CompuCalendar detailed information |
The best way to get more details about CompuCalendar is to click the banner above, download the program, and use it absolutely free with no obligation for 30 or even 60 days. But, if you want the nitty gritty details first, here they are: |
About CompuCalendar: |
CompuCalendar is a simple to use calendar program for keeping and finding Appointments and "To Do" items. While it has many fairly advanced features, it can be quickly used from the first session with very little effort. The following help pages will explain the features of the program. Here are the basic instructions to get started immediately: When CompuCalendar loads, the current day (as determined by your computer's internal clock/calendar) is displayed on the screen. To add an Appointment or To Do Item, position the mouse cursor on the desired line and click the left mouse button. A View/Edit window comes up for the selected Appointment time or the selected To Do project number. Enter the text of the Appointment or To Do Item. If you need more than one line, simply move the mouse cursor to the Details section of the View/Edit window and click the left mouse button. Type any additional desired data. When finished, click the <Update> button. To move to another day, click the black-on-red right-arrow button near the top of the screen to move to the next day, or the left-arrow button to move to the previous day. For greater moves, click the black-on-red up-arrow button to display the month. Click any day on the month calendar to display that day. On the month calendar, the left and right arrow buttons will display the previous or next month. The up arrow button will display the year calendar (which works similarly to the month calendar). To end the program, click the <x> button at the top right of the day-display screen. CompuCalendar automatically updates its database with any information you have entered, ready for your next session. |
Appointment Reminders: |
When the Appointment Reminder function is ON, CompuCalendar will remind you of appointments as they come due, provided the Day Display window is left on the current date. The window can be minimized and still give reminders. The number of minutes before an appointment that you want to be reminded is adjustable by clicking the <File> button near the top of the Day Display window. You can select any number of minutes between zero and sixty. When an appointment comes due (considering the number of early reminder minutes selected) a message box will be displayed center screen and a "ding" will sound to remind you of the appointment. Additionally, the "computer" icon on the CompuCalendar button in the Windows task bar will begin flashing with an "hourglass" icon. Clicking the OK button on the message box will eliminate the message box. However, the CompuCalendar icon will continue to flash (and the appointment name will be flashing green and in bold print) until either you click on the appointment name, another appointment reminder occurs, 30 minutes past the appointment time arrives, or you change the day display to another day and then come back to the current date. In the appointment reminder message box, to immediately strikeout the appointment name (indicating it has been fulfilled), as well as stop the icon flashing and appointment name flashing, click the <OK (and strikeout appointment name)> button. Want to hit the snooze alarm and be reminded again? Select the number of minutes by highlighting (5 is the default) and then click the <Remind again in this many minutes> button. This can be repeated indefinitely. For an appointment to be reminded, you must be on the current day display (today's date)*, the Reminder function must be ON, and the appointment must not be "struck-out". You can minimize the CompuCalendar window and run other programs without affecting the reminder function. The message window will appear on top of most applications you may run. Simply click the <OK> button to eliminate the message box. Even if the message box is unable to get above your current application, the CompuCalendar icon in the Windows taskbar will begin flashing the "hourglass" icon to remind you of your appointment. If you do not click one of the <OK> buttons on the message box, it will "ding" again every sixty seconds until you click an <OK> button. Once an appointment has been reminded and the reminder message box has been closed, it will not be reminded again, even if you go to another day display date and return to the current date. To reset, toggle the reminder function off, and then back on, as described below. After such a reset, all appointments that are not struck-out will be reminded. To toggle the reminder function on or off, click the "hourglass" icon near the top-left corner of today's day display window, or click the <File> button, then click the <Toggle Reminder OFF> button or the <Toggle Reminder ON> button as desired. The "hourglass" icon near the top-left of today's day display window indicates the function is ON if it has a red background with blue and white hourglass. It indicates the function is OFF if the icon appears gray. Beside the icon appears the number of minutes early selected to remind an appointment. * If the Appointment Reminder function is ON, and you stay on any single day display other than TODAY for longer than 10 minutes, CompuCalendar will automatically return to TODAY in the day display so that the Reminder function will operate. |
Day Display: |
