Don't Forget Dates - Manual

Version 1.02

For instructions on how to install Don't Forget Dates see the readme.html file. Once you have installed it see this file for how to use it.

If you like Don't Forget Dates then send an e-mail to list@pinedragon.com to be notified of other PineDragon products and updates, or make a donation on our web site: www.pinedragon.com/dfg.

For general information contact: info@pinedragon.com.

We hope Don't Forget Dates helps brings happiness and harmony to your family life.

Creating Dates

Don't Forget Dates uses information about regular annual events in your pocketPC calendar to show you which events are coming up soon. In order for Don't Forget Dates to work you have to create this data in your calendar. Here's how to do it:

Easy Way

The easy way applies to people who synchronise with "Outlook" on a desktop PC. When you create a contact on your pocketPC you can included information about birthdays and anniversaries. This data is right at the bottom of the contact form.

If you include this data in your contacts then when you synchronise to your desktop Outlook will automatically copy the information in to your calendar in a way Don't Forget Dates can see.
 

Hard Way

You can also input dates for Don't Forget Dates directly in the calendar yourself. To do this create a new appointment for the date you want. Enter the subject as normal.
Click on the "Type" field and chose "All Day".
Click on "Occurs" and choose "Every September 1" (or whatever your date is)

You might also want to stop birthdays showing as "busy" time in your calendar. To do this click on "Status" and choose "Free". To see the status field you will have to close the input panel by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the screen.
 

Running the Program

Run Don't Forget Dates on your pocketPC by going to the "Start" menu (click the Windows icon at the top of the screen). Choose "Programs", and then choose "Don't Forget Dates".

You will see all your annual events listed on the screen. Events that have just happened in the last month are shown with a grey backgound after the "Today" label. Events that will happen in the next month are shown with a red background. All the events are listed in date order and wrap around in to the next year. Events are shown with the subject line from the calendar entry and the date (day and month).

To open an event click on it. You can either open the specific occurrence of that event in the next year, or the whole series (see "exceptions") below.

To update the display click the "refresh" button.

Close Don't Forget Dates by clicking "OK" at the top of the screen.
 

Advanced Topics

Some of my dates are appearing twice - what's happening?

This is a nice bug from Microsoft. If you synchronise to more than one computer then each computer adds its own copy of the calendar entry based on your contacts. Delete the one of the entries (choose the "whole series" - see below). Outlook doesn't add them in again.
 

About exceptions

Don't Forget Dates deals with recurring appointments. These are appointments that repeat in a specified pattern. In the pocketPC calendar there are two views of recurring appointments. There is a general view that specifies the normal repetition. There is also a view of a specific occurrence of the event on a specific date. If the specific occurrence is different from the normal pattern then its an "exception". Exceptions can include changes of the subject (eg "Iain's 30th birthday"). Exceptions can also be deletions of the event for one occurrence only.

Don't Forget Dates reads exceptions for the next occurrence of the events it shows. Therefore if you change the subject line for one specific year Don't Forget Dates will show the changed line for that year. If you delete the event for one specific year then Don't Forget Dates won't show the event for that year.
 

Alerts and Reminders

Don't Forget Dates helps you plan what's coming-up in your life. It doesn't provide you with advanced reminders. If you never run Don't Forget Dates and look at what's happening you will still miss your important dates. There is a way around this however. You can set a reminder from the pocketPC calendar to give you lots of notice.

Choose an event from Don't Forget Dates. Choose to open  the occurrence or the entire series depending on what you want to set a reminder for. Tap on the title of the event when it opens. Now on the "reminder" field choose "Remind Me". The default is to remind you 15 minutes before the event - good for meetings, but not much for birthdays. However if you click on the "15 minutes" you can choose to be reminded days or even weeks ahead.
 

What are the Asterisks (*) For?

Don't Forget Dates puts an asterisk (*) next to any events where the internal data for the calendar is inconsistent. Outlook seems to make a real mess of annual events sometimes - particularly if you change time zone on your clock after the event is created.

You won't be able to open events from Don't Forget Dates if they have an asterisk next to them. To try and clear up the data the best thing to do is to open them from within the Calendar. Go to the data entry screen and check that everything is correct.
 

Exactly what does Don't Forget Dates show?

For the record Don't Forget Dates shows items that meet all the conditions below:
  • They are "all day events"
  • They are a series that occurs every year on the same date
  • There is no "end date" set for the series
  • The occurrence in the next year hasn't been deleted