Welcome to the User Guide for ParentPal! This guide aims to help users in navigating and using ParentPal.

Are you a parent whose phone’s contact book is filling up with the contacts of teachers? Do you have trouble remembering who exactly that contact in your address book is referring to? Do you have multiple children and want a centralised place to keep track of all their activities? Then ParentPal could be the app for you!

ParentPal is a desktop application that helps busy parents manage their children’s contacts and related appointments, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, ParentPal can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

Want to get started with ParentPal? Jump right into the Quick Start guide here.

Table of Contents

Using this Guide

:bulb: Tip: If you see a blue box with a light-bulb like this, it contains a tip to help you use ParentPal better.
:exclamation: Caution: If you see a yellow box with an exclamation mark like this, it contains a warning that you should take note of.

COMMAND : If you see words formatted in monospace like this, it represents a command or part of a command.

Interface : If you see italicized words, it represents a part of the ParentPal GUI. See Interface of ParentPal for more information.

Quick start

  1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed on your computer. To install Java, you can view the guide here.

  2. Download the latest parentpal.jar from here.

  3. Copy the parentpal.jar file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your ParentPal.

  4. Double-click the file to start the app. The GUI similar to the below image should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.

    Ui

  5. Type a command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will open the help window.
    Some example commands you can try:

    • list : Lists all contacts.

    • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/Smith Street, Block 123, #01-01 : Adds a contact named John Doe to the Contact List.

    • delete 3 : Deletes the 3rd contact shown in the Contact List.

    • clear : Deletes all contacts.

    • exit : Exits ParentPal.

  6. Refer to the Features section for details of each command.

Interface of ParentPal

ParentPalExplanation

  1. Menu Button
    • Click to see an option to exit.
  2. Command Box
    • ParentPal makes it easy for you to manage your contacts and appointments with a single command.
    • Type the command into the command box, and press Enter to execute it.
    • Should an error occur, an error message will be displayed in the status box.
  3. Status Box
    • Displays success message or error message.
  4. Contact List
    • Scroll to view all of your contacts.
    • By default, the Contact List is sorted by the order in which they were added. See sort for how you can change the order of the contacts.
  5. Appointment List
    • Scroll to view all of your appointments.
    • By default, the Appointment List is sorted chronologically, ie. by the date and time of the appointment, see Appointments below. ParentPal currently does not support sorting appointments in other ways.

Contacts

ContactCard

  1. Index
    • The index is mutable, and it changes depending on the settings for the Contact List.
    • For example, the Contact List can be filtered by different commands, see find. And it can be sorted in different ways, see sort.
  2. Name
  3. Favourite Icon
    • The star will be filled if the contact is favourited as shown above. It will be empty if the contact is not favourited. See fav for how you can favourite and unfavourite contacts.
  4. Child Tag
  5. Tag
  6. Phone Number
  7. Email

Appointments

AppointmentCard

  1. Index
    • The index is mutable, and it changes depending on the settings for the Appointment List.
    • For example, the Appointment List can be filtered by different commands, see findAppt.
  2. Name
  3. Child Tag
  4. Address
  5. Date and Time
  6. Contacts

Expired appointments

ParentPal helps you to manage your expired appointments by colouring them red, once expired.

:bulb: Tip: Should the appointment not appear red despite it having expired, click on the appointment box to refresh it.

expiredAppt

Command Parameters

The table below provides descriptions for all the parameters used by ParentPal commands.

Parameter Description Example
OPTION Specifies the options to be applied to a command You can type name as an option to the find command to specify you wish to filter the Contact List by name.
INDEX The index number of a contact or appointment shown in the Contact List or Appointment List.

It must be a positive number.		 You can type 1 to refer to the first contact in the Contact List or first appointment in the Appointment List.
COMMAND The name of a command. You can type add as a command name to use with help.

See Command Summary for a full list of command names.
NAME The name of a contact or appointment. You can type Betsy Crowe as the name for a contact or Parent Teacher Meeting as the name for an appointment.
ADDRESS The address or location of a contact or appointment. You can use ABC Primary School to represent the address of a contact or an appointment.
PHONE The contact number of a contact.

