Rainlendar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I display multiple calendars at the same time?

Calendar windows: The skins includes windows that can display the whole year (Year Calendar) and any number of months you want (Grid Calendar). You can enable them like this:

Go to Options->Skins and click the "Advanced >>>" button
Open the tree control and select the window from the list
Click the arrow button to move the window from the available side to the active side

If you want more freedom you can just move as many calendar windows to the active side as you like. Note that you need to go to the skin window's settings and change the "Visible month" variable to match the month you want to see in the calendar (+1 = next month, -1 is previous month, ...). Otherwise all the calendars will show the current month.

Calendar files: There is no limit how many calendars you can show in the same window. You can create new calendar files in Options->Calendars. The same window can show calendars from different sources (e.g. Outlook and Google calendar). Note that Rainlendar does not synchronize the different calendars but keeps them as separate so the events in your Outlook calendar don't get mixed with your Google calendar.

You can also limit the visibility of the calendars to certain windows. If you have e.g. two month windows enabled you can display one calendar in one of them and another calendar in the other window. The option is available from here:

Right click on the calendar and choose Windows->Calendar.1->More Settings...
Set the calendar you want to shown in the window in the "Included calendars" field
Do the same with the other window but now choose another calendar as "Included calendars"

Where is all the data stored?

By default the settings file (rainlendar2.ini) and the events/tasks (Default.ics) are stored in a folder called .rainlendar2 inside your home folder. The location depends on your operating system.

Windows:

C:\Users\[yourname]\.rainlendar2\

C:\Users\[yourname]\.config\.rainlendar2\

Linux:

~/.rainlendar2

 ~/.config/.rainlendar2

Mac OS X:

~/.rainlendar2

~/.config/.rainlendar2

The ~ means your home folder.

Note that the .rainlendar2 folder on Mac and Linux is a hidden so you need to show the hidden files before you can browse into it (On Mac you can also enter path to the "Go to folder" dialog to open the folder).

If you are making manual changes to the rainlendar2.ini file, make sure Rainlendar isn't running when you do that or your changes might get overwritten. If you are not able to quit Rainlendar normally for some reason you can use your operating system's task manager to kill the process.

You can change the location of the ics-file where the events and tasks are stored from Options->Calendars.

If you want to store the settings somewhere else you can start Rainlendar2 with -c [path] command line parameter (the [path] defines the path to the settings).

You can also move the rainlendar2.ini file to the same folder where the executable is located. This makes Rainlendar to use its own folder to store all the settings which is useful e.g. if you have installed the application to a USB memory.

Where is Rainlendar's log file?

The log file (rainlendar2.log) is located in the same folder as the settings (see the above FAQ item). If you did a portable installation the log will be written in the installation folder. You can get more logging information if you give "--debug" command line argument for the application. On Windows the debugging can be also enabled by starting Rainlendar from the "Debug Rainlendar" shortcut on the Rainlendar's program folder.

On Mac you need to start the application from the Terminal like this:

/Applications/Rainlendar2-Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Rainlendar2-Pro --debug

When Rainlendar is running in debug mode the context menu contains new item called "Show debug log" which will open the log in your default text editor. If you are sending the log to the Rainlendar's support you should always have the debugging enabled. Note that the debug log can contain your private data so read it through (and censor it if necessary) before posting it to a public location. The log file will be overwritten every time Rainlendar is restarted.

Can I see my online events also when I'm disconnected?

Yes, you can. The calendars which store the events online have an option to keep also an offline version of the events. This will allow you to see and edit the events also when you are disconnected from the network. Rainlendar will automatically synchronize the changes back to the online version of the calendar once you get back online. Note that events are never removed from the online calendar during the synchronization so you need to be online if you want to remove something permanently from the calendar.

The option for the offline file can be found from the Calendars-section in the options. Just select your online calendar and look for the "Keep offline copy" option in the lower area of the window.

How to connect to Google Calendar from Rainlendar?

If you have Rainlendar Pro you can show and edit the Google's events right from Rainlendar. You can connect to your Google Calendar like this:

Right click over the calendar window and choose Options from the context menu.
Click the Calendars icon in the top of the dialog.
Click Add... to create a new calendar.
Select Google Calendar (v3) from the list.
Enter your email and click Select calendar window.
In the authentication window you need to enter your Google email address and password
If you have 2-factor authentication enabled for the Google account you need to enter the 2nd factor code
Agree that Rainlendar can access your calendar
Wait until Rainlendar downloads the calendars from Google's server and select the one which you want to display
Give a name for the calendar and close the wizard dialog.

