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Suggestions for the calendar

kh54s10

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It has been suggested that different recipes might get different colors.  That would make it easier to tell one from another. 
I would like to be able to drag an item to a different day.
How about mouse clicking on a day to open a window for entries.
And to click on an item to mark it as completed.  I saw that this can be done in the notes for tasks. 
When I went to add a task (dry hopping) the start date was grayed out and only the end date was useable.

Check out VueMinder Lite for some calendar navigation and editing ideas.

I also found it difficult to find where to delete a recipe that I was just messing with.  It was saved and automatically added to the calendar.
 
I like the idea of dragging and having it update the fermentation schedule. Sure would beat having to count the extra days it sat in the fermenter.
 
Myk said:
I like the idea of dragging and having it update the fermentation schedule. Sure would beat having to count the extra days it sat in the fermenter.

Agreed! That would be pretty sweet.
 
The calendar, in my opinion, is the weakest part of this otherwise excellent piece of software. It is counter-intuitive, due to not following typical, well-established calendar application conventions.

1) It needs to be interactive. As OP says, dragging, stacking, moving, changing colors, fonts, etc... should all be available within the calendar itself.

2) Beersmith REALLY needs to separate RECIPES from BATCHES. Your recipes are your cookbook - referring to a batch of beer as a recipe is confusing, and the cause of probably the single most repeated question on these forums. You should enter in a recipe. When brewday comes, you should start a "batch" - an INSTANCE of that recipe. You should be able to do so on the calendar screen itself. Right-click a day, "start batch", select a recipe, and it should populate your brew log / calendar with your schedule. If something changes (i.e. you rack a day later than your recipe states), you can drag the date. Simple. Save all batches as a subfolder of that recipe. You can then compare every batch to the template (recipe) to see how it has come out each time. A chart would be great - what are my OG and FG for each batch of this recipe? A line graph would be easy to implement.

3) Writing a recipe should never automatically populate the calendar. Yes, I realize there is an option to turn off all but your brew-log - but for most (all?) people, the calendar IS their brewlog, it is the single purpose the calendar serves. What possible reason is there to populate every recipe into the calendar? Again, as above, RECIPES should be templates, BATCHES should be actual brew days.

4) Calendar should visually display your currently fermenting beers. An actual picture of a fermentor labeled primary, with the names of your beers in primary fermentation and days left, same for secondary, same for bottles. It would be great to have an at-a-glance look at your brewhouse as a whole - what do I have working, as of right now, visually.
 
I like 8bit's suggestions for the Calendar. All of those features would be a welcome addition.

I did like how the Calendar in v1.4 would span across multiple days to show something that was in process, rather than just showing the start day and end day. I suppose some people might have found it clumsy, but I feel that is a fairly standard feature of calendar programs. Mark your 4-day vacation on Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar, and it will span across days just like that.

I really like the idea of Batches being stored in a subfolder of Recipes. The one thing I wouldn't want to lose is the ability to also store those Batches separately. I currently have subfolders in my Brewlog for each year I've been brewing. At the end of the year, I make a new folder and move all the items in the Brewlog into that year's folder. I can then open the 2009 Brewlog subfolder and look at what Batches I brewed that year. The main Brewlog folder only contains Batches I've brewed/am brewing this year, so there's not a lot of clutter to look through. I find that very helpful. So I'd like to keep that ability, but also have the ability to go look at an individual Recipe and see all the Batches I've brewed under it. I've tried to set up folders for my Recipes to mimic this, but having an actual distinction in the program between Batches and Recipes would definitely be easier and better. And that might even make it so the Brewlog could be automatically organized by Batches in a particular year and that could mimic what I'm doing manually now. I know I can Sort By Brew Date, but I find it easier to have only current Batches showing up in my Brewlog. Otherwise, I'm scrolling through years' worth of Batches just to find what I'm looking for.

Scott
 
"The one thing I wouldn't want to lose is the ability to also store those Batches separately."

Same here, I also keep a yearly folder like you do. I care what I brewed last year not what tweaks I've done because I ran out of something or had something substituted by the seller.
I think a recipe comparing tool would do the same as is desired by those wanting batches inside of recipes without all the bloat of having to load 5 years worth of batches every time you wanted to open a recipe.
 
