Looking for a minimalist Desktop Calendar Application..

[mouser]

Ok I need some help looking for an app.. If it doesn't exist maybe we can build it.

What I want is a very simplistic, minimalist Desktop Calendar application, with a very basic feature set -- but I'm quite picky about some of the user interface elements.

I have tried a bunch of Calendar/Scheduling information management applications, and I never stick with any of them..

And I *think* the main reason is that I don't have a lot of scheduling to do, I mainly want to add quick notes to a given day, maybe track a few birthdays and events.

So here's what I need:

• 1. Nice elegant maximized display of the current month, shown just like a wall calendar, with a day for each month.
• 2. Each day box should be a very simple click to edit plain text field so I can just easily write and edit the text notes for a given day.  I don't want to have a form pop up asking me start and stop times, etc.
• 3. Quick toggle to and from tray.
• 4. A yearly view and/or a summary list view, that makes it easy to see at a glance which upcoming days in future months have custom notes on them.  That is, I'd like a year view where i can see the days that have custom notes marked in a different color. And/Or a list view with just a list of days with custom notes.
• 5. A way to provide a simple list of repeating events (birthdays).

I do *NOT* need:

• 1. Alarms and audible/popup reminders
• 2. Searching, Synchronizing, Printing.

Now if we did decide to code it ourselves, there are a couple of unusual features that I might consider adding, like:

• Ability to configure a few custom fields that would be shown on each day, like a field for "Weight" or "Miles Run", etc., and which might be graphable.

Anyone else think this would be useful?  Every desktop app i've sen is designed to be a serious power tool for people with super busy schedules..
I just want as close as I can get to a physical wall calendar which let's me easily add notes to each day.

Anyone know of an application like this, free or otherwise?

[Tuxman]

Rainlendar? It can do the things you don't need though.

[dr_andus]

I want is a very simplistic, minimalist Desktop Calendar application, with a very basic feature set -- but I'm quite picky about some of the user interface elements.

I looked into this category a few months ago and couldn't find anything that simple, so decided to stick with Google Cal. But here are a few software I came across (in order of increasing complexity - the last few are far too complex for your criteria, but included them anyway for comparison):

• Smart Desktop Calendar
• Cotton Calendar
• VORG
• Pimlical
• Calendarscope

Another option might be to use the provided calendar files and features within existing PIM, such as BrainStorm, WhizFolders etc.

Edit: I should have mentioned calendar view and date topics within ConnectedText (wiki), which is all text and mark-up based.

[cmpm]

VueMinder

http://www.vueminder.com/

Nice desktop calendar, full view and mini, both with click date to add notes.
A free version and Pro and Ultimate for more features.

[NigelH]

Perhaps UK's Kalender?
Does not match your required feature set exactly - especially point 2.
But it is somewhat minimalist.


http://www.ukrebs-software.de/english/kalender/features.html
http://www.ukrebs-software.de/english/kalender/screenshots.html

[Renegade]

This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff that I love to do.

However, it would require a custom calendar control, which is doable, but time consuming.

The default calendar control is not sizable, which presents issue there for a date selection-based approach.

I think this sounds like an HTML5 application as that would be well suited for flowing layouts, sizability, and all that good stuff.

MozNet and Awesomium are the only decent browser controls out there that I've seen lately, but Awesomium is extremely limiting and restricts you to pure HTML/JS/CSS, i.e. It's useless for DOM manipulation in code. MozNet would be a much better choice for a browser-based control. You can do darn near anything in it. (The default Windows WebBrowser is the Trident engine, which blows. Hard.)

Then there's Pokki... Not looking to stir up a flame war, but it is a possibility.

I can't think of any way that I could whip up something presentable in a decent time-frame that I could afford to do.

Maybe someone that's better at custom controls than me can suggest something. Or maybe one of the programs above fits the bill.

It is a very interesting problem though. (I love simplifying things.) 

