Changelog

Version 0.48

A fix, not wording. Two cats could end up with the same name: the page refused a duplicate name when a cat was added, but not when a cat that was already on the list was edited into a name another cat had. The sheet then showed two cat blocks with the same heading, and the daily checklist read "Morning feed: Miso + Miso", so the sitter could not tell which cat was which — the one thing the sheet exists to make clear.

Saving an edited cat under a name that is already on the list is now stopped, with a short message under the buttons in section 3 naming the cat that has that name and saying what to do about it: change the name, or press Cancel edit and edit the other cat. It stops both the "Save changes" button and the Enter key in a cat field, and the message clears as soon as the name is changed to one that is free. The check is made by the small helper script that reads the page back — the same one that sits in front of "Load an example" — because the main script's own check only runs when a cat is added. Nothing else changed: no box, button, tick box or line of the sheet is different from 0.47, and the gaps list, the plain text version and the example data are untouched.

Version 0.47

Wording and layout only, in the small grey hint lines under the boxes in section 1 and section 2. Section 1 had six of them and section 2 had three, and one of them — the one explaining the "Sheet prepared on" line — sat at the very bottom of section 1, nine boxes away from the field it explains.

That paragraph now sits directly under the "Sheet prepared on" box, so the explanation is next to the thing it explains; it says the same things in fewer words (that the date is typed by you, that the page has no clock and stores nothing, and that it prints at the top so the sitter can see how fresh the notes are). The other hints were trimmed the same way, losing repeated clauses rather than facts: the last-visit hint dropped its closing "it prints" clause, the where-things-are hint now points at section 4 in a single clause instead of a list, and section 2's two closing paragraphs are now one, which took section 2 from three grey lines to two. Nothing was dropped that the sheet, the plain text version or the gaps list depends on: no box, button, tick box or line of the sheet changed in this version.

Version 0.46

Layout only, on this page: the "Known limits" block at the foot was one enormous paragraph. It had grown over many versions — every release added a sentence to the end of it — so by 0.45 it was a single block of about forty sentences, with "The Day 2 onward grid" in the middle of it and the note about the first screen at the very end. Nobody reads that on a phone, and the limits are the part a sitter's owner most needs to check.

Nothing was rewritten, reworded or dropped: the same sentences are now grouped into nineteen short bullets, roughly one per thing the page cannot do — what is not saved, the two-press buttons, the empty state, the gaps list, the pen-only tick marks, the note lines, the Day 2 grid, five columns, the leftover food rule, the checklist order, the last-visit steps, print and copy, the medication warning, the memory-aid note, and the history pages. Only the order and the line breaks changed, under a one-line heading that says what the list is. The tool itself is untouched: the sheet, the plain text version, the gaps list, the example data and every box, button and tick box are exactly as they were in 0.45.

Version 0.45

Wording and layout only, in the empty state — the text shown on the right before the first cat is added. The list of what the sheet will contain had grown to ten bullets, one per block, and most of them were a single clause long: a wall of dots to read for someone who has not yet seen a sheet. The same facts are now six bullets, grouped the way the sheet is read: the top of the sheet (bring-with-you, arrival steps, where things are), the feeding table and the prepared-on date, the contacts, the vet with its warning, each cat plus the house notes and jobs, and finally the closing blocks (missing-cat steps, daily checklist, Day 2 grid, last-visit round-up, note lines).

Nothing was dropped: every block the old ten bullets named is still named in one of the six, including the "fill this in before you print" warning and the three-to-five day grid. The sheet itself, the plain text version, the gaps list, the example data and every box, button and tick box are exactly as they were in 0.44.

Version 0.44

This page now starts at version 0.31; versions 0.21 to 0.30 have moved to the earlier versions page with 0.1 to 0.20, word for word, newest first. Nothing was rewritten and no entry was dropped. It is the same job 0.42 did for 0.1 to 0.20, for the same reason: this page had grown back to about 27 KB of history, most of it about controls that no longer look the same, which is a lot to download on a phone for a page most people read once.

The two pages are plain HTML with no moving parts, and the link at the foot of this one names the range it leads to. The tool itself is untouched: the sheet, the plain text version, the gaps list, the example data, every box, button and tick box are exactly as they were in 0.43.

Version 0.43

Wording only, under the buttons in section 3. That spot had grown four grey paragraphs stacked on top of each other, and two of them described the same thing twice: one explained the two-press "Clear everything", the next explained the two-press "Load an example", and both repeated that Escape, typing or about eight seconds cancels the first press. Four small paragraphs before the button is pressed is a lot to read.

Those two are now one, because the buttons behave the same way and the second only differs in when it asks: "Two of these buttons ask before they act..." — clearing asks on the first press, the example asks only once you have typed something, and the cancelling sentence is written once. The line about what the example fills and ticks is unchanged under it, so section 3 now carries three grey lines instead of four. The sheet, the plain text version, the gaps list, the example data and every box, button and tick box are exactly as they were in 0.42.

