Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  1. General
    1. What are the advantages of using iRT Calendar?
    2. What is stock calendar?
    3. Why are you using the stock calendar for edit/new functions?
    4. What do I do to have automatic updates on iRT Calendar?
    5. In Admin Database view, what does 'Synchronize icons' mean?
    6. My phone broke, replacement phone is coming, will I lose my icons and do I need to buy iRT Calendar again?
    7. Do you have month, week, day widgets?
    8. I have multiple Google calendars, one of them is not syncing even if I do manual sync?
  2. Day View
    1. How do I add an icon?
    2. Can I add an icon when I create a new event?
    3. Can I add my own icons?
    4. How do I let the time remaining numbers show for the events in Day view?
    5. What is a floating event, does it apply to single and recurring events?
    6. How do I stop repeating events?
    7. I bought iRT Calendar Pro Key, how do I access the custom repeat feature, schedule weekly with interval and end date?
    8. I bought iRT Calendar Pro Key, how do I float an event?
    9. I bought iRT Calendar Pro Key, how do I highlight or mark an event as done?
    10. I have HTC Droid Incredible, if I edit an all day event the date goes back one day, how do I fix this?
  3. Week View
    1. How do I turn off the event counter on Week view?
    2. How do I create a new event on Week view?
    3. When in Week or Month view and I GoTo a day, it goes to the Week/Month view of that day, how can I make it go to Day view always?
  4. Month View
    1. How do I turn off the event counter on Month view?
    2. How do I create a new event on Month view?
  5. Search
    1. I can't figure out how to save searches with a different name than nonrecurring events. Could you pls explain how to do this?
  6. Widgets
    1. How do I set the preferences so that my calendar opens with the month instead of the current day?
  7. Preferences
    1. In Preferences, I see Create Extra Backup, what does that mean?

 

  1. General
    1. What are the advantages of using iRT Calendar?
      • iRT Calendar focuses on the ability to manage daily, weekly, and monthly events efficiently providing (1) quick access to any day on the calendar, (2) have thorough search capabilities, (3) event icons for easier identification of the events, (4) duplicate, delete, move, move to today, move to next day functions, (5) font style and color (6) lots of indicators that an event is recurring, have reminders set, floating and/or completed, (7) Adjustable page background color and event title font size (8) Month and Week view for easier planning and viewing of events. As an added help, it also provides time remaining before the selected event will take place. It also supports multiple backup to SD card.

        Quick access to any day on the calendar is achieved using the quick go to page that allows the user to go to any day in the year in just two taps.

        The Search functionality also features advanced saved search where the user can create many customizable search that he/she wants, like display of nonrecurring events, bills searching by icon, birthdays. The user can also dynamically reuse the search parameters and provide search words. For global search (Search All), the application can be configured to search a date range starting with one year from the past to one year to the future -- can be configured up to 5 years on the preference page.

