Spb Diary Help

    About This Help Material

      Registration
      How to Register

        About Spb Diary Today Plug-in
        Calendar
        Tasks
        Contacts

          Options
          Options. Main screen
          General Options
          Calendar Options
          Tasks Options
          Contacts Options
          Category Icons Options

           


          About This Help Material

          This help material provides general information on Spb Diary application. More information can be found in Spb Diary User Manual, which is located at Spb Software House website. Open the following page in your browser:
          http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/
          products/diary/
          And follow the User Manual [PDF] link in the left menu.

          See Also
          Contents

           


          Calendar

          Spb Diary acts as a powerful Today plug-in for three PIM applications. Calendar is one of them. The Calendar tab shows your appointments and (optionally) tasks, grouped by days and filtered, if necessary.

          A lot of different icons may accompany your entries. These icons are either informative or provide fast access to some extra information. For example, tapping on opens the appointment or task notes in a separate window. Tapping on opens a window, where you can quickly customize the reminder options. You can specify, which icons should be shown, in program options.

          Almost all actions can be performed right from the Today plug-in. For example, double-tap on any list item opens it for editing in the specified PIM application (this is the default behavior, it can also be changed in options).

          See Also
          Contents
          Calendar Options
          Tasks
          Contacts

           


          Tasks

          The Tasks tab of Spb Diary Today plug-in represents your tasks. There are several ways to group and sort these items. You can group tasks by category, completion state, due date, priority, sensitivity, start date or not group them at all. Every grouping style implies several sorting modes that can be applied to your tasks. You can also specify and apply a category filter for your tasks. All words said above about icons in the Calendar tab can be referred to tasks, too.

          See Also
          Contents
          Tasks Options
          Calendar
          Contacts

           


          Contacts

          The third tab of Spb Diary Today plug-in is the Contacts tab. All your contacts are represented here. Similarly to appointments and tasks you can apply filters and select different grouping modes, like "By Company", "By Category", or no grouping. You can also activate sorting by the first or the last name of people in your contact list.

          You can select, what contact to show for every person in your list. This can be either one of his/her phone numbers (mobile, office, home, etc) or an email address.

          If you want to quickly find a person in a large list, you can use the alphabet panel at the bottom. For example, if you want to find some 'Monroe, Jules', you should tap the [mno] button. You will see the list of all entries starting with 'm', 'n', or 'o'. If the list is still big enough, tap this button again (because the second character of 'Monroe' is 'o'). The list will narrow down to all names starting with only 'mm', 'mn', 'mo', 'nm', 'nn', 'no', 'om', 'on', 'oo'. You can keep narrowing this list down until you find the desired name.

          See Also
          Contents
          Contacts Options
          Calendar
          Tasks

           


          How to Register

            Registration of Spb Diary will remove time limitation.

            To register, follow these steps:

            • Start your web browser
            • Open http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/
              products/diary/
            • Click on Spb Diary "Purchase" link
            • Follow the payment process instructions

            See Also
            Contents

             


            General Options

            In General options you can customize some options related to all items appearing on Spb Today plug-in or to the whole plug-in.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Calendar Options

            In Calendar options you can customize the interface of the Calendar tab of Spb Diary Today plug-in.

            • Common Options:
              First week of the year, number of days to display…
            • Show Options:
              Past appointments, empty days, tasks, overdue tasks, completed tasks…
            • Titles Options:
              "Today" and "tomorrow" showing, time span, day offset…
            • View Style Options:
              Subject showing, view style (one of three), status bar, location, start time…
            • Icons Options:
              Icons to go along with your appointments and (optionally) tasks…

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Tasks Options

            In Tasks options you can customize the interface of the Tasks tab of Spb Diary Today plug-in.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Contacts Options

            In Contacts options you can customize the interface of the Contacts tab of Spb Diary Today plug-in.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Category Icons Options

            In Category icons options dialog you can assign an icon that will accompany all items within a certain category.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Options. Main Screen

            In this dialog you are offered to start customization of Spb Diary options. The options are divided into several groups:

            General: tap to customize the Today plug-in options, such as plug-in layout, fonts, group styles, and date formats, etc.

            Calendar: here you can customize the calendar-related options, such as items to show, view styles, and icons, etc.

            Tasks: options that configure the view of your the task entries: such as items to show, view styles, and icons, etc.

            Contacts: options that configure your contacts representation: grouping, sorting, and view styles, etc.

            Category Icons: select to associate different categories with icons. You can select icons from a big collection.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            General Options. Common

            Plug-in height: Provide the height of Spb Diary plug-in. If the plug-in content does not fit this area you will be able to scroll it with the scrollbar.

            Integrated with: Spb Diary can stand as a Today plug-in for different PIM applications. Please select a PIM application that will be used for handling PIM operations. The PIM application you specify here will be called for viewing and editing your tasks, appointments, and contacts.

            Header: (Always Shown, Minimizable, Always Hidden) Select the desired header behavior.

