Copyright: ® 1994 Rimrock Software.


Index
CalendEzy

•	 Overview

•	 Installing a Shortcut

•	 Menu Items

•	 Controlling CalendEzy with the Mouse

•	 Controlling CalendEzy with the Keyboard

•	 Tutorial


Information
CalendEzy - Information

© 1997 by Tim Parish. All rights reserved.

Zoomable virtual wall calendar.


  Overview

CalendEzy is an easy-to-use calendar program for Windows 95. However, this program is quite unique in that it is really a virtual wall calendar. In other words, like a huge paper calendar with all the months pasted onto a wall, in a rectangular arrangement. Imagine that you are looking at it now. To record a message, you would step forward and write it into the appropriate block. To look forward to a future month you would step back to see more of the calendar, then perhaps step forward and to the side to record another message.

This calendar program works in a similar way - you simply zoom in and out, and shift from place to place on the calendar. You can type in messages, change them later, and also delete them if necessary.

This Help file is very detailed, so if you are a new Windows user, you will actually learn quite a bit about Windows basics by reading through it all. For more experienced users, CalendEzy should prove pretty intuitive, and this Help file should only be needed as an occasional reference to clarify details.


  Installing a Shortcut

You need a handy way to get at CalendEzy at a moment's notice. With a shortcut icon sitting on the Windows Desktop (the background area of your screen), you can just double click it anytime to use your calendar.

If you don't already know how to install a shortcut to this program on your Windows Desktop, here's one method (you might want to print this by clicking the Print button above):

1) Click on the Start button in the Windows Taskbar, then select Programs, then Explorer.

2) When Explorer comes up, find the directory that you installed CalendEzy into, and double-click on it. (This will probably be C:).

3) The list of files should include 2 with yellow icons, called Calendezy. Right click on the filename whose type is application, and drag it onto the Windows Desktop. In the menu that pops up, select Create Shortcut Here.

4) If you want the icon to have a more appropriate caption, just click inside the caption area, and you can type in whatever you want. For example My Calendar.


 Menu Items

•	File|View Log...

•	File|Exit

•	Levels|Year

•	Levels|Month

•	Levels|Day

•	Levels|Hour

•	Levels|Qtr. Hour

•	Options|Display Hint

•	Options|Zoom Controls...

•	Options|Set Fonts|Titles...

•	Options|Set Fonts|Messages...

•	Options|Set Color|Blocks...

•	Options|Set Color|Crosshair...

•	Options|Set Color|Background...

•	Options|Graphics...

•	Options|Expiry Days...

•	Index...

•	About...


  File|View Log...

This brings up the CalendEzy log file, which contains a record of every message addition, alteration and deletion since you installed the program. This is useful in case you accidently changed something, or simply want to have a look at messages that appeared on the calendar in the past. A typical line in the log file looks like this:

13/11/97 10:55:46 am  1997  11  14  17  -1  Leave for studio

From left to right, here is an explanation:

13/11/97     Date that log entry was made

10:55:46 am  Time that log entry was made

1997         Year of the message

11           Month of the message (November here)

14           Day of the message (14th of the month)

17           Hour of the message, 24hr format (5pm here)

-1           Qtr hour of the message (-1 indicates 'not used')

Leave for... The message itself, stored at the hour level in this case

Another example:

18/11/97 11:25:23 am  2000  -1  -1  -1  -1  The new Millenium!

The explanation:

18/11/97     Date that log entry was made

11:25:23 am  Time that log entry was made

2000         Year of the message

-1           Month (unused)

-1           Day (unused)

-1           Hour (unused)

-1           Qtr hour (unused)

The new...   The message itself, stored at the year level in this case


  File|Exit

This closes down the CalendEzy program.


  Levels|Year

This menu item takes you directly to the year level of the calendar, from any other level. Pressing <Ctrl>+Y has the same effect.


  Levels|Month

This menu item takes you directly to the month level of the calendar, from any other level. Pressing <Ctrl>+M has the same effect.


  Levels|Day

This menu item takes you directly to the day level of the calendar, from any other level. Pressing <Ctrl>+D has the same effect.


  Levels|Hour

This menu item takes you directly to the hour level of the calendar, from any other level. Pressing <Ctrl>+H has the same effect.


  Levels|Qtr. Hour

This menu item takes you directly to the quarter hour level of the calendar, from any other level. Pressing <Ctrl>+Q has the same effect.


  Options|Display Hints

Selecting this menu item will place or remove a check mark next to the menu item. If checked, a hint line will appear at the bottom edge of the calendar. Every time the calendar is re-displayed, a different hint is displayed. This will prove useful while you are learning the program.


  Options|Zoom Controls...