If you want Rainlendar to check for changes from the Google's server automatically you can define a polling frequency for the calendar.

If you want to show multiple Google Calendars in Rainlendar you can add a new Google Calendar (v3) and select another calendar from your Google account.

Note that the "Google Calendar (v3)" only suppports events. If you want to see the tasks from your Google account you need to create a separate calendar and choose "Google Tasks" as its' type.

Rainlendar also supports other online calendars and task lists which can be enabled the same way as the Google Calendar.

Events are read from Google calendar but not saved to it.

Rainlendar keeps the events from different calendars separate so when you create a new event you need to choose the calendar where it will be stored. The calendar choice can be done from the combobox in the bottom left corner of the event editor.

How can I transfer the data to a new computer?

Application: Just download the latest version from this website and install it to your new computer.

License: You can download the license again from the link that was sent to you. Alternatively you can use the backup/restore method to transfer the license with all the other data to the new computer (see below).

Events and tasks: There are two options for this. You can export the events to iCalendar (*.ics) file, transfer the file to the new computer and import it into the new installation. The other option is to make a backup and restore it on your new computer. Note though that if you have used absolute path to define the calendar file location you need to update it from Options->Calendars or Rainlendar might not be able to locate the file anymore. You can find more information about how to do import/export and backups from here: Backup Guide.

Skins and languages: The installed skins and extra languages are not included in the backup file so you need to transfer them manually. If you don't have the original files anymore you can find the installed versions from the Rainlendar's data folder (see Where is all the data stored?). You can install the skins and languages by dropping the file over the calendar window.

How can I add new categories?

New categories can be created in Options->Skins with the category editor. It allows you to modify the appearance of the existing categories as well as creating completely new categories.

If you don't need a custom appearance for the category the category field in the event dialog accepts free form text so you can just write the name of the category to the text field if it's not in the predefined list. If you want to have the category name in the list too you can add it in Options->Advanced->Default categories.

The appearance of the default categories is defined by the skin and it most likely doesn't support your custom categories. So, if you want also to change the appearance of the event on the calendar window when you assign a specific category for it you need to modify the skin's xml files. The Rainlendar's help file has comprehensive instructions how you can do this.

How can I create new skins?

You can find skin format documentation from the Rainlendar's help file. It also contains a step by step tutorial for making a simple xml-format skin.

One possibility is to look at one of the existing Rainlendar skins and see how it's made. Rainlendar2 skin (.r2skin) is just a normal zip archive with different file extension so you can uncompress it after renaming the extension back to .zip. The archive contains few xml files and the resources (images, scripts, ...). The skin.xml file must be in the root of the archive so make sure that when you are zipping the archive after modifications that it doesn't contain any extra folders.

During skin development you can also just unzip the archive into Rainlendar's skins-folder. This way you don't have to zip it again after each change.

How can I remove the week numbers from the calendar?

In Shadow4 skin you can do like this:

Go to Options->Skins
Click "Advanced >>>" button
Select "Shadow4 - Calendar" from the available skins list
Click "Settings..." button
Unckeck "Show week numbers"

Other skins may or may not work the same way. If the skin doesn't have the functionality to hide/show the week numbers you need to add them by editing the skin. The Rainlendar's manual contains description of the skin format and how to edit the skins.

How can I install skins or languages?

There are two kinds of skins for Rainlendar: The old skins which are usually distributed as a zip or rar archive and the new skins which have .r2skin extension.

To install old skins you need to uncompress the skin into the Rainlendar's skins-folder. Make sure that no extra folders are created when you unzip the archive. There must be only one subfolder under the skins-folder where the skin's ini-file(s) are located. After you refresh the calendar the skin should appear in the skin list. If that doesn't happen check the Rainlendar's log file for possible errors.

Note that there are two places where the skins can be copied. They can be either in Rainlendar's program folder (which in Mac is inside the application bundle) or in the settings folder. In most cases you should copy the skin to the "skins" folder which is in the settings folder. Note that the "skins" folder doesn't exist unless you have already installed skins before but you can also just create it manually.

To install new skins (.r2skin) you can just drag and drop the file over one of the Rainlendar's windows and it will be installed automatically. In Windows you can install the skin also just by double clicking it. The languages (.r2lang) can be installed the same way as the new skins (i.e. by double clicking or dropping).

It's not possible to convert the old format skins into new *.r2skins by renaming the file. You need to update the skin content too.