It should contain only numbers and be at least 3 digits long.		 You can type 91234567 to represent the phone number of a contact.
EMAIL The email address of a contact.

It must be a valid email.		 You can type betsycrowe@example.com to represent the email of a contact.
TAG The tag you want to attach to a contact. You can type form teacher to tag this additional information to a contact.
CHILD_TAG The child tag you want to attach to a contact or appointment. You can tag a contact or appointment with Alice to signify it is related to you child Alice.
KEYWORD A keyword you want to search for. You can type betsy as a keyword to search for the word ‘betsy’.

See find and findAppt for more information.
CONTACT_INDEX The index number of a contact in the Contact List.

It must be a positive number.		 You can type 1 to refer to the first contact in the Contact List.

Features

:information_source: Notes about the command format:

  • Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by the user. See Command Parameters above.
    e.g. in add n/NAME, NAME is a parameter which can be used as add n/John Doe.

  • Items in square brackets are optional.
    e.g n/NAME [t/TAG] can be used as n/John Doe t/friend or as n/John Doe.

  • Items with …​ after them can be used multiple times including zero times.
    e.g. [t/TAG]…​ can be used as   (i.e. 0 times), t/friend, t/friend t/family etc.

  • Parameters can be in any order.
    e.g. if the command specifies n/NAME p/PHONE, p/PHONE n/NAME is also acceptable.

  • If a parameter is expected only once in the command but you specified it multiple times, only the last occurrence of the parameter will be taken.
    e.g. if you specify p/12341234 p/56785678, only p/56785678 will be taken.

  • Extraneous parameters for commands that do not take in parameters (such as exit) will be ignored.
    e.g. if the command specifies exit 123, it will be interpreted as exit.

This section is separated into the following sub-sections:

The command summary table can also be accessed here.

General Commands

Viewing help : help

Shows information about available commands and how they can be used.

Format: help [COMMAND]

  • If command is not specified, a summary of all available commands will be displayed, along with a link to access the full user guide.
  • Click the ‘OPEN URL’ button to open the full user guide.
  • If command is specified, detailed information about the command will be displayed.
  • If multiple commands are specified, only the last command will be taken.

Example 1

Let’s say you are unsure about the commands that ParentPal offers. You can follow the steps below to view a help window.

Steps:

  1. Type help in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. A help window with details of all commands will open.

help_1

Example 2

Let’s say that you want to view more details about the add command. You can follow the steps below to view a help window for the add command.

Steps:

  1. Type help add in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. A help window with details of the add command will open. help_2

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Example 1

Let’s say you are done with ParentPal and would like to close the application. You can follow the steps below to close ParentPal.

Steps:

  1. Type exit in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. ParentPal closes.

Changing ParentPal’s theme : theme

Changes the theme of ParentPal.

Format: theme o/OPTION

Current available options for the OPTION field include:

Option Description
light Sets ParentPal to light theme
dark Sets ParentPal to dark theme

Light theme: LightTheme

Dark theme: DarkTheme

:bulb: Tip: ParentPal’s theme is set to dark by default.

Example 1

Let’s say you would like to try ParentPal’s light theme. You can follow the steps below to change ParentPal to the light theme.

Steps:

  1. Type theme o/light in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. ParentPal will change to the light theme. theme_1

Address Book Commands

Adding a contact: add

Adds a contact to the address book.

Format: add n/NAME [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ [t/TAG]…​

:bulb: Tip: A contact can have any number of tags (including 0)
:bulb: Tip: You can add a contact with only some of the information, you can fill in the rest later on using the edit command.

Example 1

Let’s say you want to add a contact, but you only know his phone number. You can follow the steps below to add the contact with incomplete fields.

Steps:

  1. Type add n/John Doe p/98765432 in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. John Doe’s contact will appear in the Contact List. add_1

Example 2

Let’s say you want to add contact of your child’s math teacher, and you have all her details. You can follow the steps below to add the contact with complete fields.

