MacCharlie Brown?



Author: Nancy Akana (with thanks to Lynn Hunsinger)

Date: January, 1994

Keywords: Charlie Brown Individual Software calendar program review
application

Text:
Need help keeping your calendar events straight, or just in keeping
short notes on those special, ''to do,'' items?  Now, Charlie Brown and
the gang are available to give you a hand.  Yes,  What are you doing
today, Charlie Brown?  is a calendar  program, that gives you a new
Charlie Brown cartoon each day.  It allows you to use icons to mark
appointments and special occasions, in  your own personal calendar. 
You are free to move throughout the calendar, to add or delete items,
review, or simply browse.  The calendars can be daily, weekly, monthly,
or yearly.   There is also a function which allows you to sort dates by
types of activities or situations, such as all meetings, all birthdays,
all holidays, etc. 
          The above information can be printed out in various forms,
such as in calendar format, or lists of appointments or activities. It
even has an alarm, which you can program, to remind you of special
events. 
          WAWDT, Charlie Brown? comes shrink wrapped in a nice
cardboard box with a very colorful slip jacket.  The package contains
five disks and a printed manual with cute illustrations. There is a
''Help'' section in the program, itself, but there is no balloon help. 
Individual Software maintains an 800 number to answer questions or give
help. 
          The Program requires a Mac SE or higher using System ''6, 7
or higher'' with at least 3.5 megs available on the hard drive.  Basic
installation takes 3.5 meg., but to save data uses up memory quickly,
because of graphics.  A color monitor is suggested, but WAWDT, Charlie
Brown? will work on B&W.  If you are using System 6, MultiFinder is
recommended.  It also recognizes a color printer if you have one. 
          Installation was very simple.  Detailed, step-by-step
instructions were found in the manual.  You simply create a folder and
drag the icons to it.  The five disks  installed in about five minutes.
               I am using a Mac IIsi 5-80, with System 7.1 and a color
monitor. 
          WAWDT, Charlie Brown? comes up quickly, and is easy to use. 
The cute graphics and screen layout are great.  It provides a new
cartoon for each day of the year, although they are not always
appropriate for the time of year.  These can be used year after year,
if you reinstall the program each year.  Or, you can purchase other
cartoon volumes.  Volumes 2, 3, and 4 are now available at $19.95 each
plus shipping and handling. 
          However, I was disappointed on several points: 
     * There are some definite problems with the alarm.  An alarm
system ought to work at all times, not just when the program is
running.  We found that, if you are using another program, the alarm
wouldn't sound, even if WAWDT, Charlie Brown? was running in the
background.  The alarm does work, and is actually very cute, if you are
working within the calendar program itself. 
     * We found it cumbersome to (1) be specific about events, or (2)
to retrieve our information, once entered.  (1) You could change the
label associated with an icon to fit the specific activity, but in
doing so, it changes all the previously set labels for that icon.  For
example, you might have a piano lesson on Tuesday.  For this you would
set the musical notes icon to say, ''Piano Lesson.''  Then on Thursday,
you have choir practice.  Ideally, you would label the musical notes
icon to say, ''Choir.''  In WAWDT, Charlie Brown?, if you do this, you
now have choir on Tuesday and Thursday, with no mention of piano
lessons anywhere.  (2) Personal notes on things do like, ''Take the dog
to the vet,'' are not displayed on the visual calendar.  You have to
access the daily calendar display, and then you have to click on that
day to see it.  The monthly calendar only lists, ''events,'' as E and,
''things to do,'' as T.  For example, two events would show only as E2,
not as ''Paris for dinner,'' and, ''Buy Brooklyn Bridge.'' The weekly
calendar, would display these same events as Travel and Financial.  And
a printed monthly calendar does not display them at all.  An additional
flaw in the printed monthly calendar was that although it printed the
large monthly calendar with the legal holidays, a nice cartoon, and two
small calendars, at the top (which are normally the previous and the
next month), the previous month was not shown.  Instead, it printed a
small version of itself.  For example, if you printed out a calendar
for November, the top left would also show a small calendar for
November, instead of for October. 
          When  offered What are you doing today, Charlie Brown? I was
excited when I thought about the possibilities this program would offer
in planning schedules for use in the classroom.  I thought it would
show all of the wonderful activities in a fun format for the students. 
Unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations, and I doubt that I will
use it in this manner; since I need the calendar to print the actual
information for the kids.  I am not sure how much I will use it,
because I am not one who greets my computer the first thing in the
morning.  This would be the ideal way to use WAWDT, Charlie Brown? 
          In Short:
          Name: What are you doing today, Charlie Brown? 
          Retail: $69.95 MacWarehouse: $45.00 
          Company name: Individual Software Inc. 
          Company address: 5870 Stoneridge Drive, #1 Pleasanton, CA  
94588-9900 
          Phone number: (800) 331-3313 or (510) 734-6767
     

Copyright © january, 1994 by Nancy Akana (with thanks to Lynn Hunsinger)