Tired of Missing the Pattern of the Day????

[Goblins]

Tired of Missing the Pattern of the Day????

Here's a brief How-To to keep you from missing that daily pattern....

 

Caveats: These instructions are for WinXP. I have not tested them on any other OS. This won't work if you computer is turned off... or if you stay logged out for days at a time... Additionally, please remember that this justs opens a browser and brings up the current pattern page. If you hit refresh or close the window before saving, you will lose the patterns. (thanks Selune!)

1.) Open Notepad (preferably).

 

2.) Now copy and paste one of the following two lines into Notepad.

 

If Firefox is your browser of choice:

Code:

start firefox http://www.anniesattic.com/free_pattern_day/printer.html

If IE is your browser of choice:

Code:

start iexplore http://www.anniesattic.com/free_pattern_day/printer.html

3.) Once that is done, save the file someplace that you will remember (the 'My Documents' folder sometimes makes a good choice), with a name that makes sense to you and a '.bat' extension. (Mine is 'AnniesPatternOfTheDay.bat')

 

Please make sure you have the 'Save as Type' at the bottom set to 'All Files'. (Very Important.)

 

4.) Once this is done, open the 'Control Panel'. Inside you should see 'Scheduled Tasks'... click that. Now you should see 'Add a Scheduled Task'... click that.

 

5.) Click 'Next'.

 

6.) Click 'Browse', and locate the .bat (batch file) you just created and saved. Once you have selected it, click 'Next'.

 

7.) Name the Scheduled Task something that makes sense to you.

 

8.) Under 'Perform this task', select 'Daily'.

 

9.) Set your start time to '12:05 am' or '6:00 am" or whatever you would like.

 

10.) Set the 'Perform this task' to 'Every Day'.

 

11.) Click 'Next'.

 

12.) Enter the username and password you use to login to the PC.

 

13.) If you leave your computer on all the time, then that's all you need to do, click 'Finish', and you are done....

 

However, if you shut down your machine regularly or have frequent power outages....

 

14.) Make sure the 'Open Advanced properties' checkbox is selected before you click 'Finish'.

 

15.) Once that is done, you should get another window. The second tab should be 'Schedule'. One that tab, check the 'Show Multiple schedules' checkbox.

 

16.) Now click the 'New' button that was created.

 

17.) Change the 'Schedule Task' dropdown to 'At Logon'.

 

18.) Click 'OK'.

 

Now, you're done!!!

 

Basically, what will happen is this.... at the time you specified (or at the time you logon, if you added that part) the batch file will open the browser for you and direct it to the Annie's Pattern Print page.

 

Also... this should be handy for some of you out there... http://www.pdf995.com/ has a couple of apps that will allow you to 'print' (virtually that is) anything to PDF. It comes in great handy for those of us (me) who don't have printers, or who are trying to save trees.

 

Hope this helps!!!

[BeautifulNightmare]

interesting. Thanks

[Selune]

Keep in mind this just opens the browser up and brings up the current date's page. If you hit refresh or close the window before saving, you will lose the patterns.

[Goblins]

Keep in mind this just opens the browser up and brings up the current date's page. If you hit refresh or close the window before saving, you will lose the patterns.

 

If you are using IE6, you should get a separate browser opened. If you are using Firefox, you should get either an additional tab (if you use tabbed browsing) or another browser. Selune, your statements are correct though. I just assumed that if you got up in the morning and saw the browser open in the pattern (which should be the first thing you see in the browser window after the scheduled task runs, that you would then decide what to do with it.

 

I added that to the caveats.

[Amy]

If you know you're going to open your browser every day, you can also just have the Annie's Attic pattern of the day printer-friendly page set as your home page in your browser. This is what I do.

 

But if you're going to be away from your computer for several days, and you don't mind leaving it powered up (I always shut mine down due to power surge risk even though it's on a good power strip), then this option would be great so that when you return you have multiple windows open, each with a different pattern.

[Goblins]

If you know you're going to open your browser every day, you can also just have the Annie's Attic pattern of the day printer-friendly page set as your home page in your browser. This is what I do.

 

I have my homepage set for Google.com which I have personalized so I can all my RSS feeds, all of my news (CNN) and my email. But Your suggestion, Amy, would work too.

[comfort80]

what if you have a MAC? is there a scheduler on that, if so, i haven't run across it , but i'm fairly new to the MAC's

[Selune]

If you know you're going to open your browser every day, you can also just have the Annie's Attic pattern of the day printer-friendly page set as your home page in your browser. This is what I do.

 

But if you're going to be away from your computer for several days, and you don't mind leaving it powered up (I always shut mine down due to power surge risk even though it's on a good power strip), then this option would be great so that when you return you have multiple windows open, each with a different pattern.

 

Yeah, I had assumed the original post was for those who don't check the internet every day. For those that do get on the internet each day, in addition saving Annies Attic to the home page setting, in Firefox (I'm not sure about IE), I just take all my favorite starting pages (Yahoo mail, Crochetville, Annies Attic), save them as a session, and then just have the browser automatically load that session upon opening.