path: root/help/C/usage-calendar.xml

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<chapter id="usage-calendar">
  <title>Managing your Schedule</title>

     <para>
      This chapter will show you how to use the Ximian Evolution
      Calendar to manage your schedule alone or in conjunction with
      peers. To learn about importing calendar data, see <xref
      linkend="importing-mail" />, which covers the Import tool.
     </para>

    <sect1 id ="usage-calendar-view"> 
    <title>Ways of Looking at your Calendar</title>
    <para>
       The toolbar offers you four different views of your calendar:
       <itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        Day
      </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        Work Week
      </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        Week
      </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        Month
      </para>
    </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
      Press the calendar-shaped buttons on the right side of the toolbar to
      switch between views. 
</para>
<para>
      You can also select an arbitrary range of days in the small
      calendar at the upper right.  To do this, click and drag on the
      days that you wish to view in your calendar.
    </para>
    <para>
       The <guilabel>Prev</guilabel> and <guilabel>Next</guilabel>
       buttons will move you forward and back in your calendar pages.
       If you're looking at only one day, you'll see tomorrow's page,
       or yesterday's.  If you're looking at your calendar by week or
       month, you'll move around by just that much.
       To come back to today's listing, click the
        <guilabel>Today</guilabel> button in the toolbar.
    </para>
    <para>
       To visit a specific date's calendar entries, click
       <guilabel>Go To</guilabel> and select the date in the dialog
       box that appears.
    </para>

  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="usage-calendar-apts">
    <title>Scheduling With the Evolution Calendar</title>
    <para>
      Of course, you'll want to use the calendar to do more than find
      out what day it is. This section will tell you how to schedule
      appointments, set alarms, and determine appointment
      recurrence. If you have installed the Ximian Connector for
      Microsoft Exchange, you can also read <xref
      linkend="full-advantage"/> to learn about how to take full
      advantage of the collaborative group scheduling functions
      available on the Microsoft Exchange Server.
    </para>

    <sect2 id="usage-calendar-apts-basic">
      <title>Creating appointments</title>
      <para>
    To create a new appointment, select
        <menuchoice>
      <guimenu>File</guimenu>
      <guisubmenu>New</guisubmenu> 
      <guimenuitem>Appointment</guimenuitem>
    </menuchoice>
    or click the <guilabel>New Appointment</guilabel> button on the left end
    of the toolbar. The <interface>New Appointment</interface>
    dialog will pop up with the menu bar, tool bar, and
    window full of choices for you.
      </para>
      <tip id="new-appointment-shortcut">
        <title>Shortcut</title>
        <para>
           If you don't need to enter more information than the date
           and time of the appointment, you just click in any blank
           space in the calendar and start typing. You can enter other
           information later with the appointment editor.
        </para>
      </tip>

      <para>
        Your appointment must have a starting and ending date (by
        default, today) but you can choose whether to give it
        starting and ending times or to mark it as an <guilabel>All
        day event</guilabel>. An <guilabel>All day event</guilabel>
        appears at the top of a day's appointment list, in the grey header under the date, rather than inside
        it.  That makes it easy to have appointments that overlap and fit
        inside each other.  For example, a conference might be an all
        day appointment, and the meetings at the conference would be timed
        appointments.  Of course, appointments with specific starting and ending
        times can also overlap.  When they do they're displayed as
        multiple columns in the day view of the calendar.
      </para>
      <para>
    Evolution supports the use of
    timezones.  If you share calendar files with friends or
    co-workers, it is quite possible you will need to configure
    your timezone.  To configure your timezone:
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Select 
          <menuchoice>
        <guimenu>Tools</guimenu>
        <guimenuitem>Settings</guimenuitem> </menuchoice>, and
        click the <guilabel>Calendar And Tasks</guilabel> icon
        in the settings dialog.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Click the <guilabel>Globe</guilabel> button in the
          <guilabel>Time</guilabel> section, located in the
          <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Each red dot represents a major city.  Click a dot and click <guilabel>OK</guilabel> to select your time zone.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
      </para>
      <para>
    You can also configure timezone information specific to the
    Start and End time in each appointment.  To do that, simply
    create a new appointment and click on a globe to customize the
    timezone that the time exists in. For example, if you live in
    New York but have a telephone meeting set for noon with
    someone in California, you need to make sure that you're not
    calling each other a few hours off.  Setting time-zones on a
    per-appointment basis helps avoid that potential confusion.
      </para>
      <note>
       <title>Multiple Simultaneous Appointments</title>
         <para>
           If you create calendar appointments that overlap,
           Evolution will display them side
           by side in your calendar.  However,
           Evolution cannot help you do
           multiple things at once.
         </para>
      </note>
      <para>
         You can have several
         <guilabel>Reminders</guilabel>, any time prior to the appointment
         you've scheduled.  You can have one reminder of each of the following types:
          <variablelist>
           <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Display:</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            A window will pop up on your screen to remind you of
            your appointment.
              </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry> 
        <term><guilabel>Audio:</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Choose this to have your computer deliver a sound
            alarm.
              </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><guilabel>Program:</guilabel></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Select this if you would like to run a program as a
            reminder.  You can enter its name in the text field,
            or find it with the <guilabel>Browse</guilabel>
            button.
              </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>     
      </para>