How can I make the calendar bigger?

You can enable the larger version of the skins like this:

Right click on one of Rainlendar's windows to access the context menu
Select Windows->Calendar->"More settings..."
In the settings dialog enable the "Large" setting.
Close the dialog and the calendar will be drawn with larger images

If the "Large" options is not visible in the settings dialog it means that the skin you are using does not support larger versions.

You can change also the size of the calendar window by dragging it from the bottom right corner

Alternatively you can also enable the "Month View" window which shows the event descriptions right on the desktop. The additional windows can be enabled from Options->Skins when you click the "Advanced >>>" button.

For other skins go to Options->Skins, click the "Advanced >>>" button, select the calendar window, click on the Settings button and change the Scale-value to 200. This will double the size of the calendar. Note though that this will just scale the skin image so the texts will get blurry. Some skins might have window width and height settings which can be used to increase the window size.

You can increase the font size in the list windows from Options->General->Font Size.

Or you can dig into the skin's xml files and modify it to match your taste (check the skinning tutorial from the Rainlendar's help).

How can I show Outlook's appointments in Rainlendar?

You need to create a separate calendar into Rainlendar for Outlook.

Open the options dialog and select the calendars page
Click Add...
Choose Microsoft Outlook from the list
select Outlook's profile and message store which you want to use

After you close the dialog and the calendar refreshes it should show the Outlook's appointments.

Note that Outlook support is available only in the Pro version (Windows only).

Rainlendar is unable to initalize the MAPI library.

This error can happen if you e.g. have upgraded your Office installation and the Outlook's MAPI library has been changed. In this case you need to remove your current Outlook calendar from Rainlendar and create a new one.

The error is also shown if you have installed 64 bit version of Office but still use 32 bit version of Rainlendar (or vice-versa). You can download the 64 bit version of Rainlendar from the download page. Note that if you have 32bit version of Office installed on 64bit Windows you must download and install the 32bit version of Rainlendar.

How can I synchronize my calendar between computers?

Rainlendar Pro has several options for the sharing the calendars on a network.

You can use Rainlendar to store the events to Google Calendar which allows you to access them also from Google's web calendar.

You can use a 3rd party service provider (e.g. iCal Exchange) to publish your calendars online.

If you have your own server you can also set up a webdav or ftp server and store the calendar to there.

How to back up the calendar?

You can back up your settings, license and local events from the Manager dialog (File->Backup). Rainlendar will create a standard zip archive from the files. The backup file can be later restored from the same place (File->Restore).

Rainlendar also automatically creates backups every day. The automatic backups are stored to the Rainlendar's settings folder (see Where is all the data stored?)

Note that because there might be absolute paths in the settings file it's not always possible to restore the backup to another computer. In this case you can transfer the events by extracting the Default.ics file from the backup archive and importing it to your current calendar. You can do this from the Manager dialog too (File->Import->iCalendar Format).

How to change the time/date format?

The date and time format can be changed from Options->Advanced->TimeFormat and DateFormat. Note that you cannot just enter anything as the format and expect it to work. You need to read the supported format codes from the Rainlendar's help file.

How to disable the today window?

The today window shows the events and tasks for the current day. You can disable it like this:

Right click on the calendar and choose "Options..."
Uncheck "Show today's events and tasks when Rainlendar is started"

Alternatively you can also remove the today window from your active skin like this:

Right click on the calendar and choose "Options..."
Select the "Skins" tab in the dialog
Click the "Advanced >>>" button to show the additional skin options
Select the Today window on the active skin list (on the right) and click the left arrow button to remove it from the active skin list
Click OK to close the dialog and you won't see the today window anymore when the day changes

Note that if you enable the "Hide windows if there are no items" setting in the General options the today window won't be shown unless there are events or tasks today.

You can also remove the tasks from the today window by selecting Windows->Settings->Today from the menu and unchecking the "Today show tasks" option.

I get a network error every time I boot my computer. Can I get rid of it?

The error is shown if you e.g. use a wireless connection which isn't available yet when Rainlendar is started. You can delay Rainlendar's network calendars from Options->Advanced->"Network access delay after startup" so that they are not downloaded right on the startup.

Another option is to suppress the error messages from the calendar altogether. You can do this by enabling the "Suppress errors" in Options->Calendars. Note that you can still see if the calendar couldn't be read from the server by the small error icon in Rainlendar's tray icon.

Is the license for Rainlendar Pro valid per user or per computer?

