This is Info file calendar-info, produced by Makeinfo-1.43 from the input file calendar.texinfo.  File: calendar-info, Node: Top, Next: Calendar Motion, Prev: (dir), Up: (dir) Calendar Mode and the Diary =========================== Emacs provides all the usual functions of a calendar, with a diary of past or planned events. To see a three-month calendar centered around the current month, use the command `M-x calendar'. Emacs will display a window with the calendar, point will indicate the current date, and you will be in Calendar mode. * Menu: * Calendar Motion:: Moving through the calendar; selecting a date. * Scroll Calendar:: Bringing earlier or later months onto the screen. * Mark and Region:: Remembering dates, the mark ring. * Misc Calendar:: Moving to today's date, to a specified date. * Holidays:: Displaying dates of holidays. * Other Calendars:: Converting dates to other calendar systems. * Diary:: Displaying events from your diary. * Diary File:: Entering events in your diary. * Special Diary Entries:: Anniversaries, blocks of dates, cyclic entries, etc. * Customization:: Altering the behavior of the features above.  File: calendar-info, Node: Calendar Motion, Next: Scroll Calendar, Prev: Top, Up: Top Movement in the Calendar ------------------------ You can move through the calendar from the current date to other dates. If you move outside the three months originally displayed, the calendar display scrolls automatically through time. * Menu: * Calendar Unit Motion:: Moving by days, weeks, months, and years. * Beg or End Calendar Motion:: Moving to beg/end of weeks, months, and years. * Moving to Arbitrary Dates:: Moving to a specific date.  File: calendar-info, Node: Calendar Unit Motion, Next: Beg or End Calendar Motion, Prev: Calendar Motion, Up: Calendar Motion Motion by Integral Days, Weeks, Months, Years ............................................. The commands for movement in the calendar buffer parallel the commands for movement in text. You can move forward and backward by days, weeks, months, and years. `C-f' Move point one day forward (`calendar-forward-day'). `C-b' Move point one day backward (`calendar-backward-day'). `C-n' Move point one week forward (`calendar-forward-week'). `C-p' Move point one week backward (`calendar-backward-week'). `M-]' Move point one month forward (`calendar-forward-month'). `M-[' Move point one month backward (`calendar-backward-month'). `C-x ]' Move point one year forward (`calendar-forward-year'). `C-x [' Move point one year backward (`calendar-forward-year'). The day and week commands are natural analogues of the usual Emacs commands for moving by characters and by lines. Just as `C-n' usually moves to the same column in the following line, in Calendar mode it moves to the same day in the following week. And `C-p' moves to the same day in the previous week. The commands for motion by months and years work like those for weeks, but move a larger distance. The month commands `M-]' and `M-[' move forward or backward by an entire month's time. The year commands `C-x ]' and `C-x [' move forward or backward a whole year. The easiest way to remember these commands is to consider months and years analogous to paragraphs and pages of text, respectively. But the commands themselves are not quite analogous. The ordinary Emacs paragraph commands move to the beginning or end of a paragraph, whereas these month and year commands move by an entire month or an entire year, which usually involves skipping across the end of a month or year. Each of these commands accepts a numeric argument as repeat counts. For convenience, the digit keys and the minus sign are bound in Calendar mode so that it is unnecessary to type the `M-' prefix. For example, `100 C-f' will move point 100 days forward from its present location.  File: calendar-info, Node: Beg or End Calendar Motion, Next: Moving to Arbitrary Dates, Prev: Calendar Unit Motion, Up: Calendar Motion Beginning or End of Week, Month or Year ....................................... A week (or month, or year) is not just a quantity of days; we think of new weeks (months, years) as starting on particular days. So Calendar mode provides commands to move to the beginning or end of the week, month or year: `C-a' Move point to beginning of week (`calendar-beginning-of-week'). `C-e' Move point to end of week (`calendar-end-of-week'). `M-a' Move point to beginning of month (`calendar-beginning-of-month'). `M-e' Move point to end of month (`calendar-end-of-month'). `M-<' Move point to beginning of year (`calendar-beginning-of-year'). `M->' Move point to end of year (`calendar-end-of-year'). These commands also take numeric arguments as repeat counts, with the repeat count indicating how many weeks, months, or years to move backward or forward.  File: calendar-info, Node: Moving to Arbitrary Dates, Prev: Beg or End Calendar Motion, Up: Calendar Motion Arbitrary Dates ............... You can move to any arbitrary date: `g d' Move point to specified date (`calendar-goto-date'). This command prompts for a year, a month, and a day of the month and goes to that date. Because the calendar includes all dates from the beginning of the present era, you must enter the year in its entirety; that is, type `1990', not `90'.  