Virtual OS/2 International Consumer Education

July 1998

Organize Your Holidays

By: Mark Dodel, (madodel@ptd.net) http://home.ptd.net/~madodel

The following article explains how to download and install an add in file for Lotus Organizer for OS/2 which adds a reference section for Organizer that includes:

• A list of holidays for several countries as well as Christian, Jewish and Islamic holidays dating from 1996 thru 2005
  
• Travel advice from the experts at OAG
  
• Telephone Country and Area Code list
  
• Weight and measurement equivalents
  
• A list of the top 100 films from Movieline Magazine
  
• Time management tips from Brian Tracy
  
  

or

Select Demos and Downloads
Select Content Files tab on that page
Then select "Almanac.or4.........nsf.........OS/2.........MAC.........Fodors"
Look for the OS/2 file almanac.os2 and download it to your x:\LOTUSW4\WORK\ORGANIZE directory.

Or you can get the file directly from - http://www.lotus.com/products/organizer.nsf/525161bd154a2f94852564c200212df3/20abbccfed098751852564e2006ddd92/$FILE/almanac.OS2

It is a self-extracting Almanac.or4 file which you can open from within Organizer for OS/2, to take advantage of useful information Lotus has assembled.

To open the file within Organizer for OS/2 Warp 4:

1. Choose File-Open
2. Change to the directory where the file was extracted to (I'd suggest you save it .
( note: you have to change the file name to almanac.or4 or this won't work )
3. Select Almanac.OR4
4. Click Open

Organizer will display the file name of the open file in the title bar.

This file has been specially formatted for the OS/2 Warp 4."

OK once you have this file what can you do with it? You can open it as a separate Organizer file or you can merge this into your own organizer file. Since this new file has updated holidays it is very useful to add to at least that part to your existing Organizer file. To accomplish this, open organizer, then select Section -> Include Then Browse and select the Almanac.or4 file and click on OK. Then select Holidays from the section list and click on OK. This will add a Holidays tab to your Organizer book.

Now to have your Calendar use the holidays, select Section -> Show through and highlight the Holidays entry in the From list. Click on OK and now all the Holidays in the Almanac are now listed in your Organizer Calendar. Once this is done you can then go to the holidays tab and delete or edit any of the existing holidays or add some more of your own.

If you just want to add some of the holidays to your calendar, you can follow the first part of the above directions - select Section -> Include then Browse and select almanac.or4 and click OK. Then select the holidays tab, hold the control key and click on the holidays you want then select Edit -> Copy. now select the Anniversary tab and and then select Edit -> Paste and the holidays will be copied here. The Anniversary section should already be selected as a show through for the calendar. If you now wish to remove the Holidays tab and only use the Anniversary section, select Section-> Customize then select the Holidays tab and click on remove.

Finally at the above site is a Fodors.nsf file which has reviews of US restaurants in it, but it seems to only be available for the Windows version as well as the "Top-rated golf courses from golf Digest". At least I couldn't figure out how to open a .nsf file in Organizer. I guess Lotus assumes OS/2 users are to geeky to go to a nice restaurant or have an interest in golf. :-( The information available in the OS/2 version of the Almanac is useful though and if you have Lotus Smart Suite for OS/2 Warp 4 then it's well worth the time and effort to obtain it.