       <note id="reminders-when-not-running-evo">
         <title>Reminders Without Evolution</title>
         <para>
            If you have stored reminders in a local calendar, they
          will work from the moment you log in. However, for reminders
          stored on an Exchange server, you must run Evolution at
          least once after logging in. No matter where the reminders
          are stored, you can quit Evolution and still be reminded of
          an upcoming appointment.
         </para>
        </note>

      <para>
         <guilabel>Classification</guilabel> 
         only applies to calendars on a
         network. <guilabel>Public</guilabel> is the default category,
         and a public appointment can be viewed by anyone on the calendar
         sharing network.  <guilabel>Private</guilabel> denotes one
         level of security, and <guilabel>Confidential</guilabel> an even 
         higher level.
      </para>
      <para>
    Evolution can handle free/busy
    scheduling Using the Ximian Connector on a Microsoft Exchange
    2000 server. For more information about Ximian Connector, see
    <xref linkend="usage-exchange"/>.
      </para>
      <para>
    To set your appointment to be free or busy, simply click the
    box in the <guilabel>Show Time As</guilabel> section in the
    <guilabel>Appointment Editor</guilabel>.
      </para>
      <para>
        Evolution lets you categorize your
    appointments, which can help if you lead a busy life.  The bottom
    section of the <guilabel>Appointment</guilabel> tab is where your
    categorization is done.
      </para>
      
      <tip>
      <title>Adding a New Appointment Category</title>
    <para>
     You can add a new category to your category list by clicking on
         <guilabel>Edit Master Category List</guilabel> and single-clicking
     on <guilabel> Click here to add a category</guilabel>.
    </para>
      </tip>

      <para> 
     The purpose of categories is to let you view all appointments
     which have similar activities.  To do this, in the calendar view,
     change <guilabel>Any field contains</guilabel> to <guilabel>Has
     category</guilabel> and enter your category at right.
      </para>

      <para>
    Clicking on the <guilabel>Categories</guilabel> button opens up the category
    list.  To associate a category to an appointment, simply click the check box. 
      </para>
      <para>
    Once you've selected your categories, click <guilabel>OK</guilabel> to
    assign these categories to the appointment.  The categories you selected are now
    listed in the text box to the right of the <guilabel>Categories...</guilabel>
    button.
      </para>

      <para>
        The <guilabel>Recurrence</guilabel> tab lets you describe
        repetition in appointments ranging from once every day up to once
        every 100 years.  You can then choose a time and date when the
        appointment will stop recurring, and, under
        <guilabel>Exceptions</guilabel>, pick individual days when the
        appointment will <emphasis>not</emphasis> recur. Make your
        selections from left to right, and you'll form a sentence:
        "Every two weeks on Monday and Friday until January 3, 2003"
        or "Every month on the first Friday for 12 occurrences."
      </para>

      <para>
    Once you're done with all those settings, click on the disk
    icon in the toolbar to save and close the appointment editor window. 
    If you want, you can alter an appointment
    summary in the calendar view by clicking on it and typing. You
    can change other settings by right-clicking on the appointment then
    choosing <guimenuitem>Open</guimenuitem>.
      </para>
    </sect2>
    <sect2 id="usage-calendar-rsvp">
      <title>Sending an RSVP with the Calendar</title>
      <para>
    Evolution can be used to schedule
    group meetings and help you manage responses to meeting
    requests.
      </para>
      <para>
    When you create a meeting or group appointment, you can
    specify the attendees in several categories, such as "chair"
    or "required."  When you save the appointment listing, each
    attendee will be sent an email with the appointment
    information and gives them the option to respond.
      </para>