File: calendar-info, Node: Scroll Calendar, Next: Mark and Region, Prev: Calendar Motion, Up: Top Scrolling the Calendar through Time ----------------------------------- The calendar display scrolls automatically through time when you move out of the visible portion. You can also scroll it manually. Imagine that the calendar window contains a long strip of paper with the months on it. Scrolling it means moving the strip so that new months become visible in the window. `C-x <' Scroll calendar display one month forward (`scroll-calendar-left'). `C-x >' Scroll calendar display one month backward (`scroll-calendar-right'). `C-v' Scroll calendar display three months forward (`scroll-calendar-left-three-months'). `M-v' Scroll calendar display three months backward (`scroll-calendar-right-three-months'). `o' Prompt for month and year and scroll calendar to that month (`calendar-other-month'). The most basic calendar scroll commands scroll by one month at a time. This means that there are two months of overlap between the display before the command and the display after. `C-x <' scrolls the calendar contents one month to the left; that is, it moves the display forward in time. `C-x >' scrolls the contents to the right, which moves backwards in time. The commands `C-v' and `M-v' scroll the calendar by an entire "screenful"--three months--in analogy with the usual meaning of these commands. `C-v' makes later dates visible and `M-v' makes earlier dates visible. These commands also take a numeric argument as a repeat count; in particular, since `C-u' (`universal-argument') multiplies the next command by four, typing `C-u C-v' scrolls the calendar forward by a year and typing `C-u M-v' scrolls the calendar backward by a year. Any of the special Calendar mode commands will scroll the calendar automatically as necessary to ensure that the date you have moved to is visible. You can scroll to an absolute date with `o' (`calendar-other-month'). This command prompts for a month and year, and centers the three-month around that month. You must enter the year in its entirety; that is, type `1990', not `90'.  File: calendar-info, Node: Mark and Region, Next: Misc Calendar, Prev: Scroll Calendar, Up: Top The Mark and the Region ----------------------- The concept of the mark applies to the calendar just as to any other buffer, but it marks a *date*, not a *position* in the buffer. The region consists of the days between the mark and point (including the starting and stopping dates). `C-SPC' Set the mark to today's date (`calendar-set-mark'). `C-@' The same. `C-x C-x' Interchange mark and point (`calendar-exchange-point-and-mark'). `M-=' Print the number of days in the current region (`calendar-count-days-region'). You set the mark in the calendar, as in any other buffer, by using `C-@' or `C-SPC' (`calendar-set-mark'). You return to the marked date with the command `C-x C-x' (`calendar-exchange-point-and-mark') which puts the mark where point was and point where mark was. The calendar will be scrolled as necessary, if the marked date was not visible on the screen. This does not change the extent of the region. To determine the number of days in the region, use `M-=' (`calendar-count-days-region'). The numbers of days printed will be *inclusive*, that is, will include the days specified by mark and point. The main use of the mark in the calendar is to remember dates that you may want to go back to. To make this feature more useful, the mark ring (*note The Mark Ring::.) operates exactly as in other buffers: Emacs remembers 16 previous locations of the mark. To return to a marked date, use `C-u C-SPC' (or `C-u C-@'); this is the command `calendar-set-mark' given a numeric argument. It moves point to where the mark was, restores the mark from the ring of former marks, and stores the (previous) point at the end of the mark ring. So, repeated use of this command moves point through all the old marks on the ring, one by one.  File: calendar-info, Node: Misc Calendar, Next: Holidays, Prev: Mark and Region, Up: Top Miscellaneous Calendar Commands ------------------------------- `c' Move point to today's date (`calendar-current-month'). `D' Display day-in-year (`cursor-to-calendar-day-of-year'). `?' Briefly describe calendar commands (`describe-calendar-mode'). `SPC' Scroll the next window (`scroll-other-window'). `C-c C-l' Regenerate the calendar window (`redraw-calendar'). `q' Exit from calendar (`exit-calendar'). You can always return to the current date with `c' (`calendar-current-month'). If you want to know how many days have elapsed since the start of the year, or the number of days remaining in the year, use the `D' command (`cursor-to-calendar-day-of-year'). This displays both of those numbers in the echo area. To display a brief description of the calendar commands, type `?' (`describe-calendar-mode'). For a fuller description, type `C-h m'. You can use `SPC' (`scroll-other-window') to scroll the other window. This is handy when you display a list of holidays or diary entries in another window. If the calendar window gets corrupted, type `C-c C-l' (`redraw-calendar') to redraw it as it was. To exit from the calendar, type `q' (`exit-calendar'). All buffers related to the calendar will be deleted and the window display will return to what it was when you entered the calendar.  File: calendar-info, Node: Holidays, Next: Other Calendars, Prev: Misc Calendar, Up: Top Holidays -------- The Emacs calendar knows about all major and many minor holidays. `h' Display holidays for the date indicated by point (`calendar-cursor-holidays'). `x' Mark holidays in the calendar window (`mark-calendar-holidays'). `u' Unmark calendar window (`calendar-unmark'). `a' List all holidays for the displayed three months in another window (`list-calendar-holidays'). `M-x holidays' List all holidays for three months around today's date in another window. To see if any holidays fall on a given date, position point on that date in the calendar window and use the `h' command. The holidays are usually listed in the echo area, but if there are too many to fit in one line, then they are displayed in a separate window. To find the distribution of holidays for a wider period, you can use the `x' command to mark all the days in the calendar display that have holidays. The mark appears as a `*' next to the date in the calendar. This command applies to the dates currently visible and new dates that become visible by scrolling new