Now to the meat of the matter, as it were. The heart of the package, where you spend most of your time, is the “Remember?” Desk Accessory. It allows you to create and modify occasions and occasion files, browse and print their contents, and walk through time checking out what will happen or has already happened.
• Accessing the DA
It is there, probably tucked in just before “Scrapbook” in the “Apple” menu. Normally, when you run the DA from this menu, it will open the Default windows you specified with the “Save Windows as” menu item. The User windows will be opened instead if you hold down the Shift key while the DA opens.
You can also open the DA from the pop-up alert window’s menu.
• “Edit” Menu Commands
Most “Remember?” windows respond reasonably to the standard edit commands “Cut,” “Copy,” “Paste,” and “Clear.” See the discussions on individual window types for specifics. Occasions are copied to the scrap/clipboard in two formats: a compact internal format retaining the full occasion description, and a text form consisting of the occasion template followed by a TAB and the descriptive text. Internal “Paste” operations use the compact format; the text format is provided as a convenience for pasting into other applications. The DA attempts to convert text into occasion descriptions when it is Pasted into a Browse or Occasion window.
Command-W closes the front window.
The “Remember?” DA Main Menu
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The main Remember? menu appears at the right end of the menu bar when the DA is the active application. This menu can also be accessed by Command-Option-clicking in any “Remember?” window. Lets dive into detail on the individual menu items.
What’s Happening
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Lists occasions occurring within a range of days in a What’s Happening window. Hold down the Shift key to open a new window; otherwise, the top existing window will be used.
• Of Interest shows only those occasions which you consider important Today, those which will occur within the Advance Notification period of their Type.
• Today and Tomorrow display all occasions occurring on that day.
• This Week shows all occasions from the previous Sunday to the following Saturday. The starting day of week can be changed in Preferences.
• This Month lists all occasions for every day of the current month.
• Days from Today lists all occasions for 1 to 40 days starting with Today.
What’s Happening windows are discussed in detail in "Part 4, the DA Windows."
Calendar Only
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Opens a window showing a plain calendar for the current month. Press the Shift key to create a new window; otherwise, the top existing Calendar window will be brought to the front.
Calendar Only windows are discussed in detail in "Part 4, the DA Windows."
Add New Occasion(s)
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Creates an “Occasion” Window which can be used to create new occasions. The default Occasion Type is set by the Command-A check box in Occasion Types. Initially, the Occasion file used will be the last one in the current list of files.
“Occasion” windows are discussed in detail in "Part 4, the DA Windows."
Add “To Do” item
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Same as “Add New Occasion(s)” except automatically sets the month, day and year to Today and sets the Persistent check box. All you have to do is type the Description and save it. The “to do” item reappears every day until you click on it and select “Completed” in the What’s Happening or Occasion windows. Set the default Occasion Type with the Command-B check box in Occasion Types.
Find an Occasion
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Creates a Find Occasion Window. Creates a new, blank Occasion window which can be used to search through the open files for occasion definitions.
Initially, all fields in the window will be off. Simply turn on those of interest and set them to the appropriate value. Select Find in the window's menu to search for the first occasion that matches the fields. The window will change to an Occasion window viewing the occasion found; otherwise, you will hear a beep signifying that there are no matching occasions. Select Find Next to bring up the next one. See the discussion on the menu commands in the Occasion Window section for details about Find and Find Next.
Save Windows as
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Save the position and size of the current What’s Happening and Calendar windows for later use. The available sets and their intended uses are:
• Default
This set is opened when you choose Remember? from the “apple” menu. It will also be opened at Startup and when the DA is run from the Pop-up Alert window if you have not saved a separate set for that use.
• Startup
Opened when the DA is automatically run at startup, or when it is run from the Pop-up Alert Window’s “Anything of Interest?” menu item. You should include a What’s happening “Of Interest” window in this set to make sure you do not miss an important occasion.
• Alerts
Used when you choose “Remember? DA” from the Pop-up Alert Window menu.
• User
Just a spare set to use as you see fit. It will be opened when you choose Remember? from the “apple” menu while holding down the Shift key.
A solid diamond mark will appear next to the item for the current open set of windows. The diamond will be hollow if you have made changes to the window set (such as opening new windows, closing existing, or changing the contents of a What’s Happening window,) but haven’t saved them.
