Author Topic: I seek calendar software to suit a specific requirement. (Read 15493 times)

cranioscopical · « **on:** February 25, 2012, 05:58 PM »

I need help! Well, you knew that already...

Looking back down the ever darkening tunnel of time, to the days of Borland Sidekick, I recall calendar software of a very basic kind.

This would create a month view that allowed one simply to type into any day's 'cell' whatever was required. This text appeared — in full — on the cell for that day. Not just the first few words, not a clever little coloured bar, not a link to the 'day view' but exactly what it was that one had typed. If required, the font size would reduce to accommodate longer entries, subject to reasonable limits. What's more the software would allow for printing one-month, two months, or three months per page.

I have looked at a fair bit of calendar software, but don't see anything on the market that does this, to me, simple but essential thing. Surely I'm missing something, somewhere! I still have the Borland (latterly Starfish) software but it's a little absurd to impose that on a 64-bit W7 system.

So, I throw the question to the DC Hydra...

What software for Windows will do this specific thing?

dragonmage · « **Reply #1 on:** February 26, 2012, 01:41 AM »

Rainlendar could be just about what you need. You might have to create your own skin though, I think most of the bigger skins were Apple themed. You wouldn't be able to type directly in the square, there would be a dialog to type in but the text could be displayed in the square after it's entered. It does let you print a range of days to a grid though.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #2 on:** February 26, 2012, 05:44 AM »

Thanks for the suggestion, dragonmage. Rainlendar didn't quite match what I'm looking for.

techidave · « **Reply #3 on:** February 26, 2012, 08:44 AM »

I too, have been looking for this very thing. Without any luck. Why is it so hard to find or make? Everybody keeps telling me to try Google Calendar. Nope! Not what I want. I want to see all the words on a given day not just 4 words.

Curt · « **Reply #4 on:** February 26, 2012, 08:59 AM »

Chris, does this particular calendar need extras, like the features you can get from most calendars? My point being, you have not mentioned any other wanted feature than what you can get in a diary.

vuesoft · « **Reply #5 on:** February 26, 2012, 09:15 AM »

VueMinder Pro can wrap the text that you enter, so it might be closer to what you're looking for. It doesn't (yet) support printing 2 or 3 months on the same page, but that's on the list of planned improvements. It provides many other features as well, mostly driven by customer requests and suggestions.

Disclosure: I'm the author of VueMinder. I believe it's acceptable for me to post about my product, if it's in response to a question about a specific feature my product can provide.

Curt · « **Reply #6 on:** February 26, 2012, 11:58 AM »

VueMinder Pro I believe it's acceptable for me to post about my product,
-vuesoft (February 26, 2012, 09:15 AM)

-it sure is

because you tell who you are

cranioscopical · « **Reply #7 on:** February 26, 2012, 12:21 PM »

Chris, does this particular calendar need extras, like the features you can get from most calendars? My point being, you have not mentioned any other wanted feature than what you can get in a diary.
-Curt (February 26, 2012, 08:59 AM)

Thanks for the response, Curt. In answer to your question, it might be a bonus if it did. Reminders perhaps, some kind of reciprocity with contacts and/or notes, possibly. Those are definitely subservient to the objective of simply entering and showing what I want.

I can do most of what I want by knocking out calendars in WordPerfect or InDesign. What I'd like most is a modern suite that is really close to the old Borland Sidekick.

@techidave If you want nothing other than an analogue of a month-per-page printed calendar, WordPerfect will do most of the job straight out of the box. I think I tried this in Word and found it too awkward.

Printing multiple months on one page isn't a deal breaker — it's convenient to do that right from the calendar but there's plenty of 'printer' software around that can handle that job.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #8 on:** February 26, 2012, 12:26 PM »

VueMinder Pro can wrap the text that you enter, so it might be closer to what you're looking for. It doesn't (yet) support printing 2 or 3 months on the same page, but that's on the list of planned improvements. It provides many other features as well, mostly driven by customer requests and suggestions.

Disclosure: I'm the author of VueMinder. I believe it's acceptable for me to post about my product, if it's in response to a question about a specific feature my product can provide.
-vuesoft (February 26, 2012, 09:15 AM)

Thanks for responding. It's certainly alright, and quite helpful. I know I've looked at VueMinder in the past. I shall look again.

techidave · « **Reply #9 on:** February 26, 2012, 01:17 PM »

I shall look at it too. I think re-occuring things on there like a monthly appointment would be good too.

techidave · « **Reply #10 on:** February 26, 2012, 01:18 PM »

I have looked at Word and Excel before but no satisfaction. Now that I think about it, the old Lotus Ami Pro 3.0 used to make an awesome calendar. It was a great word processor... loved that program.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #11 on:** February 26, 2012, 04:57 PM »

I shall look at it too. I think re-occuring things on there like a monthly appointment would be good too.
-techidave (February 26, 2012, 01:17 PM)

There are grounds for hope at this link, which is very close to what I seek. ViewMinder Pro text wrapping.
This feature is available only in the paid, Pro version. As long as it does what I want, to me it'll be well worth the cost. The feature will work in the trial version that's available for download, so it's free to find out.