months onto the display. To erase these marks from the calendar, use `u', which also erases any diary marks (*note Diary::.); neither holidays nor diary entries will be marked on new dates that are scrolled into view. To get even more detailed information, use the `a' command, which displays a separate buffer containing a list of all holidays in the current three-month range. You can display the list of holidays for the current month and the preceding and succeeding months even if you don't have a calendar window. Use the command `M-x holidays'. The holidays known to Emacs include American holidays, as well as major Christian, Jewish, and Islamic holidays. The dates used by Emacs for holidays are based on *current practice*, not historical fact. Historically, for instance, the start of daylight savings time and even its existence have varied from year to year. However present American law mandates that daylight savings time begins on the first Sunday in April; this is the definition that Emacs uses, even though it will be wrong for some prior years. The religious holidays known to Emacs are usually limited to those commonly found in secular calendars. For a more extensive collection of religious holidays, you can set any (or all) of the variables `all-christian-calendar-holidays', `all-hebrew-calendar-holidays', or `all-islamic-calendar-holidays' to `t' in your `.emacs' file. You can easily customize the list of holidays to your own needs; to find out how, use `C-h v calendar-holidays RET' after entering the calendar.  File: calendar-info, Node: Other Calendars, Next: Diary, Prev: Holidays, Up: Top Our Calendar and Other Calendars -------------------------------- The Emacs calendar displayed is always the Gregorian calendar, sometimes called the "new style" calendar, which is used in most of the world today. However, this calendar did not exist before the sixteenth century and was not widely used before the eighteenth century; it did not fully displace the Julian calendar and gain universal acceptance until the early twentieth century. This poses a problem for the Emacs calendar: you can ask for the calendar of any month after January, 1 AD, but the calendar displayed will be the Gregorian, even for a date at which the Gregorian calendar did not exist! Emacs knows about several different calendars, though, not just the Gregorian calendar. The following commands describe the date indicated by point in various calendar notations: `C' Display ISO commercial calendar equivalent for selected day (`cursor-to-iso-calendar-date'). `J' Display Julian date for selected day (`cursor-to-julian-calendar-date'). `H' Display Hebrew date for selected day (`cursor-to-hebrew-calendar-date'). `I' Display Islamic date for selected day (`cursor-to-islamic-calendar-date'). `F' Display French Revolutionary date for selected day (`cursor-to-french-calendar-date'). You can find out the date on the ISO (International Standardization Organization) commercial calendar--used largely in Europe--with the `C' command. The ISO date equivalent to the date indicated by point will be displayed in the echo area. If you need to know the equivalent date on the Julian ("old style") calendar, use the `J' command. This will display in the echo area the Julian date for the day point is on. The Julian calendar is no longer in common use. If you want to know the equivalent date on the Hebrew (Jewish) calendar, use the `H' command; this will display in the echo area the Hebrew date for the day point is on. The Hebrew calendar is the one used to determine the dates of Jewish holidays. To find the equivalent date on the Islamic (Moslem) calendar, use the `I' command; this will display in the echo area the Islamic date for the day point is on. The Islamic calendar is the one used to determine the dates of Moslem holidays. Note that there is no universal agreement in the Islamic world about the calendar; Emacs uses a widely accepted version, but the precise dates of Islamic holidays often depend on proclamation by religious authorities, not on calculations. As a consequence, the actual dates of occurrence can vary slightly from the dates computed by Emacs. To find the equivalent date on the French Revolutionary calendar, use the `F' command; this will display in the echo area the French Revolutionary date for the day point is on. The French Revolutionary calendar is no longer in use. You can move to dates that you specify on the Commercial, Julian, Hebrew, or Islamic calendars: `g C' Move point to a date specified by the ISO commercial calendar (`calendar-goto-iso-date'). `g J' Move point to a date specified by the Julian calendar (`calendar-goto-julian-date'). `g H' Move point to a date specified by the Hebrew calendar (`calendar-goto-hebrew-date'). `g I' Move point to a date specified by the Islamic calendar (`calendar-goto-islamic-date'). These commands will ask you for a date on the other calendar, move the point to the date equivalent to that date, and display the other calendar's date in the echo area. One common question concerning the Hebrew calendar is the computation of the anniversary of a date of death, called a "yahrzeit." The Emacs calendar includes a facility for such calculations. If you are in the calendar, the command `M-x list-yahrzeit-dates' will ask you for a range of years and then display a list of the yahrzeit dates for those years for the date under the cursor.  