PersonalReminder
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General
PersonlReminder has been designed to easily handle one time and repeating alarms and reminders. Additionally programs can be launched, the computer can be turned off or restarted and the user can be logged off. In case of an activated reminder, a cusomizable sound gets played and a reminder window shows up. You can manage an unlimited number of alarms. Expired alarms can also be managed and reactivated.
After starting PersonalReminder the program resides as a tray-icon ()in your taskbar. Right-clicking on the icon brings up the tray menu. Left clicking on the icon activates/deactivates the reminder list.
Right clicking on the reminder list brings up the context menu.
Dialogs
The reminder list
The reminder list can be toggled by either left clicking on the tray menu or by selecting View Reminder List in the tray menu to show the list and selecting Minimize in the context menu or the Close button to hide the list again.
Two lists are shown: active and inactive reminders. The inactive reminder list contains all expired alarms ( you can change that behaviour in the Options dialog ). You can manually activate/deactivate certain alarms, too. Which list gets displayed can be changed in the tabs on top of the list.
The due reminder dialog
This dialog is shown if a reminder is due. It shows you the time the reminder was set, the amount of due reminders and the reminder text.
Here you can either postpone an alarm by either selecting one of the predefined durations or you can manually change the value in the postpone edit field. Postponing a frequently occuring event creates a new reminder with the same details except the new deadline. To postpone the reminder and all repetitions you have to edit the reminder.
Edit will bring up the Reminder Properties dialog; Close will delete the open reminder (or move it to inactive list, depending on your settings).
The new reminder dialog
You can add a new reminder by either selecting Add Reminder in the tray menu/context menu, by pressing the INS key or by clicking the Add Reminder button ( if you haven't turned off buttons).
You can enter date and time and the type of an alarm. You can chose between one time, daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly or on a set of custom days occurring reminders. Additionally you can select the sound that should be played when the reminder comes up.
Note on quarterly reminders: If you set an alarm on eg. 2004/09/23 the alarm will come up on 2004/09/23 the first time, and after that on each 03/23, 06/23, 09/23 and 12/23 ( ie. on each 23rd day in the 3rd month of each quarter).
Additionally you can select a program to start ( incl. parameters ) or whether the computer should be turned off/restarted or the user should be logged off.
Tip: to enter the time you can use the countdown dialog where you can calc a future date/time from now.
Options
You can show the options dialog by selecting Options in either the tray menu or in the context menu.
General
- Start Minimized: When this option is enabled, the PersonalReminder-window will get minimized to the tray icon right after starting the program.
- Show Reminder List On Alarm: brings window to front whenever an alarm comes up.
- Play Sound On Alarm: play a sound whenever an alarm comes up?
- Confirm Delete: if this options is selected, every deletion of an alarm must be confirmed first.
Reminder List
If Colorize Reminderlist is checked the reminderlist gets colored by the following rules:
- By Type: the list gets colored according to the type of the alarms (once, daily, weekly,...)
- Alternating: the lines in the list get colored in an alternating color
- Show Tooltips: If this option is selected, a short tooltip containing the reminder info is shown when the mouse hovers over the reminder list.
- Show Buttons: If this options is selected, the buttons below the reminderlist are shown. This option can also be changed with the reminder list context menu.
Sounds
Here you can define the sounds that get played when a reminder comes up. Those sounds can be referenced via name when an alarm is added/edited.
Custom Days
Here you can define what days the Custom Days reminder type should consist of.
Colors
Here you can either select one of the predefined color schemes, or creatre your own one. A color scheme defines three sections; each defining background and textcolor. The first sections defines the colors used if the type coloring is disabled in the "Reminder List" section. The second section defines the colors used for type-dependent reminder coloring (once, daily, ...). The third section defines the colors used for alternating coloring of the reminder list.
Advanced
- Keep old alarms: this otions defines, if expired alarms should be deleted or moved to the Inactive list of alarms.
- Check For New Version On Startup: If this option is selected, the program checks for new version of PersonalReminder after program start.
- Start Program When Windows Starts: When this option is selected, the program gets started right after windows starts up.
Languages
Here you can change the used language settings. In the list you can see all installed language packs and select one of them.
You can view the download page for more language packs by clicking the "Get other languages" button. Save any downloaded language pack in the languages subdirectory in the installation folder of PersonalReminder.
All changes in the language section will take effect after you have restarted the program.
Advanced
Admins
Addionally to the normal mode PersonalReminder supports the Administred Mode. This mode can be used to configure PersonalReminder in a way that all config and database files can be stored in a single (network) folder in case PersonalReminder is used in a company. Also some options ( like starting a program with a reminder or checking for a new version on startup) can be disabled for the user.
To start PersonalReminder using a certain ini file pass the full path to the ini file as commandline parameter (example: PersonalReminder.exe n:\office\reminders\iniChris.ini) In the ini file you can specify a complete path of the database file ( containing all reminders ) adding the following line: databasepath = {complete path} (example: databasepath = n:\office\reminders\remindersChris.dat )
The following values can only be changed via manually editing the ini file (mainly interesting for admins):
- configreadonly: If this value is set to 1, the following actions/options are locked: changing for a new verison of PersonalReminder, Options->Sounds, Options->Custom Days, Options->Misc.
- enableprogramlaunch: If this value is set to 0, then the Start Program section when adding/editing a reminder is locked.
- enableshutdownrestart: If this value is set to 0, then the Shut Down section when adding/editing a reminder is locked.
Localization
There are several language files available that enable you to operate the program in various languages ( spanish, french, dutch, german, ... ).
To add another language, download the language file of your choice here (http://www.mecasa-software.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=24&func=select&id=13) and place the file in the languages subfolder of your Personal Reminder installation directory. You can then select the new installed language in the Languages (http://www.mecasa-software.com/doc/index.php?title=PersonalReminder&action=submit#Languages) page in the options dialog and restart the application.
Transfer user data from one machine to another
The following folder will be referred to as PR_IFolder:
- Windows 98/2000/XP: c:\program files\PersonalReminder (default location)
- Windows Vista: c:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\PersonalReminder
Now follow these steps:
- Install Personal Reminder on the new machine.
- Exit the program if it is running on the new machine.
- Copy
reminder.inianddb.datfrom the PR_IFolder folder from the SOURCE machine to the PR_IFolder on the TARGET machine. - Start Personal Notepad on the new machine.
Windows Vista
There is no real Vista version of PersonalReminder. However, you can make Personal Reminder work on Vista by enabling write full write control to the PersonalReminder program folder.
Follow these steps:
- locate the program folder ( usually c:/program files/Personal Reminder)
- right click the folder and select Properties
- select the Security pane
- click modify
- select your user in the upper list
- select Full Control in the bottom list
- click Ok
Contact
Visit the contact (http://www.mecasa-software.com/index.php?option=com_contact&task=view&contact_id=1&Itemid=13) page.
