The “Remember? Extension” is what is known as a “System Extension” “Startup Document” or “INIT” to you long-time Mac-ites. Its single shot at the spotlight comes when you turn on or restart your Mac. It will (optionally) run the Desk Accessory so it can check for upcoming occasions which may be of interest. Its secondary responsibility is to install the magical code that draws the Pop-up Alert Window at the times you specify in your occasions. Remember this: no “Remember? Extension,” no auto-run of the DA or pop-up Alerts!
To let you know what is going on while it runs, the INIT will show an ICON on the bottom of the screen, probably one of many ICONs for the INITs you have installed in your system. The ICON displayed will be one of the following:
• “Remember? Extension” Icons
(A) The DA will be opened to check for occasions of interest.
(B) The DA will not be run since it has already been run today and you selected the “once a day” checking feature.
(C) You haven’t opened any occasion files in the DA, or you bypassed the INIT by pressing the mouse button during startup. Upcoming occasions are not checked, but the Alert handler is installed.
(D) You completely bypassed the INIT by pressing “Shift-Option-Command-Mouse button down” during startup. This completely suppresses INIT operations. It is provided as a fail-safe in case the INIT gets corrupted and hangs your system when it runs.
(E) The pop-up alert driver code (yes, that is a steering wheel) could not be installed. Pop-up alerts will not be available.
(F) The “Remember’s Settings” file is missing. Pop-up alerts are installed, but the DA will not be run.
Appearance of either “frowning face” icon indicates that there is a problem with your installation. Try replacing Remember? Extension with a fresh copy or rebuilding the Remember’s Settings file (throw it in the trash and open the DA).
The overall option to check for occasions of interest is controlled by the Preferences:Startup checks item “Should the DA check for Occasions of Interest?” and independently for each occasion type through Occasion Types “Advance Notification.”
••• The “Remember?” Pop-up Alert Window
You can cause the appearance of a “Pop-up Alert Window” by specifying both the “Starts at” and “Alert at” times in an Occasion window. At the given alert time, a window looking like this will appear on your Mac screen, possibly accompanied by the sound you picked for the occasion’s Type:
This is the black and white version; the color version has a really cool, 3D look. You don’t have to rush right out and buy a Quadra just to see it, but if there was ever a reason to do it, this is it. (A joke, and NO I don’t have $9,000+ to give you to go out and get one; *I* still want one.)
The top line of text gives the current date and time. The bottom gives the starting time and day for the next alert occasion and the descriptive text you entered in the Occasion window. You can control the entire appearance of this window through the Preferences:Pop-Up Alerts:Window Layout options.
The alert window will float there, above all of your windows, until you click on it to dismiss it. You can get it back, or bring it up at any time, by pressing your “hot key” sequence defined in Preferences. The default sequence is “Option-Control-`” ( ` being an accent grave, or an open single quote to some folks). Pressing the hot key a second time closes the window. The alert sound is replayed every 5 minutes to try to attract attention to the window.
See that cute little “ICON” at the upper left? It is not only G-rated and animated, but if you click on it you get a pop-up menu with the following entries:
• Go Away
Closes the Alert window. Same as pressing the “hot key” a second time or clicking in the alert window with the mouse.
• “Remember?” DA
Close the Alert and run the DA. Opens the default files and the “Alerts” window set if you have saved one. Otherwise, the “Default” windows are used.
• Edit
Close the Alert and run the DA. You will get a single Edit Occasion window for the given occasion. This item is dimmed if you manually activated the Alert window and there is no alert occasion for today or tomorrow.
• New
Close the alert and run the DA, opening a brand new Edit Occasion window primed with Today’s date. Just type in the description, change the occasion type and file if desired, turn on the “Alert Me At” time if desired, and save it.
• Anything of Interest?
The Desk Accessory will open and repeat the startup check for occasions of interest. The DA will only remain open if it finds occasions of interest.
The old Revise Alert item has been removed since it confused more folks than it helped. It is still available as Command-(whatever)-R for those who relied upon it.
IMPORTANT TIP:
The Command key shortcuts in the menu are only available while the alert window is open. You have to use the same modifier keys (Command, Option, Shift, etc) that are used for the “hot key.” For example, with the default “hot key”, pressing “Option-Command-`” will open the alert window, then “Option-Command-N” will run the DA to add a new occasion.
You may on occasion (sorry) see a few other strings displayed on the bottom alert line:
• Nothing Happening Today or Tomorrow.
There are no alert occasions for the next two days.
• You’ve turned off alerts.
You disabled pop-up alerts through Preferences.
• No occasion files.
You have not opened any Occasion files in the DA.
• Can’t access “Remember?’s Settings.”
The configuration file is missing or damaged or in use. Reboot to see if the problem disappears. You may have to scrap the settings file and re-run the DA. NOTE: This may appear intermittently during upgrades from previous versions if the old Remember? Extension is still active. It should disappear after you run the new DA and reboot.
You may also see a message with the format “(Mac error code ???)” after the above messages. It indicates that a problem has been found with one of the files.You should check to make sure you haven’t moved an occasion file. It may also be that one of the files has become damaged. Run the DA to determine the exact problem.
NOTE: Some programs, like paint programs and games, can erase all or part of the pop-up alert window. The pop-up alert code detects most of these cases and will re-draw the alert window. In the event that it doesn't, just toggle the pop-up alert off and on with the hot key, and it should be re-drawn. Basically, it is a good idea to close the alert window while you are doing other stuff.
A word about screen savers (like Dimmer™, Pyro™, After Dark™, AutoIdle™, etc.) Their goal in life is to blank the screen after the machine has been sitting idle for a length of time. They also try to keep active programs from drawing on the screen while it is blanked, and each seems to do this using slightly different methods. As a consequence, when a "Remember?" alert pops up on a blanked screen, several things can happen.
If the screen saver wins out, the alert will not appear on the screen. It will, however, be visible when you unblank the screen. Pyro seems to work like this.
Other screen savers (After Dark, for example) fight a never-ending battle with the pop-up alert window. The alert is drawn, the screen saver notices and erases it, which causes the alert to be re-drawn, etc., etc., etc. The result is that the alert appears to flicker on and off. This is OK; it will be re-drawn properly when you unblank the screen. Since it flickers, screen burn won't be a problem either. It just looks weird while the screen is blanked.
There is another class of screen saver of which Dimmer is an example. It works only on color machines, and it physically dims the screen. You can still see everything that is drawn, including pop-up alerts; it is just not intense enough to burn the screen. No fireworks or fish, but it does the job. (No, I didn't write Dimmer; Chris DeRossi did. I just think it is pretty slick.)
••• A Quick Way to Enter a New Occasion
Using the pop-up alert window, you can very quickly enter a new occasion:
(1) Press the “hot key” for the pop-up window, unless you changed it: Command-Option-`
(2) Press Command-Option-N to run the Desk Accessory to create a new occasion.
(3) Type the new occasion directly into the Occasion description box (for example: meeting tomorrow 3pm 2:30pm “Meet with the Wizard”).
(4) Press Command = (equal sign) to convert the text into an occasion.
(5) Press Command-Option-W to close the window and save the new occasion. The DA will close too since there are no open windows.
That’s it! You should substitute your own “hot key” in the above if you have changed it from the default.
