Calendaring/reminder software for Windows 7
June 13, 2011 8:11 AM Subscribe
I am looking for calendaring/reminder software compatible with Windows 7, with some specific requirements.
The software is for someone who is elderly and would like to set up reminders for herself about something, say a month or two in advance. Since she forgets to look in her calendar (and hasn't the best handwriting to start with), the software ought tobe TSR install as a service reside in the system tray and simply launch a window when she starts her PC or logs back in after the screen auto-locks.
I cannot stress enough that it must be simple to use. She's at the level where she can send emails by herself but is not fantastic at opening attachments, working more off of muscle memory than reading the screen.
What's out:
1) Software she must remember to start, URLs she must remember to visit, and the like
2) Software that part of some large suite
Freeware is, of course, nice. Searching for "calendaring" returns more results than I could wade through in a lifetime, so if there is some specific term for this kind of software, I would love to know it.
The software is for someone who is elderly and would like to set up reminders for herself about something, say a month or two in advance. Since she forgets to look in her calendar (and hasn't the best handwriting to start with), the software ought to
I cannot stress enough that it must be simple to use. She's at the level where she can send emails by herself but is not fantastic at opening attachments, working more off of muscle memory than reading the screen.
What's out:
1) Software she must remember to start, URLs she must remember to visit, and the like
2) Software that part of some large suite
Freeware is, of course, nice. Searching for "calendaring" returns more results than I could wade through in a lifetime, so if there is some specific term for this kind of software, I would love to know it.
One of the Google Calendar notifiers, like GMinder. Google Calendar is the easiest thing to use for adding tasks and events, since you just click on the day and type in the time and name in semi-natural language (7pm Event, Event 7-8pm, etc.), and then the notifier makes sure you actually remember.
posted by anaelith at 9:14 AM on June 13, 2011
posted by anaelith at 9:14 AM on June 13, 2011
Response by poster: Wouldn't you have to remember to open a web browser and go to Google Calendar? Because that's out then.
posted by adipocere at 9:47 AM on June 13, 2011
posted by adipocere at 9:47 AM on June 13, 2011
Best answer: Some drawbacks as I was testing zCalendar, it might be too small of an interface (and its too easy to close gadgets unfortunately). Remind-me however look fairly promising. Freeware, looks reasonably easy to use, and stays resident on the taskbar if it is closed out. (I would pin the program itself to the taskbar for easy accessibility). While using it, I did notice there's a lot of extra options to an event...you'll want to tell her to ignore the options, and just focus on the title, date, time, and comment.
posted by samsara at 10:08 AM on June 13, 2011
posted by samsara at 10:08 AM on June 13, 2011
You only need to go to Google Calendar to add new events, once an event is on the calendar than GMinder will remind you of it automatically (it runs on start up and sits in the system tray, just waiting to remind you). Obviously no calendar is going to work if you forget to add events to it in the first place.
posted by anaelith at 12:54 PM on June 13, 2011
posted by anaelith at 12:54 PM on June 13, 2011
I still use a freeware program called Kana Reminder -- although it's a good many years old it works fine in Win 7, Vista, and XP. Here's the link:
http://www.kanasolution.com/products/kana-reminder/
It's very simple but works well for me.
posted by gilast at 5:46 PM on June 13, 2011
http://www.kanasolution.com/products/kana-reminder/
It's very simple but works well for me.
posted by gilast at 5:46 PM on June 13, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
(I do everything she needs with MS Outlook, but it's only free for me because my school pays for it.)
posted by oddman at 8:25 AM on June 13, 2011