      <note id="meeting-announce">
       <title>Simple Announcements</title>
        <para>
           If you don't need to collect attendance information when
           you're scheduling an event, and would rather just announce
           it, select
           <menuchoice><guimenu>Actions</guimenu><guimenuitem>Forward
           as iCalendar</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.  That will open a
           new email message with the event notification attached as
           an announcement.  Recipients will be able to add the event
           to their calendars with one click, but won't automatically
           send you email about whether they'll attend.
        </para>
     </note>

      <para>
    To schedule a meeting:
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Select
          <menuchoice>
        <guimenu>Actions</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Schedule
        Meeting</guimenuitem> </menuchoice>.  The
        <guilabel>Scheduling</guilabel> and
        <guilabel>Meeting</guilabel> tabs open.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          If you have multiple Evolution email accounts, choose the
          one you'll use by selecting an item in the
          <guilabel>Organizer</guilabel> field.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Click the space labeled <guilabel>Click here to add an
          attendee</guilabel> to enter the names and email
          addresses of people you will invite, or click the
          <guilabel>Invite Others</guilabel> to select them from
          your address book.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Save the Appointment.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    An email is now sent out to all the recipients, inviting them to your event.
      </para>
    </sect2>
    <sect2 id="replying-to-rsvp">
      <title>Replying to a Meeting Request</title>
      <para>
    Meeting requests are sent as iCal attachments.  To view or
    respond to one, click on the attachment icon and view it
    inline in the mail window.  All the details are shown about
    the event including time and dates.  Then you can choose how
    to reply to the invitation.  Your choices are:
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Accept</guilabel>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Tentatively Accept</guilabel>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <guilabel>Decline</guilabel>
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
    Click <guilabel>OK</guilabel> and an email will be sent to
    the organizer with your answer.  The event will also be added
    to your calendar if you accept.
      </para>

 <para>
        Note, however, that if you add a meeting to your calendar,
        there are some limitations: only the organizer of a meeting
        can add participants in a meeting. Your only options, as a
        participant, are to accept the meeting, or decline it. 
      </para>
      <para>
        Once you have added the meeting to your calendar, you can make
        changes to your copy &mdash;change the description, mark yourself
        the organizer, invite more people, and so forth&mdash; but be aware
        that if the original organizer sends out another update, your
        changes may be overwritten.
      </para>
   <note id="organizer-only-one">
     <title>There Can Be Only One</title>
      <para>
         A meeting can have only one organizer. You can designate
         yourself the organizer of the meeting, but unless you
         coordinate that action with the organizer you are replacing,
         you could create confusion in the scheduling process. If you
         want to invite additional people to a meeting without
         changing the organizer, it's best to forward the first
         organizer's message to the additional participants.
      </para>
    </note>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="receiving-rsvp-response">
      <title>Getting Responses to Meeting Requests</title>
      <para>
    Once you get a reply to your meeting invitation, you'll need
    to view it inline in the email.  Click the attachment and
    select <guimenuitem>View Inline</guimenuitem>.  At the bottom, you
    can click <guilabel>OK</guilabel> to update your attendee
    list.
      </para>
    </sect2>

<!-- ############UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES ###################