Version 0.42

This page now keeps the recent versions; the earlier ones have moved to an earlier versions page, linked at the foot of this one. Versions 0.1 to 0.20 are there, newest first, word for word — nothing was rewritten and no entry was dropped, and both pages are plain HTML with no moving parts.

The reason is size: this page had grown to about 36 KB of history, most of it about controls that no longer look the same, which is a lot to download on a phone for a page most people read once. The tool itself is untouched by this version: the sheet, the plain text version, the gaps list, the example data, every box, button and tick box are exactly as they were in 0.41.

Version 0.41

Wording only, at the top of the page. The first screen had grown three grey lines stacked under the heading, and two of them said almost the same kind of thing: that nothing is saved and the sheet appears as you type, and that a "Check the sheet for gaps" list appears above the form once you add a cat, with each line linking to a blank box. Three short paragraphs of small grey text is a lot to read before you have seen the tool.

Those two lines are now one: "Nothing is saved anywhere: the sheet appears as you type, so print or copy it before you close the tab. Add a cat and a "Check the sheet for gaps" list appears above the form, naming every box you have left blank — each line is a link that jumps to that box." Same two facts, one paragraph, so the hero is now heading, lead sentence, who it is for, and a single grey line. Nothing else changed: the sheet, the plain text version, the gaps list, the example data, every box, button and tick box are exactly as they were in 0.40.

Version 0.40

Wording only, in section 3. The line under the buttons explains the two-press "Load an example" button but stopped there, so nothing on the page said what the example does to the controls next to the sheet. There is now a second short line: the example fills every box on the page, and it also ticks the three tick boxes next to the sheet — the leftover-food line, the sitter's note lines and the "Day 2 onward" grid — back on, so you see the whole sheet at once. It also says the example leaves the Day 2 column count (three, four or five) where you set it, because it does.

That is what the button has done since version 0.23, when the example started ticking all three boxes; it was written down only in this changelog. Nothing else changed: the sheet, the plain text version, the gaps list, the example data and every button are exactly as they were in 0.39.

Version 0.39

Wording only, on the right-hand side of the page. The empty state — the text you see before you have added a cat — used to say "Add at least one cat and the care sheet appears here as you type" and then list what the sheet contains. It never mentioned the fastest way to see a finished sheet, which is the "Load an example" button in section 3, so a first-time visitor was told to start typing with no idea what they were aiming at.

It now opens by saying there is nothing to fill in on that side, and gives two ways in: start with one cat in section 3, or press "Load an example" to see a whole filled-in sheet. It also says plainly that the example is sample text, to be edited into your own or cleared. The list of what the sheet contains follows, under a short line saying it is the order the sheet fills up in once a cat is on the list. The sheet itself, the plain text version, the gaps list and every button are unchanged by this version.

Version 0.38

The "Check the sheet for gaps" list is clearer about what it does and does not look at. Its heading now carries the count — "Check the sheet for gaps — 5 boxes to look at" — so you can see the size of the job before reading it, and the line above the list says the one thing that matters, that nothing on it stops you printing.

When more than seven boxes are blank the list used to end with "and 3 more, further down the page", which told you a number and not where to look. It now names the boxes instead — "Also still blank: the clinic address, the arrival steps and the last-visit round-up" — so you know which ones to fill without hunting down the page. The list is capped at seven named lines as before; the boxes past that are named in the same place, without links.

Under the list there is a new short line saying what it checks: the trip and the contacts, the vet, and a food and times row for each cat. It also says plainly what it leaves alone — section 4, the missing-cat notes and the leftover-food box — because those have a standard line or a sensible blank on the sheet and are not gaps. That was a fair question to ask of a list that named every other box on the page. The sheet, the plain text version and every button are unchanged.

Version 0.37

The "Check the sheet for gaps" list now names the vet address and the clinic's opening hours. Both boxes arrived in 0.15 but the gaps list never mentioned them: someone could fill in the clinic name and number, see an empty gaps list, and hand over a sheet with no address on it. Once the clinic box or its phone number has been started, a blank address and a blank opening hours are now their own lines in the list, each linking to its box.

On a sheet where nothing vet-related has been typed yet, the list still shows one vet line rather than three, but its wording now names all four boxes — "the clinic, its phone number, address and opening hours" — so it is clear that the address and hours count as blanks too. No change to the sheet, the plain text version, or any button.

Version 0.36

Wording only: the line under the buttons in section 3 now explains the two-press "Load an example" as well as the two-press "Clear everything". Version 0.35 made the example button ask before it replaced anything you had typed, but the only place that was written down was this changelog — someone using the page just saw the button relabel itself with no explanation on the page. There are now two short lines there: one for clearing, one for the example.

