For those of you out there looking for a little more control over the events in you life, After Hours Software has developed a personal calendar that helps you manage your activities. With DateBook, you can schedule appointments, keep a list of things to do, organize projects, and easily alter or cancel them. For those on the go, you can print them out as a handy, portable, paper version.
When you open DateBook, a graphical interface appears which displays a calendar and several menus and an icon palette. (See illustration at right.) DateBook can display your calendar in five fundamental views: Year, Month, Week, Day, and List. You can navigate between those areas using the icon palette which highlights the active section. The five views share techniques to see events and To-Dos, and to move to a different day. In other words, you can plot out your busy life in about all possible ways.
There are many appointment-oriented software packages available, the most familiar being the Apple HyperCard stack that comes with the system software. Other personal and/or workgroup appointment schedulers available run the gamut of features. Many of the feature options one might expect to find in different manifestations are: the calendar, alarms, reminders, lists, and printing abilities. The most important features needed by any accessory that might be used on a daily basis are of course quick and easy access and a diversity of functions. You should be able to set preferences and alter them easily, including colors, open-tos, and typestyles.
Hey Grampa, what time is it?
When you launch DateBook the current day is selected and automatically appears in a monthly calendar view. You can select any of the five views to open at startup, but this view is most familiar, and most users will prefer to work using this interface as the home base. In this view, among other items there is: a date selector pop-up menu, a find menu for searching, an icon palette, and a scrollable “Day-at-a-Glance” sidebar which displays the lists and notes you can make in the list window. The icon palette, located at the bottom of the DateBook screen, enables you to navigate between the different views. The five views share techniques that allow viewing entries and modifying them if needed. You can see the events and To-Do’s of any day by clicking on the day you want to view in the graphical calendar area. This is very handy when setting up a single day or a whole week of things to do. By clicking on the specific day you immediately move to the day list in which you can make additions or alterations, or you can import data from other sources such as TouchBase, the well-received address and information database application also from After Hours.
Mother’s Day... again?!!
DateBook takes advantage of the Macintosh interface to enable you to move and copy events and To-Dos with ease. You can move items to quickly reschedule them by simply pressing and holding the cursor on the event. The cursor changes to a grabber hand and a balloon appears that says, “Moving item to...” You simply move the item to the new day and release. A very good feature indeed. Copying an event or task (to multiple dates) is done the same way by holding down the option key while moving an item. There are several other optional commands to perform the same commands in different views.
For those of us that find it hard to remember recurring events such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays, there is a feature for scheduling these items on a daily, weekly, or yearly basis. This is a very easy function to add onto or delete from and will function as long as you like, showing up on all views. When used in conjunction with the alarm function, you can remind yourself of the event at a predetermined time in advance. For instance, I have the alarm set to remind me that my favorite gameshow is about to start. While working I will be pleasantly interrupted by a “quack” alarm sound and a screenbox that asks “Is Jeopardy about to begin?” (The response of course being in the form of a question. If it was Wheel of Fortune, I’d have to buy a vowel and spin my PrinterWheel DA, I guess).You can write any reminder note you wish. There is a “snooze” button also which allows you to send the message away temporarily, and it will return at any interval you choose.
Printing options allow you to print out one or two sided pages in several styles and you can also purchase paper to fit your old stand-by address book.
Overall Performance
DateBook goes well beyond those fundamentals available in most other applications and DAs of the same nature. It has a full range of search and interface capabilities and is easily alterable. But there are some weak points. In visual style DateBook is not lush, though better than most. This will be of little interest to the average business person, of course. Being a graphic designer, I am a real mensch about visual style. I believe one of the most exciting aspects of the Mac today, especially when running System 7 with color, is its advanced ability to display high quality graphics. DateBook’s banner and icon palette functions are third rate. The icon palette offers small iconographic symbols which can be pasted on a date—things such as planes, trains, and dancing couples. It performs well, but the icons are poorly drawn, and some are downright ugly. I have yet to figure out how to import or add on others. This would be a great feature for future updates. Also, you can only position one icon on any given date—a drawback if you want to be aware that you are having dinner and going dancing. The banners, as well, are crude and cumbersome and, once positioned, don’t allow you to place anything else on that date. The latest version doesn’t feature the 3-dimensional rendering found in some of the best System 7-savvy applications. After Hours has promised an update in the near future; and I hope they address these features which, in comparison to the rest of the program, seem hastily thought out.
Of course, the greatest feature of a date book like this is that once you are set up and running you still have time to do something with your life, other than make lists. “Quack-quack! Is Jeopardy on?”
The next version of DateBook will feature network calendars, according to After Hours Software.
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