Birthdate for the PalmPilot™
User's Guide

Get reminded of that important Birthdate in time!.

1. Introduction

1.1. About this User's Guide

This Guide consists of the following parts:

• The Introduction contains a brief overview of the features of Birthdate for the PalmPilot.
• Quick Start - if you are not too keen on reading written documentation in detail you might want to start by reading this part of the User's Guide. It is the quickest way to get started. For more detailed information you'll need to refer to the other parts of the Guide though.
• If you already know what Birthdate for the PalmPilot is good for but don't know how to use it yet, the Tutorial will guide you through the usage of Birthdate for the PalmPilotstep by step The Tutorial will show you how to use Birthdate for the PalmPilot in various ways. You'll learn all the details of the program step by step.
• In case you are already familiar with Birthdate for the PalmPilot but want to know about all the details of it the Reference Manual is where you should look. The Reference Manual shows every dialog and screen of the program and explains how it works. Here you'll (hopefully) find any situation you might run into. Especially all help-screens and error-messages are listed.
• The Tips&Tricks chapter explains some advanced ways of using Birthdate for the PalmPilot
• If there are still some open questions you might find an answer in the Questions&Answers chapter.

1.1.1. Styles used within this guide

Two styles are used within this guide:

1. Normal style
   A paragraph written in normal style will look like this parapgraph. This is for describing the features of the software and giving detailed information on how things work.
   
2. Preformatted style
   This style is used for things you need to enter or that appear on your Pilot's screen. See an example of the preformatted style below:

    Mother's Day        5/11/1997E
    Memorial Day        5/26/1997H
    Flag-Day            6/14E

1.2. Overview

If you use your Pilot a lot you've probably started using the built-in Address Book and Date Book applications quickly. Birthdate for the PalmPilot will make your life easier by enhancing the value of these two applications.

Birthdate for the PalmPilot conveniently allows to track Birthdates, Anniversaries, Weddings, Holidays and other events. Simply add the information for these events to your Address Book data. Birthdate for the PalmPilot will collect the event-information from your Address Book, display it in sorted format and allow you to create "notification" entries to remind you of these events in your Date Book.

Birthdate for the PalmPilot features

Collects event information from your Address Book, changes of your Address Book data is automatically detected

A list of all your event sorted by calendar date is displayed.

For each event the type of event is denoted by a one-character symbol, e.g. "*" for Birthdate, "H" for holiday, "W" for Wedding, etc.

With the "today"-button you can immediately jump to next upcoming event - even works if the event is passed the year's end

With the "lookup"-button you can search for any event on a specific date.

Tapping on a record in the Birthdate list leads to the details-of-a-record "Birthdate View". It displays the Lastname, Firstname, the full description of the event type, the date of the event and the age or anniversity.

From the Birthdate-View you can create notification entries for your Date Book or jump directly to the record within your Address Book.

Supported Address Book features

The simplest way to use Birthdate for the PalmPilot is by renaming a Custom Field of the Address Book for use by Birthdate for the PalmPilot. The default name for the custom field is "Birthdate"

Birthdate for the PalmPilot will (optionally) scan notes attached to Address Book records for event-information.

Both the custom field and the attached notes may contain multiple lines of event information using one line per event.

The Address Book categories you created to organize your Address data is available within Birthdate for the PalmPilot, too.

The Lastname and Firstname information is taken directly from the Address Book records. Firstnames are overridable for family members by adding the firstname to the event information.

You can switch to an Address Book record directly from Birthdate for the PalmPilot's "Birthdate View".

Supported Date Book features

Birthdate for the PalmPilot's most convenient feature is the automatic creation of calendar records in the Date Book.

The selection of a time of day for the calendar reminder is supported by Birthdate for the PalmPilot as well as optionally creating an untimed event with the "no-time" setting.

The "Alarm" setting of the Date Book is automatically set to "0 minutes in advance" if the calendar event isn't an untimed event.