Selecting this menu item will bring up a dialog box containing controls for fine tuning the behaviour of the CalendEzy zooming function. There are scroll bars for Frame Rate, Magnification and Acceleration. With a little experimentation, you should find settings that work well for you and your PC. The 'right' settings depend on your personal taste and also the power of your machine. Here is the recommended method for setting the controls (you might want to print this off by pressing the Print button above):

1) Set all the controls on minimum, then gradually bring the frame rate up until CalendEzy can't auto zoom at the same speed at any level. In other words, no matter where you are in the calendar, auto-zooming should feel the same - rather than be quick sometimes and slower at other times. Bring the frame rate back a touch from there. If even the minimum level is no good, you might need to reduce the Graphics Level so your machine can cope.

2) When you are satisfied with Frame Rate, do the same with Magnification. That is, bring it up a bit at a time until it seems just right. Too small, and you have to wait too long to enlarge or reduce the calendar. Too big, and things change so much with each step that it gets confusing and you lose track of where you are.

3) When satisfied with Magnification, do the same with Acceleration. A high value of Acceleration helps save time when you want to auto-zoom a long way in or out. It increases the amount of magnification each time the calendar is re-displayed. However, when you stop, the magnification is returned to the level you have it set to.


  Options|Set Fonts|Titles...

Selecting this menu item will bring up a standard Windows 95 dialog box for selecting fonts and their characteristics. For calendar block titles, for example the month names or weekday names, only the Font and Color may be changed. Only TrueType fonts will appear in the list. Any other changes in the dialog box will be ignored by CalendEzy. This is because the size of the font changes during zooming. Also, underline and italics are used for special purposes in this program.

So, you can change the titles to any TrueType font typeface that you have installed on your PC, and display them in any solid color that your PC supports.


  Options|Set Fonts|Messages...

Selecting this menu item will bring up a standard Windows 95 dialog box for selecting fonts and their characteristics. You can alter the look of all the messages that you type into CalendEzy, by changing anything you like - Font (any installed on your PC, not just TrueType), Style, Size (in points) or Color (any solid color that your PC supports).


  Options|Set Color|Blocks...

Selecting this menu item will bring up a standard Windows 95 dialog box for selecting a color, or specifying your own customized color. The color you select will be the color of all the rounded rectangular blocks that make up the CalendEzy calendar.


  Options|Set Color|Crosshair...

Selecting this menu item will bring up a standard Windows 95 dialog box for selecting a solid color that is available on your PC. The color you select will be the color of the crosshair that is always visible in the centre of the calendar.


  Options|Set Color|Background...

Selecting this menu item will bring up a standard Windows 95 dialog box for selecting a color, or specifying your own customized color. The color you select will be the background color of the CalendEzy window.


  Options|Graphics...

Selecting this menu item will bring up a dialog box containing 2 sections, Background and Graphics Level.

The Background section contains a checkbox which indicates whether you want to paint the background using a bitmap. This is like tiling the Windows Desktop itself with a bitmap. If the checkbox is checked, you can select a bitmap by pressing the Load Bitmap button.

The Graphics Level section allows you to alter the complexity of graphics to suit your PC. This ensures CalendEzy is useable with older PCs which cannot cope with the amount of graphics drawing and painting that the 3D option demands. Alternatively, you might be happy with a lower level of graphic detail, and select it to enable faster, smoother shifting and zooming on a late model PC.


  Options|Expiry Days...

When you select this menu item you will be asked for the number of expiry days. If you type in, say, 2, then all messages more than 2 days old will not appear on the calendar.

For example, suppose today is Monday, and you type in messages for 5pm on next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. When you start CalendEzy on Friday morning, the message for Tuesday will have disappeared. But if you ever really needed to find out what you typed in for Tuesday, you could always find it in the  log.


  Index...

This brings up the top level of the Help system, from where any topic of interest can be found.


  About...

This brings up the About Box, which contains information such as the version number of the program, the author's name and a copyright notice.


  Controlling CalendEzy with the Mouse

•	Shifting and Zooming the Calendar

•	Adding a Message

•	Editing a Message

•	Deleting a Message

•	Moving and Sizing the Window


  Shifting and Zooming the Calendar

When you click anywhere on the calendar (but not inside the crosshair circle), the calendar is shifted so that point lies directly underneath the crosshair. In this way, you can move around in the same general area, like scrolling.

Also, if you click with the left mouse button inside the crosshair circle, you zoom in and everything will get a little bigger. Click inside the circle with the right mouse button, and you zoom out - everything will become a little smaller.

In this way, by shifting and zooming, you can get to any point on the calendar.

Note: CalendEzy will continue to zoom in or out if you hold down the mouse button. You can fine-tune how fast this happens by setting the  Zoom Controls.

