7 - Pop-Up Alerts |
Remember? User's Guide |
In addition to letting you know about important occasions when you turn on your Mac, you can also be reminded of them shortly before they start with a small pop-up window optionally accompanied by a sound. Pop-up alerts are only available if Remember? Extension has been installed in the system Extensions folder.
First of all, you must enter both a start time and an alert time for the occasion. Pop-up alerts are not displayed for occasions with no specific time (this will change in the future).
Also, the occasion's type must allow pop-up alert windows and sounds. Trivia is an example of a type that does not. There are also master switches in Preferences to turn off all alerts.
You actually get two alerts for each occasion: one at the alert time and a second at the exact start time. The second can be turned off via pref: Pop-Up Alerts \ Display pop-up alerts at.
Press this keyboard combination to see the next scheduled alert. The default is command-option-` (back quote) which is strange but should not conflict with any application. You can select a more convenient hot key using pref: Pop-Up Alerts \ Define the hot key. Unfortunately, System 7 uses the default combination to terminate the current application on keyboards with no esc key so you must select a different hot key on those machines.
The hot key must use the command key but you can also include the shift, option and control keys as well. Pick something unusual since it is intercepted by Remember? whenever you press it.
Press the hot key a second time to hide the alert window.
The top line is the current date and time. The bottom is the start time and description for the occasion that triggered the alert, or the next alert if you pressed the hot key. The above is my personal choice for the look of pop-up alerts. There are many preferences in pref: Pop-Up Alerts to customize the appearance and placement so feel free to experiment until you find something you like.
The icon at the left is animated to attract your attention and drawn in the color for the occasion's type. Click on it for a menu of useful commands:
Close Alert Window
Removes the pop-up alert window from the screen. You can do the same
thing by pressing the hot key or by clicking on some other part of
the pop-up window.
Launch Remember?
Open the application and display the special Alert window
set if it exists.
Edit This Occasion
Open the application and an Occasion window so you can change the
current alert occasion.
New Occasion
Open the application and a new Occasion window preset to today's
date and time.
Anything of Interest?
Open the application and check for any occasions that require
your attention. Automatically quits if there are none.
You will notice that each item has a command key shortcut. They are only available while the alert window is visible and you must also press the same modifier keys (command, shift, option, control) that are defined for the hot key. This is intentional to avoid conflicts with application shortcuts.
You may see a few special messages in the alert window:
Nothing Happening Today or Tomorrow.
There are no alert occasions for the next two days which is the
current limit for pop-up alerts.
You've turned off alerts.
You turned off all pop-up alerts in Preferences.
No occasion files.
Your active occasion file list is empty (see: Occasion
Files).
Can't access "Remember?'s Settings."
The settings file is missing or damaged. Restart to see if the
problem disappears. Try restoring your settings file from the last
backup copy (you *did* make a backup, right?) This may appear
momentarily during upgrades from previous versions. It should go away
when you access the application then Restart.
You might also see a message that reads "(Mac error code -X)". The number given is an internal Mac error code. The alert may or may not be correct. Try opening the application. It may give you a better description of the problem.
When an alert appears, the sound associated with its type is played to attract your attention. It repeats if the alert remains on the screen for a while, just in case you stepped away.
You can also choose to have the alert text spoken if Apple's Plaintalk Speech Manager is installed via pref: Pop-Up Alerts : Do you want spoken alerts.
Their goal in life is to blank the screen to keep the image from getting burned into the phosphorus (Yeah, sure. And toasters really do fly). They also prevent applications from drawing on the screen while it is blanked.
When an alert appears I try to unblank the screen if a saver is active. The saver may kick in again later and hide the alert but you will still hear the alert sound. The window is redrawn when you deactivate the saver by moving the mouse or hitting a key.
Copyright ©1988-99 by Dave Warker, all rights reserved worldwide. |