Supported standard Pilot application features

Memory application

Birthdate for the PalmPilot is an application that is registered with U.S. Robotics Palm Computing having the description "Birthdate for the PalmPilot - manage birthdates, anniversaries, holidays and other events" using the Application-Identifier "Bidt". This ensures that the application is displayed as "Birthdate" in the Pilot's built-in "Memory" application.The number of event records collected by Birthdate for the PalmPilot is displayed there as well as the size of memory used by Birthdate for the PalmPilot and it's data. Within the Memory application you can conveniently remove Birthdate for the PalmPilot by using the "Delete apps" button.

Preferences application

The preselected Date format is used by Birthdate for the PalmPilot for the collection, display and notification of events. See Supported International Date formats for details on this issue.

On-Line Tips

Birthdate for the PalmPilot dialogs have on-line tips available to supply helpful information right when and where you need them. Simply tap the small (i)-button at the top right of the dialog box and a text with supporting hints appears.

2. Quick Start

This "Quick Start" reference will try to get you to use Birthdate for the PalmPilot in a few steps. If you wish to get a more detailed description please refer to the Tutorial and the Reference Manual.

2.1. How to install Birthdate for the PalmPilot

Install the BIRTHDAT.PRC file using the instapp PC or Mac application. Do a hotsync. See  Installation instructions for details.

2.2. Entering Birthdates, Anniversaries, Holidays and other Events

To manage your Birthdates, Anniversairies, Holidays and other Events Birthdate for the PalmPilot works together with the standard Applications "Address Book" and "Date Book". For entering and modifying the events you'll use the Address Book.

Renaming a custom field of your Address Book

Start the Address Book application . Use the menu-key and select Options/Rename Custom Fields

You should now rename one of the custom fields to "Birthdate". If you already renamed all your custom fields or don't want to proceed this way for other reasons you should read the corresponding section in the tutorial and the manual.

You can use any of the four available Custom fields and give it a name that Birthdate for the PalmPilot should later recognize when collecting Birthdates and othere events from your Address records. The default name for the custom field looked for by Birthdate for the PalmPilot is "Birthdate".

Use the custom address field to enter the birthdates

Now you can enter the birthdates using the Address Book application.

Entering multiple birthdates in one Address Book record

The screen-shot below shows how to enter multiple birthdates in a single Address Book record

2.3. Starting Birthdate for the PalmPilot

Tap on the Birthdate - application icon to start Birthdate for the PalmPilot. You should see the Birthdate for the PalmPilot splash screen with a bar of square dots indicating that the collection of Birthdates is in progress:

then the Birthdate List screen will appear:

2.4. Where to continue

If you like you can now play around with the features of Birthdate for the PalmPilot and get yourself a little comfortable with it on your own. Or you might want to continue with the Tutorial, starting at Step #2 - Basic lookup functions.

3. Tutorial

The tutorial will give you a guide tour through all features of Birthdate for the PalmPilot. In a step by step approach you'll learn how to use the simple as well as the advanced features of this software. The assumption is that you already unpacked and installed Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

3.1. Step #1: Preparation

3.1.1. Example Address Records

Within this tutorial we'll use a consistent set of example address records. We'll reference these records in the following steps and you'll see the details of the records in the screen-shots shown. It's not necessary that you enter these example records in your Address Book. We recommend that you go through this Tutorial and use your own personal Address records as a basis for the steps shown.

The tutorial is based on the assumption that you use a U.S. version of the Pilot. The differences for other countries are minimal and don't have much influence on the usage of Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

Here are the example Addresses:

 Sarah Morgan, born January 29th 1958,
 living 1548 Canyon Drive, Boulder, CO 80302

 John Nielsen born March 5 1963,
 married on June 21st 1990 to Susan born May 7, 1966,
 living 253 46th street in Denver, CO 80231.
 Two kids: Tom born on February 2nd, 1992 and
 Paula born on November 6th, 1994

 Patrick Taylor, born November 6th 1932,
 married on August 15th 1959 to Lisa born December 17th, 1935
 living 1525 North Union Boulevard, Colorado Springs, CO 80901

The american national holiday list for 1997 as shipped with Birthdate for the PalmPilot will also be referenced in this tutorial.