Steps:

  1. Type add n/Betsy Crowe e/betsycrowe@example.com a/ABC Primary School p/1234567 t/teacher t/math tc/Alice in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. Betsy Crowe’s contact will appear in the Contact List. add_2

Deleting a contact : delete

Deletes the specified contact(s) from the address book.

Format: delete INDEX [MORE_INDEXES]…​

  • Deletes the contact at the specified INDEX or multiple INDEXES.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed Contact List.
  • Indexes must be positive integers: ie. 1, 2, 3, …​
  • If deleting multiple contacts by multiple indexes, the indexes must be separated by a whitespace and must all be valid.
:exclamation: Caution: Contacts that are involved with appointments cannot be deleted.


Example 1

Let’s say you want to delete the fifth contact in the Contact List. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type delete 5 in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The fifth contact will disappear from the Contact List. delete_1

Example 2

Let’s say you want to delete multiple contacts at once (for example, the first three contacts), you can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type delete 1 2 3 in the Command Box.
  2. Press enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message. If any of the contacts you are trying to delete is involved in an appointment, the Status Box will show an error message to notify you on which contacts were successfully deleted, and which failed to delete.
  2. The successfully deleted contacts will disappear from the Contact List, but contacts with appointments will remain in the Contact List. delete_2

Editing a contact : edit

Edits an existing contact in the address book.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ [t/TAG]…​

  • Edits the contact at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed Contact List.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
  • Existing values will be updated to the input values.
  • You can remove the optional fields (phone, email and address) by typing p/, e/ or a/ without specifying any phone, email or address after it.
  • You can remove all the contact’s tags by typing t/ or tc/ without specifying any tags after it. Note: both regular tags and child tags will be removed in both situations.
:exclamation: Caution: When editing tags, the existing tags of the contact will be replaced i.e. adding of tags is not cumulative. For cumulative addition of tags, see the tag command.


Example 1

Let’s say you want to edit the name of the second contact. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type edit 2 n/Betsy in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The name of the second contact has been replaced with ‘Betsy’. edit_1

Example 2

Let’s say you have added the second contact, but you did not include any email during the adding process. You can follow the steps below to add an email to the first contact.

Steps:

  1. Type edit 2 e/betsy@example.com in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The email of the second contact has been added as ‘betsy@example.com’. edit_2

Example 3

Let’s say you want to remove some fields like the email and tags of the first contact. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type edit 1 t/ e/ in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The email and tags field of the first contact has been removed, and you can no longer see it in the contact details of the first contact. edit_3

Finding contacts: find

Find contacts based on the given option.

If no options are specified, all of a contact’s fields will be searched and any keyword matches in any one of the fields will display that contact.

Format: find [o/OPTION] KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]…​

Current available options for the [OPTION] field include:

Option Description
name Finds by the name of the contact
address Finds by the address of the contact
phone Finds by the phone number of the contact
email Finds by the email of the contact
tag Finds by the tags of the contact (only exact tags will be matched)
:exclamation: Caution: When using the tag option t/ needs to be placed in front of the tag you are searching for. Also, note that only exact matches will be returned for find by tag.
Example: find o/tag t/first t/second
  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g alex will match ALEX.
  • The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. john doe will match doe john.
  • Incomplete words will also be matched e.g. Ale will match Alex.
  • Contacts with any field matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search) e.g. Alex David will return Alex Yeoh, David Li.
  • If n contacts can be found, message “n Contact(s) listed!” will be displayed e.g. when 0 results are found, “0 Contact(s) listed!” is displayed.

Example 1

Let’s say you want to find all the contacts in your address book named John. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type find o/name John in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All the contacts whose name contains the word ‘john’ will be displayed in the Contact List. find_1

Example 2

Let’s say you only remember that a contact has the word ‘lee’ in his name or email. You find contacts with any of their fields containing the word ‘lee’ by following the steps below.

Steps:

  1. Type find lee in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All the contacts with any of their fields containing the word ‘lee’ will be displayed in the Contact List. find_2

Listing all contacts : list

Display all contacts from the address book in the Contact List.