Yep. I mean the concept of folders is archaic anyway. Very basic database functionality should allow you to view your batches by year, style, whatever. Though the BATCH would technically be a subset of RECIPE, you shouldn't have to ALSO save it under years, the program should simply be able to display by year - not limited by the actual folder structure, as if this were a visual basic program from 1992.
 
Right On! Right On! Right On! Right On! Right On! Right On!

the recipes need to be stored in a Recipe data base , and saved change, should be stored as a date based revision with the abily to add version number - names to the recipe changes.
batches should be stored as batches of the recipe also with version information.
its all relational man! in a relational database.


8bit said:
The calendar, in my opinion, is the weakest part of this otherwise excellent piece of software. It is counter-intuitive, due to not following typical, well-established calendar application conventions.

1) It needs to be interactive. As OP says, dragging, stacking, moving, changing colors, fonts, etc... should all be available within the calendar itself.

2) Beersmith REALLY needs to separate RECIPES from BATCHES. Your recipes are your cookbook - referring to a batch of beer as a recipe is confusing, and the cause of probably the single most repeated question on these forums. You should enter in a recipe. When brewday comes, you should start a "batch" - an INSTANCE of that recipe. You should be able to do so on the calendar screen itself. Right-click a day, "start batch", select a recipe, and it should populate your brew log / calendar with your schedule. If something changes (i.e. you rack a day later than your recipe states), you can drag the date. Simple. Save all batches as a subfolder of that recipe. You can then compare every batch to the template (recipe) to see how it has come out each time. A chart would be great - what are my OG and FG for each batch of this recipe? A line graph would be easy to implement.

3) Writing a recipe should never automatically populate the calendar. Yes, I realize there is an option to turn off all but your brew-log - but for most (all?) people, the calendar IS their brewlog, it is the single purpose the calendar serves. What possible reason is there to populate every recipe into the calendar? Again, as above, RECIPES should be templates, BATCHES should be actual brew days.

4) Calendar should visually display your currently fermenting beers. An actual picture of a fermentor labeled primary, with the names of your beers in primary fermentation and days left, same for secondary, same for bottles. It would be great to have an at-a-glance look at your brewhouse as a whole - what do I have working, as of right now, visually.
 
Totally agree that the calendar in its current implementation is quite useless.
The points made regarding Batches is point on and although this may require a few underlying architectural changes in the data model it would take Beersmith to the next level.  It would also help facilitate the ability to add brew session photos http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=6507.html and other valuable notes and information related to the brew that helps us all become better brewers.

An additional capability of the Calendar that would be WONDERFUL is the ability to interface with Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar.  I personally have all of my activities in Google Calendar and would be lost without it.  I am currently manually inputting my brewing activities in to Google Calendar as I usually have 5+ batches in process at any given time. 8)
 
8bit said:
The calendar, in my opinion, is the weakest part of this otherwise excellent piece of software. It is counter-intuitive, due to not following typical, well-established calendar application conventions.

1) It needs to be interactive. As OP says, dragging, stacking, moving, changing colors, fonts, etc... should all be available within the calendar itself.

2) Beersmith REALLY needs to separate RECIPES from BATCHES. Your recipes are your cookbook - referring to a batch of beer as a recipe is confusing, and the cause of probably the single most repeated question on these forums. You should enter in a recipe. When brewday comes, you should start a "batch" - an INSTANCE of that recipe. You should be able to do so on the calendar screen itself. Right-click a day, "start batch", select a recipe, and it should populate your brew log / calendar with your schedule. If something changes (i.e. you rack a day later than your recipe states), you can drag the date. Simple. Save all batches as a subfolder of that recipe. You can then compare every batch to the template (recipe) to see how it has come out each time. A chart would be great - what are my OG and FG for each batch of this recipe? A line graph would be easy to implement.

3) Writing a recipe should never automatically populate the calendar. Yes, I realize there is an option to turn off all but your brew-log - but for most (all?) people, the calendar IS their brewlog, it is the single purpose the calendar serves. What possible reason is there to populate every recipe into the calendar? Again, as above, RECIPES should be templates, BATCHES should be actual brew days.