3.1.2. Renaming a custom field of your Address Book & Entering the Birtdate information

For this step of the tutorial you should follow the instructions of the chapter "Quick Start" and then return here.

3.2 Step #2: Basic lookup functions

Birthdate for the PalmPilot supplies a look-up field comparable to the lookup-field of the Address Book. The differenc is that you can lookup by date within Birthdte for Pilot. When you enter a date into the lookup-field the record in the Birthdate List is selected that will be next upcoming event (either today or in the future). If there is no event in the list for this year the lookup will automatically wrap around the year's end. In the example on the left the current date was the 30th of november. Depending on what day you go through this tutorial you'll see different date appearing.

3.2.1. Using the "today" button

3.2.2. Using the "lookup" button

3.2.3. Using the lookup-field manually

3.3. Step #3 - Details of a record - The Birthdate View

Tap on a record to display it's details.

3.3.1. Using the "Done" button

Tapping on the done button simply takes you back to the Birthdate List. After trying this please tap on a record again to get to the Birthdate View of some record.

3.3.2. Using the "Goto" button

To continue the tutorial, you need to switch back to the Birthdate application by tapping the "Applications" button and then restart Birthdate by tapping on it's logo . Please select a record again by tapping on it - you should now be back in the "Birthdate View" of some record.

3.3.3. Using the "Notify" button

	Tapping on the "Notify" button within the Birthdate View will display a dialog for specifying the details of the notification. The default setting is: create a notification in the Date Book for the currently selected event record only if there is already a notification for this event in the Date Book keep it untouched calculate & show the age and anniversity in square brackets at the end of the description of the notification event create a notification on the Birthdate itself using an untimed event (No Time) don't create a entry to pre-Notify of the event a few days in advance the # of days before is not set Let's tap the OK button and look what happens ...
	An information dialog informs you about the results of the notify operation. The look of this dialog is dependent on whether you already registered your software or not. The example on the left shows the dialog for the shareware status of the software. It shows: The number of notification entries that have been successfully added to the Date Book The number of existing notification entries that where kept untouched In case of the shareware status of your software the number of further notifications you can create with the software before the shareware limit of 10 notification entries is reached. Let's have a look what Birthdate for the PalmPilot produced. We need to switch to the Date Book application to have a look at it: just press the Date Book's hard-key to launch that application.
	We need to goto the day on which Sarah Morgan is going to celebrate her Birthday for the next time. This is the 29th of January, 1997. Use the "Go to" button of the Date Book to go to the next celebration of the Event that you had selected when tapping on the notify-Button in the Birthdate View of Birthdate for the PalmPilot.
	Here is the result of the notification.You Date Book now contains an event on the 29 th of January 1997 reminding you that on this day Sarah's birthday is celebrated. And you can see immediately that she's going to get 39 years old.

3.4 Step #4 - Registering your Birthdate for the PalmPilot software

3.4.1. How to obtain a shareware key

The shareware key for your Birthdate for the PalmPilot software will be send to you by e-mail as soon as you order it. All you need to to is to make arrangements for payment and supply the username that you use for running your Birthdate for the PalmPilot software. This username is shown in the registration dialog of Birthdate for the PalmPilot. The following paragraph explains this registration dialog.

3.4.2. Unlocking Birthdate for the PalmPilot to a full version

Use the menu-key and select Options/Registration

	The Birthdate Registration Dialog supplies a field for entering your shareware key. This shareware key is dependent on your Username which is shown in this dialog, too. As a reply to your order of Birthdate for the PalmPilot a shareware key was send to you. Please enter the Key in this dialog now and then press OK.
	The "About" Dialog of Birthdate for the PalmPilot will appear If your key was successfully entered and is correct for your username the notice "registered copy" will show within this dialog.

4. Reference Manual

The Reference Manual is intended to describe all parts of the Birthdate for the PalmPilot application in detail.

4.1. Before using Birthdate for the PalmPilot for the first time

Before using Birthdate for the PalmPilot for the first time you need to decide how you'd like to use it. The following paragraph will show you what need's to be considered.