[kilele]

coolendar seems a pretty handy webapp calendar,
as for an html5 app I've found this interesting article

[Curt]

coolendar seems a pretty handy webapp calendar,

coolendar is mainly for smartphones, but:

Vote for an offline version:
http://coolendar.uservoice.com/forums/59797-general/suggestions/795069-offline-version

[wraith808]

VueMinder

http://www.vueminder.com/

Nice desktop calendar, full view and mini, both with click date to add notes.
A free version and Pro and Ultimate for more features.

Another vote for vueminder

[Darwin]

I have licenses for both VueMinder Pro and VueMinder Ultimate and I really like it. However, I no longer have it installed because it consistently hammers my CPU and hits my RAM hard. I have since switched to an SSD and keep thinking I should give the latest build another go, but I don't really miss it that much... Great program, otherwise, though. Dan is great to deal with - very responsive and offers good support. In sum, though, it's WAY more than mouser is after...

[rgdot]

If you code it I would love it, always on the look out for such things of course

Agreed that the only knock against VueMinder is resource usage, not really blaming Dan just that it is that way. On both an old machine and newer one.

Another few suggestions that may or may not meet requirements but worth a look

Desktop Calendar http://www.tinnes.org.uk/
My Calendar http://myuploader.net//files/44/index.htm
Desktop iCalendar Lite http://www.desksware.com/desktop-icalendar-lite.htm
Ultimate Calendar http://uc.maximus.in.ua/

[mouser]

hmm.. nothing suggested so far meets what i'm looking for..
i may have to code this myself.

[relipse]

with a todo list?

[mouser]

What i want is:

2. Each day box should be a very simple click to edit plain text field so I can just easily write and edit the text notes for a given day.  I don't want to have a form pop up asking me start and stop times, etc.

That is, I just want to simulate a physical wall calendar: you can click to edit in any day box and it should act like a memo where you can simply edit and type the plain text in that box.

(this calendar is meant to be shown full screen where there will be enough room in each box to write enough notes).

There is no need for the program to know about time-of-day stuff, etc.  It just needs to let user easily see and edit the text note associated with each day -- each day "cell" should be an editable memo.

[Target]

perhaps not quite what your looking for but is this something that could be done with infoqube (a bit of overkill perhaps) or maybe treesheets?

[cranioscopical]

That is, I just want to simulate a physical wall calendar: you can click to edit in any day box and it should act like a memo where you can simply edit and type the plain text in that box.

I used to do exactly this with a WordPerfect calendar — just click in a box and type away. I don't know what word processor you use, but you might take a dekko at its templates.

Now I use VueMinder and am as happy with it as those others who have commented about it here.

[nogojoe]

Hi Mouser

May I suggest you try 3D Calendar (author Riccardo Thompsom)

http://www.3dcalendar.com.ar

it has plenty of extras but they can be disabled if not needed but I think it will cover most of what you are looking for most things highly  configurable to suit ones own taste

have included  a few screenshots for you to look at .
the second has in red the dates that have notes in and they can be seen by hover tip as well as shown under 'events' or just click on the date to see what you have written

[attachimg=#]

[mouser]

Having found nothing that really moves me, I've decided to write a simple version of this tool.

Since I have a bunch of other things that I'm working on that are much more important, this is only going to be a couple day project.

[dr_andus]

What i want is:

2. Each day box should be a very simple click to edit plain text field so I can just easily write and edit the text notes for a given day.  I don't want to have a form pop up asking me start and stop times, etc.

Not exactly the same thing but it reminds me of the iDoneThis implementation:
http://nicolamcnee.edublogs.org/files/2012/01/Idonethis-11xgdr7.png

[kilele]

Two more calendar apps which might be simialr to asimple editable wall calendar.
ClickTray Calendar
Classic Calendar

[wraith808]

That second one looks like exactly what mouser said

[app103]

Another few suggestions that may or may not meet requirements but worth a look

Desktop Calendar http://www.tinnes.org.uk/
My Calendar http://myuploader.net//files/44/index.htm
Desktop iCalendar Lite http://www.desksware.com/desktop-icalendar-lite.htm
Ultimate Calendar http://uc.maximus.in.ua/

The Desktop iCalendar Lite looks a lot like an old Yahoo widget I am using. Decided to give it a try, since Yahoo Widgets are no longer supported.

