You can delete records or send them to the Archives for storage.
THE DAILY PLANNER FILE SYSTEM
The Daily planner system consists of 10 files. The following is a brief description of each one.
1. Planner.FM - This is your main window into the system. It provides the user interface and routines for managing your records. All Planner functions are accessed through this file.
2. Schedule.FM - Holds your appointment and schedule data for viewing in the Planner.
3. ToDoList.FM - Holds your To Do List entries for viewing in the Planner.
4. Notes.FM - Stores your notes for viewing in the Planner.
5. Calendar.FM - This file provides the monthly view of your schedule and also features the Calendar Maker.
6. View.FM - This is the MiniViewer, a small window version of the Planner. Call up the MiniViewer from the Planner. View.FM also holds important data for the monthly and yearly calendars that display in the Planner.
7. Archives.FM - This is the storage place for old records that are removed from the Daily Planner and related files. See more about the File Maintenance feature in this document.
8. Holidays.FM - This file will calculate and post selected holidays to the Planner. See the description of the feature in this document.
9. Help.FM - Contains the help screens for the Daily Planner.
10. Sort.txt - A small text file used by the Planner in sorting your schedule and To Do List.
A NOTE ABOUT NOTES
The Notes field in the daily view and the full screen expanded view is changeable for daily notes or notes referenced by topic. Clicking in the topic field in the header above the note field will show a list of note topics on file, or type a new topic into the field to start a new note.
Topics shown as “xxx: xxx” refer to a note that is linked to a project created in the Project Manager. The word(s) to the left of the colon is the project name, the word(s) to the right of the colon is the topic. You can create a new project note without going to the Project Manager by using the format described above. (project name:note topic) Just be sure that the project name spelling matches the name that you are using in the Project Manager. For more information on project related notes, see the help screen for the Project Manager.
To enter a Daily Note, go to the desired date. If the date is shown in the topic area, you are already in the Daily Notes mode. If not, clicking on the [< Daily] button to the right of the topic area will recall the Daily Note option. Just click into the note body and begin typing. The topic display will go blank when you’re typing a daily note and will reappear when you press enter or exit the field. Notes entered in the Daily Notes mode will be saved to file under that date. Daily notes for a specific day can be found by going to the date for that note.
PRIORITY HIGHLIGHTS
The Highlights feature provides color coded identification of the priority rankings in your To Do List. Most layouts have a yellow/white button that you can use to toggle the highlights on or off. You may want to turn off this feature at times. The behavior of these highlights can be a little quirky depending on your computer model and monitor type. Screen redraws are sometimes incomplete and certain file functions may be slowed when highlights are in effect. Anyway, I thought it was a cool feature, and I couldn’t resist including it in this version.
FILE MAINTENANCE
As time passes, you will probably want to do some house cleaning in the Planner file system. Old notes and To Do List records may accumulate and cause clutter in the various windows and menus.
You can remove those old records using the File Maintenance tool. You may choose to delete them or store them in the special ‘Archives’ file. They’ll be safely tucked away, ready if you need them, but not included in the various routines and menus of the Daily Planner. The Archives can be opened from the main menu.
DOs and DON’Ts (mostly Don’ts)
•Don’t move or relocate files from the Planner folder. Keep all files together in the same folder.
•Don’t rename any of the files
•Don’t use the pull down menus for Find, Delete, or Print. Use the available buttons on the various layouts for those functions.
PAGE SETUP AND PRINTING
Page Setup options must be restored to insure correct page orientation for printing. This procedure is required only once and would have to be repeated only if you change the printer that you use with this file.
1. Open the Planner.FM and click on the [Month] button, to go to the calendar.
2. When the calendar appears, choose “Page Setup” from the File pull down menu and select the landscape (horizontal) print orientation and click OK. *
3. Click the [Menu] or [Daily] button to return to the Planner.
4. Choose “Page Setup” from the File menu and select the portrait (vertical) orientation and click OK. *
5. IMPORTANT: When printing the Weekly Schedule or Monthly Calendar, choose the Grayscale option in the Print dialog box. Otherwise, you'll get nothing but black grid spaces in your printout.
6. The print option is available for the Weekly view, Monthly view, Daily Notes, and To Do List. Always use the [Print] button on the screen instead of the Print command in the File pull down menu.
*NOTE: If you have a laser printer, you may have the option to increase the print area on the page. If available, choose [options] in the Page Setup dialog box.
Select “Larger print area, fewer downloadable fonts”. Do this each time you are instructed to change the Page Setup in the instructions above.
A BUG IN FILEMAKER PRO 3.0
The new FileMaker is an excellent database, but not without a glitch here and there. A major problem exists concerning the update of related records. The Daily Planner depends heavily on relational schemes. The problem is that the various lists and displays that show information from related files don’t always update themselves to reflect changes or new entries that you have made. You can be sure that your entries and revisions are being saved, but you are not always able to observe the results of what you have done, until something happens that forces a redraw of the screen.
