About Alarms

Vector Clock Pro allows you to define and use unlimited amount of alarms. Alarms can be a very simple ones or more customized with various recurrencies, alerts, reminders, attached actions and animations.

To add an alarm (simply), right click on clock and choose Add Alarm [1]. Then specify the alarm time and date [3] and press Add button [4]. You can optionally enter the text to show around the clock [2] when alarm rings.

That's it. Done.

Alarm Test

Click on the Test Button [Test] to instantly see, what will the alarm do when it will ring. You can stop the alarm test by clicking on (!) stop or (x) close button on the clock.

Alarm Types

Vector Clock Pro offers 8 built-in types of alarms. The purpose is to make it easy by offering just those input fields which are closely related to the type of alarm you need to use.

To use quickly another type of alarm, click on the dropdown menu [5] under the Alarm Text input field and choose the one you need. Each type will slightly modify the look of the Add Alarm dialog.

Note: You can find the more detailed explanation of individual types of alarms in subsequent help topics.

Now we will continue here with description of those parts, that are common for all types of alarms.

Advanced Options

By default, the Add Alarm dialog offers only the most basic input fields needed to quickly add an alarm (of some type). On Alarm Tab, there is also one checkbox labeled Advanced Options. By enabling this checkbox [6], a few more tabs will appear which will allow you to specify your alarm in more detail if needed.

Alarm Save / Load

The rest of the toolbar with "Advanced Options" checkbox - contains functions for storing and restoring a complete alarm definitions. This is useful for quick access to custom predefined types of alarms or can be also used for alarms definition interchange (eg. save alarm definition and send it to your friend through email).

Alarms are being stored in single files with *.ClockAlarm extension. If you assign sound, image, different alarm clock skin or alarm animation - all those resources will be saved into the alarm file, so when you transfer alarm file into another computer with Vector Clock Pro, the alarm will work with all additions as on the original computer.

[7] Load Alarm - Open saved alarm from *.ClockAlarm file.

[8] Save Alarm - Save current alarm definition to *.ClockAlarm file.

Alarm Profiles

If you use to repeatedly adding the same types of alarms, you may find the profiles functionality very handy as it allows you to quickly recall exactly what you need.

Firstly, you need to create alarm profiles you will be using. To do that, configure your alarm that will serve as a template and click on the Add Alarm Profile [9] icon. Name your profile and click on Add Profile [12].

Now your new profile alarm is listed in the dropdown list with profile alarms [11].

If you later need to modify certain alarm profile, choose it from the dropdown list, make modifications and then choose the same profile from dropdown list again. You can also rename the profile and by clicking on the Modify Button [13] changes to the original profile will apply.

To delete profile, click on the Delete Icon [10] and confirm with Yes.

Note: When you choose some alarm profile from the dropdown list [11], it will remain as the preselected one also the next time you invoke the Add Alarm window. In other words, if you need to have certain alarm with specific options preselected as the default - add it as a profile and select that profile.

Due List Tab

Click on Due List Tab to see when exactly the alarm and alerts are scheduled to be due.

Due entries are sorted by time from older to newer. Position in list is placed to the nearest due alarm.

On this Tab, you can define - that alarm is in different Time Zone [14]. It means, the original due time/date you have entered on Alarm Tab, is considered as a time of different time zone and the clock automatically computes the corresponding local time due time.

To set alarm to different time zone, check on This Alarm is in a Different Time Zone [14] check box and choose from the dropdown list [15] - which Time Zone it is. Additionally, you can assign custom label to the selected time zone - in label input box [16] (type in and press enter).

Sound Tab

Here you can specify, what sound or music will play when alarm, alert or reminder will be due.

To keep the alarm silent, choose the "No Sound" [17] option.

Most of the clock skins have default embedded sound, so choosing the "Sound Embedded in Clock Skin" [18] option will cause to play sound dependent on the clock skin at the due time.

Last option is to specify your own sound file [19]. Supported are WAV, MP3 and MID (midi) formats. Use the Browse for sound file [21] button to locate the sound or music file on your computer.

If you intend to save alarm for interchange or just want to be sure, the sound will be available at the alarm due time, you can Embedd [22] the sound file into the alarm itself. Embedded sound files can be then saved back to your local computer.

Use the Loop Sound [23] option to let the sound play continually until you stop the alarm. You can optionally specify the amount of loops [24] & [25] or loops by hour [26] - which will loop the sound as many times, as will be the hour at the due time. The "Loops by Hour" [26] option is supposed to allow you to create a cuckoo-like alarm.

If you don't want to stop the sound when you stop the alarm (eg. to let the song to play to the end), check on the "Keep sound playing after stopping Alarm" [27] option.

Use System Play [28] option is special type of sound play, which is recommended to be used when you want to frequently play a short sound. The example for using this is creating a two seconds periodic alarm for emulating the tick-tack sound, where on the first second the "tick sound" will play and "tack sound" will play on the second second. For such a purpose, this option will play the sounds more efficiently than the otherwise threaded sound play option. ("Use System Play" can be used only with files in WAV format.)

Use different Sounds for Alert, Alarm and Snooze / Reminder [29] - can be used to specify a different sound configuration for different events of Alarm, where Alert announces upcoming Alarm and Snooze or Reminder repeats Alarm. When you enable this option, you can choose from top right dropdown list [30] - to which of possible events the whole sound configuration relates to.

