To create an alarm that repeats, you use the Repeat and Advanced property pages of an alarm. You can specify how frequently the alarm repeats and how long. You can also control which days of the week, weeks of the month, and months the events go off on.
We've seen this page already, but it can do much more than just display a message.
You can specify an offset. This means that after Alarm++ calculates the date/time of the next event, it will add (or subtract) the specified amount of time from that value. For example, if you want to be reminded of a 3:00pm meeting, you can set the time to 3:00pm and specify an offset of “10 minutes before the event date/time.” Then the event will go off at 2:50pm.
Use the Snooze field to specify the initial snooze interval. Although you can modify the snooze interval when the event window is displayed, it can be more convenient to set it to the snooze you're likely to use in the first place. For example, for meeting alarms, I use a 9-minute snooze and for TV program alarms, I use a 30-minute snooze.
When Alarm++ starts, it checks for events that have already gone off. For example, if there is an event set to go off at 7:00am and Alarm++ runs at 8:00am, the event should go off. The Ignore field is used if you want Alarm++ to skip the event if it's too far past the event date/time when Alarm++ checks the events. In this example, you could set the alarm so that the event is ignored if it's more than 30 minutes past the time it should have gone off. In the above example, the event won't occur because it's 60 minutes past the event's date/time.
If you want Alarm++ to delete this alarm after the last event goes off, check the Delete box.
If you want to use this alarm to create other alarms, check the Template box. The names of your alarm templates appear in the system tray icon's menu, under the New Alarm Using command. They also appear in the Edit menu's New Alarm Using command.
You can set an alarm to repeat at any interval: minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
Next, you select how many events you want. The alarm can have no events—perhaps you want to save an alarm but not activate it yet. It can have a specific number of events—for 12 swimming lessons. It can repeat until a certain date—a daily reminder to buy a present until the day of the anniversary. It can also have an infinite number of events—for a weekly meeting that never ends.
You can control an alarm's events even more on the Advanced page.
Here you can specify that the events should only go off on certain days of the week—for Friday the 13th or watering your plants on Tuesday and Friday.
You can specify that events only occur on certain weeks of the month—a meeting on the last Thursday of every month.
You can also specify that events only occur in certain months of the year—Daylight Saving Time ends on the last Sunday of October.
Below those options is a control that you can use to specify whether the events can go off on workdays or non-workdays or any day at all. You also specify when the event should occur if it happens to fall on a day you don't want it to go off on.
For example, if you have an alarm for a work meeting that happens every Thursday, naturally you want the events to only occur on workdays. Thus, you want to select one of the two “Only on workdays” options. Which one you select depends on how you handle meetings that fall on non-workdays (e.g., a holiday), such as a meeting that would be on Labor Day. If such meetings are canceled, select “Only on workdays (skip events on non-workdays; occur on the next event).” If such meetings are moved to the day after the non-workday, select “Only on workdays (occur on the next nearest workday).”
Finally, you can also restrict the alarms events to go off only within a certain time range. This can be useful if, for example, at home you have an alarm to remind you to take medicine every six hours, but you don't want the events to go off when you're away at work.
In the calendar control, select the 15th of the first month you want the alarm to go off.
To have this alarm go off every 15th, select the “Forever” radio button. To have this alarm go off only on the next five “15th”s, enter “5” in the “Repeat” field.
On the Advanced page, select the weekdays Monday and Wednesday to indicate that the alarm only goes off on Mondays and Wednesdays.
On the Repeat page, select a date on the calendar on or before the first time you want the alarm to go off.
Enter “2” and select “Weeks” in the drop-down list.
To have this alarm go off every Monday and Wednesday, select the “Forever” option. To have this alarm go off only during the next six weeks, enter “12” in the “Repeat” field. (Because six weeks, every other week, and two days per week equals 12 events.) You can also select “Until” and choose the last Wednesday on which you want the alarm to go off.
On the Advanced page, select the weekday Friday to indicate that the alarm only goes off on Friday.
On the Repeat page, select the 13th in the calendar.
Enter “1” and select “Months” in the drop-down list. Since you specified a weekday (in this case, Friday), the alarm will not actually go off in every month—because the 13th does not fall on Friday every month. You're specifying how often the alarm is to “try” to go off.
To have this alarm go off on every Friday the 13th, select the “Forever” radio button. To have this alarm go off ten times, enter “10” in the “Repeat” field.
On the Repeat page, select a date in the calendar on or before the first time you want the alarm to go off.
Enter “2” and select “Months” in the drop-down list.
Select the weekday Thursday on the Advanced page to indicate that the alarm only goes off on Thursday. Also, select the checkbox for the second week of the month.
On the Advanced page, select “Only on workdays (skip events on non-workdays; occur on the next event).”
On the Repeat page, select a date on the calendar on or before the first time you want the alarm to go off.
Enter “1” and select “Days” in the drop-down list.
Select the “Forever” option (unless you know when you're quitting your job).
Finally, on the Application page, you need to specify the address of the Web page in the “Open” field.