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From: Saint John
Subject: Background Calendar v1.0
Everyone needs a calendar. Not everyone needs a scheduling program.
Background Calendar is a low-impact, easy-to-use solution for most needs.
It has a lot of options, but once you like the way it looks, you don't have
to fiddle with it any more.
A lot of your computer experience is based on real artifacts. A word
processor's measurement bar looks like a typewriter's margin slider. A
database program may have a display like a Rolodex. To discard a document,
we put it in the trash. This technique frees us from having to learn
different ways of doing things when we're using a computer; it's good sound
cognitive psychology.
It's hard to beat a paper calendar for ease of use. All you have to do is
hang it up where you'll see it when you need it, and remember to flip the
page every month. You can write on it and check it easily to see what
events you have coming up in the next two days, this day next week--
whatever. By comparison, scheduling programs require learning, have little
to do with the way we use these existing artifacts, and must be specially
launched-- they aren't always available. It is with this in mind that I
wrote Background Calendar.
The Desktop Picture is available at all times. Sure, it may be blocked by
windows, but there are easy ways to get rid of them momentarily. So,
Background Calendar is like a paper calendar: it's always available. If you
have more than one screen, it's particularly handy to set it up on one of
them which is left relatively uncluttered.
Writing on it? Easy. We have another real-world artifact called the
"Post-It Note." On the Macintosh, they exist as "Stickies." So: Why not
use them as little "reminders" on a "calendar?"
When run, Background Calendar will generate a calendar for the current
month, with whatever options you have selected-- such as outlining the
current date, applying colors, leaving margins, drawing on top of an
existing desktop picture, and so forth-- and then sets the desktop picture
of your preferred monitor to the result. You'll always have a current
calendar at your fingertips!