Shared Calendars Introduction, Tutorial and Glossary

• Create any number of different calendars, and give other people different levels of access to each. (From no access, to read only, to letting others write on and share a calendar that you created.)
• View any combination of calendars - your own and other people's - that you have access to.
• Write entries/events on these calendars: normal one time events, extended events (ex.: "On Vacation" ), and recurring or repeating events (ex.: "New Years", "First Thursday of Month Dinner", "Dad's Birthday".)
• Send email reminders before events.

View. There are three ways to View the Shared Calendars: Year View, Month View, and Day View.

• Month View looks like a regular wall callendar. You can see the Titles of each day's entries..
• Day View is a daily planner. You see all the details of all the entries of all the Calendars that you are viewing.
• Year View is useful for navigation between months.

1. You can use the Calendar View itself. When viewing a month, press on a specific day's number to switch you to that Day View, or look above the calendar and you'll find links to likely days and months.
2. You can use the links in the Navigation Bar below the Calendars View.
3. You can enter the Year, Month or Day in the Navigation Bar. Entries. There are three kinds of entries.
   1. Regular Entries. One time events. Ex.: "Lunch at 11am."
   2. Extended Entries. Last for many days. Ex.: "Vacation all week."
   3. Recurring Entries. Ex.: "Lunch every Monday."
   You reach Regular Entries or Extended Entries by going to the Day View [any Day View for extended entries.] You reach Recurring Entries through buttons at the bottom of any main View. [You can also edit existing Extended Entries through the Recurring Entries menu, or existing Recurring Entries by going to any Day View where that Recurring Entry appears.]

   Quick Tutorial

   1) Apply for a password (if needed)

   It will send you email on what to do next to log in to the actual calendar.

   2) Scroll over the (blank) Calendar

   Once logged in, look over the calendar briefly and read all the buttons. In general, don't be afraid to try things, or to make best guesses or ignore what you don't understand while using the simpler functions.

   3) View Other People's Calendars

   What if someone else created a Calendar, and you want to see it? Under "Select the Calendars You'd Like to View" is a list of everyone's calendars [actually, only those calendars you have access to read.] Select the Calendars you'd like to view, and press "View These Calendars Now" to submit. You can change this setting as often as you'd like, to view exactly what you want.

   4) Create your own Calendar[s]

   You may want to use only calendars other people have created, or you can create one or more of your own. If you want your own:

   Beneath the main part of the Calendar are a number of buttons. Push the one that says "Create New Calendar". On the next screen, name your new Calendar and decide who else can read it, who else can write on it ( don't give other people access higher than "Write" unless you have a reason.) Now you have a Calendar.

   Examples:

   • "Your Name". Set the default to "No Access" or "Read Only"

   • "Office Events". Set the default to "Write", so everyone can share it.

   5) Put an entry on the Calendar.

   You can put an entry on any calendar that you have at least "write" access to, whether or not you created the calendar yourself.

   Using the main calendar, go to an interesting date (there are many ways to get there: either use the tabs above the main calendar, or the Navigation Window below it. You can also click on a day in the Month Calendar in order to see that day. Fiddle around till it makes sense.)

   Once you are on the right day (not a whole month), there will be a button to "add" a new entry. Go ahead and do it. You don't need to fill out all the blanks. The two most important are: The Title, and "Add to Which Calendar" (pick a calendar). Once you've filled out as much information as you want, press "OK"

   Example:

   • 12 pm June 1, Lunch with Pat, on "My Calendar"
   • June 7, Retreat Begins, on "Office Calendar"

   Look over your results in both a "Day View" and a "Month View."

   6) Personal Options

   If you don't like your password or change your email address, change it with "Personal Options" - the button is near the bottom of the screen.

   Congratulations, that's the basics!

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   Advanced Lesson

   1) Extended Entries

   These are multi-day entries, like vacations. Go back to #4 above, and again press "Add" to create a new entry. When filling it out this time, change the "Start Date" and "End Date."

   Examples:

   • June 7 till June 10 "At Conference Center", on "Office Calendar"

   By the way, you can enter extended entries from any date -- if you add the entry to January 28, 1998 but specify a start date of August 3, 2001, that will work fine.

   2) Recurring Entries

   Go to the bottom of a regular View (Month View or Day View). Among the options, you've seen buttons for "recurring entries". These are any event that occurs over and over at certain intervals. Some examples are Pay Day on the 15th and Last day of the month, Holidays on the same date every year, or a potluck on the first Sunday of every month.

   Recurring entries are just like one-time entries, except that a little more information is requested. Leave things blank if they don't restrict when your event occurs. (For example, "Friday Meeting" occurs no matter what month it is, so leave the months column blank; this is the same as selecting every month.)

   Try it yourself: "Add New Recurring Entry" to add, or "View, Edit or Delete Recurring Entries" to look at the ones someone else has entered.

   Examples:

   • To Add "Friday Meeting", just press "Friday" among the recurring times at the top of the page, and then the rest of the information for the entry as usual below.
   • To Add "Thanksgiving", press "Thursday" and "Last" in the first box, then "November" in Months box.

   Note that you can also edit a recurring entry that already exists by clicking on one of its occurances in a Day View.

   3) Sending Email Notifications

   This is a good option for people who read email once every day or more. The section "Send Email Before Event" (when adding a new entry or editing an old one) has a variety of options. You can send email just to yourself, to everyone who has access to read that calendar [this option is sometimes blocked by the administrator], and/or to any address that you type in. The default is an email 1 hour before the event (actually, 60 to 80 minutes) - this is most useful for people who read email almost continuously. You can have your email warning sent up to 24hrs before the event.

   Solving Problems

   Using an Older Browser

   We've tried to keep the Calendar pages simple, so most browsers should be able to read them. Everything vital should work on Netscape 2.0 or Internet Explorer 2.0, and higher versions.

   A minor problem with older browsers is that colors won't appear; but colors are never needed, they are just helpful.

   More annoying, some browsers will use stored [cached] pages when you return to a date, so recent edits will not be seen. The normal way to get around this problem is to clear the memory cache and hit reload. However, for Shared Calendars there is another way: instead of using a link to get to a date you've already seen, use the entry boxes in the Navigation Bar below the Calendar View. [By posting a new form, you force your browser to get the Calendar page from the server, instead of from your computers memory.]

   Sharing One [Desktop] Computer

   If you are sharing a computer with another Calendar user at the same sitting using the same browser, you can switch users by going to Personal Options, and pressing "Switch Accounts". Your browser will ask you to log in again, so a new name and account can be used.

   Contact, Ordering and Registration

   Shared Calendars Download and Registration Page

   This is Version 1.02

   Shared Calendars, Copyright 1998 by Boutell.Com, Inc., Inc. All Rights Reserved.
   Author: Stephen Cataldo