Calendar

[Dormouse]

As a creature with a preference for the Mouse and a belief that reducing activity is a good thing, I have been thinking about my PIM needs, specifically the Calendar function.

What I would like is a Calendar with a view that ranges from 1 day (split into 5 or 15 minute segments) to 2+ years (ie year planner view) with the option to select any period for display.

I would like the option to turn on or off the Dialog box when calendar items are added.
I would like the option (as in ToDoList2) to set the properties/settings for all items as a single process (one item after another) rather than constantly opeing/closing dialog boxes.

I would like to be able to drag and drop files, folders, images, URLs, emails etc on to the calendar (with options for doing this as links or as whole files) so that they automatically become calendar items. I would like to be able to drag new items on to previous items and have the previous item automatically made into a folder with the same name and containing the new item(s)).

And to be able to drag items and start/stop times anywhere on calendar.

And good export/import facilities to other tasklist etc progs.

As well as the usual tags/colour etc functions.

This would save a lot of unnecessary keyboard work and mean that all necessary docs etc were there automatically for meetings etc.

Does anyone know of a Calendar prog that is capable of working like this?

[Yahya]

Dormouse,

No, I don't.   With respect to the calendar period "zoom", ie from minutes to years, the Calendar in Microsoft Outlook does have this kind of feature.

Your user spec sounds like a great idea for an app, tho!   Thinking laterally - have you considered the various task managers around?   Again, have a look at Outlook's Tasks.

Another thing about Outlook is you can customise it considerably, creating your own forms etc, but this would mean you were effectively creating an add-on to Outlook.  For wider applicability, you might want to attack the problem at a more basic level so users don't need Outlook installed.

Regards,
Yahya

[Dormouse]

I have to say that Outlook is probably the application I most detest and yet have to use every day. Mostly because it doesn't have the functionality I want or because doing what I want takes longer than it should.

It does mean that it might have features I have never found since my investigations into it are always under duress.

With respect to the calendar period "zoom", ie from minutes to years, the Calendar in Microsoft Outlook does have this kind of feature.

I'm not aware that it has a year view. I know you can get an ActiveX control to give a year view, but that is still only one year.

And putting tasks into the Calendar seems to require completion of the d....d form. What I want to do is to drag things on and drag the times to get them precisely. And to be able to do that with color categories, especially useful for a year view. And to have multiple calendars like Holidays (eg mine and family's).

Your user spec sounds like a great idea for an app, tho!   Thinking laterally - have you considered the various task managers around?   Again, have a look at Outlook's Tasks.

I have had a look at a huge number of task managers (& have quite a lot installed) and PIMs (ditto) and they are all limited in one way or another. And surely Outlook's tasks must be one of the most limited features of Outlook. Not even any hierarchy.

Another thing about Outlook is you can customise it considerably, creating your own forms etc, but this would mean you were effectively creating an add-on to Outlook. 

I didn't know about this. But then getting away from forms completely is one of the main objects.

so users don't need Outlook installed.

And that would be very good, though hard to achieve since the one thing it is useful as is as the most pervasive way of moving data from one prog to another.

Thanks for the opportunity to let off a little more steam over Outlook.