The example line says what actually happens: on a page that is still empty the example loads on one press, and once you have typed anything the first press only warns that it will replace what is on the page while the second press loads it. Escape, typing in any box or waiting about eight seconds cancels the first press. The sheet, the plain text version and every feature are unchanged by this version.

Version 0.35

"Load an example" now asks before it replaces what you have typed. Before this, one press of that button wrote the whole sample sheet over the form: fine on an empty page, but it silently wiped a sheet you had started filling in, with no way back. An empty page is unchanged — the example loads on one press, as before. On a page that already has something in it (anything typed in a box, or a cat on the list) the first press no longer loads anything: the button relabels itself "Press again to replace what you typed", takes a thin outline, and the status line says what a second press will do. The second press loads the example.

The question goes away on its own, exactly as with "Clear everything" from 0.33: pressing Escape, typing in any box, or leaving it about eight seconds puts the button back to "Load an example" and says nothing was loaded. No browser dialog box is used — those are unreliable inside the page's sandbox. The sheet, the plain text version and everything else are unchanged. The line under the buttons in section 3 that explains the two-press "Clear everything" did not mention the example button; version 0.36 adds it.

Version 0.34

Two bits of wording, no change to the sheet itself. The first screen now says in one line who the page is for: cat owners going away for a weekend or a fortnight, and the person looking after the cats while they are gone — a neighbour with a spare key, a friend, or a paid sitter who has never met them. Before this the top of the page said what the page does but not who it is meant for.

There is also a short line under the buttons in section 3 explaining the two-press "Clear everything" from 0.33, which was only discoverable by pressing it: one press changes the button to "Yes, clear everything", the second press clears, and Escape, typing in any box, loading the example or about eight seconds of waiting puts it back. The sheet, the plain text version and every other feature are unchanged.

Version 0.33

"Clear everything" now asks before it wipes. Before this, one press of that button emptied every box and removed every cat, with no way back — a bad thing to hit by mistake after ten minutes of typing a sheet. The first press no longer clears anything: the button relabels itself "Yes, clear everything", takes a thin outline, and the status line next to it says what a second press will do. The second press is the one that clears.

The question goes away on its own: pressing Escape, typing in any box, loading the example, or simply waiting about eight seconds puts the button back to "Clear everything" and says on the status line that nothing was cleared. Everything else about the button is as before — one press still empties the form when you mean it, and it still puts the three sheet tick boxes back to ticked and the Day 2 grid back to three columns. No browser dialog box is used: those are unreliable inside the page's sandbox and awkward on a phone.

Version 0.32

The columns of the "Day 2 onward" grid are now headed with their day number: "Day 2", "Day 3", "Day 4" and so on, each with "Date:" under it for the date in pen. Before this every column just said "Date:", so a column could be ticked on the wrong day, or a row could be filled in against the wrong heading, with nothing on the paper to catch it.

The grid's prompt line now names the range it covers, for example "in 4 columns, headed Day 2 to Day 5", the day-number range follows the three, four or five column buttons, and the plain text heading names the range as well. The spoken hint on each tick box was changed to match: "Tick box (unticked), Day 4, date column 3." On paper the day number prints in black and the "Date:" line in grey, so the heading still stands out from the rest of the table.

Version 0.31

Tidied the overlap between section 1 and section 4, which both asked about the house. The where-things-are box in section 1 is now labelled "Where the cat's things are — food, litter, carrier, scoop", and its hint says to keep it to the cat's own things, with the household bins, wifi and plants belonging in section 4. Section 4's introduction says the same from the other side: the cat's food, litter, carrier and where the used litter goes are in section 1, and this section is for the rest of the house.

Nothing about the sheet itself changed — the same list prints under "Where things are" with whatever you type, and the plain text version is word for word what it was in 0.30.

Known limits

The same sentences as before, grouped into one bullet per thing the page cannot do or cannot know. Nothing in this list stops you printing.

