Exercise 1

The Calendar Wizard

Scripts and macros are little programs written to work inside another program.
Think of them as little and sometimes not so little plug-ins that let you do more
complicated things in an easier fashion. The Calendar wizard is a very complicated
script that guides you through the process of designing a calendar to print out. It is
very user friendly and you never have to see a single line of programming code.
Before you get started, open Corel !"# if it isn$t already and start with a new
%lank &etter or "' si(ed page in portrait orientation.
In Corel!"# versions )* and prior versions, go to Tools/Visual Basic. Choose Play
from the secondary menu.
In Corel!"# versions )', you+ll need to choose Tools/Macros/Run Macro to get to
the same place.
In the dialog %o, that comes up, click the drop down %o, %eside Macros in: Choose
CalendarWizard (CalendarWizard.gms) from the list.
"t the top of the dialog %o, you now see Wizard.CreaeCalendar.
-ake sure it is selected, then click the !un %utton.
The Calendar #i(ard opens as a dialog %o,.
epending on the version of Corel!"# you are using, you may see a slightly
di.erent version of the Calendar #i(ard. They are all capa%le of completing this
e,ercise. The Calendar ate starts %y default in /anuary of the current year.
" preview of the current settings appears at the top right. Click the 0,pand %utton
1ust %elow it and you get a nice large preview. It should look something like this2
3our 4rst 1o% is to choose the year for the calendar. If you want to run the calendar
%eyond a single year, you will need to run the wi(ard again for su%se5uent years.
6ick a year from the 3ear %o,. The current year is pro%a%ly already showing. This is
a very sophisticated program and you can get 5uite historical or plan #"3 into the
future if you wish.
7n the top left of the wi(ard window, choose if you want 1ust one month or check as
many particular months as you wish. If you want all 89, click the !ll %utton. If you
want to start over, click "one to clear all the check %o,es.
:e,t is a section la%eled Calendar #anguage. on$t let that la%el fool you. 3es, you
can choose whether your calendar will %e in 0nglish or one of the other languages in
the list. If your language isn$t in the list, click the :ew %utton and you can type in
the names of the months and days to suit yourself. This setting also afects the
available Holidays that the program knows a%out, so choose the closest one to
what you really want. :ote that there are several versions of 0nglish. These will
a.ect the availa%le automatic holidays. Screen shots in this lesson will use 0nglish
;<S"=.
"fter you set the language, you pick the day of the week you want your calendar to
start on. 3ou aren$t limited to 1ust Sunday or -onday. 6ick any day you want.
:ow click the >olidays %utton. <nless you live in Canada, the <?, or the <S", you$ll
4nd a scarcity of holidays already input for you. 0ven in the <S version, there are
only 4ve. >owever, you can add in any holidays you want.
Close that window when you$re done with it and look at the month you 1ust
modi4ed. ;3ou$ll have to have it checked in the upper left set of months, then use
the arrows to page through until you 4nd your month.= If you have the preview area
e,panded, you can pro%a%ly almost read the holidays and they$re pro%a%ly marked
in red.
That is, you can pro%a%ly read the holidays if you have the #ayou dropdown set to
Mon$: #arge. There is a wealth of other layouts to choose from. Take a look and see
what you see.
@or this e,ercise, choose Year: Image + 12 Small [Left/ight! from the #ayou
dropdown menu. In the preview you$ll see all twelve months arranged on two sides
of a single sheet of paper. 3our holidays are still marked as red, %ut there$s no
accompanying te,t. In this case, there+s no choice of month %ecause all twelve will
%e printed.
"t the %ottom of the main dialog %o, is a section with three ta%s. #hat you see on
these ta%s will depend in part on what layout you chose in the last step. ;If you
picked a &arge plus Small layout, you$ll see all 4ve possi%le ta%s.= The 6age &ayout
ta% allows you to ad1ust settings for the main page. The other two currently visi%le
set the formatting for the calendar headings and %ody te,t areas. These last two are
mostly, %ut not completely duplicated for large and small formats, the &arge ta%s
%eing availa%le when that layout is selected. There are more options on the large
format as you might e,pect.
The "age La#$%t Ta&:
If the checkmark %eside Creae Calendar in Curren %ocumen is checked, the
resulting calendar will %e placed into the page currently open on your !"#
workspace. If it is unchecked, you can set page si(e and orientation so that your
calendar goes on a %rand new page. If you resi(e the page, you can click the "d1ust
@onts %utton to have the wi(ard automatically resi(e the fonts to match the new
page si(e. "fter all, you don$t want large fonts on a wallet si(e calendar.
If you are using a printer that won$t print that close to the edge, you may need to
ad1ust the margins and click the "d1ust @onts %utton. If you normally use a
measuring system other than the units shown, you can change that as well in the
<nits drop down. 7nce you$ve 4nished formatting your calendar in the other two
ta%s ;see the ne,t two sections of the lesson=, come %ack here and you can save
your settings as a formatting style. Type a name for your style in the drop down %o,
and click the plus key to add it to the list.