The license is per user so it can be installed to multiple computers as long as only one person is using same instance of Rainlendar on the computer.

There are also no restrictions on where the licensed (or unlicensed) application can be used. So feel free to install the application e.g. both on your work and home computers.

I installed the license file but Rainlendar still shows [Unregistered]?

Restart Rainlendar and see if that helps.

When you download the license don't click the link directly from your email program but copy it to your browser's address bar instead.

Open the license.r2lic-file with a text editor (e.g. Notepad) and check that it is ok (it should have your name, email and a serial number). If it contains something else download the license file again (You can also try to use some other browser/application to download it).

Check from the about dialog that all the plugins are from the same build as the main application. The build number is displayed in the version number (e.g. 2.7.b91 means that you are using build 91). You cannot mix the plugins from other builds. In this case you need to reinstall Rainlendar.

If you can't solve the issue by yourself you can contact Rainlendar's support address with your license details (name, date of purchase) for help.

I lost my license!

You can recover your license by entering your email address and clicking the "Send" button. If your license can be found from the database it will be sent to you via email.

I'm unable to save any tasks

If the task editor shows a notification that the target calendar is not selected and the calendar selection is empty it means that you don't have any calendars which support tasks.

The easiest way to solve the issue is to go to Options->Calendars and enable the Default calendar which supports both events and tasks. If you have removed the Default calendar you can create a new one from the Add button (choose iCalendar Format as the calendar type).

If you want to store the tasks to an online calendar you need to choose a calendar type which supports tasks (e.g. Google Tasks, CalDAV, Toodledo or Remember the Milk). Note that Google Calendar (v3) supports only events so it cannot be used to store tasks.

Is it possible to sync Rainlendar with a mobile phone?

The easiest way to do this is to sync both Rainlendar and your mobile phone with Google calendar (see How to connect to Google Calendar from Rainlendar?).

Rainlendar does not start automatically on Windows

If Rainlendar does start automatically on Windows even if the "Enable on startup" setting is set from the options you can try this to solve the problem:

Uncheck the "Enable on startup" setting and close the options dialog.
Open the options dialog again and enable the "Enable on startup" setting

This will reset the registry key that is used to make the application start with Windows.

If Rainlendar still does not start automatically you can try the alternative way by adding the shortcut to the Windows Startup folder (See here)

Rainlendar gets hidden when I click the "Show Desktop" button.

Go to Options->General and change the window position to "On Desktop".

Can I install Rainlendar2 on a USB memory stick (portable installation)?

Yes, you can. You can just copy everything from Rainlendar's program folder to the USB memory and create an empty text file called rainlendar2.ini in the same folder where the executable is. This will make Rainlendar2 store the settings and all the events and tasks to its program folder so the data will be on the USB memory too.

How to install/upgrade Rainlendar.

Windows: Close Rainlendar if it is running and run the installer that you downloaded from this website. The new version can be installed over the current version so uninstallation is not required. Reinstallation does not affect your existing events or settings. Important: If you are upgrading from 32bit version to a 64bit it is adviced to uninstall the old 32bit version before installing the 64bit version.

MacOS: Close Rainlendar if it is running copy the .app file from the .dmg archive to your Applications folder.

Linux: Close Rainlendar and reinstall the application from the DEB archive by double clicking it. If you installed Rainlendar from the DEB package and you are upgrading from the Lite version to the Pro you need to uninstall the Lite version first. This can be done from the package manager.

If you are not running Debian based Linux you can download the generic version and uncompress it like this:

tar jxvf Rainlendar-Pro-{version}.tar.bz2

The application can be started from the command line like this:

cd rainlendar2; ./rainlendar2

Are there PAD files for Rainlendar available.

Yes. You can download them from here:

Can Rainlendar show the current weather?

The Widget addon for the Shadow4 skin includes extra widgets like photo frame, file viewer, weather and rss feed reader. You can install the addon by dropping the file over the calendar window. After that go to Options->Skins, click the "Advanced" button and move the widgets from the available skin window list to the active side.

I get "Do you want to start another instance?" on startup.

There is a long standing bug in Windows which causes the startup applications to launch twice. Unfortunately there is no official fix for it but you workaround the issue by changing how Rainlendar starts in Windows.

Uncheck the "Enable on startup" setting and close the options dialog.
Follow the instructions here to copy the Rainlendar's shortcut to the Windows startup folder.

Is the help available as PDF?

The PDF versions of the help files can be downloaded from here:

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