The day display window for today's date is the initial window presented by CompuCalendar. At the top-right of the window are several buttons. By clicking these buttons you can change the day displayed to the previous or next day, display the month view, print out CompuCalendar information, open the File window, search for Appointments or To Do Items, open this Help window, or view an entire week of appointments or To Do Items at a glance. Other help pages give further details for these buttons. Just below these buttons, the current date and time are displayed. Double click the current date and time to change the day display to today's date. At the top-left of the day display is an icon indicating whether the appointment reminder function is ON or OFF (if the day display is at today's date). See the Appointment Reminder help page for details. Appointments: On the left-hand side of the window are the day's appointments. To enter or edit an appointment, click the desired line to display the View / Edit window. Enter or edit the text of the Appointment. If you need more than one line, additional data will go in the "Details" section. To force data into the Details section even if one line has not been filled, simply move the mouse cursor to the Details section of the View/Edit window and click the left mouse button. Type or edit any additional desired data. To set an appointment time for more than 30 minutes, click the lower time box and scroll to the desired end-time, then click on the end-time to highlight it. When finished, click the <Update> button. To delete an Appointment, click the <Delete> button. If you wish, you can indicate an appointment has been fulfilled by clicking the <strikeout> button to strikeout the appointment text. In the day display window, an appointment which has Details attached will have a check mark beside it in the "details" box. When on today's date in the day display window, the various appointment times turn to a green background as that particular time is reached throughout the day. An appointment that covers more than a 30 minute block is indicated by "down-arrows" in the appropriate number of 30 minute blocks below it. To Do List: On the right-hand side of the window is the day's To Do List. To enter or edit a To Do Item, click the desired line to display the View / Edit window. Enter or edit the text of the item. If you need more than one line, additional data will go in the "Details" section. To force data into the Details section even if one line has not been filled, simply move the mouse cursor to the Details section of the View / Edit window and click the left mouse button. Type or edit any additional desired data. To indicate an item has been completed, click the <Completed> box to put a check mark in it. When finished, click the <Update> button. To delete a To Do List item, click the <Delete> button. In the day display window, a To Do Item which has Details attached will have a check mark beside it in the "details" box. Shortcut: For quick entry of an Appointment or To Do Item having no details, simply press enter after typing the text line of the appointment or To Do Item. This has the same effect as clicking the <Update> button. |
Month Display: |
In the day display window, click the black-on-red up-arrow button to display the month calendar. In the month calendar window, click the right arrow to display the NEXT month, click the left arrow to display the PREVIOUS month, or click the up-arrow to display the year calendar. In the month calendar window, move the mouse cursor over any day of the month. When over a day of the month, the mouse pointer becomes a "magnifying glass". Left click to go to the day display for the selected date. Right click to go to the "week-at-a-glance" view for the selected week. A date that is in yellow and underlined indicates that there are appointments and/or To Do Items for that day. Today's date appears in green. A star above a date indicates that the day is a holiday or other Special Day (see the Special Days help page). To close the month calendar window, click the <x> button in the upper right-hand corner of the month calendar window. |
Year Display: |
In the month calendar window, click the black-on-red up-arrow button to display the year calendar. In the year calendar window, click the right arrow to display the NEXT year or click the left arrow to display the PREVIOUS year. In the year calendar window, move the mouse cursor over any month of the year. When over a month of the year, the mouse pointer becomes a "magnifying glass". Left click to go to the month calendar for the selected month. A month name that is in yellow and underlined indicates that there are Appointments and/or To Do Items in that month. To close the year calendar window, click the <x> in the upper right-hand corner of the year calendar window. |
Week at a Glance: |
There are two ways to display the Week-at-a-glance window. In any day display window, click the <week at a glance> button to display the entire week. In the Month calendar window, right-click any date to display the entire week. The week displayed will be the Monday through Sunday week containing the date from which you entered the week-at-a-glance window. To change from week-at-a-glance Appointments to week-at-a-glance To Do Items, click the <Switch to To Do List> button. To switch back to Appointments, click the <Switch to Appointments> button. To display the NEXT week in week-at-a-glance format, click the black-on-red right-arrow button. To display the PREVIOUS week, click the left-arrow button. To print the displayed week of Appointments or To Do Items, click the <Print> button. To close the week-at-a-glance window, click the <Never Mind> button. To open the day display window for any of the displayed dates, click the <go to> button for that date. To open the day display window AND the View / Edit window for a particular Appointment or To Do Item, highlight the desired Appointment or To Do Item by clicking it, then click the <go to> button. Alternatively, you can simply double click the Appointment or To do Item. |