The 'eader Ta&:
If you are using the Image A 89 Small ;&eftB!ight= layout, this ta% will read Small2
>eader. There is also a &arge2 >eader that appears if you are using one of the larger
calendar layouts. In this ta%, pick your fonts and colors for the month title and the
days header. "lso decide if you want %orders or %ackground colors on your headers.
There is a check%o, to show the year or not on each month of your calendar.
In the >eader section, decide where you want the days of the week to appear and
what form you want them to take. 7n a calendar as small as this, you$ll want a nice
clean sans serif font and pro%a%ly only the 4rst letter of the day. 7n larger
calendars, you can %e more choosey. "t the %ottom of the ta% is a place if you want
to highlight Sundays or not. This only a.ects the header for each month, not the
actual dates in the month. The actual dates are set in the ne,t ta%.
The ($d# Ta&:
The %ody ta% is considera%ly di.erent depending on whether you have chosen a
large or small month layout. In %oth formats, you get a choice of hori(ontal or
vertical layouts for the days of the month.
Below that, again choose the font, color and %ackground of the individual dates. 3ou
can add %orders and dividers and position the date anywhere you choose. 3ou get a
larger range of choices in the large month formats than in the small month formats
as you might e,pect.
The >ighlight choices are the same for large and small formats. 3ou already chose
whether to highlight Sundays in the >eader section, %ut that only applied to the
header. In this section you can actually highlight any day of the week you choose. If
something special happens every #ednesday that you want to remem%er, you can
choose to highlight that instead of Sunday. 3ou can also uncheck the %o, and not
highlight any particular day of the month. 3ou cannot highlight more than one day
of the week plus holidays from within the wi(ard.
)a*ing the Calendar
@eel free to e,periment with settings, %ut for the e,ercise you should use a full page
3ear2 Image A 89 Small C&eftB!ightD layout. #hen you have all the settings 1ust the
way you want them, click the Eenerate %utton. If all goes well, you should get a
dialog %o, with the words F@inished generating the calendar.F Click the 7? %utton.
The wi(ard won$t close, in case you want to create another page, %ut your calendar
so far has %een generated and placed onto your %lank page ;or pages in large
format= %ehind it. Close the wi(ard. Save your new calendar 4le now.
3ou will see that the Calendar #i(ard script has generated a calendar with your
speci4cations. 0ach of the month names and dates are individual te,t elements. If
you look in the 7%1ect -anager, you will see that each month is a group of o%1ects
and the group has %een named according to the month. If you were to create this
same calendar without a script, you would have to type in each month, set the
colors for special days, draw all the %o,es or gridsG and it would take a very long
time. #ith the wi(ard, it is done very 5uickly.
:otice also that there is a large %lank rectangle placed %etween the two columns of
months. This is a place holder for whatever image or te,t you wish to place there.
"%tting the +ra,hic in #$%r Calendar
Click on the gray rectangle to select it with the 6ick tool. Switch to the interactive
fountain 4ll tool and give your rectangle a nice linear gradient from %ottom left
corner to top right corner. 3ou pick the colors. The screen captures will start with a
%right yellow on top and go to a medium %lue on the %ottom.
Convert your rectangle to a %itmap BitmapsBConvert to Bitmap. Choose a 8HHdpi
resolution ;for the e,ercise. 3ou may want 9HHdpi to print.= and whatever color
mode matches the color space you are currently working in. Screen captures will %e
in !EB.
:ow go %ack to the menu %ar and choose BitmapsBCreativeBCrafts. 6ick the Eears
option from the Style dropdown and set the Si(e to the largest si(e ;pro%a%ly *I or
'H=. 7n the right, leave at the default of Complete28HH Brightness2JH !otation28KH.
If you want to play with some other settings you can do that and click 6review to
see what they do. 7? out of the dialog when you are done. :ow you$ve got a 5uickly
created %ut interesting graphic in %etween your calendar months instead of the ugly
gray rectangle.
3ou could also use that rectangle as a place holder for paragraph te,t or an
imported %itmap or create your own vector artwork to 4ll the spot.
@inish up %y drawing a rectangle around the whole calendar page. @ill it with either
the same fountain 4ll, no outline, or one of the main colors in the graphic. Send to
%ack. 3ou can either 4t this rectangle e,actly to the outside corners of the small
calendar months, to the printa%le portion of your page, or somewhere outside the
printa%le area and let your home printer cut it o. for you. ;If you want the color to
go completely from edge to edge of the paper, this is called a %leed and re5uires
special papers, printers, or a professional printer who will charge more for a %leed
print than for a standard print inside the page margins.=
Save your workL