In our in-depth series on Leasey 11.5, we have spent a lot of time looking at features which are either brand new or substantially redesigned.
Some of those features, such as LeaseySocial, are new arrivals. Others, such as LeaseyCuts, have been with Leasey since the very beginning and have now been given a more flexible modern design.
LeaseyDiary belongs in that second group.
It too has been around since Leasey version 1.
For many longstanding Leasey users, the diary is one of those features which may already feel familiar. It has always had a clear purpose: to give people using JAWS a practical way of managing appointments from the keyboard.
But in Leasey 11.5, LeaseyDiary is more capable.
It still has the spirit of the older feature. It still gives you a way to move through dates, review appointments, and add items to your diary. But it now has a clearer multi-view layout, better automatic feedback from JAWS, more flexible appointments, reminders, meeting links, attachments, export options, Braille status support, Phone Calendar Subscription, and tools for bringing forward information from the old LeaseyDiary.
This is not change for the sake of change.
It is the same idea made more useful for the way people work now.
Starting LeaseyDiary.
LeaseyDiary is available by pressing the Leasey Key followed by Control+Shift+Y.
The diary is built around three main views:
Day view.
Week view.
Month view.
You can move between these views with Alt+1 for Day view, Alt+2 for Week view, and Alt+3 for Month view. You can also choose the appropriate radio button from the main LeaseyDiary screen.
The radio button group contains a fourth item, LeaseyTasks, which is a related area of the application and is covered later in this post. Its presence gives a hint that the diary is part of a broader planning environment.
The important point is that LeaseyDiary is not limited to a single list.
Sometimes you want to know what is happening today.
Sometimes you want the week ahead.
Sometimes you want the month.
The three views make that possible.
Useful JAWS Feedback as You Move.
One of the nicest features of the new LeaseyDiary is that JAWS announces useful information automatically as you move around.
When you switch to a different view, JAWS speaks the number of appointments in that period.
For example, when you move to Day view, Week view or Month view, you are told how many appointments are in the selected day, week or month.
This is extremely useful because it gives you an instant sense of how busy a period is.
You do not have to explore the whole screen just to discover whether anything is there.
The same idea applies when you use Go to Date with Control+G. If you move to another date, JAWS announces the number of appointments for that day automatically. If you move manually through days, weeks or months using the provided combo boxes, JAWS also announces the number of appointments for the selected range.
This kind of feedback matters in a diary.
Dates can be empty, busy, or somewhere in between. A sighted user may glance at a calendar and immediately see that a day contains several items. A screen reader user needs an efficient equivalent. LeaseyDiary tries to provide that by speaking useful summary information as you move.
Moving Around the Main Window.
The main window contains date and view controls and the appointments list.
You can press Tab to move through the application systematically. JAWS announces keystrokes for some controls, and those commands can speed up navigation. For example, Alt+D focuses on the day picker combo box. Alt+L moves focus directly to the list of appointments for the selected day, week or month.
If focus is on one of the main date controls for the current view, such as the day, week or month combo box, pressing Enter moves directly into the appointments list for that selection.
If focus is in the appointments list, pressing Escape moves back to the first date control for the current view.
When focus is in the appointments list, Up and Down Arrow move through appointments. Enter opens the selected appointment. Alt+E edits it. Delete removes it.
If there are no appointments in the selected period, LeaseyDiary tells you.
These are simple rules, and that is a strength. A diary should not make you fight the interface before you can find out what is happening on Wednesday.
Going to Dates.
Control+G opens Go to Date.
The Go to Date feature accepts ordinary numeric dates according to your selected date format. It also accepts entries such as 6 May, May 6, 6 May 2026, May 6 2026, today, tomorrow, and 4 weeks from today.
If you enter a month and day without a year, LeaseyDiary assumes you mean the next matching date from today onward.
That is exactly the kind of practical behaviour a diary needs.