    2. What is stock calendar?
      • It is the calendar application that came with the phone when the user bought it.
    3. Why are you using the stock calendar for edit/new functions?
      • iRT Calendar uses the native calendar database to ensure compatibility. Google has not yet released the official Application Programming Interface (API) for the Android calendar. To ensure data integrity, we try to minimize the custom creation and editing of events. As observed, improper saving of events cause strange behaviors for the events like they don't sync up well with Google Calendar on the Web or in rare occasions, Google re-indexes the calendar events and causes the phone's calendar to go blank. As we become more familiar with the behavior of the calendar database and behavior, we can replace the stock calendars edit/new functions with custom modules.
    4. What do I do to have automatic updates on iRT Calendar?
      • Auto update is supported by Android 2.2 and up. It is set on the Android Market, select the application then check "Allow automatic updating."
    5. In Admin Database view, what does 'Synchronize icons' mean?
      • Synchronize Icons cleans up unused icons and re-index lost event decorators like icons, highlights, font colors/background, etc. This is useful in the rare case where Google changes the index of your events on Google Calendar on the web and temporarily "blanks" out your phone. When the calendar comes up, the decorators (icons and etc) are gone. This means that the indexing of the events and decorators are not synchronized. Synchronize Icons fixes this.
    6. My phone broke, replacement phone is coming, will I lose my icons and do I need to buy iRT Calendar again?
      • If you have backed up your icons (iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Menu -> More -> Administer Database -> Backup Database) then you can restore it on the other phone:
        (a) If you can't transfer the SD card to the new phone, copy backup from the SD card at /sdcard/irt_calendar/backup/calendars to the same location on the new phone
        (b) On the new Phone, Install iRT calendar from the Android Market, you won't pay again if you use the same email address
        (c) Restore the icons/decoration in iRT Calendar: iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Menu -> More -> Administer Database -> Restore Database
    7. Do you have month, week, day widgets?
      • No, that is still on our TODO list. If you really want day/week/month widgets to open iRT Calednar, you can use Pure calendar widgets if you have them and let it point to iRT Calendar.
    8. I have multiple Google calendars, one of them is not syncing even if I do manual sync?
      • This would require series of steps. And your data in the phone after these steps would have only one month of past data and 11 months future, a limitation on Android's calendar when you sync with Google calendar on the web with blank data on the phone. All your events would still be on the web but only the limited data mentioned above would sync to the phone.
      • The phone's stock/native calendar data needs to be cleared and synced back to Google Calendar on the web. The following steps would clear the calendar data on the phone, sync back to Google on the web, a possible decorator (icons, floats, complete) mismatch to the events and would require some manual entry of the decorators back.
        1. Home phone view -> Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All -> Calendar -> Clear Data
        2. Home phone view -> Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All -> Calendar Storage-> Clear Data
        3. Home phone view -> Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All -> Calendar Sync Adapter -> Clear Data
        4. Home phone view -> Menu -> Settings -> Accounts -> tap on your Gmail address-> Sync Calendar (uncheck then check)
        5. iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Menu -> More -> Administer Database -> Synchronize icons
        6. Check your calendar events if they are back and manually add decorators (icons/float/done/highlight) to those that were not restored properly
  2. Day View
    1. How do I add an icon?
      • To add an icon, go to Day view, long press on the event, select "Change Icon", then choose your icon.
    2. Can I add an icon when I create a new event?
      • With the current versions, no, you can only add an Icon when the event has been created. iRT Calendar use the Edit/New functions of the stock calendar it does not support icons.
    3. Can I add my own icons?
      • No. That is high on our priority list.
    4. How do I let the time remaining numbers show for the events in Day view?
      • This is a Next event style preference:
        iRT Calendar -> Menu -> More -> Preferences -> Day view Preferences -> Next event style -> Red Arrow with multiple times
    5. What is a floating event, does it apply to single and recurring events?
      • Floating events move to current day until it is marked as done. Yes iRT Calendar Pro supports floating events for single and recurring events.
    6. How do I stop repeating events?
      • This is a feature of the Pro version only. To put an end to a repeating event, add an "End on" date to your repeating event:
        iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Long press on any event -> Extra Edits -> Repeat (tap) -> Check End on and tap on date to select end date.
    7. I bought iRT Calendar Pro Key, how do I access the custom repeat feature, schedule weekly with interval and end date?
      • To access the custom repeat, go to Day view, long press on the event and tap on Extra Edits. Tap on the Repeat box to go to Custom Repeat view. Tap on the dropdown to choose the repeat type. Tap on the every # of weeks dropdown to choose the interval. Tap on the "End on" check box and select a date by tapping on the word "never." This will open to the Go To view and you can choose the end date. Save changes.
    8. I bought iRT Calendar Pro Key, how do I float an event?
      • To float an event, go to Day view, long press on the event and tap on Extra Edits. Check the Float checkbox to float an event. Save changes.
    9. I bought iRT Calendar Pro Key, how do I highlight or mark an event as done?
      • To highlight or mark an event as done, go to Day view, long press on the event and tap on Extra Edits. Check the Done checkbox to mark an event as done. Check the Highlight checkbox to highlight an event. Save changes. Done and Highlight style can be customized on Extra Edits Preferences. Please see User Guide.
    10. I have HTC Droid Incredible, if I edit an all day event the date goes back one day, how do I fix this?
      • You can fix this by:
        iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Menu -> More -> Preferences -> System Preferences -> All day edit offset -> +1 day
  3. Week View
    1. How do I turn off the event counter on Week view?
      • To turn off the event counter, do the following:
        iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Menu -> More -> Preferences -> Week view Preferences -> Show event counter (uncheck)
    2. How do I create a new event on Week view?
      • Long press on the desired day, the New event view will show up for that day.
    3. When in Week or Month view and I GoTo a day, it goes to the Week/Month view of that day, how can I make it go to Day view always?
      • Set it in Preferences:
        iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Menu -> More -> Preferences -> Go To day always (check)
  4. Month View
    1. How do I turn off the event counter on Month view?
      • To turn off the event counter, do the following:
        iRT Calendar -> Day view -> Menu -> More -> Preferences -> Month view Preferences -> Show event counter (uncheck)
    2. How do I create a new event on Month view?
      • Long press on the desired day, the New event view will show up for that day.
  5. Search
    1. I can't figure out how to save searches with a different name than nonrecurring events. Could you pls explain how to do this?
      • Common searches like search for nonrecurring events, or search for birthdays, or bills, would all be saved with their respective search names. The default saved search is nonrecurring events which is the only option you would see when you go to Search View. If you want to search for Birthdays, you would go to Menu -> Search Options -> Menu ->Search String Box. You would enter the new search name on the Search String box. You would type Birthday to search for Birthdays, then tap on Include recurring events then select a Birthday icon by tapping on the apple icon. These parameters will be included on the new search. The start and end years' default is one year but can be changed using the drop down menu for years. Then tap Search or the magnifying lens button. This will save the new search name and start the search for Birthdays. Now on the Search View you will see two saved searches -- the non recurring and the newly created Birthday, select any and it will use the saved parameters attached to it for search. You can add more like bills, or if you are working PTO or Time Off. Then when you go back to the Search View you would see three options. There is no limit to the number of saved search that you can create. It is an easy way of going back to the different types of searches that you would normally do. Note that each saved search name have their own saved parameters -- nonrecurring will have whatever was set ; birthday will have it's own set of parameters; bills will have it's own set and so on.