Special Days: |
CompuCalendar will put the names of legal holidays (along with several popular other special days and user-defined special days) in the day display window caption and in the week-at-a-glance window when appropriate. In the month-display calendar, a star will appear over any date which contains a legal holiday, a CompuCalendar Special Day, or a user defined Special Day. The legal holidays are: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas. The additional CompuCalendar special days are: Valentine's Day, Saint Patrick's Day, the start of Daylight Savings Time, Administrative Assistants' Day (formerly Secretaries' Day), Mother's Day, Father's Day, the end of Daylight Savings Time, and Halloween. You can put in as many as 50 additional Special Days of your own, such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. In the day display window, click on the <File> button. Then click the <View / Edit Special Days> button. All the additional special days will be listed. To delete one, click it to highlight it, then click the <Delete highlighted Special Day> button. To add a new special day, click on the Month name and the Day of the month in the appropriate list boxes. Enter the name of the special day in the text box. Then click the <Add this Special Day> button. |
Editing / Moving: |
To edit, copy, delete, or move an Appointment or To Do Item, click on the line containing the Appointment or To Do Item. The View / Edit window will open. You may edit any data, including changing the end time of an appointment, striking out an appointment to indicate it has been fulfilled, removing the strike out from an appointment, checking or un-checking the "Completed" box for a To Do Item, or changing, adding, or deleting details. When your editing is complete, click the <Update> button. If you change your mind before updating and wish to leave the data as it was, click the <Never Mind> button. If you wish to delete an appointment or To Do Item, click the line containing it to open the View / Edit window. Then click the <Delete> button. If you want to COPY an appointment or To Do Item to another day or days, click the line containing it to open the View / edit window. Then click the <Copy this Appointment to other day(s)> button or the <Copy this Item to other day(s)> button. A two-month view calendar window will open. Click each date you wish to copy the Appointment or To Do Item to, and then click the <Copy to the above selected dates> button. To copy to a pattern (such as daily or certain days of the week), using the right hand side of the form may be quicker than the calendars. Select the Start Date and End Date, then click the <Copy to EVERY day> button, the <Copy to every WEEKday> button, or any of the specific day-of-week buttons. If the Appointment time is not available on a selected date, a message box will ask if you want to overwrite the existing appointment with the new appointment. Click <yes> or <no>. MOVING an appointment or To Do Item to another day or days is exactly the same as copying, except after the copy is complete, a message box will ask if you want to "Delete this Original?". Click <yes> to delete the original, leaving only the new copy(ies) in the database. Quick Move: Ran out of day with a To Do Item or two not completed? To quickly move a To Do Item to the NEXT day, click the <Move this item to NEXT day> button. If you want to change an appointment time, click the line containing the appointment to open the View / Edit window. Then click the <Change Appointment Time> button. Select the desired new time by clicking on it to highlight it. Then click the <OK> button. To change the end time of an appointment, click the lower time box and scroll to desired end-time then click on end-time to highlight. To strikeout an appointment to indicate it has been fulfilled, click the <Strikeout> button. To remove the strikeout, click the <Remove strikeout> button. To check or un-check the Completed box for a To Do Item, click on it. Note that striking out an Appointment, checking the "Completed" box for a To Do Item, or changing an appointment time, results in an automatic update (just as if you had clicked the <Update> button). Copying to the clipboard: To copy an Appointment or To Do List Item to the Windows clipboard, click on the line containing the Appointment or To Do List Item. This brings up the View / Edit window for the selection. Click the <Copy to clipboard> button. You can now "paste" the information into an Email, word processor document, or other Windows program. |
Search: |