File: calendar-info, Node: Diary, Next: Diary File, Prev: Other Calendars, Up: Top The Diary --------- Associated with the Emacs calendar is a diary that keeps track of appointments or other events on a daily basis. To use the diary feature, you must first create a "diary file" containing a list of events and their dates. Then Emacs can automatically pick out and display the events for today, for the immediate future, or for any specified date. `d' Display any diary entries for the selected date (`view-diary-entries'). `s' Display entire diary file (`show-all-diary-entries'). `m' Mark all visible dates that have diary entries (`mark-diary-entries'). `u' Unmark calendar window (`calendar-unmark'). `M-x print-diary-entries' Print a hard copy of the diary display as it appears. `M-x diary' Display any diary entries for today's date. Displaying the diary entries with `d' shows in a separate window the diary entries for the date indicated by the point in the calendar window. The mode line of the new window shows the date of the diary entries and any holidays that fall on that date. If you specify a numeric argument with `d', then all the diary entries for that many successive days are shown. Thus, `2 d' displays all the entries for the selected date and for the following day. To get a broader overview of which days are mentioned in the diary, use the `m' command to mark those days in the calendar window. The marks appear next to the dates to which they apply. The `m' command affects the dates currently visible and, if you scroll the calendar, newly visible dates as well. The `u' command deletes all diary marks (and all holiday marks too; *note Holidays::.), not only in the dates currently visible, but dates that become visible when you scroll the calendar. For more detailed information, use the `s' command, which displays the entire diary file. The diary file is displayed using selective display, the same mechanism used in Outline mode (*note Outline Mode::.). This means that diary entries that are not relevant are made invisible by changing the preceding newline into an ASCII control-m (code 015). These lines are invisible, but they are part of the file; when you save the diary, the control-m characters are saved as newlines so the invisible lines become ordinary lines in the file without changing their visibility status in Emacs. Because the diary buffer as you see it is an illusion, simply printing the contents will not print what you see on your screen. So there is a special command to print a hard copy of the buffer *as it appears*; this command is `M-x print-diary-entries'. It sends the data directly to the printer, and can be customized like `lpr-region' (*note Hardcopy::.). The command `M-x diary' displays the diary entries for the current date, independently of the calendar display. Entries for the next few days can be displayed as well; the number of days is governed by the variable `number-of-diary-entries' (*note Customizing Calendar::.). The function `diary' is suitable for use in your `.emacs' file to display automatically the day's diary entries when you enter Emacs. The mode line of the displayed window will show the date and any holidays that fall on that date. It is sufficient to put this expression in `.emacs': (diary)  File: calendar-info, Node: Diary File, Next: Special Diary Entries, Prev: Diary, Up: Top The Diary File -------------- Your "diary file" is a file that records events associated with particular dates. The name of the diary file is specified by the variable `diary-file'; `~/diary' is the default. You can use the same file for the `calendar' utility program since the formats are consistent. Each entry in the file describes one event and consists of one or more lines. It always begins with a date specification at the left margin. The rest of the entry is simply text to describe the event. If the entry has more than one line, then the lines after the first must begin with whitespace to indicate they continue a previous entry. Dates can be given numerically, as in `MONTH/DAY' or `MONTH/DAY/YEAR'. This must be followed by a nondigit. In the date itself, MONTH and DAY are numbers of one or two digits. YEAR is a number and may be abbreviated to the last two digits; that is, you can use `11/12/1989' or `11/12/89'. A date may be "generic", or partially unspecified. Then the entry applies to all dates that match the specification. If the date does not contain a year, it is generic and applies to any year. Alternatively, MONTH, DAY, or YEAR can be a `*'; this matches any month, day, or year, respectively. Thus, a diary entry `3/*/*' will match any day in March of any year. Dates can also have the form `MONTHNAME DAY' or `MONTHNAME DAY, YEAR', where the month's name can be spelled in full or abbreviated to three characters (with or without a period). Case is not significant. If the date does not contain a year, it is generic and applies to any year. Also, MONTHNAME, DAY, or YEAR can be a `*' which matches any month, day, or year, respectively. If you prefer the European style of writing dates--in which the day comes before the month--type `M-x european-calendar' while in the calendar or set the variable `european-calendar-style' to `t' in your `.emacs' file before the calendar or diary command. This causes all dates in the diary to be interpreted in the European manner, and any dates displayed on the terminal will be shown in the European form. (Note that there is no comma after the MONTHNAME in the European style.) To revert to the (default) American style of writing dates, type `M-x american-calendar' while in the calendar. Dates can also have the form DAYNAME. The day name can be spelled out in full (say, `Tuesday') or it can be abbreviated to three characters (with or without a period); it need not be capitalized. This form of date is generic and applies to any date on that day of the week. You may want entries that are not marked in the calendar window; this is especially true of DAYNAME style entries or entries such as `12/*', each of which causes many marks in the calendar. You can make diary entries nonmarking by preceding them with an ampersand (`&'). Such entries are not marked on dates in the calendar window, but will appear in a diary window. Lines that do not begin with valid dates and do not continue a preceding entry are ignored. Here are some sample diary entries: 12/22/1988 Twentieth wedding anniversary!! &1/1. Happy New Year! 10/22 Ruth's birthday. * 21, *: Payday Tuesday--weekly meeting with grad students at 10am Supowit, Shen, Bitner, and Kapoor to attend. 