        Search List (Search View -> Menu -> Search List) is just using the currently selected saved search and using a new search string instead of the saved search string, thus you can refine further your saved search. For example the saved search nonrecurring would show you different types of meetings for the year which could be many, you can narrow down the nonrecurring by typing specific string to the Search List and you would see fewer results.

        Search All (Search View -> Menu -> Search All) is not tied to Saved Search or Search List. The search all searches +/- years of events specified on the preference (Day view -> More - > Preference -> Search Preferences -> Search All year range. The default is +/- 2 years. Other search preferences can be set on Day view -> More Preference -> Search Preferences.

  6. Widget
    1. How do I set the preferences so that my calendar opens with the month instead of the current day?
      • Use the iRT Calendar Default View Opener widget. When you add the widget, it would be labeled iRT Day or iRT Week or iRT Month.
        To set it up, just tap on it or: iRT Calendar -> Menu -> More -> Preferences -> Widget default view (select the view you want as default. Once you've selected the default the widget will have the correct label with what it will open when you tap on it like iRT Day or iRT Week or iRT Month. Tap on the widget if you want to go to the default view. If you use the regular iRT Calendar shortcut it will open to the last opened view.
  7. Preferences
    1. In Preferences, I see Create Extra Backup, what does that mean?
      • When you create a backup in the Administer Database view and tap on Backup Database, it creates an extra backup on the SD card with time stamp. You can use this just in case your main backup gets corrupted. The location of the backup in the SD card is /sdcard/irt_calendar/backup/ .