To create a new alarm, do one of the following. This displays the alarm edit dialog through which you configure the alarm.
Select ->.
from the context menu.
click on the system tray icon and chooseClick the
mouse button on the system tray icon.from the context menu.
click in the alarm list and chooseDouble click on empty space below the last entry in the alarm list.
Alternatively, you can create new alarms preconfigured from various sources:
To base your new alarm on an alarm template, follow the instructions in the Alarm templates section.
To base your new alarm on an existing one, highlight the existing alarm in the list and select ->. This opens the alarm edit dialog already filled in with a copy of the selected alarm's details.
To create a new alarm which displays an existing email message, drag the email from KMail onto KAlarm's main window or system tray icon. This opens the alarm edit dialog with the entire email message (including sender, recipient, etc.) as the alarm text.
To create a new email alarm to send a copy of an existing email message, drag the email from KMail onto KAlarm's main window or system tray icon. Then select the Email option. The alarm edit dialog is preset with the entire email message except sender.
Dragging any piece of text onto KAlarm's main window or system tray icon opens the alarm edit dialog and sets the alarm text.
To create a file display alarm, drag a file URL onto KAlarm's main window or system tray icon. This opens the alarm edit dialog and sets the file name.
You can automatically create birthday alarms for people in KAddressBook as described in Importing birthdays from KAddressBook.
To modify an existing pending alarm (expired alarms cannot be amended), do one of the following:
Double click on its entry in the alarm list.
Select it by clicking on its entry in the alarm list. Then choose ->.
from the context menu.
click on its entry in the alarm list and chooseThis displays the alarm edit dialog.
To delete existing alarms, do one of the following:
Select one or more alarms by clicking on their entries in the alarm list. Then choose ->.
from the context menu.
click on the desired entries in the alarm list and chooseWhen you delete an active alarm, it is stored as an expired alarm, provided that it has triggered at least once before being deleted, and provided that expired alarms are stored at all. (Use the Preferences dialog to control whether and for how long expired alarms are stored.) When you delete an expired alarm, or an active alarm which has not yet triggered, it is removed permanently.
You can reactivate a deleted alarm from the expired alarms list, provided that it has not yet expired. To do this, first display expired alarms, as described in Expired alarms. Then:
Select one or more appropriate expired alarms by clicking on their entries in the alarm list. Then choose ->.
from the context menu.
click on the desired entries in the expired alarm list and chooseSee Enabling and disabling alarms for how to enable and disable alarms, either individually or as a whole.
To view an existing alarm without the ability to modify it, do one of the following:
Select it by clicking on its entry in the alarm list. Then choose ->.
from the context menu.
click on its entry in the alarm list and chooseThis displays the alarm edit dialog in read-only mode.
See Alarm message window for how to acknowledge alarms.
If you frequently want to set up similar alarms, you can create an alarm template to avoid having to enter all the details from scratch each time. A template can contain all the details which an alarm can contain, apart from the start date.
As an example, you may regularly want to set an alarm to remind you about a television program whose time varies from week to week. The template would contain all the alarm details (message text, whether to play a sound, etc.) except for the time and date. Now, to create the alarm, all you need to do is open the alarm edit dialog with that template and then enter the time and date.
To create an alarm based on a template, open the alarm edit dialog preset with the template details:
Select the -> menu item, and then select the desired template.
from the context menu. Then select the desired template.
click on the system tray icon and chooseOpen the alarm edit dialog in the usual way, and click the button to select a template to preset the dialog with.
You can create, modify or delete templates using the Alarm Templates dialog, or you can create a new alarm template based on an existing alarm.
To create a new alarm template, do one of the following:
Display the Alarm Templates dialog by selecting the -> menu item, and click . This displays a blank template edit dialog.
Display the Alarm Templates dialog by selecting the -> menu item, select an existing template from the list and click . This opens the template edit dialog already filled in with a copy of the existing template's details.
Highlight an alarm in the alarm list and select ->. This opens the template edit dialog already filled in with a copy of the selected alarm's details.
To modify an existing template, display the Alarm Templates dialog by selecting the -> menu item and click . This displays the template edit dialog which is described below.
To delete existing templates, display the Alarm Templates dialog by selecting the -> menu item, select one or more templates and click . A confirmation prompt is issued to prevent accidental deletions.
The template edit dialog is similar to the alarm edit dialog. The following controls are different:
Enter the template's name in Template name. It is the template's name which is displayed in template selection lists, so it is best to choose a name which will remind you of its function. Each template's name must be unique.
In the Time group box, select one of:
Default time if you do not wish to specify any trigger time. Alarms based on this template will initially use the normal default trigger time for new alarms.
Time to enter a time when the alarm is to be triggered.
Any time to specify that the alarm should only have a date, not a time.
Time from now to enter how long (in hours and minutes) after the alarm is created, that it should be triggered.
In the Recurrence Rule group box in the Recurrence tab, no day or month need be selected for weekly or yearly recurrences, respectively.
You can import alarms from other calendar files into KAlarm, by ->. The import function scans the selected calendar file for events containing alarms, and copies them (with new unique IDs) into KAlarm's calendar. Events without alarms, and calendar entries other than events, are ignored.
If you import alarms from calendar files which were created by applications other than KAlarm, the alarms may be changed by the import process – even alarm times may change. This depends on the data storage conventions used by the other application, and is unavoidable if those conventions differ from what KAlarm expects. Always check imported alarms for unexpected changes, and adjust them as necessary.
You can set up display alarms for birthdays stored in KAddressBook, by ->. This displays a dialog which allows you to select which birthdays to create alarms for.
In the Alarm Text group box, you can set up the text to be displayed in the birthday alarm messages. The message text is created by combining the Prefix text followed by the person's name followed by the Suffix text. No spaces are added, so remember to include any necessary trailing space in Prefix and leading space in Suffix.
If you change the alarm text, the birthday selection list will be re-evaluated.
In the Select Birthdays list, select the birthdays which you want to create alarms for. Note that the list shows only those entries in KAddressBook which contain a birthday and which do not already have a birthday alarm in the format currently defined in the Alarm Text group box.
The remaining controls are the same as for Text alarms in the Alarm Edit dialog.
You can undo and redo the most recent changes which you have made during the current session of KAlarm. Most actions can be undone, including creation, edit and deletion of alarms and alarm templates, and reactivation of alarms. To prevent excessive resources being used by the undo history, the number of changes stored is limited to the last 12.
To undo the last change, select ->. To redo the last change which was undone, select ->.
To undo a change other than the last one, click on the button in the toolbar and hold the mouse button down. A list of actions will be displayed from which you can choose the one to undo. If you don't see the action which you are looking for, remember that you may need to undo more recent changes first, which the desired change depends on. For example, if you edited an alarm and then deleted it, you cannot undo the edit until you have first undone the deletion.
Redoing a change other than the last one can be done in a similar manner, using the toolbar button.
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