The installer for Desktop iCalendar Lite is NASTY. Very tricky and confusing and likely to install a bunch of crapware if you don't pay attention and read everything very carefully.  After unselecting the crapware and clicking next, you get a popup that asks if you are sure that you don't want it. The proper response is to click cancel, not OK. Then it offers you another crapware item and does the same thing, only how to unselect it is a bit more confusing. You have to select the advanced option, then uncheck all the checkboxes there, then it does the same thing as before with the popup trying to get you to change your mind, to which "cancel" is the correct option. ("Better Installer" my ass! )

[Curt]

Classic Calendar

That   looks like exactly what mouser said

I don't know how old Classic Calendar is, but the installer is from 2005.
The author of Classic Calendar seems to have switched to Mac OS.

edited:
However:

I downloaded Classic Calendar and it works with XP and Win7. It is a nice, simple program and is what I've been looking for to calendar work appointments.

-but it will only minimize to taskbar, not to tray - it has no "connection" to  Windows' clock or calendar.

----------
On another topic:

The installer for Desktop iCalendar Lite is NASTY. ... ("Better Installer" my ass! )

-thank you for the warning, app103  

[superboyac]

I've also spent a while searching for a good simple calendar.  Nothing really great.  I settled on Calendarscope eventually.  I liked it because it is very fast, very lightweight.  Visually was perfect.  The best part was the coloring of the dates for the small calendar "thumbnails" .  It's the only program that would color the small dates according to the task inside that day.  All other calendars would only shade in one color a day IF it has a task or not.  This allows you to quickly glance at a month(s) view and be able to tell more or less the important thing that distinguishes that day by color.  I would suggest you add that feature to your calendar if possible.  Please make use of colors all over the place: for the individual tasks, for the quick viewing of the large wall day boxes, and the small day thumbnails.  i think that would be a very distinguishing characteristic of a new calendar app. 

check out the thumbnail view for calendarscope:



I'd be very interested in your idea of the simple calendar app.  I've never found one (thank you!).  I used calendarscope, then found it to be too much.  I almost got vueminder, but it's such a huge freaking program....does too much.

I know you don't want syncing...but my question is this: I have to manage my own schedule and it can get complicated between work, side job, band rehearsal, family events.  If i don't keep track, I will forget a lot of things.  I'm getting tired of manually managing all these things, and I find all the calendar apps too cumbersome to make me want to use (Outlook, google, third party like calendarscope, etc.).  So I really like your calendar idea.  But I will eventually need it with me on my smartphone when I'm around.  Are your intentions to completely avoid such functionality?  And if so, how do you deal with situations like that?

Perhaps without syncing to specific protocols, can you think of a way to automate getting a text file on a smartphone that highlights the activities for that day?  i don't know what, but it would be nice to somehow be able to get the information on a phone.  How about an automated email delivery?  it sends an email each day, and I can always go to my phone and see what I need to do.  Something like that?  Like you, what I really like about your idea is the simple quick entry of tasks without dealing with a bunch of forms and fields and slow, klunky interfaces.  But I hope it's not too much to ask you to consider a way to get it on a phone somehow.

sidenote:
Another thing bothering me now is that I need to coordinate my time with multiple people.  Some use outlook, some use google.  Now that google and microsoft are battling each other, all the friendly syncing is also becoming a headache.  

[Jibz]

It's something I was looking at some years ago as well, I tried a few of them, and even bought VueMinder, which is awesome but does way too much I don't really need.

Right now I am just using Google Calendar, it has some clear advantages:

• When you close it, it uses zero system resources
• It's fairly simple, I have a month view, click a day to enter an appointment
• It syncs with the calendars of other members of the family without having to set up strange dropbox workarounds and what not
• It syncs with android phones seamlessly (and many of the calendar programs that do this actually do it through google calendar anyway)

I think you need to have a very specific need in order to create another calendar app, there are lots out there. I can see the point about making something simpler, because many of them are pretty advanced -- but I think it won't be long before you'll want something like sync.