On any day display window, click the <Search> button. The Search window will be displayed. Set the date you want to be the start date for your search. If you check the "Search from earliest date" box, the search will begin will the earliest data in CompuCalendar's database. If you select a start date, this will be the earliest date searched. To change the Search Start Date, click the small down arrow beside the start date, then select the desired start date for your search. Set the date you want to be the end date for your search. If you check the "Search to latest date" box, the search will go through the latest data in CompuCalendar's database. If you select an end date, this will be the latest date searched. To change the Search End Date, click the small down arrow beside the end date, then select the desired end date for your search. Type in the word or part of a word you wish to search for. If you type in the "Appointment text" box, the search will be confined to the main line of appointments (the line which appears on the day display window). If you type in the "Appointment details" box, the search will be confined to the "details" section of appointments. If you type in the "To Do List text" box, the search will be confined to the main line of To Do Items (the line which appears on the day display window). If you type in the "To Do List details" box, the search will be confined to the details section of To Do Items. The wild cards ? and * (question mark and asterisk) can be used for the search. The ? allows any character to replace it, and the * allows any number of characters to replace it. For example, if you type d?g, the search would return any instance of dog, dig, dug, etc. If you put ONLY an *, the search will return any text found. For example, if you want to search for ALL appointments between two dates, type * in the Appointment text line. If you want your search to return only appointments that have not been struck-out or To Do Items that are not completed, check the box near the bottom of the search window. For example, to see all To Do Items that have not been completed, put an * in the "To Do List text" box, and check the "Search not completed To Do List Items only" box. When all is set for the search you wish to perform, click the <Begin Search> button. If any items are found meeting your search criteria, the Search Results window will display the findings. To display a particular finding, click on it to highlight it, then click the <Go to Selected Item> button. Alternatively, you can simply double click on the desired item. If you go to a particular item, the Search Results window will be minimized. Click on its icon in the Windows taskbar along the bottom of the screen to restore it. You can then go to another of the search results if desired. This can be repeated as many times as you wish. Shortcut: After typing text in the "Appointment text" box, the "Appointment details" box, the "To Do List text" box, or the "To Do List details" box, just press <Enter> to immediately begin the search. |
Print: |
On any day display window, click the <Print> button. The Print window will be displayed. Click the <Print detail for this date> button to print this date's Appointments and To Do Items, including details. Click the <Print image of this page> button to quick-print an image of the day display window as it appears on the screen. Click the <Print data for date range> button to print more than one days' worth of Appointments and/or To Do Items. The Print Range window will open. Select the print start date and print end date by clicking the small down arrow beside the date. Then click on the desired date. Printing will begin with data found on the start date and will go through data found on the end date. Check the "Print Appointments" box, the "Print To Do List" box, or both. Select either "Print main line only" or "Print detail". If you want the printout to contain only appointments that have not been struck-out or To Do List items that are not completed, check the box near the bottom of the window. Click the <Print> button when ready. Other Printing: The View / Edit windows, the Search Results window, the Week-at-a-glance windows, and the Help pages all have their own <Print> or <Print me> buttons. Click to print the contents of the displayed window. Copying to the clipboard: To copy an Appointment or To Do List Item to the Windows clipboard, click on the line containing the Appointment or To Do List Item. This brings up the View / Edit window for the selection. Click the <Copy to clipboard> button. You can now "paste" the information into an Email, word processor document, or other Windows program. |
Back-up and Archive: |
Backup: CompuCalendar automatically updates its database as you enter, edit, copy, or move appointments and To Do List items. It is wise, however, to routinely back up the database file. It is best to back up to a medium that is not in your computer, like a floppy disk or a writable CD. You can back up to another location on your hard drive if you wish, but a total hard drive failure might render both the primary copy and the back up copy of your database unusable. From any day display window, click the <File> button. Then click the <Back up database> button. A file dialogue window opens for you to select where to place the backup. The first try is in Drive A, which is normally your floppy disk drive. If this drive is not ready, click the <cancel> button to back up to another location, or insert a diskette in the drive then click <retry>. CompuCalendar proposes that the back up filename will be "CompuCalendar.mdb". However, you can use another filename if you wish. Click the <Save> button after you have selected the back up location. Archive and Delete: If your CompuCalendar database becomes so large that performance noticeably deteriorates, you may want to consider removing older data. Using the Archive and Delete utility, you can create an archive database of older CompuCalendar Appointments and To Do Items and delete them from your main database. Click the <File> button in any day display window. Then click the <Archive and then delete old CompuCalendar data> button. A file dialogue window opens for you to select where to place the archive file. CompuCalendar proposes that the archive filename will be "CompuCalArchive.mdb". However, you can use another filename if you wish. Click the <Save> button after you have selected the archive location. Then select the effective date. (All data older than this date will be transferred to the new archive file and removed from the current database file.) Then click the <Proceed with archive and delete operation> button. Click <yes> on the confirmation message box to proceed. After the archive file is created, one more confirmation message box will ask to be sure you want to delete the older data from the current database. Click the <yes> button to proceed. You can use the Change Database utility to change to the archived database any time you need to view the old data. See the "Change Database' Help page. |