Revert to Saved
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Closes the current windows and opens those saved in the set you select from the sub-menu. Items in this sub-menu will be dimmed if you haven’t done a “Save Windows as” for that set. There are command key shortcuts for each of the sets. Also opens the standard occasion files (those last Saved in the «Occasion Files…» dialog.)
A solid diamond mark appears next to the current open set of windows. The diamond will be hollow if you have made changes to the set.
Occasion Files…
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Bring up the “Occasion Files” dialog. This is where you select the set of files that contain your occasion definitions:
The scrolling box shows the occasion files currently in use. Occasions in these files can appear in “What’s Happening” windows, Startup Checks and pop-up alerts. Click on any file in the list to select that file for the Close and Browse operations. Use Shift-click and Command-click to select several files. Typing a letter will select the first file starting with that letter. Type the letter twice to fake a “double click” which will open a Browse window for the file.
When a single file is selected, its location on your hard drive and its Auto-Delete, Shared file and File Lock status are shown at the bottom.
• New…
The standard “Save” file dialog. Type in a name and click “Save” to create a new, empty occasion file. The file is added to the list.
• Open…
The standard “Open” file dialog. Select an existing occasion file and click “Open” to add it to the file list.
• Close
Remove the selected files from the open occasion file list.
• Save
Save the current list of occasion files for permanent use. Changes you make to the list through New…, Open… or Close will be lost when you exit the DA unless you save them.
• Browse
Browse Exits the dialog and opens Browse windows for the selected files. Browse windows display a list of the occasions defined in the file. Double clicking on a file in the list will open a Browse window.
• Done
Exits from the Occasion Files dialog.
You will also see a check box labeled “Save Changes” when you open or close any files. The new list of files will be permanently saved if this box is checked when you click Done; otherwise, the changes will apply only until you close the DA or select a saved window set.
••• A note on Opening Occasion files:
Expired one-time occasions will be deleted whenever a file is opened if the Auto-Delete permitted option is checked. (An “expired one-time occasion” is one with a specific month, day and year which has passed. For example, an occasion specified for “June 22, 1992” will expire on June 23, 1992, the following day, and would then be auto-deleted if the option has been switched on.) This is a change from previous versions which used a somewhat unreliable method to determine when to delete an occasion. This new method is not as general but more reliable.
You can open occasion files created by versions before V2.3 using the Open… button, but it is a one-way trip. The file will be changed to a new format and no longer usable with the old version of “Remember?”. You are prompted before the conversion is performed.
Occasion Types…
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Accesses the Occasion Type setup dialog where you can change the names and attributes of the Types.
You can also access this dialog by holding down the Option key while picking a Type from the pop-up menu in an “Occasion” window.
• Scrolling list of Types.
Click on any type in this list to see its definition. Items above the dotted line appear in the Types menu in Occasion and Browse windows. Those below the line are still defined but not readily available. Only one Type may be selected at a time.
Click on an item and drag it up or down to change its priority relative to other Types. Those higher in the list have a higher priority. Dragging an item below the dotted line removes it from the Types menu. Drag above the line to add the Type to the menu. You can also drag the dotted line itself to quickly change the number of items in the menu.
• Name:
The name of the currently selected Type. Change the name by changing this item. The new name will appear in the list when you select another Type.
• Use for:
Checked if this Type is the default for either “Add New Occasion(s)” (Command-A) or “Add “To Do” item” (Command-B) in the main menu. Only one Type is checked for each menu item. These default Types appear in bold in the scrolling list.
• Advance Notification:
Specifies how many days in advance of an occasion you want to be notified. Applies only to the What’s Happening “Of Interest” window and to the Startup checks for occasions of interest.
None - These occasions never appear in “Of Interest” windows and are ignored at startup.
Standard - Notify when within the “Standard Notification” period. This is specified in Preferences and is shared by all Types set to Standard notification.
Special - This Type has a special notification period. Zero (0) days will notify only on the day that the occasion actually occurs.
• Prefix:
This string will appear before occasions of this Type in What’s Happening lists. The string normally appears in the Style for this Type, but you can select a special Prefix Style using Preferences. (If you do so, it will slow down updates of What’s Happening windows.)
