The Trove

So far we have French and German translations. However, as someone pointed out to me, there were some strings I forgot to include in the original post. The missing strings are:

There are no upcoming birthdays.
Plugin not found
Not in Dashboard
Before
After

I’ve updated the original post to reflect these changes for people who link directly to the post.

I try to make my software as universally usable as possible. In the case of GuitarChords, this is relatively easy because hey, music IS a universal language. However, in the case of UpcomingBirthdays, the translation becomes a bit more difficult. So I’d like to resolve this issue by adding localizations to the widget.

The only problem is that I’m an ignorant American who has no mastery of any language other than English (and even that’s pretty bad sometimes). So I need your help. Below I’m going to list all of the strings that need to be translated within the widget. If you send me a translation within the next 30 days, then I’ll include it in the next version of the widget. Also, if you have any cultural icons you think make more sense than the cake with candle, then send that along too and I’ll see what I can do.

Here are the strings. Whenver the strings contain [brackets] that implies there is a variable that gets inserted within the brackets.

UpcomingBirthdays
[NUMBER] days ago [NAME] turned [AGE]
Yesterday [NAME] turned [AGE]
TODAY [NAME] turns [AGE]
Tomorrow [NAME] turns [AGE]
In [NUMBER] days [NAME] turns [AGE]
Look [time period*] days in the future
Look [time period*] in the past
Font Size
Return to Birthdays
Help Page

* time periods - 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 1 week, 10 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 1 month

Send the translations to will at wubbahed dot com. Thanks.

**UPDATE**
I forgot to include some strings in my original post. Here they are:

There are no upcoming birthdays.
Plugin not found
Not in Dashboard
Before
After

We’ve got the kinks worked out of the system plus a few new features thrown in. Add it all up and you get UpcomingBirthdays 1.5.

New features in this release include:
- ability to use different time ranges for missed and upcoming birthdays
- adjustable font size for people who like large and small text
- resizable widget window
- new help page showing how to add birthdays to the widget

Bug fixes include:
- fixed a refresh bug so birthday listing will update each time Dashboard is opened
- fixed a timing bug that would cause birthdays to change at noon instead of midnight

What are you waiting for? Download away. It’s free.

As always, here’s the standard disclaimer:

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is required. If you’re using Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget’s icon in the Widget Bar to open it. If you’re using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget’s icon in the Widget Bar to open it.

The most common question I get about the UpcomingBirthdays widget is, “How do I add birthdays to the widget?”

UpcomingBirthdays exclusively pulls all of its birthdays from the Address Book built-in to OS X. If you’ve never entered a birthday into your Address Book, it’s a very simple thing to do.

First, launch Address Book and select the person whose birthday you’re going to enter. Next from the menu bar, select Card->Add Field->Birthday. Here’s a quick screen shot of that menu (click the image for a larger version).

Now type the birthdate into the Address Book. Be sure to include the year they were born so you’ll always know the person’s age. When you’re done, the birthday will always appear in the person’s AddressBook entry, like this example:

An added benefit of putting your birthdays into Address Book is that then you can automatically have them appear as a separate calendar within iCal. To do this, make sure you have the iCal version 2.0 or higher. Then, open up iCal’s Preferences, and select the box that says “Show Birthdays calendar”

Now all the birthdays in your Address Book will automatically appear in iCal.

In other news, I should have a new release of UpcomingBirthdays in the next few days with loads of new features and bug fixes. Check back soon for more details on that.