(last edited on April 29, 2014 at 1:27 am)
UPDATE: The updated 2008 calendar is available here!
The Compact Calendar is designed to provide a compact view of the year, with plenty of space for making annotations. I use it as to “doodle plan” project timelines during meetings with clients. Since the days are presented contiguously while retaining the days of the week, you get a more intuitive sense of how the days are flowing and can estimate accordingly.
You can also select rows within Microsoft Excel (required) and “Print Selection” to print just a portion of the year. Useful for short-term projects.
I sometimes also print these out and tape them to available surfaces, like the inside of a notebook, to have a handy calendar available. For a more in-depth look at design rationale, check out my original 2006 writeup.
The original US updated file, incidentally, were provided by reader Daniel Byler, who needed them for his own work. He selflessly forwarded them to me so all could enjoy. Thanks Daniel! You rock!
US Version
» Download US Version of 2007 Compact Calendar
CompactCalendar2007.zip
Other Locales
If you have a localized version you’d like to share, let me know!
» Australian Version from A Random
» Brazillian Version from Paulo Rodrigo Teixeira
» Canadian Version from “Quanta”
» Chinese Versions from Camelot Castle
» Columbian (Spanish) Version from Vida En Orden
» German Version from Lennart Groetzbach
» French Version from Le Tisseur De Toile
» Hungarian Version from “Kobak”
» Italian Version from Luca Magnani » Italian Version with Week #s from Paolo Ciarrocchi
» Japanese Version from Yoshiomi Kurisu
» Netherlands & Frisian Version from Piter
» New Zealand Version from bignoseduglyguy
» Norwegian Version from Vidar Gundersen
» Portuguese Version (European) from “Rip”
» Russian Version from “Bobr”
» Singaporean Version from Chew LH
» South African Version from Jason Bagley
» Spanish Version from Jeroen Sangers
» Swedish Version from Jim Carlberg
» UK/Wales Version from Clive Griffiths
» UK/Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland Version from Bruce Marriot
If you’d like to contribute a localized version, please:
- Post your files on your own website.
- Write a blog post or web page linking to your files.
- Send me a note and a link to your web page.
Thanks!
PDF Versions
PDF versions for those of you who don’t have Excel installed. Also including a generic no-holiday version, for those of you without a localized version available.
» PDF of 2007 Compact Calendar (week starting Sunday)
CompactCalendar2007ss.pdf
» PDF of 2007 Compact Calendar (week starting Monday)
CompactCalendar2007ms.pdf
» PDF of 2007 Compact Calendar (Generic week starting Sunday)
CompactCalendar2007genss.pdf
» PDF of 2007 Compact Calendar (Generic week starting Monday)
CompactCalendar2007genms.pdf
37 Comments
sweet! any updates of 2007 CEO forms?
I’m slowly getting to them. I’ll probably hit the Task Progress Tracker forms first, as they’re the ones that people tend to use in the future more often. No other changes. The yearly change is a pain in the butt, but it’s also a reason for people to come back at least once a year to see what’s new.
Thanks David. I have used your Compact Calendar quite a lot last year, and plan to use it even more in the coming year.
As I am based in Spain, I translated the calendar into Spanish and put the local holdays in it.
Jeroen: Thanks for the Spanish update! I’ve linked it into the list of available versions.
Wow! I’ve been using almost an exact copy of this for the last two years, and I now just found this. Yours’ nicer though, I didn’t use to have the nice, discrete month separators. Also I’ve been using a MTWTFSS-layout, as I’m European.
I’ll try this one out too, looks handy, I like bubbles for blocks of time too, I usually have 2 week projects
I don’t work sat/sun luckily so I think I’ll replace those columns with the quarter, and week number, like Q4 W51
Super nice!
Now all I need is a printer.
Hehe
Hey Dave,
here is the German version of your compact calendar:
http://www.lennartgroetzbach.de/blog/2006/12/19/zeitplanung-auf-papier-die-07er-edition/
Hi, Lennart made a german version of this calendar.
I don’t use it yet, but i will :)
Shane, Veronique: Thanks! Glad you like it! :-)
problemlöser, edy: Danke! I’ll link that into the post! :-)
Hey Dave,
I think there is an error in your “week starts Monday” .xlt and .xls files. The formula on January the 1st of 2008 is wrong.
problemlöser: Thanks for the catch! I bet the formula wasn’t transposed correctly when that file modified.
problemlöser: I’m not seeing the problem (didn’t realize you were talking about 2008). When I set the first monday to December 31, 2007, it seems to calculate the rest of the week correctly, though I don’t have a 2008 calendar handy.
I like the fact that Christmas is blue like the other secular holidays. As if to emphasize that it’s become nothing more than an excuse to shop and trade presents. I mean, heck, it’s not even in the correct month to begin with.