4) Calendar should visually display your currently fermenting beers. An actual picture of a fermentor labeled primary, with the names of your beers in primary fermentation and days left, same for secondary, same for bottles. It would be great to have an at-a-glance look at your brewhouse as a whole - what do I have working, as of right now, visually.

All of these are excellent and well stated suggestions, and in my opinion would help make the calendar and brewlog useful tools for me and advance Beersmith up several levels.
 
garybrownnc said:
Totally agree that the calendar in its current implementation is quite useless.
The points made regarding Batches is point on and although this may require a few underlying architectural changes in the data model it would take Beersmith to the next level.  It would also help facilitate the ability to add brew session photos http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=6507.html and other valuable notes and information related to the brew that helps us all become better brewers.

An additional capability of the Calendar that would be WONDERFUL is the ability to interface with Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar.  I personally have all of my activities in Google Calendar and would be lost without it.  I am currently manually inputting my brewing activities in to Google Calendar as I usually have 5+ batches in process at any given time. 8)


An additional capability of the Calendar that would be WONDERFUL is the ability to interface with Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar.  I personally have all of my activities in Google Calendar and would be lost without it.  I am currently manually inputting my brewing activities in to Google Calendar as I usually have 5+ batches in process at any given time.

Plus 1 (million) on the Google Calendar implementation

There is no reason to reinvent the wheel when Google has nailed it so wonderfully, offers multiple calendars, and most people use a calendar outside of Beersmith to track all of the other events in their life. If Beersmith could provide a Google Calendar option, we would all be able to see our brew schedule on whatever OS or device we use to check out calendar, and in the context of the other parts of our lives. Google Calendar can be used for all smart phones (IOS, Android, Blackberry), computers (Mac/Windows/Linux) and calendar software (iCal, Outlook, Google Apps, etc.). This would be an evolutionary leap in my opinion.
 
Thanks! I'm wondering if any progress is being made for 3.0

graymoment said:
8bit said:
The calendar, in my opinion, is the weakest part of this otherwise excellent piece of software. It is counter-intuitive, due to not following typical, well-established calendar application conventions.

1) It needs to be interactive. As OP says, dragging, stacking, moving, changing colors, fonts, etc... should all be available within the calendar itself.

2) Beersmith REALLY needs to separate RECIPES from BATCHES. Your recipes are your cookbook - referring to a batch of beer as a recipe is confusing, and the cause of probably the single most repeated question on these forums. You should enter in a recipe. When brewday comes, you should start a "batch" - an INSTANCE of that recipe. You should be able to do so on the calendar screen itself. Right-click a day, "start batch", select a recipe, and it should populate your brew log / calendar with your schedule. If something changes (i.e. you rack a day later than your recipe states), you can drag the date. Simple. Save all batches as a subfolder of that recipe. You can then compare every batch to the template (recipe) to see how it has come out each time. A chart would be great - what are my OG and FG for each batch of this recipe? A line graph would be easy to implement.

3) Writing a recipe should never automatically populate the calendar. Yes, I realize there is an option to turn off all but your brew-log - but for most (all?) people, the calendar IS their brewlog, it is the single purpose the calendar serves. What possible reason is there to populate every recipe into the calendar? Again, as above, RECIPES should be templates, BATCHES should be actual brew days.

4) Calendar should visually display your currently fermenting beers. An actual picture of a fermentor labeled primary, with the names of your beers in primary fermentation and days left, same for secondary, same for bottles. It would be great to have an at-a-glance look at your brewhouse as a whole - what do I have working, as of right now, visually.

All of these are excellent and well stated suggestions, and in my opinion would help make the calendar and brewlog useful tools for me and advance Beersmith up several levels.
 
There are some good suggestions here for the calendar and especially about the batch/recipe things. The calendar really needs some help. I am new to BeerSmith and just purchased a license. I evaluated the Mac version for the last few weeks, but never got around to checking out the calendar. If I had checked it out, I might have reconsidered purchasing. I'm not sure if it is a Mac-version issue or what, but there is no way to change the font size from HUGE. As a result, the names of the items are truncated. And since I do most of my brewing on a Saturday (the right edge of the calendar) the text can't flow into the adjacent day like it does for all the others... all I see is "Bottle/Keg: Numbe" multiple times for items with names such as "Number 12: All grain Citra IPA" or "Number 14: All grain Colorado Pale Ale" etc. BeerSmith makes wide use of "tooltips" throughout the app which are pretty handy. Don't know what something means? Hold your mouse over it for a second, and a tooltip appears with a more lengthly explanation. Very handy, those things. I was hoping a similar solution would work for the calendar's truncated names but that is not the case. Until the calendar gets a major overhaul, I'm afraid it is entirely useless for me and I will be keeping track of such things in google calendar / ical.
 