If it is June and you type 6 May without a year, you probably do not mean the 6 May which has already passed. You are more likely looking for the next one. LeaseyDiary makes that assumption for you. And if you simply want to move to tomorrow, or several weeks from now, you can express that naturally rather than calculating the date first.
Searching the Diary.
Press Control+F to search.
You can enter text which must be present in the Subject field or appointment notes.
LeaseyDiary then offers three search choices.
Search Entire Calendar brings all matching appointments into a list. Press Enter on any one of them to move to it.
Search From This Date Forward takes you to the next occurrence of an appointment containing the search text.
Search From This Date Backward takes you to the previous occurrence.
After choosing the search type, press Alt+S or move to the Search button.
If you choose one of the forward or backward search options, F3 moves to the next occurrence and Shift+F3 moves back.
This gives you both kinds of search experience.
If you want a list of all matching appointments, you can have that.
If you want to move through matching appointments one by one from the date you are on, you can do that too.
Useful Diary Tools.
The Tools menu opens with Alt+Comma.
Some tools have direct shortcut keys, so the menu is not always necessary.
Several long-standing Leasey tools remain available here:
Control+Shift+Y copies today's date.
Control+Shift+W answers What day is this? Type a date and Leasey returns the day. For example type 12 June 1985 and Leasey returns Wednesday.
Control+Shift+D gets days from dates. Type two dates and Leasey returns the number of days between them.
Control+Shift+P works with days of future and past. Type a number such as 14 to represent 14 days ahead and Leasey returns the date on which it falls.
These are old existing Leasey features, and it is good to see them sitting naturally inside the new diary environment.
There are also export options.
Export whole diary as text allows the diary to be exported to a text file.
Export whole diary as ICS allows the diary to be exported to an ICS file, which may be imported into another calendar.
Where Am I and Command Centre.
Where Am I is available with Control+Shift+I.
It gives a short orientation message about your current position in the app. For example, it may tell you which view is active, which filter or list you are on, or what the current field is inside a dialog.
This is helpful because a diary contains several different contexts. You might be in Day view, the appointments list, a search dialog, Options, Phone Calendar Subscription, or an appointment editor. Where Am I gives you a quick way to confirm your place.
Leasey Command Centre is available with Control+Shift+C.
This is a searchable command window designed to help you reach commands quickly from the keyboard. Type part of a command name, a shortcut idea, or a helpful word such as settings, search, tasks, export or browser. As you type, the Matching commands list is filtered.
Each result includes the command name and its shortcut where one exists.
Examples include New item, Options, Where Am I, Find and Copy today's date.
Where Am I also works inside Leasey Command Centre.
This is becoming a consistent pattern in Leasey 11.5. Feature-rich applications do not have to become hard to use if they give people good ways to orient themselves and locate commands.
Creating a New Appointment.
Press Control+N to create a new appointment.
The appointment dialog contains a detailed set of fields.
Start Date and End date are used for the appointment date range. A one-day appointment can use the same start and end date. The format is flexible in terms of date composition, and you can also enter phrases such as "4 weeks from today.
You can enter ordinary dates in your chosen format, written dates such as 19 June or June 19, and simple relative dates such as today, tomorrow, now or 4 weeks from now. Relative dates are worked out from the currently selected diary date.
When you leave the date field, LeaseyDiary speaks the resolved weekday and date. That is a very helpful safeguard because it gives you a chance to catch mistakes before the appointment is saved.
Time type lets you choose All day, Specific time, Morning, Afternoon or Evening.
If you choose Specific time, you can enter times in 24-hour format or with AM/PM. Examples include 13:00, 5:00PM and 5 PM.
If the End date is later than the Start date, LeaseyDiary also allows overnight times. For example, a Start time of 21:45 and an End time of 06:00 is valid if the End date is the following day.
Subject is the main title of the appointment.
Meeting link allows you to store a Zoom, Teams or other online meeting link.
Meeting attachment allows you to attach a file path if you want to keep a related document with the appointment.