1/13/89 Friday the thirteenth!! &thu 4pm squash game with Lloyd. mar 16 Dad's birthday April 15, 1989 Income tax due. &* 15 time cards due. If the first line of a diary entry consists only of the date or day name with no following blanks or punctuation, then that line is not displayed in the diary window; only the continuation lines are shown. For example: 02/11/1989 Bill B. visits Princeton today 2pm Cognitive Studies Committee meeting 2:30-5:30 Liz at Lawrenceville 4:00pm Dentist appt 7:30pm Dinner at George's 8:00-10:00pm concert will appear in the diary window without the date line at the beginning. This facility allows the diary window to look neater when a single day's entries are displayed, but can cause confusion if you ask for more than one day's entries to be displayed. You can edit the diary entries as they appear in the window, but it is important to remember that the buffer displayed contains the *entire* diary file, with portions of it concealed from view. This means, for instance, that the `C-f' (`forward-char') command can put the cursor at what appears to be the end of the line, but what is in reality the middle of some concealed line. *Be careful when editing the diary entries!* Inserting additional lines or adding/deleting characters in the middle of a visible line will not cause problems; watch out for `C-e' (`end-of-line'), however; it may put you at the end of a concealed line far from where the cursor appears to be! Before editing the diary, it is best to display the entire file with `s' (`show-all-diary-entries'). While in the calendar, there are several commands to help you in making entries to your diary. `C-c d' Add a diary entry for the selected date (`insert-diary-entry'). `C-c w' Add a diary entry for the selected day of the week (`insert-weekly-diary-entry'). `C-c m' Add a diary entry for the selected day of the month (`insert-monthly-diary-entry'). `C-c y' Add a diary entry for the selected day of the year (`insert-yearly-diary-entry'). You can make a diary entry for a specific date by moving point to that date in the calendar window and using the `C-c d' command. This command causes the end of your diary file to be displayed in another window and the date to be inserted; you can then type the diary entry. If you want to make a diary entry that will apply to a specific day of the week, move point to that day of the week (any occurrence will do) and use the `C-c w' command. The end of your file will be displayed in another window and the name of the day of the week will be inserted; you can then type the diary entry. You make a monthly diary entry in the same fashion. Move point to the day of the month, use the `C-c m' command, and type the diary entry. Similarly, you make a yearly diary entry with the `C-c y' command. All of the above commands make marking diary entries. If you want the diary entry to be nonmarking, give a prefix argument to the command. For example, `C-u C-c w' will make a nonmarking, weekly diary entry. If you modify the diary, be sure to write the file before exiting from the calendar.  File: calendar-info, Node: Special Diary Entries, Next: Customization, Prev: Diary File, Up: Top Special Diary Entries (Sexps) ----------------------------- In addition to entries based on calendar dates, your diary file can contain entries based on expressions (sexps) to be evaluated as the diary file is scanned for entries for a given date. Such an entry is indicated by `%%' at the beginning (preceded by `&' for a nonmarking entry), followed by an sexp in parentheses. Here is such a diary entry that will apply to all dates from June 24, 1990 through July 10, 1990: %%(diary-block 6 24 1990 7 10 1990) Vacation The `6 24 1990' indicates the starting date and the `7 10 1990' indicates the stopping date. (If you are using the European calendar style, the months and days would be interchanged.) Or, as another example, here is a nonmarking diary entry that applies to the last Thursday in November: &%%(diary-float 11 4 -1) Payday In this last example, the `11' specifies November, the `4' specifies Thursday (the fourth day of the week, *counting Sunday as zero*), and the `-1' specifies "last" (`1' would mean "first", `2' would mean "second", `-2' would mean "second-to-last", and so on). The month can be a single month or a list of months. Thus you could change the `11' above to `'(1 2 3)' and have the entry apply to the last Thursday of January, February, and March. If the month is `t', the entry applies to all months of the year. Anniversaries of dates can be specifed in the diary with, for example, %%(diary-anniversary 10 31 1948) Arthur's birthday This entry will apply to October 31 in any year after 1948; `10 31 1948' specifies the date. (Again, if you are using the European calendar style, the month and day would be interchanged.) You can specify cyclic diary entries that repeat after a fixed interval of days. For example, %%(diary-cyclic 50 3 1 1990) Renew medication will apply to March 1, 1990 and every 50th day following; `3 1 1990' specifies the starting date. (Again, if you are using the European calendar style, the month and day would be interchanged.) There are Calendar mode commands to help you in making block and anniversary entries to your diary. `C-c a' Add an anniversary diary entry for the selected date (`insert-anniversary-diary-entry'). `C-c b' Add a block diary entry for the current region (`insert-block-diary-entry'). `C-c c' Add a cyclic diary entry starting at the date (`insert-cyclic-diary-entry'). If you want to make a diary entry that will apply to