I'll be interested to find out your reaction.
On a quick run through it looks as if it's closer to what I want than others have been. Can wrap text in day 'squares' and set font size per entry if desired.

CleverCat · « **Reply #12 on:** February 27, 2012, 12:47 AM »

VueMinder may be just what I'm looking for! As long as I can have 'spoken' reminders made with my Text To Speech voice....

techidave · « **Reply #13 on:** February 27, 2012, 04:42 AM »

Vueminder looks really good. They offer 40% discount for non-profits, 30% for education and its free for churches! And they even offer churches up to 10 licenses! how cool is that!

cranioscopical · « **Reply #14 on:** February 27, 2012, 12:39 PM »

I'm going to ask about one caveat.
Having produced a nicely 'day-wrapped' month page I discovered that it's not wrapped when printed out.
I'm hoping that this was due, as usual, to my own ineptitude. We shall see.

vuesoft · « **Reply #15 on:** February 27, 2012, 10:44 PM »

If the text isn't wrapping in the printout, my guess is the box labeled "Wrap text" is unchecked. This box is located under the "Monthly Layout" settings on the Print window. It allows text wrapping to be turned on/off in the printout, independent of the setting to wrap text in the main window.

Also note, you may encounter cases (especially if word wrapping is enabled) where events might not fit in the printout. If that happens, the page linked below provides some tips on getting more events to fit.
VueMinder Pro Help Documentation - Print and Print Preview

A recently added feature is the "2 pages per month" box, which will split the month printout to span two pages, allowing plenty of space for events. There's also a "Calendar View" print layout, which will print the month exactly as it appears on the screen.

I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions, and thank you for trying VueMinder Pro.

CleverCat · « **Reply #16 on:** February 28, 2012, 12:40 AM »

Wow - VueMinder is amazing and the freebie has everything I've been looking for!

Will look into buying Pro when I've paid my debts to the Bank of Mother!

Thanks vuesoft.... and cranio for starting thread!

cranioscopical · « **Reply #17 on:** February 28, 2012, 09:50 AM »

VueMinder Support Responsiveness

For anyone interested to read far enough in this topic, I'd like to share my experience. Over the past few days I have asked numerous email questions of VueMinder support. The answers to most if not all of these queries were already avaliable somewhere — in the help files, the on-line manuals, or the program itself. Despite this, Dan at VueMinder support has answered every query clearly, patiently, and with alacrity. This is very good support indeed.

wraith808 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 28, 2012, 10:05 AM »

Maybe we can get a DoCo discount... I know I'm interested in the pro version...

Curt · « **Reply #19 on:** February 28, 2012, 10:11 AM »

-we have had such discount. I think it actually was 75% off!!

Edited:
Seems it was 50%, but with a lifetime key.

Steven,

An 'alternate DonationCoder reality' sounds fine to me!

We'll extend the lifetime service deal through the end of July 2009, but to DonationCoders only. After purchasing a license, send an email to vuesoftsite.com, referencing this thread. We'll then send you the information required to convert your 1 year service contract into a lifetime service contract, which will allow you to receive free product updates forever, for no additional charge.

Jibz · « **Reply #20 on:** February 28, 2012, 11:13 AM »

I used the pro version of vueminder on my old computer, and like cranioscopical my experience has been very competent support and a nice product.

I must admit I've chosen not to upgrade it because at the moment google calendar does most of what I need, and I had some issues with vueminder opening the window when alt-tabbing out of a full screen application even though it was minimized to the tray which drove me nuts on the old box where opening vueminder could take 10 seconds

.

vuesoft · « **Reply #21 on:** February 28, 2012, 06:33 PM »

Maybe we can get a DoCo discount... I know I'm interested in the pro version...
-wraith808 (February 28, 2012, 10:05 AM)

For DonationCoders only, the following links can be used to purchase the Pro or Ultimate versions for 30% off. Lifetime updates are also discounted. These links will work until March 6:
VueMinder Pro - 30% Discount
VueMinder Ultimate - 30% Discount

If you're not sure what is different between Pro and Ultimate, the page linked below gives a good overview:
Feature Comparison

I must admit I've chosen not to upgrade it because at the moment google calendar does most of what I need, and I had some issues with vueminder opening the window when alt-tabbing out of a full screen application even though it was minimized to the tray which drove me nuts on the old box where opening vueminder could take 10 seconds .
-Jibz (February 28, 2012, 11:13 AM)

I believe this has been fixed. At least, I'm not seeing it happen on Windows 7. If you want to try it out on your new computer, please let me know and I'll hook you up with the latest version, free of charge.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #22 on:** February 28, 2012, 07:44 PM »

the following links can be used to purchase the Pro or Ultimate versions
-vuesoft (February 28, 2012, 06:33 PM)

Thank you very much

wraith808 · « **Reply #23 on:** February 28, 2012, 07:59 PM »

the following links can be used to purchase the Pro or Ultimate versions
-vuesoft (February 28, 2012, 06:33 PM)
Thank you very much
-cranioscopical (February 28, 2012, 07:44 PM)

Wow, thanks! I'll be doing this as soon as I get paid!

cranioscopical · « **Reply #24 on:** February 28, 2012, 10:09 PM »

Oops, sorry!