    <sect2 id="usage-calendar-apts-group">
      <title>Appointments for Groups</title>
      <para>
    You can use Evolution to mark a
    meeting request on another person's calendar.  To do it, click
    <guilabel>New</guilabel> in the calendar toolbar, or select
    <menuchoice> <guimenu>File</guimenu>
    <guisubmenu>New</guisubmenu>
    <guimenuitem>Appointment</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> to bring
    up the <interface>new appointment</interface> window.  Then
    describe the appointment as you would any other. When you are
    ready to send the invitation <guilabel>OK</guilabel>
    Evolution will automatically send
    email to each person on the request list, notifying of the
    time and date of the meeting you have requested with them.  In
    addition, it will mark the appointment on your calendar and on
    theirs as tentative, rather than a confirmed, appointment.
      </para>
      <para>
    To mark a tentative appointment as confirmed, click once on the
    appointment in the <interface>calendar view</interface> to select
    it, and then choose <guimenuitem>Appointment
    Properties</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu>
    menu.  In the <interface>Appointment Properties</interface> dialog
    window, click the "tentative" button to De-select the
    appointment.
      </para>
      <para>
        When your meeting attendees get the email inviting them to the
        meeting, they'll be able to enter the information into their
        calendars and let you know if they'll be able to attend; if
        they use Ximian Evolution or
        another iCal compliant mail client, they can do this with just
        one click. When you get a response from them, it will include
        an iCal attachment. Opening and accepting this attachment will
        change the meeting data in your calendar to indicate that they
        have responded to your invitation, and whether they will be in
        attendance.
     </para>
    </sect2>


    <sect2 id="usage-calendar-apts-privs">
      <title>Scheduling privileges</title>
      <para>
    There are several levels of scheduling privileges.  You
    can set whether people can see your calendar, whether they
    can request meetings or appointments, and whether they can
    create appointments.  This section may have to be deleted,
    because I don't know if we are going to support privileges
    at all.
      </para>
    </sect2>
 ########## END UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURESET ############ -->
    <sect2 id="usage-calendar-freebusy">
      <title>Scheduling Meetings and The Free/Busy View</title>
      <para>
        In addition to the standard meeting scheduling tools, you can
     use the Free/Busy view to check whether people are available
     in advance. At this time, the Free/Busy feature only works
     with Microsoft Exchange servers. However, you can still use
     iCal event invitations to coordinate schedules with other
     people no matter what server you're using.
      </para>
      <para>
    To access the free/busy view:
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Open or create an appointment in the
          <guilabel>Calendar</guilabel> window.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Click
          <menuchoice>
        <guimenu>Actions</guimenu>
        <guimenuitem>Schedule Meeting</guimenuitem>
          </menuchoice>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Open the <guilabel>Scheduling</guilabel> tab.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
      </para>

      <figure>
        <title>Appointment Scheduling Window</title>
    <screenshot>
      <screeninfo>Appointment Scheduling Window</screeninfo>
      <mediaobject><imageobject>
          <imagedata  format="PNG" fileref="figures/schedule" srccredit="Kevin Breit"/>
        </imageobject></mediaobject>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>

      <para>
    <inlinemediaobject>
      <imageobject>
        <imagedata fileref="figures/full-1" format="PNG"/>
      </imageobject>
    </inlinemediaobject>
    <guilabel>Attendee List</guilabel>
      </para>
      <para>
    The <guilabel>Attendee List</guilabel> lists off the people who
    have been invited to the respective appointment.  It also
    shows their RSVP status.
      </para>
      <para>
    <inlinemediaobject>
      <imageobject>
        <imagedata fileref="figures/full-2" format="PNG"/>
      </imageobject>
    </inlinemediaobject>
    <guilabel>Schedule Grid</guilabel>
      </para>
      <para>
    The <guilabel>Schedule Grid</guilabel> shows the invitee's
    published Free/Busy information.  This is where you compare
    people's schedules to find free time to schedule the
    appointment.
      </para>
      <para>
    <inlinemediaobject>
      <imageobject>
        <imagedata fileref="figures/full-3" format="PNG"/>
      </imageobject>
    </inlinemediaobject>
    <guilabel>Meeting Scheduler</guilabel>
      </para>
      <para>
    The <guilabel>Meeting Scheduler</guilabel> allows you to
    schedule the meeting in the <guilabel>Free/Busy</guilabel> window.
      </para>
      <sect3 id="usage-calendar-freebusy-scheduling">
    <title>Scheduling an Appointment</title>
    <para>
      To schedule an appointment, you'll first need people's
      free/busy information.  If you're using the Ximian Connector
      for Microsoft Exchange, all of the information is already
      available to you in the Global Address List. Otherwise, each
      person will have to email you their schedule files and you
      will have to incorporate them into your calendar.
        </para>
        <para>
          Regardless of how you get the information, Ximian Evolution
          will display it in the <guilabel>Scheduling</guilabel> tab.
          The pending appointment time will appear in white with bold
          black borders.  Each attendee's free and busy times appear
          color-coded next to their names in the attendee list.
    </para>
        <para>
          Adjust the meeting time, either by dragging the meeting
          borders or by using the <guilabel>Autopick</guilabel>
          buttons to choose a time automatically, then click
          <guilabel>Save and Close</guilabel>.  Attendees on an
          Exchange server will have the appointment updated
          automatically; others will receive email notification of any
          change in plans.
        </para>

