31 Using Time Management Tools

Displaying the Calendar

M-x calendar

By default, weeks start on Sunday. If you’d like them to start on Monday instead, type M-x set-variable calendar-week-start Enter 1 Enter. You enter the calendar again to have this take effect. If you’d like to have the calendar always start on Monday, add this line to your .emacs file:

(setq calendar-week-start-day 1)

If you’d like to see the calendar each time you start Emacs, you can add this line to your .emacs file:

(calendar)

Calendar movement commands

Keystrokes	Command name	Action
(none) Tools → Display Calendar	calendar	Display the calendar.
.Goto → Today	calendar-goto-today	Move to today’s date.
C-f	calendar-forward-day	Move forward a day.
C-b	calendar-backward-day	Move backward a day.
C-n	calendar-forward-week	Move forward a week.
C-p	calendar-backward-week	Move backward a week.
M-}	calendar-forward-month	Move forward one month.
M-{	calendar-backward-month	Move backward a month.
C-x ] Scroll → Forward 1 Year	calendar-forward-year	Move forward a year.
C-x [ Scroll → Backward 1 Year	calendar-backward-year	Move backward a year.
C-a Goto → Beginning of Week	calendar-beginning-of-week	Move to the beginning of the week.
C-e Goto → End of Week	calendar-end-of-week	Move to the end of the week.
M-a Goto → Beginning of Month	calendar-beginning-of-month	Move to the beginning of the month.
M-e Goto → End of Month	calendar-end-of-month	Move to the end of the month.
M-< Goto → Beginning of Year	calendar-beginning-of-year	Move to the beginning of the year.
M-> Goto → End of Year	calendar-end-of-year	Move to the end of the year.
g d Goto → Other Date	calendar-goto-date	Go to the specified date.
o	calendar-other-month	Put the specified month in the middle of the display.
C-x < Scroll → Forward 1 Month	scroll-calendar-left	Scroll forward one month.
C-x > Scroll → Backward 1 Month	scroll-calendar-right	Scroll backward one month.
C-v Scroll → Forward 3 Months	scroll-calendar-left-three-months	Scroll forward three months.
M-v Scroll → Forward 3 Months	scroll-calendar-right-three-months	Scroll backward three months.
Space	scroll-other-window	Scroll another window.

Displaying holidays

To display the holidays for the part of the calendar you are looking at, type a (for list-calendar-holidays) or select 3 Months from the Holidays menu.

want to see holidays surrounding the current month, type M-x holidays.

To see whether today is a holiday, type h or select One Day from the Holidays menu.

Typing x marks holidays in a special way; Typing u removes the marks.

We have taught you only the bare bones of the calendar commands. Emacs offers to tell you sunrise and sunset and phases of the moon. You can choose other calendars, like the Islamic calendar, the Hebrew calendar, the Mayan calendar, or even the French Revolutionary calendar. But we will leave these for you to explore.

Using the Diary

Creating a diary file

The file must be called diary and must exist in your home directory.The file must be called diary.

Here are a few lines from a diary file:

11/14 My birthday
July 17 2004 Company picnic
March 18 2004 Annual report due
January 8 2004 Hair appointment
&Saturday Tea with Queen Elizabeth
Friday Payday

If you don’t specify a year, Emacs assumes you want to mark that date every year, as in birthdays;

If you don’t specify a date but only the day of the week (as in tea with the queen on Saturday), Emacs displays the diary entry every Saturday;

Putting an ampersand (&) before an entry tells Emacs not to mark it on the calendar (you don’t want every Saturday marked, and you may not want everyone to know that you hang around with the royal family).

To specify European date format, add this line to your .emacs file:

(setq european-calendar-style 't)

Adding diary entries

If you want today’s diary entries to display automatically when you start Emacs, add this line to your .emacs file:

(diary)

To mark dates with diary entries in red, press m from the calendar. To remove the marks, press u. (This command removes highlighting for diary entries as well as for holidays.)

Table 5-5. Holiday and diary commands

Keystrokes	Command name	Action
p d	calendar-print-day-of-year	Display the day of the year this is (for example, Day 364 of 365).
p o	calendar-print-other-dates	Display information about this date for all calendars.
Space	scroll-other-window	Scroll the other window.
q	exit-calendar	Quit calendar.
a Holidays → For Window	list-calendar-holidays	Display holidays for calendar period shown.
h Holidays → For Cursor Date	calendar-cursor-holidays	In the minibuffer, display holiday information for the day the cursor is on.
x Holidays → Mark	mark-calendar-holidays	Display holidays in a different typeface, color, or with an asterisk beside them.
u Holidays → Unmark Calendar	calendar-unmark	Remove marks for holidays and diary entries (opposite ofx command).
i w Diary → Insert Weekly	insert-weekly-diary-entry	Add a weekly entry based on the day of the week.
i y Diary → Insert Yearly	insert-yearly-diary-entry	Add an annual entry.
i d Diary → Insert Daily	insert-diary-entry	Add an entry for a particular day.
i m Diary → Insert Monthly	insert-monthly-diary-entry	Add an entry for the day of the month.
i c Diary → Insert Cyclic	insert-cyclic-diary-entry	Add an entry to recur everyn days.
i a Diary → Insert Anniversary	insert-anniversary-diary-entry	Add an annual entry (the year is included for reference).
i b Diary → Insert Block	insert-block-diary-entry	Add a block entry.
m	mark-diary-entries	Display diary entries in a different typeface, color, or with a plus sign beside them.
d	view-diary-entries	Display diary entries for the current date.
s Diary → Show All	show-all-diary-entries	Displaydiary file.
M-=	calendar-count-days-region	Count the number of days in a region.
M Moon → Lunar Phases	calendar-phases-of-moon	Display phases of the moon for a three-month period.
S	calendar-sunrise-sunset	Given longitude and latitude, display sunrise and sunset times for the current date.
C-Space or C-@	calendar-set-mark	Mark regions by time rather than horizontally.