• Nothing is saved between visits, so print or copy the sheet before closing the tab. The sheet text size (Small / Normal / Large) is not saved either, and neither are the three tick boxes next to the sheet (the sitter's note lines, the Day 2 onward grid and the leftover-food line) or the Day 2 grid's column count — set them again next time, though "Clear everything" puts the tick boxes back to ticked and the column count back to three.
• Clearing asks twice, but only for about eight seconds: after that the button puts itself back, so a stray press of "Clear everything" cannot wipe the form later on. "Load an example" asks twice for the same reason, but only on a page that already has something typed in it — an empty page loads the example on one press, as before — and its asking state is in memory only, like everything else here.
• The two-cats-one-name check (0.48) is made by the small helper script that reads the page back, the same one that sits in front of "Load an example": it compares the name in the cat fields with the names on the cat chips, so it can stop a save but it cannot rename a cat that is already on the list, and it knows nothing about a name that was saved twice before this version.
• Loading the example also ticks the three sheet tick boxes back on, exactly as "Clear everything" does, but it leaves the Day 2 grid's column count where you set it; section 3 says both of those things on the page. The line under the buttons in section 3 explains both of those buttons, because neither is obvious from the button alone; the words on the page and the button labels have to agree, and only the buttons themselves can change their own label. It was two lines until 0.43 merged the clearing note and the example note into one, since both buttons ask in the same way and said so twice.
• The empty state on the right — the text shown before the first cat is added — now points at the "Load an example" button in section 3 as the quickest way to see a finished sheet, and says the example is sample text to edit or clear; the example data itself is unchanged. Its list of what the sheet will contain was ten bullets until 0.45 grouped them into six, naming the same blocks in the order the sheet is read, with nothing dropped.
• The "Check the sheet for gaps" list only knows what is on this page: it names blank boxes, so it cannot tell whether a box you filled in is right, and it cannot see anything you have not typed here (it has no clock and no calendar, so it will ask for the dates you are away even if you are only going for the night).
• Its wording for the vet changes with what you have typed: while the clinic box is still empty it names the clinic, phone number, address and opening hours in one line, and once the clinic box or its phone number has been started a blank address and blank opening hours appear as lines of their own.
• Past its seven named lines the gaps list names the remaining boxes in one line of plain text rather than linking them, and the line under the list says which boxes it does not check at all: section 4, the missing-cat notes and the leftover-food box, each of which has a standard line or a sensible blank on the sheet, so an empty one of those is not treated as a gap. The list is off the printed sheet and out of the plain text version, and nothing on it prevents printing.
• The tick-line counts are worked out from the lists on the sheet, so they follow whatever you typed; they count lines, not how long a job takes. The tick marks are for a pen: the page does not record that a box was ticked, and the hidden "tick box" wording added for screen readers is spoken only — it is off-screen and never prints. Nothing on the page ticks itself.
• The note block is fixed at four ruled lines — it is ruled paper for a pen, and nothing typed on the screen fills it.
• The Day 2 onward grid repeats the same daily lines with three, four or five blank date columns headed by day number (Day 2, Day 3 and so on), so it covers that many days after the first; a longer trip means printing another copy of the sheet or carrying on in the notes. The day numbers are worked out from the column count alone: the page has no calendar, so "Day 2" means the second day of the trip, not a named date.
• The "Bring with you" list has no tick boxes and no housekeeping of its own: it is a plain list at the top of the sheet, printed only when you type something in it, and the page cannot check whether the sitter actually packed any of it.
• Five columns are narrow: the boxes still print, but check the first page before relying on it. Keeping blocks whole when printing can leave a little blank space at the foot of a page; that is deliberate.
• The leftover food line is only as good as what you typed (or the standard sentence it falls back to): it is your rule about your own kitchen, not feeding advice, and it says nothing about any individual cat's diet.
• The extra daily checklist lines are placed after the feeds and medication lines, so their order on the sheet is the order of the list, not the order of the day.
• The "Before you leave for the last time" steps are typed in by you and print as a numbered list near the end of the sheet; if you leave the box empty the heading still prints with a short line saying nothing is written down yet, and the plain text version leaves the block out altogether.
• Print and copy can be blocked inside some sandboxes; the plain-text box is the fallback.
• The preparation date, the arrival steps, the bring-with-you list, the where-things-are list, the last-visit steps, the leftover food rule, the vet address and hours, the house jobs, the extra checklist lines and the built-in daily checklist are typed in by you or ticked with a pen — the page has no clock, so it never fills the date in for you. The medication warning only knows what you typed: if you leave the out-of-hours box empty it will warn, even if you know the clinic answers all night.
• The missing-cat steps, the medication warning and the vet lines are memory aids, not veterinary advice.
• The first screen is now heading, lead sentence, who it is for and a single grey line — the "nothing is saved" note and the gaps-list note were merged into that one line in 0.41.
• This page is not browser-tested by its author before release; every version is scanned by the host before it goes live. This list itself was one long paragraph until 0.46 broke it into these bullets, without changing a word. The grey hint lines under the boxes in sections 1 and 2 were trimmed in 0.47, so a few of the sentences quoted in older entries on this page are word for word no longer on the tool page — the facts they describe are.
• One paragraph of history this long is itself part of why the older entries moved to their own page: 0.1 to 0.20 in 0.42, and 0.21 to 0.30 in 0.44, so this page now starts at 0.31 and the earlier versions page holds 0.1 to 0.30.

Earlier versions (0.1 to 0.30) · Back to the tool