Heh, yes. The holidays on the calendar just mark days that MIGHT impact a production schedule. For my region, I have to mark weird massachussetts-only holidays and school vacation weeks sometimes.
Could you provide us with a PDF version of this nifty little calendar? I do not have x-cel on my Mac ;-) thx a lot
Dave: for me its actually working fine but a couple of people were complaining that they are seeing a second 31 in my blog…
Thiemo: good idea! I’ve just made one for US English by printing out the Excel file as PDF. See the updated list above.
problemlöser: Ask them to email a screen capture so we can see where the problem is. I should double-check the files to make sure the formulas are all intact…I just did a cursory check of the submitted files and they looked OK to me.
I think the formular in cell D57 causes the error for some people. It should be =C57+1, shouldn’t it?
Good work!
I like such things as DIY Planner etc., but this Compact Calendar seems to be better than it all.
Lennart: Oh, you’re right. This is a line that’s not in the 2006 version, and it appears to be a problem that only effects the european version. I’ll make an update.
Dogen: Thanks! Glad you like it.
I use something similar that I created myself: http://stufffromkevin.blogspot.com/index.html
Thank you, Dave. These are wonderful – so helpful to visualize the whole year stretching ahead of us – a great space to dream in…
Have a happy new year!
Clive Griffiths has produced some great England/Wales versions but I wanted one with a Monday start to the week and which also covered all the UK Bank holidays ie for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In xls format it’s on this page:
http://bmfiles.pbwiki.com/
It’s all colour coded and the key, if its not dead obvious, is at the bottom. Still fits on A4 of course.
If anybody converts to pdf I’m happy to include on the page, which also includes my contact details.
Hi David, Thanks for the calendar. I’ve tranlated it to a dutch and a frisian version. They can be downloaded from my site
Hi Dave!
Thanks for the calendar. I’ve translated it to spanish but my version has the Argentinan Holidays.
It’ can be downloaded from My Site.
Your calendar demonstrates how conventional calendars are deficient, by dividing up the year into separate blocks of monthly numbers. I’ve worked in Operations Planning in which we must schedule an activity in 20 days, into the next month. Your setup lets me look ‘down’ three lines and ‘left’ one block to confirm the 20-day-away event.
Incidently, if you have to plan for 20 days from Jan 28th you can sum up in your head that the date is then “January 48th” – – then since there are 31 days in January, Jan 48th is also Feb 17th. This technique is even more effective for dates two months ahead: any non-leap year date which exceeds “January 59th” is into March—so determine the “March date,” usually in your head. Dave’s Compact Calendar provides a recheck of the March date far more readily than a conventional calendar.
Thanks Dave. I added a Philippine Version! (http://devbits.blogspot.com/2007/02/compact-calendar-printable-ceo.html)
Hi,
nice calendar. The German version has the ISO calendar week as field before the dates but the numbers are hard coded. You can use following formula to calculate the correct ISO week:
TRUNC((A1-DATE(YEAR(A1-MOD(A1-2;7)+3);1;MOD(A1-2;7)-9))/7)
Exchange A1 by the Monday date field each line.
Have fun
Michael
Thanks David!
I translated the calendar into Galician and put the local holdays in it.
files format avalaible: excel, pdf and OpenOffice (.xls, .pdf, sxc)
http://myblog.es/mondoxibaro/art/1563280/Calendario_compacto_de_Dave
Traducín ao galego o calendario e pusenlle o festivos propios
Grazas David (Jeroen)
arquivos dispoñibles en formato .pdf, .xls e .sxc
no seguinte ligazón: http://myblog.es/mondoxibaro/art/1563280/Calendario_compacto_de_Dave
I have a new link for the Chinese versions. Thx
http://www.camelot.net/sofajournalist/?p=31
are you planning on posting 2008 forms/calendars soon?
It would be useful.
thanks
Just an FYI to say that, due to my own pressing needs at work, I have worked up a localised 2008 compact calendar for New Zealand and posted it at the link below.
http://bignoseduglyguy.com/index.php/?p=376
I would be forever grateful if someone could create and post a 2008 and 2009 Canadian version with holidays.
Hi, David;
We love the Compact Calendar here in the UK. Very very handy indeed!
A colleague and I needed a UK one for 2008 and have an updated version. However, I do not have a place to host it. If you would like to respond to my post, I am happy to mail the UK 2008 one to you (I can’t find out to send an email to you on your site!)
Regards,
Valerie
Hi David,
Being using your 2007 calendar. I have edited your compact calendar to 2008 for Malaysian version.
I published it here:
http://pejalai.blogsome.com/2007/11/17/2008-compact-calendar/
Thanks
Hi, David. Thanks for your campact calendar.
Just want to say that I have made an Indonesia version for 2008; I posted it here: http://priatna.or.id/2007/12/05/kalender-2008/