[pzarquon]

I'm not sure if this belongs in General Software or not, but since I'm seeing it on my Treo 650, and because I see there is another known quirk about the way the T650 handles birthdays (albeit relating to Outlook), I thought I'd ask here first.

Having moved to the T650 from an earlier PalmOS device, this is the first time I'm using Contacts with the new built-in "Birthday" field. Until the Mobimate folks fix DateMate, I figured I'd try it out.

Putting in someone's birthday gives me a cute birthday cake icon on the day in the Calendar view, which I liked. But, since DateMate had already pre-populated my Calendar with annually repeating anniversary events to show birthdays, I figured I'd delete the one Contacts just added. I selected the Birthday entry on the day in the Calendar app, and clicked "Delete..." It asked, "Delete this Birthday?" I said yes.

It deleted the whole contact. This I didn't like.

I tried it with another Contact's birthdate entry in Calendar, and the same thing happened.

Is this just the way it works, or is this a bug? Why would it think that by deleting a repeating birthday-cake-icon Calendar entry that I wanted to eliminate the person from my device entirely?

[bcaslis]

I see the birthday cake also and I have "duplicates" since I had entered my own birthday events previously. I can thought about deleting them, but now I'm afraid to try! That sounds like a serious bug to me!

[dang]

The contacts app automatically creates birthday events for you based on the birthday field being populated. Similar thing to what Outlook does for you. I suppose, as bad as it is, that deleting the birthday reminder would delete the contact since they are related.

[pzarquon]

Wow. Talk about a usability snafu. I might as well not populate a single Birthday field in Contacts, then.

One thing DateMate allowed me to do was have several date entries for one Contact -- anniversary, birthday, spouse's birthday, kids' birthdays. All would be imported and turned into Datebook "no time" annually-recurring entries. With the built-in Contacts field, I can only have one date per entry... and I'm not about to create Contacts for children and babies just to track birthdays.

Mobimate, fix your software!

[dang]

I ended up on the phone with palmOne today and confirmed that this is a problem. Don't know how they will approach this bug, but hopefully they will do a ROM update and have this in it.

[TheTreoGuy]

I just noticed that because I use KSDatebook (more variety of choices for views), the contacts birthdays aren't showing up on my calendar app. Any idea why/how that would happen and how to fix it? If I exit it and use just the basic calendar app that came with the T650, they show up. I don't like the basic calendar app because it doesn't show the actual wording for the events, just blocks. KS shows the words in small type so you can see it all at a glance.

[PabloTX]

I just noticed that because I use KSDatebook (more variety of choices for views), the contacts birthdays aren't showing up on my calendar app. Any idea why/how that would happen and how to fix it? If I exit it and use just the basic calendar app that came with the T650, they show up. I don't like the basic calendar app because it doesn't show the actual wording for the events, just blocks. KS shows the words in small type so you can see it all at a glance.

Any updates on this? I like KSDatebook for the month view as well, but it's not really viable if it will not display the birthdays.

[Bill Gamble]

DateBk6 gives you the flexibility that the built-in calendar doesn't: a preference that allows you to display - or not - the contact app's birthday entries.

[PabloTX]

Well, kinda. DateBk6 will not show the Birthdays in the month view (when viewed as text)...though I believe it will when you actually highlight the day.

I'm getting closer to realizing that I may just have to go ahead and use DateBk, but that's really the only feature I'm looking for and would prefer not to use up 1Mb just for that.

I use 2Day for a daily and weekly view and am more than happy with that. I just want a month view that will show the text, or at least a good preview like DateBk does.

[Bill Gamble]

Well, kinda. DateBk6 will not show the Birthdays in the month view (when viewed as text)...though I believe it will when you actually highlight the day.

If, in Preferences/Birthday Settings, you choose not to check "Show Birthdays in All Categories", birthdays from the new Birthday contact field will not be displayed on any screen in the DB6 calendar.

[PabloTX]

I'm not quite sure I follow...I'd have to reinstall the trial to find out.

But I'm pretty sure I had everything enabled. And while I believe that birthday icons show up in the month view, if you have the month view set to "Text", it does not include birthdays. But if you select a certain date, the birthday will show up in the pop-up window.

This is what CESD said when I asked about the same issue:

Right now birthdays are only displayed in the ICON sub-view in the monthly
view. I may add support for displaying birthdays in the text sub-view at a
later time - it is on the list of things to look at adding in future
releases.

[Bill Gamble]

I'm not quite sure I follow...I'd have to reinstall the trial to find out[

My bad. I just rechecked; that preference only allows you to choose to display birthdays in hidden categories, if you wish. If unchecked, all other birthdays will still be displayed.

However, with regard to the OP's point, DB6 does allow you to delete the birthday from within its calendar without deleting the contact.