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Calendar and meeting prompts

Connect your calendar and KeptNote shows your next meetings on Home, names your notes after them, and offers to record when one starts.

Connect your calendar

KeptNote reads the calendars that are already in the Calendar app on your Mac, including iCloud, Google and Exchange calendars you added in System Settings. There is no separate sign-in. Your calendar stays on your Mac. KeptNote uses it only to show upcoming meetings and to suggest titles.

  1. Press Connect Calendar in the first start, or press Connect calendar on Home. You can also open Settings, stay on General, find Calendar, and press Connect next to Calendars.

  2. Allow access in the macOS question.

If you said no before, macOS will not ask again. Connect then opens System Settings, at Privacy & Security, then Calendars. Turn KeptNote on there.

Choose which calendars to use

In Settings, on the General tab, the Calendar section has these rows.

  • Calendars. Press Choose to see your calendars grouped by account, with a switch for each. All are on at first. The line under the title tells you what is on, for example Showing all 4 calendars.
  • Show events with no other people. When you turn it off, events with only you on them stay out of Next, the menu bar and reminders. Focus time is an example.
  • Remind me before meetings start. See the next section.
  • Show my next meeting in the menu bar. It is on at first. The KeptNote icon in the menu bar then shows the next meeting, for example its title and how soon it starts. The menu under the icon has a Record Now button for it.

KeptNote has no button to disconnect your calendar. To stop it, turn all calendars off under Choose, or turn KeptNote off in System Settings, under Privacy & Security, then Calendars. All-day events never show.

What you see on Home

KeptNote's Home page: the date and the line Next: Launch sync at 10:00 AM, in 48 min, a day line of dots under it, a Coming up list with three meetings and their times, a Recent list below it, the Record button at the top right, and an Ask bar at the bottom.

Home with a calendar connected. The next meeting is in the top line, and Coming up lists the day.

  • The top line says what is happening, for example Next: Launch sync at 10:00 AM, in 48 min, or Now: with the title and the end time while a meeting runs. It also says Your calendar is clear for the rest of today. when nothing is left. This reads the next 24 hours.
  • The day line is a thin timeline of your day with a dot for each meeting. Press a dot to see its title, its times and how many people are on it. A Record button shows for a meeting that is not over.
  • Coming up lists the next 7 days, grouped as Today, Tomorrow and then by weekday and date. It shows the first five and a link to show all. Each row has the title, the time, and how many others are on it. A Record button appears from 15 minutes before the meeting starts until it ends.

When you record from a meeting, KeptNote names the note after it. Email draft can then address the note to the other people on the invite.

The meeting reminder

Before a meeting starts, KeptNote can show a small card at the top right of your screen. It floats over other apps and does not take focus. By default it appears two minutes before the meeting. In Remind me before meetings start, choose Off, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes or 10 minutes.

  • The card shows the meeting title and how soon it starts, for example in 2 min.
  • Press Record to start recording that meeting, or press Return after you click the card.
  • Press Not now beside it, or Escape after you click the card, if you do not want to record. Nothing starts.
  • Press the small arrow after the title to see the time, and who is invited. For a recurring meeting, a switch Always record this meeting appears.

If you do not answer, a thin line along the bottom of the card empties over one minute, and then the card shrinks to a small pill that still has Not now and Record. It goes away 10 minutes after the meeting’s start time. If KeptNote cannot show the card, it sends a macOS notification instead, with a Start Recording button. It reads Starts in 2 min or Starting now.

If a call app starts using your microphone shortly after a meeting starts, you get the call prompt and not a second reminder. See Calls on your Mac.

What KeptNote does not do

  • It does not open or join meeting links. Join your call as you always do.
  • It does not show a week view of your calendar. It shows the next 7 days under Coming up.
  • It does not sign in to Google or Outlook by itself. Add those calendars to your Mac first, in System Settings, under Internet Accounts.

Was something unclear? Write to hello@keptnote.com.