Change Database / Create New Database: |
Change Database: On startup, CompuCalendar looks for a file named "CompuCalendar.mdb" in the same directory containing the CompuCalendar program. If this file is not found where expected, a file dialogue window opens asking for your assistance in finding the database. In some cases, you may wish to CHANGE to another CompuCalendar database even if the program loaded without difficulty. This would be the case where more than one person is using CompuCalendar on the same computer, you want to open an archive of old, deleted CompuCalendar data, or if you are keeping more than one calendar yourself. From any day display window, click the <File> button. Then click the <Change CompuCalendar Database> button. Click <Yes> to the verification message box. Use the file dialogue window to find the database copy you want. It does not have to be named "CompuCalendar.mdb" but it does, of course, have to be a CompuCalendar database file. Click the <open> button after you have highlighted the desired file. CompuCalendar will reload using the new database. Create New Database: The CompuCalendar installation CD contains two CompuCalendar database files. One is named CompuCalendar.mdb. The other is named CompuCalBlank.mdb. They are identical on the installation CD. When you install CompuCalendar, both files are installed in the directory containing the CompuCalendar program. When you run the CompuCalendar program, it looks for CompuCalendar.mdb in the current directory. The blank version (CompuCalBlank.mdb) should never be used as a working database, but only to create new blank databases from. In any day display window, click the <File> button, then click the <Create new, blank CompuCalendar database> button. In the file dialogue window, select the target location for your new database file (and filename if you want a name other than CompuCalendar.mdb). Do not overwrite your working version of CompuCalendar.mdb unless you no longer want access to the data it contains. (If CompuCalBlank.mdb is not found in the current directory, a first file dialogue window will open, asking you to find the copy of CompuCalBlank.mdb.) |
Time Adjust: |
In some cases, your computer's internal clock/calendar may not be set to local time. For example, at my place of work, our network sets all computer clocks to Universal Time (also known as Greenwich Mean Time or Zulu). To tell CompuCalendar how to adjust to local time, click the <File> button. Then use the Time Adjustment scroll bar to tell CompuCalendar to adjust anywhere from twelve hours earlier than computer clock time to twelve hours later than computer clock time. This setting will hold between sessions, but can be re-adjusted at any time. The setting is originally zero and this is sufficient in most cases. |
Keyboard: |
Don't like the mouse? Most CompuCalendar operations can be performed from the keyboard alone if preferred: Use the <Tab> key to move the focus between command buttons and text boxes. Hold the <Shift> key and then press the <Tab> key to move backwards. When the command button you want has the focus (indicated by a dashed line around its perimeter), press the <Enter> key. This is the same as a left mouse click on the command button. Press the <Esc> key to close (escape from) any window. In the View / Edit window, the Search window, or the Special Days window, after typing data in the text box, you can simply press the <Enter> key. This is the same as clicking the <Update>, the <Begin search>, or the <Add special day> buttons. All command buttons have "access keys". The underlined letter in the command button's caption is the "access key". Hold the <Alt> key down, then press the "access key". This is the same as clicking on the command button with the mouse. Upper or lower case is irrelevant. Additionally, the following windows have special keyboard access capabilities: The Day Display: To bring up the View / Edit window for an appointment time with the keyboard, type the time followed by an "a" or "p" for AM or PM. For example, the 8:00am appointment line can be clicked by typing 8a, 80a, or 800a. The 4:30pm line can be clicked by typing 43p or 430p (a colon or other separator between hours and minutes is unnecessary but acceptable). To bring up the View / Edit window for a To Do Item project number, type the project number followed by a "t". For example, Project Number 5 can be clicked by typing 5t (upper case or lower case is irrelevant in all keyboard access). The Month Calendar: To bring up a particular day display, type the number of the day followed by a "d". For example, to bring up the day display for the 14th while in the Month calendar window, type 14d (case is irrelevant). To bring up the Week-at-a-Glance view, type 14w (case is irrelevant). The Year Calendar: To bring up a particular month calendar, simply begin typing the month name (case is irrelevant). |
