Part 1. Getting Started
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First Startup Screen
- the first screen you will see is a brief "Welcome"
message giving you a chance to load your contact information
- if you keep some event data or even just snapshots
of your friends in your mobile's contacts, this is the easiest way
to get started with Gift Calendar
- tap on the Load Contacts Info button
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Scanning contacts
- your contacts will automatically be scanned using
some default options
- the popup progress bar lets you track for the few seconds
this usually takes ...
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Review contact info
- once the scan is done, you can scroll through all the
contact info found, in order by oldest to most recent event date
- if there is anyone you don't plan to exchange gifts with,
you can simply uncheck the box next to their photo and name - David looks a
little sleepy here, so we took him off our list
- you can use the Contacts Scan Options button to
change the default scan options if you wish. This lets you also include
your EMail contacts (there can be a lot of those!), or only include those
with event information (if you've been conscientious about entering that
information into your mobile device)
- if you do change the default scan options, just tap on
the ReScan Contacts button to see the differences
- it's a lot quicker to get going with Gift Calendar
if you can just load a lot of the data from your mobile's contacts, so we
recommend updating friend information directly in contacts
- any time you wish, you can ask Gift Calendar, via
the MENU button, to Load Contacts again, in which case only
changed information (names, photos, events and dates, and any notes) will be
picked up from contacts and updated in Gift Calendar
- when you're ready, just tap on the Save Contacts
button and all those friends will be setup for you ...
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Part 2. Main Screens and Functions
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Main Screen - Upcoming Events (To Do)
- and just like that, all that contact info has been loaded
for you and Gift Calendar is now your personal and mobile tool
- on the top of our list right now are Pat's birthday and
anniversary, and David's birthday
- first things first, we just found a pearl necklace for Pat
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- so we can tap on No gift planned yet next to Pat's birthday
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Edit Gift Dialog
- when you tap on any gift (or event date or name), a dialog
box pops up so that you can edit the gift, check the box, change the date, etc.
- here we mark the "purchased" checkbox, enter "pearl necklace"
and set the cost to $345
- after entering that information, we tap on the
Save Changes button ...
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Gift Edited
- now we're good to go for Pat's upcoming birthday
- but while we were at the mall we stopped in the bookstore
and found some great books for Pat
- so now we can tap on Pat's snapshot or name to see all her
details...
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Person Details
- here we can concentrate on all the upcoming events for Pat,
which include a Birthday, our Anniversary, and Christmas
- we decide to give her two of the new books for our Anniversary
- so we tap on Pat's Anniversary
(date, event, or gift area), then tap on the Add Gift To Do ... button
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Adding a Gift
- here we've already entered and Saved Actors Almanac and
Travel Dream Book as a (purchased) Anniversary gift for Pat
- and then we tapped on the Add Gift To Do ... button again
to also add Travel Dream Book as a (purchased) Anniversary gift
- then we can tap on the Save Changes button again to save
that info away ...
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Updated Gifts for Pat
- ... and now we're pretty far along on
our shopping for Pat
- which might remind us to note that she likes dark chocolate
and has recently reminded us that anything to do with sewing is a no-no gift
- so we tap on the Edit Detail button at the top of the
screen ...
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Personal Likes, Dislikes, Colors, Sizes, and Notes
- we had previously picked up "Likes pearls" from the Contact
notes from Pat
- now we can add "Likes" dark chocolate and "Dislikes" sewing
- we tap on the Save Changes button
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Completing Personal Information
- and now we have quite a bit of gift-giving info for Pat
- by the way, should you be in the store and not sure about
Pat's size or color preferences, yes, you can tap on the telephone icon
button at the top of the screen, to phone her on the spot and try to subtly
get the info you need
- also, should you need more room on your mobile's screen,
you can tap on the Hide Details button (which then switches to a
Show Details button so you can get the info back)
- The next section will briefly show you some of the many
other features availabe in Gift Calendar
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Part 3. Advanced Features
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Christmas List
- Gift Calendar easily handles Christmas shopping
for everyone on your list, as well as all the individual gift-giving events
shown in the previous section
- Your Christmas list gets it's own tab by default, so that
you can quickly check it at a glance to see what you need to buy next
- in this example, we've purchased 4 Christmas presents and
still have more to go - but notice that we're under budget so far!
- if you don't observe Christmas, and/or also observe other
annual gift-giving events for many of your friends, see the
Customize Events topic below for how easy it is to tailor
Gift Calendar
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Stashing Gifts in the Closet
- a lot of people asked us for this feature, so we made sure
Gift Calendar could easily handle it
- often we run across the ideal gift at a great bargain, so
we like to buy quite a few, to "stash in the closet" for later gifting
- for example, this often happens while traveling, so in this
example we picked up 5 very decorative handcrafted puppets while visiting Bali
- here we added an undated event for "Closet", and added a person
named "Somebody - Decide later" and ...