For the fastest response, try holding down the <Ctrl> key while clicking the mouse. This will jump directly from level to level. For example, if you are looking at hours in a day, click the right mouse button while holding down <Ctrl> to jump back to the day, then click again to jump to the month.


  Adding a Message

A message may be added to any of the smallest blocks visible in the window. Simply click inside the block. After the calendar shifts, you can start typing. The characters will appear in the edit box at the bottom of the window. When finished, press the <Enter> key, and the message will appear in the calendar.


  Editing a Message

To edit a message in any of the smallest blocks visible in the window, just click inside the block. After the calendar shifts, the message will appear in the edit box at the bottom of the window. You can then click somewhere inside the text and delete or add new characters.

So if you see a message in a larger block, you need to zoom out a little in order to edit it.


  Deleting a Message

To delete a message in any of the smallest blocks visible in the window, just click inside the block. After the calendar shifts, the message will appear in the edit box at the bottom of the window. You can then click at the start of the text, drag to the end to highlight it, and press <Delete> to get rid of the whole line. When you press <Enter>, the calendar will re-display and the message will be gone.

In short, to get rid of a message, just delete it all from the edit box (using any method), and press <Enter>.


  Moving and Sizing the Window

To move the window, just click inside the title bar (the coloured area along the top) and drag the window to the new location.

To size the window, move the cursor over the edge of the window until a little 2-ended arrow appears. Now drag it as far as required. If you position the cursor over a corner instead of a side, you can size in 2 directions at once.


  Controlling CalendEzy with the Keyboard

There are two reasons to become familiar with how CalendEzy can be controlled via the keyboard:

1) You are using a portable or laptop computer which is probably more practical to use via the keyboard.

2) You might find some things are actually easier and quicker using the keyboard rather than the mouse.

•	Shifting and Zooming the Calendar

•	Adding a Message

•	Editing a Message

•	Deleting a Message

•	Moving and Sizing the Window

•	Using the Main Menu

•	Dialog Boxes


  Shifting and Zooming the Calendar

To shift the calendar, just hold down the <Shift> key and tap the arrow keys. This will shift the calendar by a quarter of a screen in one of the 4 directions.

To zoom in or out, hold down the <Shift> key and tap the <Page Up> or <Page Down> keys.

If you hold down the keys, the shift or zoom will keep repeating until you release the keys.

For the fastest response, try holding down the <Ctrl> key as well as the <Shift> key. This will jump directly from level to level. For example, if you are looking at hours in a day, hold down <Ctrl> and <Shift> while tapping <PageDown> to jump back to the day, the month then the year.


  Adding a Message

A message may be added to any of the smallest blocks visible in the window. Using the arrow keys, shift the block until the crosshairs cross inside it. Start typing. The characters will appear in the edit box at the bottom of the window. When finished, press the <Enter> key, and the message will appear in the calendar.


  Editing a Message

Any message in any of the smallest blocks visible in the window may be edited. Using the arrow keys, shift the block until the crosshairs cross inside it. The message will appear in the edit box at the bottom of the window. The cursor may be moved around by using the arrow keys or the <Home> and <End> key. The <Delete> and <BackSpace> keys may be used to delete characters. To make the altered message appear in the calendar, press <Enter>.


  Deleting a Message

Any message in any of the smallest blocks visible in the window may be deleted. Using the arrow keys, shift the block until the crosshairs cross inside it. The message will appear in the edit box at the bottom of the window. You can then hold down the <Shift> key, then tap the <End> key to highlight the whole line of text. Press <Delete> to get rid of the text. When you press <Enter>, the calendar will re-display and the message will be gone.

In short, to get rid of a message, just delete it all from the edit box (using any method), and press <Enter>.


  Moving and Sizing the Window

To move or size the window, hold down the <Alt> key and press the space bar. The system menu at the top left corner of the window will appear, and you can select Move or Size by pressing the <M> or <S> key respectively. Having done this, you can move or size by pressing the arrow keys. To cancel the change, press the <Esc> key. To make the change, press <Enter>.


  Using the Main Menu

Press <Alt>, then the underlined character in the menu you want. For example, <F> for the File menu. Then press the underlined character of the item you want. For example, <X> for Exit. You can quit the menu anytime by pressing <Esc>.

Alternatively, there are <Ctrl> key shortcuts for most menu items, which appear next to the menu items themselves. For example, hold down <Ctrl> and press <X> to exit.


  Dialog Boxes

The <Tab> key may be used to quickly shift the focus from control to control in a dialog box. If you hold down <Shift> while tapping <Tab>, the focus will travel in the opposite direction. The control with the focus looks slightly different to normal, in that it is surrounded by a faint dotted line. The control with the focus will respond to the space bar. For example, a button with the focus can be pressed by pressing the space bar. A checked check box with the focus will become unchecked if you press the space bar. Finally, if a round radio button has the focus, you can select the other radio buttons by using the arrow keys.

