XplanaZine

Here’s another time-saving piece of software - D. Brent Herring’s HTML Calendar Generator. I first found this software a couple years ago when helping some departments on campus who wanted to add calendars to their webpages - nothing fancy, just static webpages that they would update with upcoming events. But nobody wants to build 12 tables with 365 cells to make a year-long calendar. That’s what D. Brent Herring’s nifty little calendar program takes care of for you. And it’s free - although there is a link to his Amazon wish list if you are feeling generous (I sent him a CD - because this program has saved me lots of valuable time on more than one occasion!)
The program is actually capable of doing more than just generating HTML pages - it’s got an FTP utility that you can use to publish the calendar pages directly from this program. I haven’t used that feature - but I’ve made good use of the HTML part of the program. The calendars that I’m using for Fabellae Faciles were created with this software, for example.
There is good documentation for the program online, but exactly because it has so many features, it can be a little confusing at first. Here is a step-by-step guide to generating a plain and simple set of tables for the months of a given year:

1. Download the software and install it. (The installation program is very straightforward.)
2. You will now find a folder called HTML Calendar Generator in your Programs. To run the program, click on the “HTML Calendar Generator” inside the folder. You can right-click and Send-to-Desktop-as-Shortcut if you will be using the program frequently.
   
3. There are many buttons that you can use for the different features of the program. The most important button is the Configure button. This takes you to a dialog box with many tabs. The most important tab here is Output. You need to specify where you want the files to be created on your computer.
   
4. If you explore the other Configure tabs, you will find all the options available to you in terms of formatting the calendar file output - but you can also just go with the default values and end up with a nice calendar. When you are done with the Configure options, click the OK button at the bottom of the dialog box.
5. Now you are ready to Write the calendar. Just click on the Write button, and the files will be created. There is no confirmation message that pops up - but it only takes a few seconds for the files to be created. Take a look in the folder that you designated for the Output - you should find the files there.
6. Of the files that are generated, there will be files generated for every month (January.htm, February.htm, etc.) - but the most important file is the one named calendar.htm (or calendar.html, depending on how you configured the output). This is a single file that contains 12 tables, one for each month. You can easily cut-and-paste each month (table) to other webpages that you are using.
7. Of course, there is much more that you can do with this software - it is definitely worth playing around with. But if you are just looking for a quick and easy way to generate a month-by-month HTML calendar, you can have the whole thing done in less than 10 minutes - download, install, configure, write. That’s it!

another cool find, laura!! I love the elegant software solutions that you find — they are a huge help and a great resource, esp. as freeware gets harder to use, limited, or harder to find!