An Appointment Calendar Application
We've been meaning to write an appointment calendar application for a long time. Early in the planning stage for each release, this would be fairly high on our priority list. Each time, though, I'd throw so many requirements at it that it would become too time consuming to do. For example, I wanted a way to include holidays, and I wanted holiday categories that included dates drawn from one or more lunar calendar. I wanted it to be able to synchronize with PDAs. I wanted it to provide multiple mechanisms for reminding people about appointments.
This time, I finally learned my lesson. Make it really simple, so there was at least half a chance that we would get it done in time for the release. Add items that our pilot customers thought were absolutely essential. Expect to add more items over time, in future releases. So, you'll find that this is a relatively simple, though useful application. It is not for those of you who have mastered the intricacies of Microsoft Outlook and synchronize everything to each of your several PDAs. Instead, its a straightforward way to create appointments and to be reminded of them.
You can start the appointment calendar application in one of two ways. Like other K1000 Applications, you can use the File Launch facility if you'd like. Get into the File menu, select the Launch item, and then the Appointment Calendar (the mnemonic is "M"). Its easier, though, to use the hot key that is associated with the Appointment Calendar. By default, it is Control+Alt+A. You can use that without first running Kurzweil 1000 if you'd like.
Please note that the Appointment Calendar is a separate talking application. As a consequence, you are likely to need to configure your screen reader to stop it from speaking at the same time.
If this application is going to have to remind you of any appointments, it needs to be running. If you create appointments for it, it will be started in the background whenever you restart your computer.
Once you have run the application, you will find that it has a menu bar with three separate items: File, Tools, and Help. Use the Help About item to learn about the functionality of the application. You'll find its pretty straightforward. The most complicated area is creating or editing an appointment. Use File->New to create one, File->Edit to modify one, File->Delete to (of course) delete one, and File->Duplicate to copy one. Copying an appointment is useful if you want to make several appointments, where most of the appointment properties are similar.
The dialog that you will use to create or modify an event begins with a combo box titled "Name". This can be a little misleading. You can, in fact, name an appointment here in any manner you wish, but in some ways this is more like a category, or template, for applications. You'll find that some have already been created for you, which you can access with the up and down arrow keys. These "names" include Anniversary, Appointment, Birthday, Daily Event, Holiday, Meeting, Monthly Event, Phone Call, Reminder, Weekly Event, and Yearly Event. As these names might suggest, they influence the default settings for the rest of the dialog - particularly whether or not an event recurs, and how often it recurs. The next control is a list box labeled "Recurrence". You can use it to decide if an event occurs only once, if it happens monthly or yearly, or if it happens daily or weekly. The next cluster of choices lets you specify the time of the event. After that, we get to the date choices, which are influenced by whether or not the event recurs. If it does not recur, you simply specify the day, month, and year. If it recurs monthly or yearly, you will find that there is a check box for each month of the year (the labels sound a little odd, by the way, because we are using just the first three letters of each month). Each month can be checked or unchecked. If checked, you are indicating that the event can occur in that particular month. After those twelve check boxes, there is a list box that lets you cause the event to repeat on a particular day of the month, or on a particularl day of the week. If, however, the recurrence field was set to daily or weekly, you'll have seven check boxes - one for each day of the week. After that, there will be a list box which lets you choose between repeating the event every week, every second week, every third week, or every fourth week. Beyond that, there is a text box that lets you enter details about the particular event. These details will be read to you when you are reminded about the appointment.
Finally, there are a group of controls regarding how, or if, you would like to be reminded about the appointment. First is a check box - check it if you want a reminder. Then there is a numeric text box where you can enter a number, followed by a list box that specifies what that number is for: minutes, hours, or days before the appointment.
That's about it, really. If you have an appointment, you want to keep this application running in the background. Use the escape key to dismiss it, and return to your main application. If you would rather cause it to exit altogether, use File->Exit.
When you need a reminder, the appointment calender will bring up a dialog box, and the contents of that box, which contain your comments regarding the appointment, will be spoken. You can also specify a wave file that will be played when reminders occur.
This time, I finally learned my lesson. Make it really simple, so there was at least half a chance that we would get it done in time for the release. Add items that our pilot customers thought were absolutely essential. Expect to add more items over time, in future releases. So, you'll find that this is a relatively simple, though useful application. It is not for those of you who have mastered the intricacies of Microsoft Outlook and synchronize everything to each of your several PDAs. Instead, its a straightforward way to create appointments and to be reminded of them.
You can start the appointment calendar application in one of two ways. Like other K1000 Applications, you can use the File Launch facility if you'd like. Get into the File menu, select the Launch item, and then the Appointment Calendar (the mnemonic is "M"). Its easier, though, to use the hot key that is associated with the Appointment Calendar. By default, it is Control+Alt+A. You can use that without first running Kurzweil 1000 if you'd like.
Please note that the Appointment Calendar is a separate talking application. As a consequence, you are likely to need to configure your screen reader to stop it from speaking at the same time.
If this application is going to have to remind you of any appointments, it needs to be running. If you create appointments for it, it will be started in the background whenever you restart your computer.
Once you have run the application, you will find that it has a menu bar with three separate items: File, Tools, and Help. Use the Help About item to learn about the functionality of the application. You'll find its pretty straightforward. The most complicated area is creating or editing an appointment. Use File->New to create one, File->Edit to modify one, File->Delete to (of course) delete one, and File->Duplicate to copy one. Copying an appointment is useful if you want to make several appointments, where most of the appointment properties are similar.
The dialog that you will use to create or modify an event begins with a combo box titled "Name". This can be a little misleading. You can, in fact, name an appointment here in any manner you wish, but in some ways this is more like a category, or template, for applications. You'll find that some have already been created for you, which you can access with the up and down arrow keys. These "names" include Anniversary, Appointment, Birthday, Daily Event, Holiday, Meeting, Monthly Event, Phone Call, Reminder, Weekly Event, and Yearly Event. As these names might suggest, they influence the default settings for the rest of the dialog - particularly whether or not an event recurs, and how often it recurs. The next control is a list box labeled "Recurrence". You can use it to decide if an event occurs only once, if it happens monthly or yearly, or if it happens daily or weekly. The next cluster of choices lets you specify the time of the event. After that, we get to the date choices, which are influenced by whether or not the event recurs. If it does not recur, you simply specify the day, month, and year. If it recurs monthly or yearly, you will find that there is a check box for each month of the year (the labels sound a little odd, by the way, because we are using just the first three letters of each month). Each month can be checked or unchecked. If checked, you are indicating that the event can occur in that particular month. After those twelve check boxes, there is a list box that lets you cause the event to repeat on a particular day of the month, or on a particularl day of the week. If, however, the recurrence field was set to daily or weekly, you'll have seven check boxes - one for each day of the week. After that, there will be a list box which lets you choose between repeating the event every week, every second week, every third week, or every fourth week. Beyond that, there is a text box that lets you enter details about the particular event. These details will be read to you when you are reminded about the appointment.
Finally, there are a group of controls regarding how, or if, you would like to be reminded about the appointment. First is a check box - check it if you want a reminder. Then there is a numeric text box where you can enter a number, followed by a list box that specifies what that number is for: minutes, hours, or days before the appointment.
That's about it, really. If you have an appointment, you want to keep this application running in the background. Use the escape key to dismiss it, and return to your main application. If you would rather cause it to exit altogether, use File->Exit.
When you need a reminder, the appointment calender will bring up a dialog box, and the contents of that box, which contain your comments regarding the appointment, will be spoken. You can also specify a wave file that will be played when reminders occur.
posted by K1000Engineer at 9:59 AM
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