+/- (Plus/Minus) Tab

On this tab you can further specify, what events occur before and after the alarm. Tha's why it is called +/-.

Alert is notification about upcoming Alarm.

Snooze is quick postponement of Alarm to repeat later - performed by clicking on the (!) stop button when alarm rings.

Reminder is dialog based postponement of Alarm to repeat later - performed by clicking on the repeat button when alarm rings, and choosing the repeat interval.

Check on the Alert Before Alarm [31] to get notification about upcoming alarm. With [32] input box you can define the amount of time before and [33] slider lets you change the time units. You can also specify the color of Alert notification popup window with [34] color chooser.

Alarm Duration [35], when enabled - lets you define, how long [36] & [37] the alarm animation will last. Alarm animation can be either text rotating around the clock or custom selected clock animation. When Alarm Duration is disabled - alarm animates until you click on the (!) Stop Alarm or (x) Close button.

Default Alarm Snooze for (!) button [40] is usable, when you forwardly expect to continuously postpone the alarm - such as waking up in morning. The snooze function then works by clicking on the (!) stop alarm button, when alarm rings. This is a quick one-click function, that repeats the alarm again later - after defined time value [40] & [41] and in maximum of defined repetitions [41] & [42] - or undefinitely (until the alarm is being stopped with the (x) close button).

Allow Alarm Reminder [43] - enables or disables the use of Reminder Me Later button, which is located left to the (!) stop alarm button when alarm rings.

Action Tab

Actions are various tasks triggered by alarm. Attaching an action to the alarm is useful when you want the alarm to do something more, that just ring and show text. For example, you migh want to run some application, or open some web page at certain time and date - and that's what Actions can provide.

Click on the Add [44] button to see, what kind of actions you can define. Choose the one you need and left click to add it to the list of actions [49], that will run when alarm will be due.

A configuration of currently selected action is displayed on the rigth side of Action Tab [45].

The order of actions in list [49] is the order in which particular actions will be run. You can change this order by using the Up and Down [48] reorder icons.

By clicking on the Test Action [47] button, the currently selected action will be executed, so you can see how it will perform at the due time.

You can remove currently selected action by clicking on the Remove [46] button.

Detailed description of individual action types follows:

Run Application

Specify a name of executable [50] and optionally, a list of parameters [52] to pass to the application. For example you might define some audio player application and sound file it has to play. The type of application or its parameters is not limited. You can browse [51] for the executable on your computer. Similarly, you can browse for the parameters with the "+" [52] button, which will add browsed file(s) to the parameters input box.

Choosing App by random [54] can be used when there is more similar applications and selecting one of them by random is desirable. For example, you might want to run a random screen saver or game. When used, clock looks for a list of all applications to choose from in the same folder as the primary application defined in Application [50] input box.

Open Document or Show Image

This action runs any file on your computer with default application associated to that particuar type of file. Thus, it can not only Open Document or Show Image, but do virtually anything such as Play Music file, Play Video file or anything other.

Enter the name of file to open or show in [55] input box. File needs to be entered with directory path of its location, so the browse for file [56] might come handy.

Choosing file by random [57] can be used to play or open random file. When used, clock looks for a list of files of same type, as the primary [55] file - to choose randomly from.

Open WebPage

Enter the URL address of the web page to open [58]. URL must begin with the "http://...".

Power Action

Choose one of the options.

Note: Power Off, Log Off, Reboot, Sleep and Hibernate will be performed also when testing. When testing, clock will ask you firstly, if you really want to do that because the appropriate action will be done (eg. your computer shuts down).

Show Message

Enter the custom text to be displayed. You can copy and paste text from other applications.

You can set fixed position and size of message on the screen. To do that, run the Show Message test by clicking on the Test Action [47] button, then position and size the window, check on the "Save Window Position and Size" [59] checkbox and close the test message window.

Skin Tab

On this tab, you can change the visual appearance of the alarm when it rings. You can either use different clock skin during the alarm, or theme oriented alarm animation.

Click on the Load Skin [64] button to change the visual appearance of the alarm. A window with clock skins [70] and alarm animations [71] will show. To select clock skin or animation, double click on it or click on "Use Selected Skin" button.

Options [60] and [61] switch between using custom clock skin/animation and clock currently used skin, when alarm is due.

Use the delete skin [65] button, if you loaded skin previously but definitelly don't want to use it. Custom alarm skins takes additional memory space, so it's better not to store it in alarm when not wanting to use it.

Clock Reposition during the Alarm

Another possibility how to make an alarm more noticeable, is to reposition and resize the clock during the alarm.

To do that, check on the Clock Reposition [62] checkbox and click on the Set Position [63] button. A copy of currently configured clock skin will appear. Move and resize the skin copy to the position and size you wish to appear during the alarm. When done, click on the (x) close button on the skin.

Custom Image on Clock during the Alarm

You can personalize the alarm by putting in an image of your choice. Check on the Use custom image on clock [66] checkbox and click on the Load Image [69] button to browse for an image in your computer. Optionally, you can select a smaller detail from the image by using the Crop Image [67] function.

Use the delete image [68] button, if you loaded image previously but definitelly don't want to use it. Custom images takes additional memory space, so it's better not to store it in alarm when not wanting to use it.

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One Time Alarm or Countdown