MacHouse

   Last updated: February 19, 2011

1. Installing and uninstalling LittleCal Pro

Please read the README file that comes with the application.

2. Preferences

If this is your first time in using LittleCal or LittleCal Pro, we suggest that you open Preferences.  Choose Preferences under LittleCal Pro on the menu bar.  (See Screenshot 1.)  Under Settings 1, there are four checkboxes.  If you enable Run update notification, LittleCal Pro will automatically get online to find out if there are any software updates available every time you start it up.  Enable Confirm event deletion (See Screenshot 2.) if you want LittleCal Pro to open a confirmation dialog when you delete an existing event.  If you enable Open Write, every time you start it up, LittleCal Pro will open an edit field at the bottom of the main calendar window.  And enable Remember last note if you want LittleCal Pro to remember the last note you've made.  Note that LittleCal Pro will remember only the last note that was shown on the edit field.  If this edit field is not revealed, LittleCal Pro will not remember the last note.

Now, let's take a close look at the main calendar window.  (See Screenshot 3.)  You may notice that the text size of the number of one calendar day is bigger than the rest.  This number represents the current calendar day according to your computer's system clock.  Any calendar number shown on the main window is clickable because it's a button.  Mac OS is not capable of coloring the button label.  In order to make the current calendar number distinguishable, LittleCal Pro changes the font size.  (See Screenshot 4.)  And you can choose the font size between 10 and 20.

Let's move on to Settings 2.  We won't discuss Reminder in detail for now.  It's a feature that will remind you of upcoming events.  If you enable Reminder (See Screenshot 5.), you will be reminded of upcoming events with a separate window.  And you can decide which events you will be reminded of, ones that are due some days ahead, some hours ahead or some minutes ahead.  For example, if you select the days button and set the reminder number to three, then you will be reminded of all events that are due within the next three days.

Under the same tab, you can set the default date format.  Y, M and D stand for year, month and numerial day, respectively.  If you specify no separator, then LittleCal Pro will automatically use a slash (/) as a separator.

The Colors tab is used to customize the look of the main window.  If you click on any of the color swatches (See Screenshot 6.), the Color Picker window will open.  (See Screenshot 7.)  Now, all you have to do is pick a color.  Screenshot 8 shows which color refers to what part of the window.

3. Using LittleCal Pro

3a. First look at calendar window

Now, let's take a good look at LittleCal's main window.  A virtual calendar occupies a large part of it.  Every time it starts up, LittleCal Pro will shows the calendar of the current month according to the system clock.  In order to rewind the calendar by one month, click on the left-arrow button at the top.  Similarly, click on the right-arrow button at the top to forward the calendar by one month.  Or use two pull-down menus right below to select any month or year.

LittleCal Pro is a virtual calendar where each numerial day is a clickable button.  Clicking on any of those buttons, Event Window will open as a drawer either to the right or to the left.  Event Window shows all events that are scheduled on a particular day of the month.  On the other hand, All Events Window, which you can choose to open by clicking on the Set all events checkbox button, shows all existing events you have created so far.  If you use LittleCal Pro extensively, you will probably have tens or even hundreds of events.  In such case, it could be difficult to find events that fall according to the calendar month that is currently shown.  If you want to show only the events that fall with the month and year that are chosen, then click on the Selected month only button.  For example, looking at Screenshot 10, we can tell that the month and the year that are currently selected are September and 2010, respectively.  And there are four events that are scheduled for September, 2010.  All Events Window shows that there are more than a dozen events.  By enabling 'Selected month only,' LittleCal Pro would display the events that are scheduled only for September, 2010.  (See Screenshot 11.)