asdfasdf said:
There are some good suggestions here for the calendar and especially about the batch/recipe things. The calendar really needs some help. I am new to BeerSmith and just purchased a license. I evaluated the Mac version for the last few weeks, but never got around to checking out the calendar. If I had checked it out, I might have reconsidered purchasing. I'm not sure if it is a Mac-version issue or what, but there is no way to change the font size from HUGE. As a result, the names of the items are truncated. And since I do most of my brewing on a Saturday (the right edge of the calendar) the text can't flow into the adjacent day like it does for all the others... all I see is "Bottle/Keg: Numbe" multiple times for items with names such as "Number 12: All grain Citra IPA" or "Number 14: All grain Colorado Pale Ale" etc. BeerSmith makes wide use of "tooltips" throughout the app which are pretty handy. Don't know what something means? Hold your mouse over it for a second, and a tooltip appears with a more lengthly explanation. Very handy, those things. I was hoping a similar solution would work for the calendar's truncated names but that is not the case. Until the calendar gets a major overhaul, I'm afraid it is entirely useless for me and I will be keeping track of such things in google calendar / ical.

Easy solution, change your naming around so "Number 14: All grain Colorado Pale Ale" becomes "Colorado Pale Ale 14 AG".
Once I realized everything I was doing was AG I stopped putting that in the title.
 
BUMPING THIS:

Desperately hoping that these features are making it into 3.0, which I'm hearing is slated for the fall. There was an overwhelming consensus regarding the calendar, and separation between RECIPES and BATCHES - hoping for some feedback on this most important feature. 
 
I just wanted to second 8bit's recommendations and those of the other posters on this thread related to improving the calendar and separating recipes from batches in version 3.  Things like Google calendar integration, adjustable calendar fonts, color coded batch information, and process data like "in primary" being spread out over multiple days rather than just placed on starting and ending days would go a long way towards making the calendar as useful as the rest of beersmith.

I am a registered owner and have used beersmith for 3 batches and it is a great and extremely flexible and otherwise powerful tool.  I've brewed since 1991 and had created and have tweaked for 20 plus years my own Excel spreadsheet to record batch information and my calendar functionality was head and shoulders above that offered by beersmith.  The beersmith calendar is like putting a paper calendar on the dashboard of the space shuttle.  Actually it is worse than that because I have to squint to read the entries in the beersmith calendar even with my reading glasses on. 

Cliff notes: love the application but hate the calendar so please consider updating it for version 3
 
Re-Bump!

Any word on this? If 3.0 comes out without a total calendar overhaul, it will be extremely disappointing.
 
I agree with many of these suggestions and feel like this is a step backwards and version 1 was better.  However, I would be happy if the coloring was simply a little better! I have to think about the date before looking at it or I have to look around for 2 minutes to find the date. Very difficult UI to understand.
 
graymoment said:
Plus 1 (million) on the Google Calendar implementation

There is no reason to reinvent the wheel when Google has nailed it so wonderfully, offers multiple calendars, and most people use a calendar outside of Beersmith to track all of the other events in their life. If Beersmith could provide a Google Calendar option, we would all be able to see our brew schedule on whatever OS or device we use to check out calendar, and in the context of the other parts of our lives. Google Calendar can be used for all smart phones (IOS, Android, Blackberry), computers (Mac/Windows/Linux) and calendar software (iCal, Outlook, Google Apps, etc.). This would be an evolutionary leap in my opinion.

I suggested this a while back as well.  They'd have to have it out put a file that resides on a server somewhere permanently so that it could be imported into google.  I would even just like the file on my hard disk and I could handle putting it somewhere to be picked up by google...like in a dropbox folder.  So many people use google calendar, so it just seems like a natural path.  (http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php/topic,9747.msg40445.html#msg40445)
 
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