the anniversary of a specific date, move point to that date and use the `C-c a' command. The end of your diary file will be displayed in another window and the anniversary description will be inserted; you can then type the diary entry. You can make a diary entry entry for a block of dates by setting the mark at the date at one end of the block, moving point to the date at the other end of the block, and using the `C-c b' command. This command causes the end of your diary file to be displayed in another window and the block description to be inserted; you can then type the diary entry. If you want to make a cyclic diary entry that will apply to a specific date and every so many days afterward, move point to the starting date and use the `C-c c' command. You will be asked to type the interval, the end of your diary file will be displayed in another window, and the cyclic description will be inserted; you can then type the diary entry. All three of the these commands make marking diary entries. If you want the diary entry to be nonmarking, give a numeric argument to the command. For example, `C-u C-c a' will make a nonmarking anniversary diary entry. Marking sexp diary entries in the calendar is *extremely* time-consuming, since every date visible in the calendar window must be individually checked. So these diary entries are much better if they are nonmarking. The sexp feature of the diary allows you to specify diary entries based on any Emacs-Lisp expression. You can use a library of built-in functions or you can write your own functions. The built-in functions include `diary-block', `diary-float', `diary-anniversary', `diary-cyclic', and others (*note Fancy Diary Display::.). For more details on these functions and a description of how to write your own functions, use `C-h f list-sexp-diary-entries RET' after entering the diary.  File: calendar-info, Node: Customization, Prev: Special Diary Entries, Up: Top Customizing the Calendar and Diary ---------------------------------- There are many customizations that you can use to make the calendar and diary suit your personal tastes. * Menu: * Customizing Calendar:: Defaults you can set. * Customizing Diary:: Defaults you can set. * Hebrew/Islamic Entries:: How to obtain them. * Fancy Diary Display:: Enhancing the diary display, sorting entries. * Sharing Diary Files:: Including other files in the diary. * Sexp Diary Entries:: Fancy things you can do.  File: calendar-info, Node: Customizing Calendar, Next: Customizing Diary, Prev: Customization, Up: Customization Customizing the Calendar ........................ The variable `view-diary-entries-initially', whose default is `nil', can be set to to `t' to cause diary entries for the current date to be displayed in another window when the calendar is first displayed, if the current date is visible. If you add the lines (setq view-diary-entries-initially t) (calendar) to your `.emacs' file, then whenever you start the editor, you'll see the calendar and the diary windows. Similarly, if you set the variable `view-calendar-holidays-initially' to `t', it will cause the holidays for the current three month period will be displayed on entry to the calendar. The holidays are displayed in a separate window. Setting the variable `mark-diary-entries-in-calendar' to `t' causes any dates visible in the calendar window with diary entries to be marked with the symbol specified by the variable `diary-entry-marker', normally a plus sign (`+'). Whenever the calendar window is displayed or redisplayed, the diary entries will be automatically marked. Similarly, setting the variable `mark-holidays-in-calendar' to `t' causes any holidays visible in the calendar window to be marked with the symbol specified by the variable `calendar-holiday-marker', normally an asterisk (`*'). Whenever the calendar window is displayed or redisplayed, the holidays will be automatically marked. There are many customizations that you can make with the hooks provided. For example, the variable `initial-calendar-window-hook', whose default value is `nil', is a list of functions to be called when the calendar window is first opened. The functions invoked are called after the calendar window is opened, but once opened is never called again. Leaving the calendar with the `q' command and reentering it will cause these functions to be called again. The variable `today-visible-calendar-hook', whose default value is `nil', is the list of functions called after the calendar buffer has been prepared with the calendar when the current date is visible in the window. This hook can be used, for example, to replace today's date with asterisks; a function `calendar-star-date' is included for this purpose. To use it, you would execute this expression: (setq today-visible-calendar-hook 'calendar-star-date) This hook could also be used to mark the current date with an asterisk; a function is also provided for this, too: (setq today-visible-calendar-hook 'calendar-mark-today) There is a corresponding variable `today-invisible-calendar-hook', whose default value is `nil', is the list of functions called after the calendar buffer has been prepared with the calendar when the current date is *not* visible in the window.  