What this Is
(What the title says.) Several references at this website suggest calendar programs or alarm programs as reminders.This is not a complete list. It is just a few programs that I found that are either free, not free but included with other programs, or parts of older programs (for which the user may have a license).
Each person's use of the computer is different, so what may work well for one person may be overly complicated or annoying for another.
Note on All Programs
Unless a calendar or alarm program is running, it will not provide the alarm. The program can be running in the background, but must be at least active in that sense.
The List
- Microsoft Outlook - Useful if you are already using Outlook. Outlook is different from Outlook Express.
- I don't particularly like Outlook as an email program but if you use it for email, the calendar works well. Outlook is common in some offices and is part of Microsoft Office. (As with all programs, it must launch in order to provide its calendar alarms.)
It is possible that Outlook is also bundled with Windows CE PDA software, as part of the desktop. I don't know if that is the case, because I never owned a Windows-based PDA.
- Lotus Notes - Another office environment program, with a good scheduler.
- Palm Desktop - freeware. Palm Desktop is the computer desktop companion to PDAs running Palm OS.
- It is active only if launched. The "Hot Sync" icon is not indicative that Palm Desktop is running because "Hot Sync" is a separate program. Later versions come with an ability to change the skin each time Palm Desktop launches.
- Rainlendar - freeware www.rainlendar.net
- I know nothing about it other than I saw a mention of it on an email list for Autistics, and one person liked it. www.rainlendar.net for more information.
- Norton Scheduler (scheduler.exe) - a program module provided with some older versions of Norton Antivirus and various other Norton programs. scheduler.exe is capable of launching programs, for example the disk defragmenter.
- Note: There are several programs called "scheduler.exe". This particular one is the Norton Scheduler. This may still be provided with current versions. scheduler.exe can be installed and launched from the "start" menu with or without the rest of the antivirus program. Look for it in the Norton Antivirus directory. I forget how the user interface for scheduler.exe is launched, but I recall it was quite easy. This may be suitable if you already have this program installed for its original purpose..
- Wordperfect
- There are different scheduling programs, depending on whether you are using a Windows version or a DOS version of Wordperfect, and depending on which version you have. The current versions of Corel Office require that Wordperfect's integrator (I forget what it's called - perhaps "DAD" or something like that) be installed for this to work. If you have Wordperfect, you can probably very easily locate the particular program module that performs this function.
The Program Won't Work Unless Launched.
... meaning launched whenever the computer is running.There are several ways to launch a program automatically on startup. If the program is designed as a calendar and alarm program, it will probably already be set to launch when installed. This can be checked on Windows by
<start><run> "msconfig" then look under the<startup>tab and see if you can find the calendar program.The easiest way to automatically launch a program on startup in Windows is to place a link or shortcut to the program in the
<startup>folder.One issue with calendar programs is the amount of resources the program uses while running in the background. If CPU resources (not internet or network bandwidth) are an issue, you probably already know this and know what to look for.
However you do it, check to verify that the program self-launches when the computer is rebooted.
This is linked to pages on etc. - miscellaneous adaptations for Autistics.back to etc. - miscellaneous adaptations for Autistics.
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First posted 11-Jan-03. Last revised 08 May 10.
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