The good news is that I have managed to install “work arounds” in most cases that force the fields to update. The bad news is that these extra steps slow the file down and force the screen to flash and redraw more than I’d like. Claris has acknowledged the problem and is working to correct it. The 3.0v2 updater recently announced by Claris does not solve this problem. When they do get around to correcting this glitch I will issue an update to the Planner. The update will involve the Planner.FM file only and not files which hold your records, so updates will be a simple replacement of the older Planner.FM file in your folder.
NETWORK INSTALLATION
The Daily Planner is designed primarily as a personal planner. It can, however, be used on a network. The performance and speed will vary according to the size and type of network. There may be other issues involving network use. Please note.....I cannot vouch for nor provide technical support on network installations of the Daily Planner. You will need your password to assign network functions. Set up for network installation as follows:
Install Planner.FM, Calendar.FM, and Help.FM on the host and on all guest units that will be accessing the Planner. Set as single user.
Install the Planner3.0 folder with the remaining files on the Host or server and designate each file as multi user.
Each guest will access Planner files by opening their own Planner.FM that is resident on their computer. When the Planner is first opened, the operator may have to help FileMaker locate the related files on the host.
SHAREWARE INFORMATION
This shareware version of the Daily planner is 100% functional with access to all features. Access to layout design, scripts, and field definition is restricted. Keep the Daily Planner for up to 90 days while you decide if it is a useful tool. ** See Expiration Notice below **
To register, open the enclosed registration file and fill in the requested information. Print the registration form, enclose with your shareware fee, and mail to the address listed below.
Registered users will receive a new Planner.FM file. The registered file replaces the shareware version in the Planner folder. The other files in the Daily Planner system will remain unchanged. A password for access to layouts, scripts and field definitions will also be provided.
All updates and revisions are free to registered users. All registered users who provide their Email address will be notified about major revisions. You will not be notified when minor updates are posted. Watch for new versions on your BBS, internet server, or on line service. Or visit the Daily Planner Web Page for news about the latest version and a link for download. The URL address is listed below.
If you plan to redistribute this program to a BBS or on-line service, include the folder intact with all supporting files, including this Read Me File. If you wish to distribute this file as part of a shareware collection or as a "module" within another template, please request permission before proceeding. Due to the Expiration provision included in this file, distribute only the original unopened file. Contact me via Email if you have any questions or comments.
SHAREWARE PRICES
Single User: $20.00, Outside USA $25.00
Multi User Site License: $60.00, Outside USA $65.00
ADDRESS
Use the Registration form (included in the Planner folder) and send the shareware fee to:
If you have registered an older version of the Daily Planner prior to 2/26/96, this upgrade is available at no charge. Send me a note and I will send you the necessary file as well as a script for transfering records from your older version to the new file. After 2/26/96, those who register older versions of the Daily Planner (for FileMaker 2.x) for $15.00 can upgrade to this version for an additional $5.00.
EXPIRATION NOTICE
This unregistered Daily Planner will expire approximately 90 -104 days after you first open the file. A dialog box will advise you as the expiration date approaches. Upon expiration, access to the Daily Planner and your entries will be denied. If your Planner expires, and you prefer not to register, but need to recover your records, Email a note to me requesting the procedure for regaining access. You will not have use of the Daily Planner, but you will be able to recover your schedule, To Do List, and Notes as text data.
VERSION HISTORY
3.03
• Revised scripts to insure that selected dates are properly displayed when leaving and returning to the weekly view
• Revised scripts in Calendar.FM to correct positioning of the monthly view
• Corrected sort routines to prevent potential loss of data.
3.02
• Added navigation features to the monthly calendars in the Daily view and yearly calendar.
• Revised the maintenance routine so that rescheduled items from the To Do list will not be imported to the Archives. This will insure that only one copy of each To Do List item will be moved during the maintenance procedure.
3.01
• Added more script provisions to work around the related fields bug in FileMaker.
• Added a "Find" feature in the Weekly view.
• Revised the File Open script for a faster open time. As "To Do LIst" entries accumulate in the file, the time that the Daily planner takes to open would get noticeably longer. The revision eliminates the delay. To preserve the quickest open time, select "All" in the "Open To Do List" before closing the file.
• Altered scripts in the Monthly view that affect the zoom/unzoom sequence. Users with larger monitors may have encounterd problems when switching between the regular and expanded monthly views. This fix preserves the correct sizing of the two layouts.
• Revised the "Post Holidays" script to ensure that posted Holidays will always appear in the first row of the schedule.
• Changed password definitions in Calendar.FM to allow use of "Page Setup..." in the file menu.
DISCLAIMER
The author, Steve Murray, makes no warranties either express or implied regarding the fitness of the Daily Planner File System for any particular purpose. The author claims no liability for data loss or any other problems caused directly or indirectly by the Daily Planner File System.