Repeat settings allow appointments to repeat daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. You can also choose whether the repeating appointment never ends, ends after a number of occurrences, or ends on a particular date.
Notes can hold any extra detail you want to store with the appointment.
This makes the appointment record much more useful than a date and a title.
Many modern appointments involve links, documents or repeated events. LeaseyDiary gives those details a place.
Advanced Reminder.
There is also a Create Advanced Reminder option.
This allows you to specify the number of days ahead you would like an appointment set. It is important to understand what this does. Checking this box does not create a reminder. It creates an appointment in the diary the specified number of days ahead.
That can be useful when something needs to be prepared before the main event.
For example, if Jane's birthday is on Friday and you want a diary entry three days earlier reminding you to buy her a gift, this option can help create that earlier item.
Opening and Reading Appointments.
Press Enter on any appointment in the list to open its details.
The details window gives a read-only view of the appointment information.
If a meeting link or attachment has been added, you can reach those controls by pressing Tab. This makes it easy to review the appointment and then move to the link or attachment.
This is another practical design decision.
Sometimes you want to edit an appointment. Sometimes you only want to read it, open the meeting link, or find the associated document. The read-only details view supports that.
Reminders.
LeaseyDiary includes reminders for timed appointments.
To set a reminder, create or edit an appointment, choose Specific time as the time type, check the Set reminder check box, choose how many minutes before the appointment the reminder should occur, and choose the reminder method.
There are three reminder methods:
Speech.
Sound.
Speech and Sound.
If Speech is chosen, you can enter the message that should be displayed in a dialog box.
If Sound is chosen, you can type a sound file path, browse to a file, or press Choose to pick from built-in JAWS and Windows sounds. You can also press Preview to hear the selected sound.
If Speech and Sound is chosen, you can supply both the message and the sound.
When you choose or browse to a sound, LeaseyDiary remembers that sound and offers it again as the default next time.
This makes reminders practical and flexible. Some people will want speech. Some will prefer a sound. Some will want both.
If you want reminders to be monitored when your computer starts, open Options with Control+Comma and ensure Minimize to system tray on close is checked.
Duplicating Appointments.
Sometimes an appointment is not recurring in a neat pattern, but you still want to copy it.
LeaseyDiary includes a Duplicate option.
Find the appointment, press Alt+U or move to the Duplicate button, and choose when the copied appointment should take place. Options include choices such as one week from the original date, two weeks from the original date, and a custom date.
The copied appointment opens in the normal editor for review. You can change any details before saving it.
This is ideal for appointments which are similar but not quite regular enough to be repeating appointments.
Options.
Options opens with Control+Comma.
Options includes settings such as Minimize to system tray on close, time display, week starts, default reminder method, and data location.
These are practical settings which affect how the diary behaves day to day. For example, the week start day matters a great deal to how people think about their calendar, the default reminder method can reduce repeated setup when creating timed appointments, and minimizing to the system tray is important if reminders should keep being monitored.
Phone Calendar Subscription.
One of the most interesting additions is Phone Calendar Subscription.
LeaseyDiary can keep a read-only calendar file updated for use on a phone or tablet.
This does not send your diary to Hartgen Consultancy.
Instead, LeaseyDiary writes an ICS file to a folder you choose, such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive or iCloud Drive. You then create a sharing link to that file and subscribe to the link from your calendar app.
This is a very useful approach and gives us, at least for now, access to the widest range of calendar platforms.
Many people want their appointments available on a phone, but they may not want to manage the diary directly on the phone. With this feature, LeaseyDiary remains the place where appointments are created and managed, while the phone can subscribe to a read-only calendar copy.
The Phone Calendar Subscription window includes the calendar file path, Browse, options to include notes, meeting links and attachment paths, a Subscription URL field, Check subscription URL, Copy subscription URL, Publish now, and Save and close.
The privacy options are important. Notes, meeting links and attachment paths can contain sensitive information. LeaseyDiary lets you decide whether those details should be included in the published calendar.