            • Always Shown: The shown header provides you with access to grouping, sorting and filtering menus, which takes some screen space
            • Always Hidden: You will save some screen space, which is a critical resource for any Pocket PC user. All header menus will be available via context menu.
            • Minimizable: In this case the header is handled manually. This is probably the compromise. You can show or minimize the header manually. To hide the header, tap on . To show it, tap on the horizontal line shown instead of the header.

            Action on double click: Select an action that should be performed when you double click on a task, appointment, or contact.

            See Also
            Contents
            General options. Font.
            General Options. Group Style.
            General Options. Long Date
            General Options. Short Date.

             


            General Options. Font

            Use standard Today items font: If selected, the standard font selected for the Today screen, will be used for Spb Diary Today plug-in, too. If you want to change the font, unselect this check box and provide the desired font face and size. See the result below.

            See Also
            Contents
            General options. Common.
            General Options. Group Style.
            General Options. Long Date
            General Options. Short Date.

             


            General Options. Group Style

            Line position (Top, Center, Bottom): Select the position of a horizontal line that separates list entries. See the result below.

            Show counter: Select or unselect this check box if you do or don't want to see the number of entries within each group.

            See Also
            Contents
            General options. Common.
            General Options. Font.
            General Options. Long Date
            General Options. Short Date.

             


            General Options. Long Date

            Default for current regional settings: Keep this check box selected if you are satisfied with the date showing format specified in Regional Settings. Otherwise unselect this check box and select the desired data format from the drop-down list.

            Don't use year: Select if you want to skip year in dates.

            Short year: Select if you want to show year in a short format (e.g. 05 instead of 2005). Option unavailable if year is not shown.

            Short month: Select if you want to show month in a short format (e.g. Mar instead of March).

            Short day name: Select if you want to show the day name in a short format (e.g. Fri instead of Friday).

            You can follow the link at the bottom of the dialog to jump to Regional Settings.

            See Also
            Contents
            General options. Common.
            General Options. Font.
            General Options. Group Style.
            General Options. Short Date.

             


            General Options. Short Date

            Short date format: Look at the sample date and change it by selecting or unselecting the following:

            Don't use year: Select or unselect this check box if you do or don't want to see year in short dates.

            Short year: Select if you want to show year in short format (e.g. 05 instead of 2005). Option unavailable if year is not shown.

            You can follow the link at the bottom of the dialog to jump to Regional Settings.

            See Also
            Contents
            General options. Common.
            General Options. Font.
            General Options. Group Style.
            General Options. Long Date.

             


            Calendar Options. Common

            First week of year: Select the most habitual first week of the year definition:

            • As in regional settings: the first week of the year is selected in accordance with Regional Settings
            • First 4-day week: the first week that has at least 4 days of the new year is declared the first week of the year
            • First full week: the first week that has 7 days of the new year is declared the first week of the year
            • Starts on Jan 1: the week when January 1 happened is considered the first week of the year (even if January 1 was the very last day of that week).

            Number of days to display: Select the number of days simultaneously put to the Today screen.

            See Also
            Contents
            Calendar Options. Show.
            Calendar Options. Titles.
            Calendar Options. View Style.
            Calendar Options. Icons.

             


            Calendar Options. Show

            In this options dialog you can select items to be placed to the Calendar tab of Spb Diary Today plug-in. The items are self-explanatory and do not need more detailed explanation.

            See Also
            Contents
            Calendar options. Common.
            Calendar Options. Titles.
            Calendar Options. View Style.
            Calendar Options. Icons.

             


            Calendar Options. Titles

            These options define the look of day titles.

            Show "today", "tomorrow": Select this check box to enable showing these words instead of actual dates.

            Show time span: Select this check box to enable showing the time span. Time span is a minimized time rule represented with a short thick line that allows you to open the big time rule and adjust the time intervals of a new appointment on it manually.

            Show day offset (Don't show, Show at left, Show at right): Select if you want to see the number of days that separate today's date from the day in question. For example, the day after tomorrow has a +2 day offset, the yesterday's day has a -1 day offset.

            See Also
            Contents
            Calendar options. Common.
            Calendar Options. Show.
            Calendar Options. View Style.
            Calendar Options. Icons.

             


            Calendar Options. View Style

            Show subject (Always shorten, Always expanded, Expand when selected): This option is included for handling long appointment subject. Select the appointment subject showing mode. See the result below.

            View style (Style 1, Style 2, Style 3): Here you can change the general style of your appointment list. Select a variant and see the result below.

            Show status bar: Select this check box to enable showing the vertical bar along one appointment entry in the list. The color of this bar indicates the appointment status, which can be one of Free, Tentative, Busy, and Out Of Office.

            Show location: Select this check box to enable showing the appointment location.

            Only start time: Select to prohibit showing the end time of the appointment.

            See Also
            Contents
            Calendar options. Common.
            Calendar Options. Show.
            Calendar Options. Titles.
            Calendar Options. Icons.

             


            Calendar Options. Icons

            At this page you can select and deselect icons accompanying appointments in the list. The more icons you assign, the more additional information you can provide and get and the less space is left for the entry title.