Using a renamed custom field of the Address Book

Rename one of the fields in the Address Book application to be used for the date of birth information. The field should be named like:

• Birthdate
• Geburtstag
• Anniversaire

Launch your Address Book and select "Options/Rename Custom Fields"
Enter "Birthdate" or "Geburtstag" or "Anniversaire" for one of the field labels. Tap "OK"

Enter your birthdates in the Address Book using the renamed field. The date format selected on your Pilot (see Date format for birthdates below).

You can enter just one birthdate entry like "5/12/63" or multiple entries for different events in this field. See "How birthdates and other events are collected fromyour Address Book".

You can optionally add an indicator how many days in advance you'd like to be notified about the birthday. This is done by adding "N" plus a number after the birthdate. E.g. use "N 7" for notification a week in advance.

Using notes attached to the Address Book records

Create notes for your Address Book records to enter the events you'd like to manage with Birthdate for the PalmPilot. Entries should be in a form that Birthdate for the PalmPilotcan collect them. See next paragraph "How birthdates and other events are collected from your Address Book.

Custom field or Notes?

You can use both custom fields and notes together or only one of these. If you can't or don't want to use a custom field of your Address Book just clear the Custom-field setting in the Preferences of Birthdate for the PalmPilot. You'll get an opportunity to do so right at the first start of Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

The usage of notes is automatically determined by looking for lines beginning with a "*" in the notes.

How birthdates and other events are collected from your Address Book

Where and how Birthdate for the PalmPilot looks for events

The regular place where Birthdate for the PalmPilot looks for events is in the custom-field you choose, e.g. in the Birthdate-field of your Address Book. If the first entry in this field starts with a digit, Birthdate for the PalmPilot will assume that this is a Birthdate. An example is:

   12/20/1958

If you checked "scan addr notes" in your Preferences settings Birthdate for the PalmPilot will look for events in the notes attached to your Address Book records, too. This was intended to support multiple lines for a whole family and multiple types of events. There is no reason why the custom field shouldn't contain multiple lines, too. So both the notes field and the custom-field are checked for multiple lines in the event Format described further below.

Birthdate for the PalmPilot will look for an asterix "*" to find your event entries. This asterix may be at any place within your note or custom field. But then it's assumed that all event-lines follow directly after each other. In other words you shouldn't scatter your events here and there in a note, but keep them in a continous block of lines. If you don't want some of your note or custom fields to be checked for birthdate entries, you may use the "<>" sign to prevent this. Here are few examples:

Example 1: a field that contains only event information

  * John 5/2/51
  * Sue 6/19/55
  * Chris 3/13/82
  * Mary 2/11/84
  *Wedding John&Sue 7/7/80

Example 2: a field that contains some other information before the event information

  John likes californian red wine,
  his wife is more interested in
  italian white whine. His kids
  like Pepsi Cola.

  * John 5/2/51
  * Sue 6/19/55
  * Chris 3/13/82
  * Mary 2/11/84
  *Wedding John&Sue 7/7/80

Example 3: a field that is marked not to be scanned by Birthdate for the PalmPilot

  <>
  Possible presents for John:
  * CD-ROM world atlas
  * Lübeck Marzipan
  * Ticket for a 49ers game
  * 1997 swim suit calendar
  

Format of event entries

Birthdate for the PalmPilot expects a multi-line entry of a custom field or a note to look like:

  * Marvin 12/20/58
  * Lucy 3/15/62
  * Sandra 4/17/89
  * Gordon 5/2/91
  *Wedding Marvin&Lucy 5/15/88

Each event in the note or field should be on a seperate line. The lines need to start with a "*" to be recognized by Birthdate for the PalmPilot. Each line consists of three fields which should be delimited by one or more blanks.

First field: Type of event ("*" for Birthdate)
Second field: Name of Person/event (e.g. Sandra)
Third field: Initial Date of event (e.g. 12/31)

There may be no extra blanks in each field! So the type of event needs to go directly with the first "*", (e.g. "*Wedding", "*Holiday") If the name of the person or event consists of multiple parts use a dash or underscore (e.g. "Gordon-Peter", "Memorial-Day")

Supported international date formats

Birthdate for the PalmPilot supports all the Palm/OS standard international date formats:

• 12/31/95
• 31/12/95
• 31.12.95
• 31-12-95
• 95/12/31
• 95.12.31
• 95-12-31

To change the dateformat use the Preferences Application. Select "Formats" using the selector in the upper right corner. Then select your preferred Date Format using the "Date:" selector.

