OnlineHomeBase Email Features

		Simple but Smart (See Why).

Email2OHB features

Many mobile devices, like the Blackberry (shown left) or the Treo 600, offer powerful email capabilities, however their Web browsing features are still too slow for efficient use of a Web-based information manager like OnlineHomeBase.com.

OHB's email-based features offer a work-around. By using email rather than the Web, the following tasks can be accomplished:

Add information, files, reminders to a sheet
Submit calendar entries
Retrieve calendar entries
Search OnlineHomebase

Adding information to a sheet
To add information to a sheet, send an email to username.sheetname@onlinehomebase.com. Replace "username" with your username, and "sheetname" with the name of the sheet you want to add to. You can use "1q11.com" or "onlinehb.com" instead of "onlinehomebase.com" in the email address. OHB will add the contents of the email (including the subject line and a date/time stamp) to the top of the specified sheet. Not specifying a sheet, i.e. sending an email to username@onlinehomebase.com, will add the information to the default "my Notepad" sheet (called "my ToDos" in older accounts). To omit the subject line and the date and time stamp and only have the body of the email added to a sheet, place a "0" (zero) in the subject line. When creating reminders using OHB's reminder code notations, it is important to make OnlineHomebase.com ignore unpertinent elements of an email, like signatures. Placing a "1" (the numeral one) in the subject line will cause OnlineHomeBase to only process the first line of the body of an email and ignore the rest. Thus, if you want to create a reminder like "call Pete ;; monday 0900", place all of it in a single line at the beginning of the email and add a "1" to the subject line.

If you include attachments in the email, they will be uploaded into the sheet, and referenced as links. To have attached images be displayed not as links but "inline" (i.e. inserted as images into the text of the sheet), select the "Display emailed images" option under "sheet properties" in "more functions".

Read how you can use these feature to make keeping a daily journal much easier.

Adding information to OHB calendars
To add entries to a calendar sheet, send an email to username.calendarsheetname__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com (that's two underscores before alternate password), with a subject line beginning with the word "addcal" (case-insensitive) and then stating the day(s) for which you want to make the entry.

(Alternately you can also send an email to username__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com and put "addcal.calendarsheetname" followed by the days in the subject line, replacing "sheetname" with the name of the intended calendar)

Replace spaces in calendar names with underscores. To avoid being affected by email signatures, OHB will process only the first line of the text inside the body of the email, and ignore the rest. "alternatepassword" is a second password you need to have specified in your OHB account, which you can do under "More functions" / "Advanced" after logging into your OnlineHomeBase sheet. This precaution is needed to ensure that not just anybody can read from or write to your calendars. Not specifying a calendar, i.e. sending an email to username__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com together with a subject line beginning with the word "addcal" will cause OHB to default to "my Calendar".

Example:
Let's say you want to add the entry "2000: dinner with Jack" to the default calendar ("my Calendar") for April 6. Let's assume you have specified "12345" as your alternate password, and that your username is "joedoe". You'll then send an email to joedoe.my_calendar__12345@onlinehomebase.com with "addcal 4/6" as the subject line and "2000: dinner with Jack" in the body of the email.

More examples for subject lines:

addcal tue-fri
Adds the first line in the body of the email to the nearest Tue, Wed, Thu, and Fri. If the current day is Tue, it will start with the current day. To specify next week's Tue-Fri use "next week tue-fri" in the subject line. Be careful with the addcal command since it makes it easy to add entries to many days at once.

addcal mon thu sat
Adds the first line in the body of the email to the nearest Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

addcal 5/3 12/1/05
Let's assume it's April 1, 2004. This subject line adds the first line in the body of the email under May 3, 2004 and December 1, 2005

Retrieving information from OHB calendars
To retrieve information from an OHB calendar, use the above instructions together with the "getcal" command in the subject line. For instance, for the above Joe Doe to get the calendar entries for next week Monday to Thursday from your default calendar, he'll need to send an email to joedoe__12345@onlinehomebase.com using "getcal next week mon-thu" as the subject line. OHB will send the requested information to the email address from which it received the request.

(Again, alternately you can also send an email to username__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com and put "getcal.calendarsheetname" followed by the days in the subject line, replacing "sheetname" with the name of the intended calendar)

Searching your OHB account via email.
To search all the sheets and calendars in your account (including archives), send an email to username__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com and use "search searchterm" as the subject line. Replace "searchterm" with the term you want to search for. OHB will send the search results to the email address from it received the email.

To only search a specific sheet or calendar, send the email to username.sheetname__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com and use "search searchterm" as the subject line. Replace spaces in sheet names with underscores.

(Again, alternately you can also send an email to username__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com and put "search.sheetname" followed by the days in the subject line, replacing "sheetname" with the name of the intended sheet)

Sending an email to username__alternatepassword@onlinehomebase.com and using "searchcal searchterm" as the subject line will confine the search to the default calendar (called "my Calendar").

Modifying reminders via email

You can use OnlineHomeBase.com to create reminders that are sent to your mobile device via email. Click here for information on how to create reminders.

When you receive a reminder, it contains an html-based interface allowing you to edit modify or delete it in email program like Outlook and Eudora.

However, when using mobile devices like the Blackberry or Treo, it is often more practical to modify a reminder by using the REPLY function.

To delete a reminder, click reply, simply type "del" in the first line, make sure to add a line return, and click "Send".

To modify just the time portion of a reminder (the line that starts with to semicolons [";;"]), click reply, then type a line start with ";;" and the modified time portion, add a line return, and click "Send".

To remove the time portion from a reminder but keep the text portion of it, click reply, type two semicolon immediately followed by a line return, then click "Send".

Instead of two semicolons you may also type two commas (semicolons are difficult to reach on Blackberries).

To modify the text and time portion of a reminder, click reply, then type the entire reminder and add two line returns (important so the system can distinguish the reminder from stuff like signature lines that might be included in the email) and then click "Send".