Photo Calendar Input Form

The input fields on this form control the information displayed on the finished calendar page. Keyboard conventions for entering data depend on the browser you are using. The following description is based on my experience using the Mozilla/Firefox browser. Keyboard conventions on Internet Explorer are slightly different.

The tab key will shift keyboard focus foreward from one input field to the next. Pressing shift and tab together moves keyboard focus backward. Any change to a text input field will be applied after it loses keyboard focus.

Select Year and Month

Click on the year or month choice box for a drop-down menu of choices. Scroll down and click on the desired entry. The calendar block will update to reflect any changes.

After you have made a selection, the choice box retains keyboard focus. You can use the up-arrow and down-arrow keys to scroll through the choice list. On Mozilla, you must press the Enter key (or shift keyboard focus out of the input field) to change the selection.

The "+" button is a quick way to select the next month. Once this button has keyboard focus, pressing the space bar will advance the month selection.

Select Photo

Select the photo that you want on the current calendar page. The file must be in a graphical format that your browser understands. There are three methods for selecting an image file.

1. Manual Entry

Click on the Photo text input line and type in the file pathname. To replace an existing entry, double click (triple click on Internet Explorer) to select the whole line then type in a new pathname. To modify an existing entry, click to position the text cursor then Backspace to erase text. Alternatively, click and drag the cursor to select text then type in replacement text. Press the tab key when finished to input the modified line. Entering a blank file name will reset all text input fields to their default state.

2. Browse

Click the Browse button to bring up a file selection dialog. Traverse the directory hierarchy to find the image file you want. Double click the desired file to end the dialog (or click the Open/Save button). The file pathname will appear on the text input line. Click the Select button to update the Photo selection.

3. Drag and Drop

On Linux, you can use drag and drop to select an image file. First clear the Photo text input line by double clicking and pressing Backspace. Click on the desired image file in another window (e.g. a directory listing), drag the cursor over to the Photo text input line and release. The file pathname will appear as text on the input line. Press the Tab key to update the Photo selection. The default drag and drop behavior on Microsoft Windows is not useful.

Enter Caption and Copyright

After selecting your photo, tab down to the Caption line and type in the desired photo caption. Tab again and enter the copyright name. A blank entry on either of these lines will suppress output on the calendar page, leaving more space for the photo.

Select Calendar Notations

The lower right frame contains a list of calendar notations. Click on the checkboxes to toggle notations on/off. The calendar block will update to reflect your changes. Once a checkbox has keyboard focus, pressing the space bar will toggle that selection.

There is generally room for only two or three notations in a date cell. The browser will enlarge a cell to accommodate its contents. However, this creates a non-uniform calendar block and may overflow the bottom of the page when printed.

Choose Formating Options

The format of the calendar block is controlled by these options. Click on the checkbox to toggle an option on/off.

1. Start of Week

Traditional calendars start the week with Sunday. Starting with Monday groups the weekend days together in a more convenient scheduling block.

2. Overflow Week

Most months need five rows for the weekly display. Depending on the start day, there may be one or two days that overflow into a sixth week. The overflow week is typically merged by double stacking the extra days. This gives all the calendar blocks a uniform height. However, it also reduces the space for notations. If a stacked date cell contains more then one notation, it is better add a sixth row. The photo space will be reduced to accommodate an enlarged calendar block.

3. Color Date Cells

Coloring the date cells highlights the difference between weekdays and weekends. It also uses up a lot of blue ink! When printing on Mozilla, you must enable background colors from Page Setup. I'm not certain how to print background colors on Internet Explorer. It may be in Tools->Internet Options->Advanced under Printing.

4. Show Day of Year

For business purposes or date calculations it may be useful to show the day-of-year number on each date cell. For example, if you receive a 60 day layoff notice, you can easily determine your termination date by adding 60 to the current day number.

Display Calendar Page

Click the DISPLAY button to display the finished calendar page in a separate window. There are several choices for saving or printing.

1. Save HTML Source

Use the File menu to save the HTML source for the calendar page. You can open the saved file as a regular browser page. Edit the HTML source if you want to add special effects not directly supported by the calendar program. The repetative table layout is easily modified.

2. Print Page

Use the File menu to print the page. You should first use Page Setup to remove unwanted notations from the page header and footer. Also enable printing of background colors.

3. Print to File

On Mozilla, use the Print to File option in the File Print dialog to save the page as a PostScript file. This is a convenient way to save the calendar page for later printing or to distribute the file to other people. On Internet Explorer, the Print to File option produces a .prn file, which is probably not exportable outside of the Microsoft environment.

Persistent State

The principal state parameters (photo, caption, copyright) are saved in a browser cookie for each calendar month and year. The expiration is set at 400 days. Notation settings and formatting options are saved for the duration of the current browser session.

Additional Information

The calendar program can be customized with personal notations like birthdays and anniversaries. For further information refer to the calendar customization page.

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