How to use Birthdate for the PalmPilot

Start Birthdate for the PalmPilot by tapping on the "Application" button left of the Graffiti-writing area and tap on the "Birthdate 5/17" logo to start Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

If you start Birthdate for the PalmPilot before renaming a custom field in your Address Book a help message will appear.

By tapping "Preferences" you get to a dialog where you may enter what you'd like to use as a custom field name. (Please make sure to use the same name within your Address Book application)

If your Birthdate-field is already set up and you entered some birthdates Birthdate for the PalmPilot will sort the list of Addresses in order of the birthdates.

Birthdate List screen

A sorted list of birthdates and other events is presented. The first column shows the Person or Eventname. If both lastname and firstname are empty the company name is shown. The second column shows the initial date of the event plus the eventtype's first character.

"*" ist used for Birthdates.

Otherwise this screen works like the Address List screen you know from the adress book application, the difference is that you can now lookup Address Book records by birthdate.

Today button

Pressing this button jumps you to any birthdate which matches today's date. If no birthdate on that day is available the entry with the closest birthdate nearby is selected.

Lookup button

using this button you can select the date you'd like to jump to yourself. Otherwise it works just as the "Today" button.

Birthdate View Screen

Tapping on an entry in the Birthdate List Screen will show details for that entry using the Birthdate View Screen.

Done button

gets you back to the Birthdate List screen

Notify button

brings you to the Notify dialog where you can select the options for creating Date Book entries to notify you of the events you entered.

Goto button

switches to Address Book application using the currently selected Address record. Within the Address Book modification of the record is possible.

Birthdate Notify Dialog

Selecting Menu/Options/Notify of tapping the Notify button in the Birthdate View Screen will show the details for notification.

Records: (all/selected)

Tap "all" if you'd like to get Date Book entries created for all of your birthdates. Tap "selected" if only the currently selected record should be taken into account.

existing entries: (keep/modify)

Tap "keep" if existing birthdate entries in your Date Book should be left untouched. Tap "modify" if you'd like the entries to be changed (e.g. moved to a different time of the day)

calc & show age: [checkbox]

Mark this checkbox and the age will be calculated and shown in the Date Book entry, e.g.

* Meyer, Sandra 4/12/43 [53]

on Birthdate: [checkbox+time-selector]

Mark this checkbox if you'd like to be notified on the date of the event itself. Use a "no-time" setting if you'd like the notification to show up on top of the page within the Date Book.

pre-Notify: [checkbox+time-selector]

will create a second notification in your Date Book a few days before the event. Select the desired time for the alarm.

# of days before: [field]

enter the number of days in advance you'd like to get notified of the upcoming event.

Menu-Options

Notify all in Datebook

Selecting Menu/Option/Notify all in Datebook will bring up the Notify details dialog whith "all" preselected.. 

Cleanup Datebook

Selecting Menu/Options/Cleanup will allow you to remove all Date Book entries created by Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

Datebook entries are considered birthdate entries if they have a "*" and a ":" in the description. If you use these two characters in your own entries some of your own entries might also be removed by cleanup.

The "cleanup" function is very specific on what it deletes:

1. It will only delete Datebook entries - so your Addresses, todo-items and memos can never be touched by it.
2. Cleanup will look for two signs "*" and ":" and they must be both in the description of the Date Book entry - a note for a Date Book entry will not be considered.
3. The order of "*" and ":" must be just that. Here are examples of what cleanup will delete:

  * Sandra: 4/12/63 [33]
  *Holiday Independence-day: 7/4
  -> *Anniversary Mary&John: 5/1/72 [25]

Here are examples of what cleanup will *not* delete:

  *Call Henrik
  :Meeting with Sue: Get 2* coffee

Preferences

Selecting Menu/Options/Preferences will show the dialog for entering your preferred settings.