Format: list [o/OPTION]

Current available options for the [OPTION] field include:

Option Description
fav Displays all favourited contacts in the Contact List
:bulb: Tip: To favourite a contact, use the fav command.

Example 1

Let’s say you want to view all your contacts again, as you have just filtered the contacts by some keywords. You can follow the steps below to view all your contacts.

Steps:

  1. Type list in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All contacts are now displayed in the Contact List. list_1

Example 2

Let’s say you want to view all of your favourite contacts. You can follow the steps below to view all of your favourite contacts.

Steps:

  1. Type list o/fav in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All favourite contacts are now displayed in the Contact List. list_2

Adding/replacing tags to a contact: tag

Adds or replaces tags to the specified contact.

Format: tag INDEX [o/OPTION] [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ [t/TAG]…​

  • Tags the contact at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed Contact List.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Current available options for the [OPTION] field include:

Option Description
replace Replaces the currently existing tags with the given new set of tags


Example 1

Let’s say that the first contact has some tags, and you would like to add more tags to the existing tags of the first contact. You can follow the steps below to append more tags.

Steps:

  1. Type tag 1 t/School t/English in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The tags ‘School’ and ‘English’ are now added to the existing tags of the first contact. tag_1

Example 2

Let’s say that you want to replace all the tags of the first contact. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type tag 1 o/replace tc/Alexa t/English in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The child tags for the first contact have been replaced with the child tag ‘Alexa’.
  3. The tags for the first contact have been replaced with the tag ‘English’. tag_2

Favourite a contact : fav

Format: fav INDEX [o/OPTION]

  • Favourite the contact at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed Contact List.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Current available options for the [OPTION] field include:

Option Description
remove Unfavourites the specified contact
:bulb: Tip: When a contact is favourited, the star next to their name will become filled. When a contact is unfavourited, the star will turn empty.

Example 1

Let’s say that you want to highlight the first contact as it is an important contact, you can do this by favouriting the first contact. You can follow the steps below to favourite a contact.

Steps:

  1. Type fav 1 in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The first contact is now favourited, and the star in the contact is filled. fav_1

Example 2

Let’s say that you want to unfavourite the first contact. You can follow the steps below to unfavourite the contact.

Steps:

  1. Type fav 1 o/remove in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The first contact is now unfavourited and the star in the contact is not filled. fav_2

Sorting all contacts : sort

Sorts the address book in the order based on the given option.

Format: sort o/OPTION

Current available options for the [OPTION] field include:

Option Description
name Sorts by name (alphabetical order)
date Sorts by date added (chronological order)
:bulb: Tip: The sorting order is saved across different use sessions. The default order is by the date the contact was added.
:bulb: Tip: If sort is entered after executing find, a sorted found list will be displayed as explained in the 3rd example above.
The sort order will also be saved and the full address book will be sorted.

Example 1

Let’s say you want to sort the address book by the date the contacts were added. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type sort o/date in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The Contact List is now sorted by the date the contacts were added. sort_1

Example 2

Let’s say you searched for contacts tagged with ‘teacher’ and want to sort the contacts found by alphabetical order. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type sort o/name in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The Contact List is now in alphabetical order. sort_2

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the address book or clears all contacts with the specified tags.

Format: clear [t/TAG]…​

:exclamation: Caution: The TAG here does not differentiate between child tags and regular tags. This command will delete all entries that match any of the given tags.


Example 1

Let’s say you want to clear all contacts from ParentPal. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type clear in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The Contact List is now empty. clear_1

Example 2

Let’s say you want to clear all contacts tagged with ‘teacher’. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type clear t/teacher in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All contacts tagged with ‘teacher’ are removed from the Contact List if none of them are involved in appointments. Otherwise, an error message will be shown. clear_2

Appointment Book Commands

Adding an appointment : addAppt

Adds an appointment to the appointment book.