File: calendar-info, Node: Customizing Diary, Next: Hebrew/Islamic Entries, Prev: Customizing Calendar, Up: Customization Customizing the Diary ..................... Ordinarily, the mode line of the diary buffer window will indicate any holidays that fall on the date of the diary entries. The process of checking for holidays takes several seconds, so the display of the diary buffer is delayed slightly because the holiday information is included. If you'd prefer to have a faster display of the diary buffer but without the holiday information, set the variable `holidays-in-diary-buffer' to `nil'. The variable `number-of-diary-entries' controls the number of days of diary entries that will be displayed initially (when `view-diary-entries-initially' is set to `t') or with the command `M-x diary'. For example, if the default value 1 is used, then only the current day's diary entries will be displayed. If the value 2 is used, both the current day's and the next day's entries will be displayed. The value can also be a vector of seven elements: if the value is `[0 2 2 2 2 4 1]' then no diary entries will be displayed on Sunday, the current date's and the next day's diary entries will be displayed Monday through Thursday, Friday through Monday's entries will be displayed on Friday, while on Saturday only that day's entries will be displayed. The variable `print-diary-entries-hook' is the list of functions called after a temporary buffer is prepared with the diary entries currently visible in the diary buffer. The default value of this hook adds a heading (composed from the diary buffer's mode line), does the printing with the command `lpr-buffer', and kills the temporary buffer. If you want to use a different command to do the printing, just change the value of this hook. Other uses might include, for example, rearranging the lines into order by day and time. You can customize the form of dates in your diary file if neither the standard American nor European styles suits your needs; to find out how, use `C-h v diary-date-forms RET' after entering the calendar. You can similarly customize the form in which dates are displayed in the diary, in mode lines, and in messages; use `C-h v calendar-date-display-form RET' after entering the calendar.  File: calendar-info, Node: Hebrew/Islamic Entries, Next: Fancy Diary Display, Prev: Customizing Diary, Up: Customization Hebrew- and Islamic-Date Diary Entries ...................................... Your diary file can have entries based on Hebrew or Islamic dates, as well as entries based on our usual Gregorian calendar. However, because the processing of such entries is time-consuming and most people don't need them, you must customize the processing of your diary file to specify that you want such entries recognized. If you want Hebrew-date diary entries, for example, you must include the lines (setq nongregorian-diary-listing-hook 'list-hebrew-diary-entries) (setq nongregorian-diary-marking-hook 'mark-hebrew-diary-entries) in your `.emacs' file. If you want Islamic-date entries, include the lines (setq nongregorian-diary-listing-hook 'list-islamic-diary-entries) (setq nongregorian-diary-marking-hook 'mark-islamic-diary-entries) If you want both Hebrew- and Islamic-date entries, include the lines (setq nongregorian-diary-listing-hook '(list-hebrew-diary-entries list-islamic-diary-entries)) (setq nongregorian-diary-marking-hook '(mark-hebrew-diary-entries mark-islamic-diary-entries)) Hebrew- and Islamic-date diary entries have the same formats as Gregorian-date diary entries, except that the date must be preceded with an `H' for Hebrew dates and an `I' for Islamic dates. Moreover, because the Hebrew and Islamic month names are not uniquely specified by the first three letters, they must be spelled out fully. For example, a diary entry for the Hebrew date Heshvan 25 could look like HHeshvan 25 Happy Hebrew birthday! and would appear in the diary for any date that corresponds to Heshvan 25 on the Hebrew calendar. Similarly, an Islamic-date diary entry might be IDhu al-Qada 25 Happy Islamic birthday! and would appear in the diary for any date that corresponds to Dhu al-Qada 25 on the Islamic calendar. As with Gregorian-date diary entries, Hebrew- and Islamic-date entries are nonmarking if they are preceded with an ampersand (`&'). There are commands to help you in making Hebrew- and Islamic-date entries to your diary: `C-c H d' Add a diary entry for the Hebrew date corresponding to the selected date (`insert-hebrew-diary-entry'). `C-c H m' Add a diary entry for the day of the Hebrew month corresponding to the selected date (`insert-monthly-hebrew-diary-entry'). `C-c H y' Add a diary entry for the day of the Hebrew year corresponding to the selected date (`insert-yearly-hebrew-diary-entry'). `C-c I d' Add a diary entry for the Islamic date corresponding to the selected date (`insert-islamic-diary-entry'). `C-c I m' Add a diary entry for the day of the Islamic month corresponding to the selected date (`insert-monthly-islamic-diary-entry'). `C-c I y' Add a diary entry for the day of the Islamic year corresponding to the selected date (`insert-yearly-islamic-diary-entry'). These commands work exactly like the corresponding commands for ordinary diary entries: Move point to a date in the calendar window and the above commands insert the Hebrew or Islamic date (corresponding to the date indicated by point) at the end of your diary file and you can then type the diary entry. If you want the diary entry to be nonmarking, give a numeric argument to the command.  File: calendar-info, Node: Fancy Diary Display, Next: Sharing Diary Files, Prev: Hebrew/Islamic Entries, Up: Customization Fancy Diary Display ................... After the diary buffer has been prepared, the functions specified by the variable `diary-display-hook' are called. The default value of this hook simply displays the diary file using selective display to conceal irrelevant diary entries. However, if you specify the hook as follows, (setq diary-display-hook 'fancy-diary-display) Emacs will prepare a noneditable buffer with a neatly organized day-by-day listing of relevant diary entries and known holidays. If you are using the fancy diary display, you get a hard copy of the buffer with `M-x lpr-buffer'; you should *not* use `M-x print-diary-entries'. Thus you can get a hard copy of a day-by-day diary for a week by positioning the point on Sunday of that week, using `7 d', switching to the fancy diary, and using `M-x lpr-buffer'. As in the standard diary buffer, the inclusion of the holidays slows down the display slightly; you can speed things up by setting the variable `holidays-in-diary-buffer' to `nil'. Ordinarily, the fancy diary buffer will not show days for which there are no diary entries, even if that day is a holiday. If you want such days to be shown in the fancy diary buffer, set the variable `diary-list-include-blanks' to `t'. If you use the fancy diary display, you can use the `list-diary-entries-hook' to sort each day's diary entries. Add the lines (setq list-diary-entries-hook '(lambda nil (setq diary-entries-list (sort diary-entries-list 'diary-entry-compare)))) to your `.emacs' file. For each day, diary entries that begin with a recognizable time of day will be sorted into order, preceded by any diary entries that do not begin with a time of day.  