Custom field: [field]

Specify what you'd like the name of the custom field in the Address Book application should be. E.g. "Birthdate", "Geburtstag", "Anniversaire". Clear the custom-field name if you intend not to rename a custom field of the Adress Book for use by Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

scan addr notes: [checkbox]

Leave this checkbox empty if the notes attached to your Address Book shouldn't be scanned for event entries.

Pre-Notify Marker: [field]

This marker is put in front of the pre-Notify Datebook entries to distinguish them from regular Birthdate entries. The default marker is "->"

Registration

Selecting Menu/Options/Registration will show the dialog for registering as a User of Birthdate for the PalmPilot. The necessary key will be sent to you by e-mail after ordering Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

Username:

Shows the username. "Not available" is displayed if no username could be obtained. For registration of Birthdate for the PalmPilot a username is necessary.

Key: [field]

Enter your registration here to be able to use Birthdate for the PalmPilot's full functionality.

About Birthdate

Shows Status of your copy. Either it expires or it is a registered copy.

5. Installation instructions

To install Birthdate for the PalmPilot you need the Pilot desktop application on a PC or Mac. Here the installation using the PC desktop is described. On a Mac things should be almost the same.

- Start the "instapp" program which resides in the same directory as your pilot desktop software.

- Using the "Browse" button select the "birthdat.prc" file you downloaded

- Make sure the hotsync manager is started

- Start a Hotsync by pushing the hotsync button on the Pilot's cradle or using the hotsync application if you use a direct cable or modem.

- If the installation succeeds you'll get an entry "OK Install" in the hotsync.log. In case of failure check the hotsync.log on your PC in your users-directory below the pilot directory. Also check for the setting of the "Install" option in the "Custom" menu of you Pilot Desktop. This option should be enabled.

6. Tips & Tricks

This chapter explains how to use Birthdate of Pilot in ways

Date format for birthdates

For entering the birthdate of a person you need not necessary know which year the person was born. So 5/7 and 5/7/61 are both valid birthdates.

Birthdate for the PalmPilot will recognize birthday entries that confirm to the Date-format that is preconfigured for your Pilot. The preconfiguration determines which delimiter is used for birthdates ("/","-" or ".") and in which order the numbers are interpreted ([day, month, year], [month,day,year] or [year,month,day]). See "Supported international date formats" for how to change your standard date formats

Using a Custom field of the Address Book for multiple purposes

If you don't want to use up a custom-field for Birthdate for the PalmPilot and don't want to go using the attached notes of your address records either there is still a way how you can enter your event information. The only assumption is that Birthdate for the PalmPilot will be able to share a custom field together with another purpose of that field. Here is an example: assume you already used up all your custom fields. One of the fields is for the relationship you have with that person, it's called "relationship". It holds entries like "relative, buddy, friend, college, neighbour". You can now share this field for event information by just adding that information in the following lines of the field like this:

  relative
  * Sandra 5/12/72
  * John 4/7/68
  *Wedding Sandra&John 6/9/95

To use the "realtionship"-field for Birthdate for the PalmPilot just tell Birthdate for the PalmPilot that this is the field you'd like to use by setting the custom-field name to "relationship" in Menu/Options/Preferences of Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

Find function

When you use the Pilot's build in "find"-function the birthday of a person will show up on entry of her name. Here is how it works:

a) Create a notification for the birthdate in the Datebook calendar by using the "Notify" feature of Birthdate for the PalmPilot.

b) an entry like "* Miller, Scott 5/7/61" will be made in the Date Book for the upcoming birthday (in this example July 5th)

c) when searching for "Scott" using the find feature the line "* Miller, ... 5/7/61" will appear as a result under the "Datebook" header.

National holidays

It's possible to create national holiday notify entries with Birthdate for the PalmPilot. Just create an Address-Book entry with an empty lastname and the firstname "holiday". Then create a note and enter the holidays like shown below.