Format: addAppt n/NAME a/ADDRESS d/DATE [c/CONTACT_INDEX]…​ [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​

  • The contact in the Contact List at the specified CONTACT_INDEX is added to the appointment.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed Contact List.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • DATE has to be in the format ‘dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm’.
:exclamation: Caution: An appointment with the exact same name, date, time and address as an appointment that already exists in the Appointment List cannot be added.
:exclamation: Caution: ParentPal currently does not support checking for clashing appointments. Please make sure to check your availability before adding new appointments. This can be done with the help of findAppt by date.

Example 1

Let’s say you just received the details of the annual parent-teacher meeting at Alice’s school. You can follow the steps below to add the appointment to ParentPal.

Steps:

  1. Type addAppt n/PTM a/ABC Primary School d/21/03/2021 10:00 c/2 tc/alice in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The appointment appears in the Appointment List. addAppt_1

Deleting an appointment : deleteAppt

Deletes the specified appointment from the appointment book.

Format: deleteAppt INDEX

  • Deletes the appointment at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed appointment list.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​


Example 1

Let’s say you are viewing the full list of appointments, and you want to delete the 2nd appointment in the appointment list. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type deleteAppt 2 in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The 2nd appointment in the Appointment List is removed. deleteAppt_1

Example 2

Let’s say you want to delete an appointment named ‘PTM’. You can follow the steps below to find all appointments named ‘PTM’, then delete one of them.

Steps:

  1. Type findAppt o/name ptm in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.
  3. Only appointments with ‘ptm’ in their name will be listed in the Appointment List.
  4. Say the first appointment is the one you want to delete. Type deleteAppt 1 in the Command Box.
  5. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The 1st appointment in the Appointment List is removed. deleteAppt_2

Editing an appointment : editAppt

Edits an existing appointment in the appointment book.

Format: editAppt INDEX [n/NAME] [a/ADDRESS] [d/DATE] [c/CONTACT_INDEX]…​ [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​

  • Contacts in the Contact List at the specified CONTACT_INDEX is added to the appointment.
  • Edits the appointment at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed Appointment Book.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • DATE has to be in the format ‘dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm’.
  • At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
  • Existing values will be updated to the input values.
  • When editing tags and contacts, the existing tags and contacts of the contact will be removed i.e the operation is not cumulative.

Example 1

Let’s say you want to edit the first appointment in the full Appointment List so that the name and address is changed to ‘PSG meeting’ and ‘ABC Secondary School’ respectively and replace all related contacts with the 1st contact on the Contact List. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type editAppt 1 n/PSG meeting a/ABC Secondary School c/1 in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. The first appointment’s name, address and related contacts are updated. editAppt_1

Finding appointments: findAppt

Find appointments based on the given option.

If no options are specified, all of an appointment’s fields will be searched and any keyword matches in any one of the fields will return that appointment.

Format: findAppt [o/OPTION] KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]…​

  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g ptm will match PTM.
  • The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Teacher meeting will match Meeting teacher.
  • Incomplete words will also be matched e.g. PT will match PTM.
  • Appointments with any field matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search) e.g. Teacher meeting will return Speak to ballet teacher, PSG meeting.
  • If n appointments can be found, message “n Appointment(s) listed!” will be displayed e.g. when 0 results are found, “0 Appointment(s) listed!” is displayed.

Current available options for the [OPTION] field include:

Option Description
name Finds by the name of the appointment
child Finds by the child that the appointment is tagged to
address Finds by the address of the appointment
date Finds by the date of appointment
contact Finds by the name of the contacts involved in the appointment

Example 1

Let’s say you want to search for all appointments with any fields containing ‘psg’. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type findAppt psg in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All appointments with ‘ptm’ in any of their fields will be listed in the Appointment List. findAppt_1

Example 2

Let’s say you want to search for all appointments related to a contact named Annie. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type findAppt o/contact annie in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All appointments with Annie as a related contact will be listed in the Appointment List. findAppt_2

Listing all appointments : listAppt

Displays all appointments in the appointment book in the Appointment List.

List of appointments is always sorted in chronological order.