• Style…
Opens a Text Style window where you can specify the appearance of occasions of this Type in What’s Happening lists. The style’s color will also be used for calendar days at the top of the lists and for the animated icon in the pop-up alert window. A sample string showing the style (and the Prefix string) appears to the right of this button.
• Sound:
Selects the sound that can be played when a pop-up alert for this Type of occasion appears. The sound will also be played at Startup when an occasion of interest is found.
• Play this Sound at Alert time?
The above sound will play at pop-up alert time if this box is checked. There is a Preferences item to disable all pop-up alert sounds.
• Open a Pop-Up Window at Alert time?
A pop-up window describing the occasion will appear at pop-up alert time if this box is checked. There is a Preferences item to disable all pop-up alert windows.
• Visible in What’s Happening Lists?
Turning off this check box prevents occasions of this Type from appearing in any What’s Happening window list.
• Cancel
Closes the window and discards any changes that have been made. Only available if you have made changes.
• OK
Closes the window and permanently saves any changes.
The predefined occasion types are only sugggestions. Feel free to change them around to meet your needs. You should probably not alter the Trivia type since occasions supplied with the package use that Type.
(back to main menu items…)
Preferences…
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Allows you to play with all sorts of settings related to operation of the package. Click on the Preferences pop-up menu to select a group of preferences. Clicking on an item in the scrolling list displays its current setting below and allows you to change it. Click OK to permanently save all changes or Cancel to discard all changes.
Many of the available items are of interest only to the die-hards who want to be able to twiddle every aspect of the program. Those items are normally hidden. You can gain access to them by clicking on the Expert check box. Be warned that there are lots of them.
Some of the items require entry of a number. The maximum value that can be entered is generally 65535 but may be lower depending on the particular item. do not enter values outside of any specified range. You will not generally damage anything, but the results can be less than useful. If things get royally screwed up, you can always close the DA, trash the Remember’s Settings file, reopen the DA and reset your preferences.
Each option has a description to help explain its exact function. If you don’t know what something does, you should probably leave it alone. As you gain experience with the package, you can experiment with more of the settings.
Page Setup…
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The standard Mac printer setup dialog. The setup is saved in the configuration file for future printing. Run through this dialog at least once before printing anything.
About “Remember?”…
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Brings up a dialog telling you all kinds of good things about the package. Most importantly, it gives the version number and my name and address so you can dash off that Shareware payment (hint, hint. :-)
Quit
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Closes all open windows and files and shuts down the Desk Accessory. If you have open edit windows with changes, you will be prompted as to whether you want them saved. Currently, any Edit Occasion windows with unresolved problems are not saved. This may change in the future.
WARNING ABOUT QUITING WITH MULTI-FINDER AND SYSTEM 7:
The mini-application that is used by System 6.0 MultiFinder to run Desk Accessories has its own “Quit” menu option. Use “Remember?’s” Quit rather than the DA Handler “Quit.” The DA handler makes a nasty assumption that Desk Accessories have only one window. The result is that using the DA Handler’s Quit command with more than one “Remember?” window open will cause, at best, strange behavior the next time you open the DA. To prevent possible accidental use, the DA Handler’s "Quit" item will be disabled while the DA is open.
The “Quit” item in System 7 closes only the front window.
BIG WARNING ABOUT “Restart” AND “Shutdown” WITH SYSTEM 7!
Unfortunately, System 7 is even less friendly to DAs with more than one window. If you choose either Restart or Shutdown from the Finder when “Remember?” has two or more open windows, it will close the front window and then sit there. Pick Quit from the Remember? menu and the system will continue. This is a boo-boo in System 7 (in my biased opinion, anyway), and I still do not have a fix.
The Text Style Box
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The Preferences and Occasion Types windows allow you to change text styles. A text style includes: a Font family, font Size, Styles (bold, underline, etc.) and a Color on those Macs that support it. Some of these items may be missing on particular styles.
Turning off a check box eliminates the item to its right from the style. These unspecified items are normally filled in from the “General Text style” specified in Preferences. The sample text at the top shows the result of all style changes. OK accepts the changes and Cancel discards them. Click on the Color… button to change it using the standard Color Picker.