- then we "gave" the puppets to "Somebody - Decide later"
for "The Closet" ...
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Assigning Gifts from the Closet
- the easiest way to assign something like the 5 puppets
from Bali is to use the Gift Info button at the bottom of the
main screen
- this brings us to the Detailed Information By Gift
screen with all of our friends showing as "no such gift planned yet"
- all we needed to do was tap on the first lucky friend, select
"Souvenir" on June 1st, and Save Changes
- then we could quickly repeat that for 4 more lucky friends
until we were all set as shown here
- no doubt you can think of many variations on this approach,
to suit your own gift-giving preferences and to leverage the flexibility built
in to Gift Calendar
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Gifts Received and Thank Yous
- every now and then we all have special events and our
friends congratulate us with gifts and good wishes
- Gift Calendar can help you with that also, not to
mention giving you a place where you can check off thank yous as you write,
phone, or deliver them
- in this example, we went back to school to get certified
in a new field, and received many appropriate gifts
- after the Graduation Party, we jotted down all the gifts
(under the Gifts Received tab), and are in the process of acknowledging
each gift
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Gift History
- many long-time users of Gift Calendar really
appreciate the History tab
- here you can see all gifts given or received (including
planned gifts) over time, for everyone or to focus on just one friend
- this is a great way to help your memory and avoid repeating
your favorite pick over the years
- not to mention protecting you from the ultimate faux pas of
regifting back to the same person!
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Customizing Events
- a powerful feature of Gift Calendar is how
smoothly it handles the many kinds of special events and diverse ways of
celebrating them there are in the world
- annual events can be like Christmas, common to most
everyone on your gift list
- of course, not everybody celebrates Christmas, so
Gift Calendar allows you to customize for one or more common annual
events
- Valentine's Day is a well-known example of another kind of
annual event that is just for that special someone(s?!), and is pre-loaded
for you in Gift Calendar
- birthdays are also annual, and you probably give a birthday
gift each year for most everyone on your gift list, but of course on a
different date for each friend
- one-time Events like Weddings and graduations don't happen
very often in your life, but they can be very important when they do, and can
be used to keep track of Gifts Received and Thank You notes
- with Gift Calendar, you can customize the list of
event names to include exactly those that you observe, even "Just Because"
or "Guilt Gift" (both of which are pre-loaded for you)
- this example shows the options available on the
Customize Events screen (accessible from the MENU, or from the event
selection popup), with a "First Date" event being set up
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Preferences
- you can personalize how Gift Calendar operates
on the Preferences screen (available from the MENU), as shown here
- by default, Gift Calendar includes all upcoming
gift events in the ToDo view, including those that are already checked off
but perhaps not yet delivered. If you prefer to only see those gifts that
aren't purchased, you can set that preference here
- for another example, you can change the Planning Time
Frame, from the default of a full year to perhaps 3 months, to suit how far
ahead you prefer to plan and be reminded
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Help at your Fingertips
- Gift Calendar is designed to be used in a natural
and intuitive way, so feel free to explore on your own
- but just in case you run into a special situation and would
like some suggestions how to most easily handle it, an easy to navigate help
system is included
- just tap on Help (from the MENU) and browse or use the
contents index to find additional ways to leverage the many advanced
features included in Gift Calendar
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Export and Import
- for the world-class gift giver, Gift Calendar is
the only gift tracking app you'll ever need, year after year
- which of course raises a concern about what happens when
you trade-in your mobile device - will you need to start all over again
before you even have a couple years to develop a solid gift-giving history?
- problem solved - simply Export (using MENU) from
the old device, copy over the GiftCalendarData.csv file, and
Import that file into Gift Calendar on your new device to pick
up where you left off!
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Home Page Widget
- last but far from least, Gift Calendar comes with a
built-in widget, which you can place on your home page
- this widget reminds you of your next gift-giving event
automatically every time you turn on your mobile device (or navigate back
to your home page)
- in this example, next up is Pat's birthday, and it's in
red to alert us to being a week late!!
- but in this case it's also almost Valentine's Day, so maybe
we can get creative ...
- if you've just purchased the pearl necklace for Pat,
you can just tap the checkbox on the widget without even opening up the
application
- you can also tap on your friend's photo or name to open
up Gift Calendar on their personal detail screen, or on the event info
to open up the main screen
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