When setting up the feature, you choose where the ICS file should be stored. If you use Dropbox, for example, you might save the file straight into your Dropbox folder as LeaseyDiary.ics.
Quoted paths copied from File Explorer are accepted.
Save and close saves the settings and creates or updates the ICS file at the path you chose. Publish now is available if you later want to force an immediate refresh without changing the settings.
Checking the Subscription Link.
After the ICS file has been created and you have generated a sharing link, LeaseyDiary can help check it.
Paste the link into the Subscription URL field and press Check subscription URL.
LeaseyDiary tries to tell you whether the link appears to point directly to the calendar file. If the link looks suitable, it tells you that it looks like a calendar subscription link. If the link does not appear to return the calendar file directly, it warns that your calendar app may not be able to subscribe to it.
There is also a helpful Dropbox detail.
Dropbox links sometimes end with dl=0. LeaseyDiary automatically changes that to dl=1, because a direct calendar subscription link is usually more likely to work with dl=1 than dl=0.
Once the link has been checked, you can copy it and use your phone or calendar service to subscribe to it. The exact steps depend on whether you are using Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook or another app, but the key point is that you subscribe to the link rather than importing the file manually each time.
After setup, LeaseyDiary keeps updating the ICS file when appointments change. This means the shared calendar file should stay current without needing a full export every time.
If you want to stop this happening, clear the Calendar file path field and choose Save and close. Deleting the ICS file on its own is not enough, because if the saved path is still present, LeaseyDiary will recreate the file the next time it publishes.
Importing From Old LeaseyDiary.
Because LeaseyDiary has been around since Leasey version 1, existing diary information matters.
From the LeaseyDiary main window, press Alt+Z to import calendar entries from the old LeaseyDiary. The conversion should happen automatically, and you will be told how many appointments have been converted.
That is important.
A redesigned diary should not ask longstanding users to leave their history behind.
LeaseyTasks.
The main LeaseyDiary radio button group also includes LeaseyTasks.
Press Alt+4 to move to LeaseyTasks.
Tasks can have a possible completion date, category, priority, percentage complete, reminder, attachment and notes.
This gives LeaseyDiary a second kind of planning information. Appointments are tied to dates and times. Tasks are often things which need to be done, tracked, categorised or followed up.
If a task has a due date and is not completed by that date, LeaseyDiary treats it as Past due automatically.
Past due is not something you set manually in the task editor. It is calculated from the due date and shown automatically in task lists, summaries and task details.
The task status filters can show All statuses, Not started and in progress, Not started, In progress, Waiting, Completed, and Past due.
This is useful because task lists can become hard to manage if everything is shown together. Sometimes you want to see what is waiting. Sometimes you want completed items. Sometimes you want the urgent list of things which are now past due.
Why LeaseyDiary Matters.
LeaseyDiary matters because appointments are not just dates.
They are commitments, reminders, meetings, documents, links, phone calls, journeys, classes, birthdays, deadlines and plans.
A good diary does more than store them. It helps you understand what is coming, find what you need, and receive reminders in a way which works for you.
The Leasey 11.5 version keeps the familiar idea which has existed since the first version of Leasey, but it makes it more practical for today.
Day, Week and Month views give you different ways to look at time.
JAWS automatically announces appointment counts so you can quickly understand how busy a period is.
Search helps you find appointments by subject or notes.
Meeting links and attachments keep important resources with the appointment.
Reminders can use speech, sound or both.
Relative date entry and resolved date feedback help reduce mistakes when creating appointments.
The diary can export to text or ICS.
Phone Calendar Subscription can keep a read-only calendar file updated for use on a phone or tablet without sending your diary to Hartgen Consultancy.
Braille status support helps confirmations reach Braille users too.
And old diary information can be brought forward.
LeaseyTasks adds task tracking, including automatic Past due handling and status filters.
That combination makes LeaseyDiary feel like a familiar feature which has grown up carefully.
It respects the past, but it is much better prepared for how people manage their time now.