Pressing <Enter> is equivalent to pressing the OK button. Pressing <Esc> is equivalent to pressing the Cancel button. You can also press <O> for OK or <C> for Cancel.


  Tutorial

It would be a good idea to print out this tutorial, by clicking the print button above. This will save the bother of swapping windows all the time as you work your way through.

This tutorial assumes that you have just run CalendEzy for the first time. The calendar should appear as a small yellow block in the middle of the window, with the title Years. If you have been experimenting with the calendar, and still wish to do this tutorial, zoom out and position the calendar in the middle of the window, with just the word Years showing.

1) You will notice a thin black crosshair, with a small circle in the middle, which crosses over the calendar. Position the cursor inside the circle and click the left mouse button. Notice how the calendar gets bigger.

2) Now, with the cursor still inside the circle, click the right mouse button. This time, the calendar gets smaller. This is how you can zoom in and out, while looking at the exact same spot in the calendar.

3) By left clicking inside the circle, zoom in until the months of the years appear. Pick a month near the edge of the window, and click inside its block (this can be a right or left click, it doesn't matter). When the window repaints itself, you will notice that the point you clicked is now directly under the crosshair. This is how you move around the calendar on the same level.

4) By now you will have noticed that one of the year titles is displayed in red, and also one of the month titles. In fact, one block at every level has a red title and this indicates the current date and time, to the nearest quarter hour. Using the mouse, see if you can find your way down to the current quarter hour block (that is, with a red title). Hint: Click in the middle of the red-titled block to bring it to the middle, then left-click a few times inside the crosshair circle until another red-titled block appears. Click inside that block to bring it to the middle, and so on until you can't zoom in any further.

5) Now that you are at the bottom, you might be thinking that you had to do a lot of clicking to get there. There are short cuts! You will find that if you hold down the mouse button inside the crosshair circle, the calendar will zoom repeatedly. Try it now, right-click inside the crosshair circle and hold it down until you get right back to the top level.

6) You can also auto-zoom the other way - try left-clicking inside the crosshair circle and holding down the button. Notice how the date and time of the block under the crosshair appears at the bottom of the window, on a raised panel. This date/time panel is handy for seeing parts of the date and time that are not visible on the calendar itself. For example, you might have a Monday block taking up most of the window, but what month and year is it in?

7) To really speed up your navigation around the calendar, try holding down the <Ctrl> key on the keyboard while you click with the mouse. This has no effect while you shift position, but it causes zooming to jump directly from level to level. So if you are looking at the hours in a day, you can jump straight back to the day, then straight to the month and so on.

If you ever need to, you can also get to any level directly from any other level by selecting an item from the Levels menu. Try selecting Levels|Qtr. Hour now, and see how it takes you straight to the lowest level. Holding down the <Ctrl> key and pressing Q will have the same effect.

 8) Now comes the really useful part - how to record, edit and delete messages in the calendar. There is an edit box at the bottom of the window (just above the date/time panel) in which you can type text. But it only makes sense to record messages for future dates and times. Hence, the edit box will only appear when the crosshair is over a block that represents some future date and time. Pick a month in next year, and click on the appropriate month block so it comes to the middle of the screen.

9) In the edit box, type in a test message such as 'This message belongs to this month' and press the <Enter> key. The message will appear under the month name title, and will stay there until you delete it. This illustrates a feature of this calendar - every block can be associated with one (and only one) message. This applies for year blocks, right down to quarter hour blocks.

10) Now have a look at the title of the year block that contains the month and its message that you just typed (zoom out if necessary). Notice that the year title is now underlined. This means that somewhere underneath it, at a lower level, there is at least one message recorded. You will find that this applies at any level - for example, a day name will be underlined if there are any messages recorded in the hour blocks for that day. Also, it doesn't matter how far below the message is hidden. For example, if a month block contains just a single message at the quarter hour level, the month name will be underlined.

11) Click on some other month that has no message. The edit box goes blank, since there is no message for this month. Now click on the month block with your message. The text you typed in will now appear in the edit box. Make some alterations to the text in the text box, and press <Enter>. The modified message will now be visible in the calendar.

12) To delete a message, first bring it up in the edit box by clicking on its block in the calendar. Delete the entire line of text from the edit box (any way you want), then press <Enter>. If you delete the month message you just entered, you will notice that its year block title is no longer underlined.

That's all there is to know about the basic operation of the calendar. You will find extra information in the Help file that will:

i) Show you how to operate the entire calendar using only the  keyboard.

ii) Provide a procedure for adjusting the  zooming facility so it works best for you.

iii) Explain the various  options, including details of customizing the appearance of the calendar.