Format: listAppt


Example 1

Let’s say you want to view the full list of appointments. You can follow the steps below to do so.

Steps:

  1. Type listAppt in the Command Box.
  2. Press Enter to execute.

Outcome:

  1. The Status Box will show a success message.
  2. All the appointments will be listed in the Appointment List. listAppt_1

Managing ParentPal Data

Saving your data

ParentPal data is saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing data files

ParentPal data is saved as two JSON files in the data directory at [JAR file location]/data as addressbook.json and appointmentbook.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, ParentPal will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run.
:exclamation: Caution: Changes to the data files may cause ParentPal to behave unexpectedly, edit the files at your own risk.

Transferring your data to another device

Exporting your data
  1. Locate the data folder on your device which can be found in the same folder as your parentpal.jar file.
  2. Transfer this data folder to your other device.
Importing your data
  1. Install ParentPal on your new device and run it once, exit the program before proceeding.
  2. Copy the data folder from your old device to the new device to the same folder as where you installed the parentpal.jar file.
  3. Override the files on your new device if prompted.

Congratulations! You have successfully transferred your data to a new device.

FAQ

Q: What’s the difference between a child tag and a regular tag?
A: ChildTags are meant to represent your children, useful especially if you have multiple children. Child tags will always appear at the front of the list of tags for each contact and are displayed in a different color to differentiate them. Any command that works with regular tags such as find will also work with child tags.

Q: What’s the difference between address book and contact list? What’s the difference between appointment book and appointment list?
A: The address book refers to all the contacts currently stored by ParentPal, including what is not currently displayed in the interface. The contact list refers to what is currently displayed on screen. Similarly, the appointment book refers to all appointments stored by ParentPal while the appointment list only refers to what is currently displayed on screen, see Interface of ParentPal.

Q: Why is your application named ParentPal?
A: It is named ParentPal because it aims to be a ‘pal’ to the busy parents who need help with managing their kids’ schedules and important contacts.

Command Summary

Action Format Examples
​ General Commands  
Exit exit  
Help help [COMMAND] help find
Theme theme o/OPTION theme o/light
​ Address Book Commands  
Add add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ [t/TAG]…​ add n/James Ho p/22224444 e/jamesho@example.com a/123, Clementi Rd, 1234665 t/friend t/colleague
Delete delete INDEX delete 3
Edit edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ [t/TAG]…​ edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com
Find find [o/OPTION] KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS] find John
List list [o/OPTION]  
Tag tag INDEX [o/OPTION] [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ [t/TAG]…​ tag 4 t/School t/English
Favourite fav INDEX [o/OPTION] fav 3 o/remove
Sort sort o/OPTION sort o/name
Clear clear [t/TAG]…​  
​ Appointment Book Commands  
Add addAppt n/NAME a/ADDRESS d/DATE [c/CONTACT_INDEX]…​ [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ addAppt n/PTM a/ABC Primary School d/21/03/2021 10:00 c/2
Delete deleteAppt INDEX deleteAppt 2
Edit editAppt INDEX [n/NAME] [a/ADDRESS] [d/DATE] [c/CONTACT_INDEX]…​ [tc/CHILD_TAG]…​ editAppt 1 n/PSG meeting a/ABC Secondary School c/1
Find findAppt [o/OPTION] KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]…​ findAppt PTM
List listAppt  

Glossary

  • Action: Executed command
  • Address book: Section of the application that stores and manages contact data
  • Appointment: Entry in the appointment book containing an appointment’s information
  • Appointment list: List of appointments displayed, see Interface of ParentPal
  • Appointment book: Section of the application that stores and manages appointment data
  • CLI: Application where you perform actions by typing commands into a command box
  • Command: The input the user enters into the Command Box to perform an action
  • Contact: Entry in the address book containing a contact’s information
  • Contact list: List of contacts displayed, see Interface of ParentPal
  • GUI: Application where you interact with it via graphical icons such as buttons
  • Home folder: The folder containing all the files needed to run ParentPal
  • Index: Index number shown in the displayed contact/appointment list