You can make the job easier if you do this on your PC using the Desktop application and using copy & paste between a text-file and the note. Use your favorite editor to open one of the national holiday files supplied in the Birthdate for the PalmPilot package and copy the content to the clipboard. Paste the content into the note as described above.

In the Birthdate for the PalmPilot package "birthdat.zip" you'll find files for the national holidays of the following countries:

Here is an example (the 2000 US holidays)

  *Holiday New-Years-Day 1/1
  *Event   Epiphany   1/6
  *Holiday Martin-Luther-King's-Jr-Day 1/17/00
  *Event   Groundhog-Day 2/2
  *Event   Lincoln's-Birthday 2/12
  *Event   Valentine's-Day 2/14
  *Holiday President's-Day 2/21/00
  *Event   Washington's-Birthday 2/22
  *Event   Ash-Wednesday 3/8/00
  *Holiday St.-Patrick's-Day 3/17
  *Event   April's-Fools-Day 4/1
  *Holiday Palm-Sunday 4/16/00
  *Event   Good-Friday 4/21/00
  *Holiday Easter-Sunday 4/23/00
  *Event   Passover 4/20/00
  *Event   Mother's-Day 5/14/00
  *Event   Ascension   6/1/00
  *Event   Pentecoast 6/11/00
  *Event   Historical-Memorial-Day   5/30
  *Holiday Memorial-Day 5/29/00
  *Event   Corpus Christi 6/22/00
  *Event   Flag-Day 6/14
  *Event   Father's-Day 6/18/00
  *Holiday Independence-Day 7/4
  *Event   Parent's Day 7/25
  *Event   Friendship-Day   8/2
  *Event   Assumption   8/15
  *Holiday Labor-Day 9/4/00
  *Event   Grandparents-Day   9/12
  *Event   Citizenship-Day   9/17
  *Event   Rosh-Hashanah 9/30/00
  *Event   Yom-Kippur 10/9/00
  *Event   National-Children's-Day   10/11
  *Holiday Columbus-Day 10/13
  *Event   National-Boss-Day   10/16
  *Event   Sweetest-Day   10/17
  *Event   United-Nations-Day   10/24
  *Event   Halloween 10/31
  *Event   All-Saints-Day   11/1
  *Event   Election-Day 11/7/00
  *Holiday Veterans-Day 11/11
  *Holiday Thanksgiving-Day 11/23/00
  *Event   Immaculate-Conception   12/8
  *Event   Hanukkah 12/22/00
  *Holiday Christmas-Day 12/25
  *Holiday New-Years-Eve 12/31

Birthdate for the PalmPilot will recognize all these events an display them in the "Birthdate list" with an "H" or "E" marker at the end. With "Menu/Options/Notify All" all these holidays can be entered into your Date Book in one run.

7. Questions & Answers

Q: I already used up all my custom fields in the Address Book. Now what?

A: There are still serveral ways how you can use Birthdate for the PalmPilot. Either you use notes attached to your address record or you share one of the custom fields for multiple purposes.

Q: The Date Book application has a "Repeat" - feature for events. Why doesn't Birthdate for the PalmPilot support this feature?

A: There is a contradiction between the request for supporting the "Repeat"-feature and the already implemented "calc & show age" - feature of Birthdate for the PalmPilot. When the age of a person or anniversity of an event is calculated the result needs to be updated every year. This isn't possible when using the "Repeat"-feature of the Date Book application. Another reason that Birthdate for the PalmPilot doesn't support the "Repeat"-feature is of more technical nature: the implementation of repeating events within the Date Book application is very complicated and involves tracking list of exceptions to the repeating events. Birthdate for the PalmPilot has no way of knowing whether such an exception list would have been created for a repeating event. The complexity of tracking this would have two unwanted results: 1. Birthdate for the PalmPilot would get a lot bigger 2. the access to the Date Book database data gets more risky.

Q: How can I remove Birthdate for the PalmPilot again?

A: Just use the standard way of deleting applications. Start the built-in "Memory" application of your Pilot push the "Delete apps" button. Select "Birthdate (xxK)" from the list shown, press "Delete ..." and answer the warning question "(i) Delete the Birthdate application and all data?"