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Datebk3 pushes Date Book into the future (continued)
You too can be a journalist
The benefit of having a detailed time-management system is the flexibility it allows, especially for people who take frequent notes throughout the day. Although you could just as easily create a new Memo Pad record to jot down your thoughts, sometimes it can be difficult to go back to it later: did you file it as "Meeting Notes", or "Conversation with Doug"?
If you know, however, that you wrote it during the meeting Wednesday afternoon, the Journal feature of Datebk3 would make it easier to go back and find your remarks. By selecting New Journal Entry (Command-J) from the Record menu, Datebk3 will create an untimed event with an attached note, as well as timestamp your entry. Creating a new journal entry later in the day adds to the existing note.
Get in Your (Time) Zone
Version 3 of Datebk3 introduced a solution that has been vexing travelers and business people since the Palm computer first emerged: multiple time zone support. This is especially helpful when you have to deal with far ranging locations such as New York and Hong Kong, allowing you to easily schedule a meeting or conference call and know what the local time will be.
Like the icon feature, Datebk3 uses an outside text file in the Memo Pad to get its time zone information. With the file timezone.txt in Memo Pad, go to the Preferences screen and tap the selection box beside Home Zone. Choose your current time zone from the list, shown in Figure G, then tap OK. If you're scheduling a meeting located in another time zone, you can specify that the record "lives" in the other zone by selecting from the Time Zone option in the Event Details screen. It will appear in the day view with two times attached: your current home time, and the time reflecting the other time zone.
FIGURE G
Get into your zone by choosing from the list above.
When you travel to another time zone, select Set Display Time Zone (Command-Z) from the Options menu to select your new current zone. After updating your system's clock, you'll see that every event is indicated by two times to indicate the current and home time zones.
Take time to make time
There are even more features available in Datebk3 that I didn't have room to cover here, which gives you an idea of how extensive the program is, and what a difference it is compared to the standard Date Book. You'll find that it's worth your time to explore what it can do. Datebk3 brings to the Palm platform the same kind of progression as the jump from early films to the modern blockbusters "gracing" movie screens today.
Pay Your "Gorillaware" Fee
In the software world, it's the rare developer who can support himself on sales of shareware alone. Pimlico Software owner C. E. Steuart Dewar, however, isn't keeping a dime from his $20 shareware fee. Instead, the money generated by Datebk3 will be directed toward the future guests of Dewar's home: up to 20 Western Lowland Gorillas.
Dewar and his wife, Jane T. R. Dewar, are building Gorilla Haven on their 275 acre property in the North Georgia (Blue Ridge) mountains of the United States. Working with international zoos and wildlife preserves, the Dewars will provide a secure temporary holding facility for gorillas awaiting permanent zoo housing, and to help ensure the welfare and genetic diversity of the species. Now in construction, the haven is expected to begin hosting its first gorillas in the year 2000.
Although Gorilla Haven will not be a public attraction, the Dewars have begun offering educational opportunities (such as setting up a local "field station") and welcome questions and comments from the Gorilla Haven Web site.
Product availability and resources
Visit the Datebk3 Page at http://www.gorilla-haven.org/pimlico/datebk3.htm.
Visit Pimlico Software at http://www.gorilla-haven.org/pimlico/.
Gorilla Haven is located at http://www.gorilla-haven.org.
Datebk3 Icons can be found at http://www.jeton.or.jp/users/robin/pilot/icon-e.html.
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Elia Freedman is President of Infinity Softworks and an avid financial calculator user. He can be emailed at elia@infinitysw.com.
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