            Icon to the left: Select an icon that will be displayed to the left of an appointment (unless this icon is not applicable).

            Other icons shown: Select other icons to go along with calendar entries (if applicable). See the sample entry below.

            See Also
            Contents
            Calendar options. Common.
            Calendar Options. Show.
            Calendar Options. Titles.
            Calendar Options. View Style.

             


            Tasks Options. Common

            Ask to confirm task completion: Keep this check box selected if you want to see the confirmation when completing tasks. This feature is added to prevent accidental task confirmation by mistake.

            Show active tasks only: If selected, then you will see only your active tasks. A task is called active if it is not yet completed and its start date is today or in the past or it does not have start date at all.

            Show completed tasks: If selected, the completed tasks will be shown, too.

            See Also
            Contents
            Tasks Options. View Style.
            Tasks Options. Icons.

             


            Tasks Options. View Style

            Show subject (Always shorten, Always Expanded, Expand when selected): Select one of three possible ways to display long task subjects in the list.

            Show completion check box: Select or deselect to enable or disable showing the completion check box. If this check box is shown, then you will be able to use it to mark a task as completed.

            Make date indent: Select to allow a date-width indent to the left of every task entry (applicable for long task subjects).

            See Also
            Contents
            Tasks Options. Common.
            Tasks Options. Icons.

             


            Task Options. Icons

            At this page you can select and deselect icons accompanying task entries in the list. The more icons you assign, the more additional information you can provide and get and the less space is left for the entry title.

            Icon to the left: Select an icon that will be displayed to the left of a task subject (unless this icon is not applicable).

            Other icons shown: Select other icons to go along with task entries (if applicable). See the sample task entry below.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Contacts Options. Common

            Search panel (None, Latin, Cyrillic, Both):

            Group by (No grouping, By company, By category): Select a grouping method for your contacts. Grouping is especially useful when you have a lot of contacts.

            Sort by (First, Last, Last, First): Select the order of personal names to sort contacts within each group.

            View style (Short 1, Short 2, Wide): Select the style of showing contact entries. The more supplementary information is shown for each contact, the less space is left for personal names.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Contacts Options. Icons

            At this page you can select and deselect icons accompanying your contacts in the list. The more icons you assign, the more additional information you can provide and get and the less space is left for personal names.

            Icon to the left: Select an icon that will be displayed to the left of a contact entry (unless this icon is not applicable).

            Other icons shown: Select other icons to go along with contact entries (if applicable). See the sample contact entry below.

            Avoid left indent: Select to save yet more additional screen space by omitting the left indent.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Options. Category Icons

            Select a category and then press the Add/Change button. You will be offered to select an icon to go along with items within this category. Tap on such an icon to select it and then tap ok.

            When you have a certain icon selected for a category, you can remove it by pressing the Remove button.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            Options. Category. Choosing Icons

            At this page you can see a collection of icons to be selected for different categories. If you select an icon, it will go along with all items within the specified category. Tap on an icon and then tap ok.

            You can show the icon list in full view (tap ) or in compact view (tap

            You can select another icon set stored on your device. To do so, open the drop-down menu at top left corner of the screen and select Add Icon Set... Then browse your file system for an icon set location.

            See Also
            Contents

             


            New/Edit Filter Dialog

            In this dialog you are supposed to configure a filter, your calendar or task items will be shown in accordance with.

            Filter text box: Select an existing filter or select New Filter to create a new one.

            Delete: Tap to delete the selected filter from the list

            Category list: Below you can see the list of existing categories. Select categories you wish to pass this filter. You can use the Check All and Uncheck All buttons.

            Show items matching any category: If you selected more than one category, then by selecting this combo box you fix that you want to show only items matching any one of the categories.

            Show items matching all categories: If you selected more than one category, then by selecting this combo box you fix that you want to show only items matching all selected categories.

            Add newly created categories to this filter: Mark this check box if you want categories you create in the future to be automatically checked in this filter. Just imagine that you have two categories altogether: "Business" and "Personal" and want to create a filter hiding all uncategorized items. In this case you should manually mark "Business" and "Personal" check boxes (leaving the "Add newly created categories to this filter" unmarked and having the "Business+Personal" filter as a result) or tap the "Check All" button and unmark the "No Categories" check box (having the "Add newly created categories to this filter" marked and having the "-No Categories" filter as a result). Both filters described above will work in the same way — they will hide all the uncategorized items. So these two filters seem to work in the same way but they are different since that have different values of the "Add newly created categories to this filter" check box. In order to see the difference between them, just imagine that in a couple days of you create a new category named "Holiday". Now open the previously created "Business+Personal" filter. You will see that the new category is not marked. On the other hand, if you open the previously created "-No Categories" filter you will see the new category marked. As a result, te "Holiday" items will not pass through the first filter and will pass through the second one. So it is recommended to mark the "Add newly created categories to this filter" when you create a filter for hiding some categories and to leave it umarked when creating a filter for showing one or several categories.

             


            See Also
            Contents