        <para>
         Read <xref linkend="full-advantage"/> to learn about how to
     use this feature with the Ximian Connector for Microsoft
     Exchange.
       </para>
      </sect3>
    </sect2>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="usage-calendar-todo">
   <title>The Task Pad</title>
    <para>
       The Task Pad, located in the lower right corner of the
       calendar, lets you keep a list of tasks separate from your
       calendar appointments.  You can use the list
       in a larger window by choosing the <guilabel>Tasks</guilabel>
       button in the shortcut bar or in the folder tree.
    </para>
    <para>
       To record a new task, click the <guilabel>Add</guilabel>
       button in the toolbar.  Evolution
       will pop up a small window with five items in it:
     
        <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
      <term> <guilabel>Summary:</guilabel></term>
      <listitem>
            <para>
              The description you enter here will appear in the To Do
              list itself.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    
    <varlistentry>
      <term> <guilabel>Due Date:</guilabel></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Decide when this item is
          due.  You can either type in a date and time, or select one from
          the <guilabel>Calendar</guilabel> and <guilabel>time</guilabel> drop-down menus.
          </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><guilabel>Start Date:</guilabel></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          The date you intend to start working.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term> <guilabel>Description:</guilabel></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>
              If you wish, you can keep a more detailed description of
              the item here. For example, you can note that a task is
              in progress, and display how close it is to completion.
            </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><guilabel>Classification:</guilabel></term>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Sets who will see it if your calendar is shared.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
    </para>
    <para>
      There are more options in the <guilabel>Details</guilabel> tab such as priority and progress settings.
    </para>
    <para>
       Once you've added a task to your to-do list, its summary
       appears in the <guilabel>Summary</guilabel> section of task
       list.  To view or edit a detailed description of an item,
       double-click on it, or right click on it and select <guilabel>Open</guilabel>.  You can delete items by selecting
       them and clicking on the <guilabel>Delete</guilabel> button.
    </para>
    <para>
      The list of tasks is sorted in a similar way to the list of
      email messages in Ximian Evolution
      Mail.  Click once on the message headers to change
      the direction and type of sorting, or right-click to add or
      remove columns from the display.
    </para>
    <sect2 id="task-folders">
      <title>Folders for Your Tasks</title>
      <para>
    Like any other component in
    Evolution, you can create a folder
    to help organize your tasks.  To do this:
    <orderedlist numeration="arabic">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Open the <guilabel>Folders Bar</guilabel>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Click <guilabel>Tasks</guilabel>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Right click on <guilabel>Tasks</guilabel>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Click <menuchoice><guimenuitem>Create New Folder</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Enter the folder name.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Click <guilabel>OK</guilabel>
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
      </para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="usage-calendar-multiple">
    <title>Multiple Calendars</title>
    <para>
       Evolution permits you to have and
       maintain multiple calendars.  This is useful if you maintain
       schedules for other people, if you are responsible for resource
       or room allocation, or if you have multiple personalities.
    </para>
   
    <example>
      <title>Keeping Multiple Calendars</title>
      <para>
        Lucy, the office manager for a small company, has one calendar
        for her own schedule. She maintains one for the conference
        room, to schedule meetings.  Next to that, she maintains a
        calendar that reflects when consultants are going to be on
        site, and another that keeps track of when the Cubs are
        playing.
      </para>
    </example>
    <para>
      To create a new calendar, select 
      <menuchoice>
    <guimenu>File</guimenu> <guisubmenu>New</guisubmenu>
    <guimenuitem>Folder</guimenuitem>
      </menuchoice>.
       You'll need to tell the <guilabel>New Folder</guilabel> dialog that the new folder should be of the calendar type.  You can place the calendar in any calendar folder and access it
       from the folder view.
    </para>
    <para>
       Each calendar folder can hold only one calendar.
    </para>
  </sect1>
</chapter>