![]() | The alarm edit dialog |
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The alarm edit dialog enables you to view and edit an alarm.
In the Action group box, select the type of alarm:
Text in order to enter an alarm message text (which may include newlines) in the edit box. Set the following options:
The Confirm acknowledgment checkbox lets you specify whether you will be prompted for confirmation when you close the alarm message window. This may be used as a safeguard against accidental acknowledgment of alarms.
Check Sound if you want an audible alarm to sound when the alarm message is displayed. By default a beep is sounded; use the button on the right to select an audio file to play. To revert to a beep, click the button again. To see what your current sound selection is, hover the mouse above the button until a tooltip appears.
If you have selected an audio file to play, there are further options to control the sound:
Check Repeat to continually repeat the audio file for as long as the alarm is displayed. (The alarm message window contains a button to stop playing the sound should you need silence but still want to display the alarm.)
Check Volume and adjust the slider control if you want to adjust the volume at which the audio file is played.
You can use the Try button to test out the resultant sound level.
Check Reminder if you want to display a reminder in advance of the main alarm and of each of its recurrences (if any). Enter how long in advance using the edit controls beside the checkbox.
If the alarm recurs, check Reminder for first recurrence only if you only want a reminder before the alarm's first recurrence. If this is not checked, the reminder period is limited to being less than the recurrence interval.
Select the background color for the alarm message window. (The color selection list can be configured in the Preferences dialog.)
Use the Font & Color... button to select a font, or foreground or background color, for the alarm message. In the Choose Alarm Font & Color dialog, check Use default font to display the message in whatever font is configured as the default at the time the message is displayed. (The default font can be set in the Preferences dialog.) To choose a specific font for the message, uncheck Use default font.
Use the Special Actions... button to specify shell commands to execute before or after displaying the alarm. In the Special Alarm Actions dialog:
In the Pre-alarm action field, enter a shell command to execute before the alarm is displayed. Note that KAlarm will wait for the command to complete before displaying the alarm.
In the Post-alarm action field, enter a shell command to execute when the alarm window is closed.
See the description of Command alarms below for details of how shell commands are executed.
Note that special actions are not executed if the alarm was displaying at the time you logged off and is then restored when you log in.
File to enter the name or URL of a text or image file whose contents are to be displayed in the alarm message. Use the button beside the edit box to display a file selection dialog. Set options as for text alarms above.
Command to enter a shell command line to execute. The command is passed straight to the default shell (defined by the SHELL environment variable), and may include whatever options, parameters, piped commands, etc. are permitted by the shell in a single line command.
This option is not available if KDE is running in kiosk mode.
Email to enter an email message to send. Fill in the recipients' addresses, the email subject line and the message body in the three edit fields. Use the button beside the addressee edit box to display your KDE address book from which you can select email recipients. Attachments may be added using the Add... button. Note that attached files must still exist when the alarm is triggered; no copy is stored at the time the alarm is configured. To remove an attachment, highlight it in the drop-down list and click the Remove button.
You can set your email address from which the email is sent, in the Preferences dialog, the default being your email address set in the KDE Control Center.
Set the following option:
Check Copy email to self to send a blind copy of the email to yourself when the alarm is triggered. The email address to which the copy will be sent may be set in the Preferences dialog, the default being your email address set in the KDE Control Center.
If the alarm is a recurring alarm and it was deferred after it was last displayed, the Deferred Alarm group box shows the time the alarm was deferred to. Change... displays a dialog which allows you to change the deferred time or to cancel the deferral.
In the Time group box, select either
At date/time to enter the date and time when the alarm is to be triggered. Check Any time if you want to specify only a date for the alarm: in this case the alarm will be displayed at the first opportunity on or after the configured start-of-day time, on the specified date. (Configuring KAlarm describes how to set the start-of-day time.)
For a non-recurring alarm, the date/time which you enter must be in the future, or if you enter only a date it must be today or later. For a recurring alarm, there are no such restrictions since the start date/time will be automatically adjusted to the first recurrence due after the current time.
Time from now to enter how long after now (in hours and minutes) the alarm should be triggered.
The alarm's basic repetition characteristic is displayed for convenience in the Alarm tab. Specify whether or how the alarm should be repeated in the Recurrence tab:
In the Recurrence Rule group box, set the recurrence type or time period as follows:
To trigger the alarm once only, select No recurrence.
Select At login to trigger the alarm whenever you log in, until its scheduled end time. Then, at its scheduled end time it will finally be triggered one last time. (Note that an alarm repeated at login will also be triggered any time you enable alarms, or restart or reset the alarm daemon.)
To make the alarm recur at regular intervals, select one of the time period types and then enter in the Recur every box how many time periods should elapse between recurrences. For example, to repeat every fortnight, you could select Daily and enter a value of 14, or select Weekly and enter a value of 2. Depending on the time period type selected, you may have further options:
For a weekly recurrence, check each day in the week on which you wish to trigger the alarm.
For a monthly recurrence, you may select either a fixed date, or a position (e.g. the second Tuesday).
For a yearly recurrence, you may select either a fixed day in the month, or a position in a month (e.g. the last Saturday in May). Check each month of the year in which you wish to trigger the alarm.
To set a daily alarm to occur only on weekdays, use a weekly recurrence and check each weekday.
In the Recurrence End group box, set the overall recurrence time span as follows:
Select No end to continue the repetitions indefinitely.
Select End after to specify the total number of occurrences of the alarm.
Select End by to specify the date/time until which the alarm will be repeated.
If you wish to exclude certain date/times from the recurrence which you have set up, specify them in the Exceptions group box. The list of exceptions (i.e. excluded date/times) is shown on the left. To add a new exception, enter a date on the right and press Add. To change an exception, highlight it in the list, enter the new date on the right and press Change. To delete an exception, highlight it in the list and press Delete.
The Cancel if late checkbox determines what happens if the alarm cannot be triggered at its scheduled time. Check this box to cancel the alarm if it cannot be triggered within one minute after the right time. Leave the box unchecked to trigger the alarm at the first opportunity starting at the scheduled time. Date-only alarms, i.e. ones for which the Any time option is selected, will be canceled if they cannot be displayed within 24 hours of the start-of-day time on the date scheduled.
An alarm can only be triggered while you are logged in, and while both X and the alarm daemon are running.
Press the Load Template button to select a template to preset the dialog with, as described in Creating and manipulating alarms.
Press the Try button to test the alarm and check whether it works correctly. The alarm is executed just as if it had been scheduled in the normal way.
Press the OK button when all details are correct, to add the alarm to the scheduled list.
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