Time Tab/Column - A request, an annoyance, and a wish

[Andrew Applegarth]

First, I don't think it should be too hard, but what I would really like is for the Date/Time tab and column to display the day of the week along with the specific date.

Right now, to view the day of the week, I have to go to the Time tab and click on the Date field, which brings me to my annoyance.  When I click on that field, the dialogue box pops up with the last date I entered in it rather than the date already in the field I clicked on.  My current story covers seven years, so, to view the day of the week, I either have to massively scroll the calendar or reenter the date from the field, save it, then reopen it.  Remembering the last value is great for a blank field, but it's a pain for a field that's already filled in.  (This becomes less of an annoyance if you add my request to display the day of the week.)

Finally, my wish.  What I would love to see implemented is a custom calendar that isn't tied to an actual year.  For example, if I want to have June 13 be a Friday in the seventh year of the story, I currently have to find a year where June 13 is a Friday, then subtract seven years and use that as the start year for my story.  Instead, I'd like to be able specify a specific date as a specific day to anchor the calendar and pick which of the years 0-3 are the first leap year.  From there, the story can start on any date in year 0 and I can still take advantage of the calendar feature within yWriter.

- Andrew

[KM Lafferty]

HI Andrew,

In the recent topic 'Viewing scenes on a timeline' I brought up the inadequacies of yWriter's date/time system. Simon noted regarding this that he had put the date/time feature in only because someone asked him long long ago and he personally doesn't have any use for it, so i think you will have to accept it the way it is. One thing I do is notate all my scenes at the end of their titles with the week number and day it takes place in brackets; I don't know if a system where you write your year date and day in this manner would work for you?

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[Simon Haynes]

Unfortunately a custom calendar is a ton of work, as it was one thing the Romans gave us that we weren't grateful for:

Before 1752, Britain and her Empire followed the Julian calendar, first implemented by Julius Caesar in 46 BC However this calendar had an inbuilt error of 1 day every 128 years, due to a miscalculation of the solar year by 11 minutes. This affected the date of Easter, traditionally observed on March 21, as it began to move further away from the spring equinox with each passing year.

That's why you have two date types in yWriter - one where you just enter the day, hour and minute (which is NOT tied to a 'real' date so it can't tell you the day of the week) and the calendar one which is only really any use for present day fiction - and not fantasy or scifi.  Since I write both of the latter and non of the former, and never use the date field at all, that's why we have the date setup in yWriter we do now.

Hope that clarifies.

On Wed, 10 Sept 2025 at 06:42, Andrew Applegarth <appl...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Andrew Applegarth]

Yes, I know a custom calendar is a lot of work, which is why it was specifically listed as a wish, not an actual request that you implement it.  Perhaps I should not have even mentioned it, as it appears to have overshadowed the previous parts of my message.  I'm a story teller and I tend to overshare…

My actual request was to have it display the day of the week along with the date on the Time tab and in the Date/Time column.  It's already calculated, as it is displayed in the dialogue box that pops up when you edit the date, so it's just a matter of displaying it in a couple more places.  I thought that would be fairly simple, but perhaps it's not.

That said, I'm quite fine with being told no.  I just wanted to clarify what I had actually asked you to consider versus the pipe dream I shared on the off chance you might think it was worthwhile.

- Andrew

[Simon Haynes]

Okay, that was a five second job. Added to the current Alpha.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/979f5df8-bad0-439c-8bdd-4ecf46556fcan%40googlegroups.com.

[Andrew Applegarth]

Thank you!  

It's past my bedtime, but I'll grab the latest alpha in the morning.

- Andrew