Chapter 3. Configuring KAlarm

To configure KAlarm's operation to suit your system and your personal preferences, select Settings->Configure KAlarm.... This displays the configuration dialog.

General

The General section lets you control KAlarm's overall behavior:

  • Run Mode group box: These options control KAlarm's system tray icon, and also allow some control over KAlarm's use of system resources by specifying whether or not to run it continuously. If system performance is of concern, running it on demand without displaying the system tray icon may be desirable; running it continuously in the system tray uses more system resources but gives the benefits of displaying an alarm-enabled indication and making the application more accessible. Running KAlarm on demand does not affect the execution of alarms, since it is the alarm daemon and not KAlarm which monitors the alarm list and triggers alarms.

    • Run continuously in system tray: KAlarm runs continuously and the system tray icon is always displayed while it is running. In this mode, closing the system tray icon closes all KAlarm main windows, and if no message windows are visible, quits the application. The options available in this mode are:

      • Autostart at login: This starts KAlarm at KDE session login, ensuring that KAlarm runs at all times unless you manually quit.

      • Disable alarms while not running: Selecting this option has the effect that alarms will be disabled whenever KAlarm's system tray icon is not visible.

        • Warn before quitting: When alarms are disabled while KAlarm is not running, selecting this option prompts you for confirmation if you attempt to terminate KAlarm using the system tray icon's Quit option. This prevents accidental disabling of alarms. For safety, this option is automatically re-enabled by default whenever you change run mode.

      In this mode, if no KDE system tray exists, KAlarm runs continuously in the background and alarms are always enabled.

    • Run only on demand: KAlarm is run only when an alarm is triggered, if you run it manually, or while its system tray icon is displayed. In this mode the system tray icon can still be displayed, but closing the system tray icon has no effect on any KAlarm windows.

      • Autostart system tray icon at login: This displays KAlarm's system tray icon at login. KAlarm will run until the system tray icon is closed.

  • Start of day for date-only alarms: Set the start-of-day time for the purposes of triggering date-only alarms, i.e. ones for which the Any time option was selected. On the date when they are due, such alarms will be output at the earliest opportunity during the 24 hours starting from the start-of-day time.

  • If you set up yearly recurrences for February 29th, specify how these are to be handled in non-leap years by selecting one of the following options:

    • February 28th: the alarm will occur on February 29th in leap years, and on February 28th in non-leap years.

    • March 1st: the alarm will occur on February 29th in leap years, and on March 1st in non-leap years.

    • Do not repeat: the alarm will occur on February 29th in leap years, but will be suppressed in non-leap years.

    Note

    Changing this option will not cause the next scheduled recurrence of any existing alarms to be re-evaluated. It will only affect new alarms, or existing alarms after they are next triggered.

  • Confirm alarm deletions: Specify whether you should be prompted for confirmation each time you delete an alarm.

  • Expired Alarms group box: These options control the storage of expired alarms.

    • Keep alarms after expiry: Select this option to store expired alarms. Deselect it to keep no record of alarms once they have expired.

    • Discard expired alarms after: Set the number of days to store expired alarms after their last activation.

    • Clear expired alarms: This button discards all currently stored expired alarms. This has no effect on alarms which subsequently expire; they will continue to be stored according to the selected options.