File: calendar-info, Node: Sharing Diary Files, Next: Sexp Diary Entries, Prev: Fancy Diary Display, Up: Customization Including Other Diary Files ........................... If you use the fancy diary display, you can have diary entries from other files included with your own by an "include" mechanism. This facility makes possible the sharing of common diary files among groups of users. Lines in the diary file of the form #include "FILENAME" cause the diary entries in the file FILENAME to included in the fancy diary buffer (because the ordinary diary buffer is just the buffer associated with your diary file, you cannot use the include mechanism unless you use the fancy diary buffer). The include mechanism is recursive, by the way, so that included files can cause other files to be included, and so on; you must be careful not to have a cycle of inclusions, of course. To obtain the include facility, add lines as follows: (setq list-diary-entries-hook 'include-other-diary-files) (setq mark-diary-entries-hook 'mark-included-diary-files) to your `.emacs' file. To have both included files *and* sorted diary entries, use the lines (setq list-diary-entries-hook '(include-other-diary-files (lambda nil (setq diary-entries-list (sort diary-entries-list 'diary-entry-compare))))) (setq mark-diary-entries-hook 'mark-included-diary-files)  File: calendar-info, Node: Sexp Diary Entries, Prev: Sharing Diary Files, Up: Customization Sexp Entries and the Fancy Diary Display ........................................ Sexp diary entries are especially powerful when the fancy diary display is used because the function called can generate the text of the entry depending on the date itself. For example, the anniversary diary entry described above (*note Special Diary Entries::.) can insert the number of years since the anniversary date into the text of the diary entry. Thus the dairy entry %%(diary-anniversary 10 31 1948) Arthur's birthday (%d years old) will have the `%d' replaced by the age, so on October 31, 1990 the entry will appear in the fancy diary buffer as Arthur's birthday (42 years old) If the diary file instead contains the entry %%(diary-anniversary 10 31 1948) Arthur's %d%s birthday the entry in the fancy diary buffer for October 31, 1990 will be Arthur's 42nd birthday Similarly, cyclic diary entries can interpolate the number of repetitions that have occurred: %%(diary-cyclic 50 1 1 1990) Renew medication (%d%s time) will cause the diary entry Renew medication (5th time) to appear in the fancy diary display on September 8, 1990. The following sexp diary entries take advantage of the ability (in the fancy diary display) to concoct diary entries based on the date: `%%(diary-day-of-year)' Make a diary entry with today's day number in the current year and the number of days remaining in the current year. `%%(diary-iso-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent ISO commercial date. `%%(diary-hebrew-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the Hebrew calendar. `%%(diary-islamic-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the Islamic calendar. `%%(diary-french-date)' Make a diary entry with today's equivalent date on the French Revolutionary calendar. Thus including the diary entry &%%(diary-hebrew-date) will cause every day's diary display to contain the equivalent date on the Hebrew calendar, if you are using the fancy diary display. (If you are not using the fancy diary display, you will simply see the line `&%%(diary-hebrew-date)' when your diary file is displayed with any day's diary entries.) There are a number of other available sexp diary entries that are important to those who follow the Hebrew calendar: `%%(diary-rosh-hodesh)' Make a diary entry that tells the occurrence and ritual announcement of each new Hebrew month. The diary entry will appear on the day before and the day(s) of Rosh Hodesh, as well as the Saturday before. `%%(diary-parasha)' Make a diary entry that tells the weekly synagogue scripture reading. `%%(diary-omer)' Make a diary entry that gives the omer count, when appropriate. `%%(diary-yahrzeit MONTH DAY YEAR) NAME' Make a diary entry marking the anniversary of a date of death. The date is the *Gregorian* (civil) date of death. The diary entry will appear on the proper Hebrew calendar anniversary and on the day before. (If the European style is used, the order of the parameters should be changed to `DAY', `MONTH', `YEAR'.)  Tag Table: Node: Top99 Node: Calendar Motion1241 Node: Calendar Unit Motion1797 Node: Beg or End Calendar Motion4024 Node: Moving to Arbitrary Dates5061 Node: Scroll Calendar5558 Node: Mark and Region7775 Node: Misc Calendar9683 Node: Holidays11138 Node: Other Calendars13913 Node: Diary17967 Node: Diary File21370 Node: Special Diary Entries28080 Node: Customization32583 Node: Customizing Calendar33191 Node: Customizing Diary36062 Node: Hebrew/Islamic Entries38367 Node: Fancy Diary Display41851 Node: Sharing Diary Files43740 Node: Sexp Diary Entries45194  End Tag Table