Calendar Getting Started
Getting Started
One of the first things you should
do when getting started with the CB calendar is to enter your church's room names
into the system.
To do this, start
by clicking the “Room Names” link found in the left nav bar and enter your room
names on that page.
Adding Events to the
Calendar
To define a new event select
the “Add New Event” link in the left nav bar.
When you add a new event
to the calendar the first thing you must do is to select the radio buttons that
define whether the event is a one-time event, a recurring event or a consecutive-day
event.
· A one-time event is on that occurs once on a specific
date and time.
· The best way to understand recurring events is to give
you a few examples. An event that:
occurs
every Wednesday, one that occurs every month on the first and third Thursday, an
event that occurs alternately every other week etc.
You
define the start date and optionally a stop date for each recurring event. If you
want to you can get very creative defining recurring events. There are numerous
mouse-over help
buttons on the Add New Events page.
· A consecutive-day event starts on a specified date and
runs every day until a second date.
Adding a One Time Event
to the Calendar
The required fields are:
1)
the event name
2)
the room(s) to reserve
3)
the start time and duration
4)
the date of occurrence (Type a date
or use the small calendar to set it.)
Click “Submit” to save the
event.
Adding a Consecutive-Day Event To the Calendar
1)
Select the Consecutive-Day radio button
2)
enter the event name
3)
the room(s) to reserve
4)
the start time and duration
5) the first and last date of occurrence.
Click “Submit” to save the
event.
Hint:
In some cases you may have an event that occurs on consecutive days, but does not occur for one or more days in that
interval. You may find it convenient to define it as a consecutive-days event and
then use the “Skip a Date” feature to turn the event off on some days. (See the
paragraph below titled “Skipping a Date in a Recurring Event or Consecutive-Days
Event”).
Adding a Recurring Event to the Calendar
Similar to a one-time event you
use the “Add New Event” form to set up a recurring event. On that form:
1)
Clicking the “Recurring Event” checkbox.
(When you do this you will notice that additional fields are displayed in the middle
of the form.
Those fields let you define
the recurrence pattern. )
2)
Enter event name, room to reserve,
start time and duration.
1)
Set the “First Occurrence” date
2)
Click the boxes that define the
day(s) of the week that the event “occurs on”
3)
Click the “Week of month” check
boxes.
See examples below.
4)
Enter other optional fields, such
as contact information
5)
Submit the form.
Recurring Event Examples
The following examples assume you
have entered an event name, selected a room and set up an event starting time.
1)
Set up an event that occurs on the 2nd Wednesday of each month starting on 1/13/2010.
a.
Enter that date in the first occurrence field.
(That date is the second Wednesday in January)
b.
Click the “show me” button. (That will cause the box labeled “Wed” and the box labeled
2nd to be checked for you.)
2)
Set up an event that occurs on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month starting
on 1/13/2010.
a.
Enter that date in the first occurrence field.
b.
Click the “show me” button. (That will cause the box labeled “Wed” and the box labeled
2nd to be checked for you.)
c.
Check the box labeled 4th
3)
Set up an event that occurs every Sunday starting on 1/3/2010.
a.
Enter that date in the first occurrence field. (That date is the first Sunday in
January)
b.
Click the “show me” button. (That will cause the box labeled “Sun” and the box labeled
1st to be checked for you.)
c.
Click the box labeled “every”. (That
will uncheck the box labeled 1st)
4)
Set up an event that occurs on the first and third Sunday starting on 1/3/2010.
a.
Enter that date in the first occurrence field. (That date is the first Sunday in
January)
b.
Click the “show me” button. (That will cause the box labeled “Sun” and the box labeled
1st to be checked for you.)
c.
Click the box labeled 3rd.
(Both 1st and 3rd will then be
checked
Events That Have a Stop Date
To set up a recurring event that has a stop date do the following:
1)
Follow the instructions described above in “Adding a Recurring Event to the
Calendar”
2)
Put a check in the “Has a stop date”
checkbox.
3)
Enter a date in the “Last Occurrence”
field.
When Event Names Are Long
It is best to keep event names short. The screen version of the calendar will display
event names no matter how long they are, but when you print the calendar
long names will
be truncated to make them fit in the squares that make up the calendar. One solution to long event names
is to type a back-slash character in the event name. That will cause the event name
to have a line feed at that point in the name and it will display and print on two
lines.
There is no problem
with long event names when the calendar is viewed on the screen. On the screen the
calendar will automatically be made as wide as necessary to fit long names.
About the Admin Calendar
CB gives you two versions of the
calendar: the Public Calendar and the Admin Calendar. The Public Calendar is what
the public sees on your church website. The Admin Calendar displays everything
that displays on the Public Calendar but it also display “admin only” items and
has other admin features. The Admin Calendar will do the following:
1)
It displays “Admin only” events. To do this check the “Show on admin
only” checkbox on the Add New Event page.
2)
It displays Admin notes. To do this
use the “Holiday Definitions” page and make a holiday or note and check the box
titled “Show this note on the Admin calendar”.
3)
It lets the Admin select and event to edit.
To do this display the Admin calendar and click the radio button titled “edit event”.
Then click on the event name of the event you want to edit.
4)
It lets the Admin view additional
details about an event including: Event contact information, Event setup instructions
and recurring event information. To do this, the radio button “show event details”
should be selected, then click on an event name.
5)
It lets the Admin edit the Event
Title and Event Description individually for each occurrence of an event. To do
this the radio button “show event details” should be selected, then click on an
event name. Then edit the Event Title and Event Description. This feature is useful
for events such as the worship service which may have a different sermon topic etc.
each week.
6)
It lets the Admin change the event start time for an individual occurrence of a
recurring event. For instance if a recurring event occurs every week at 7:00 PM,
but on one particular week it starts at 7:30 PM. To reflect this, use the Admin
Calendar and click on the event name on that date.
The Event Details box will pop up. There you will see the label “change the time
on this date”. Use the hours and minutes drop downs to set the time to 7:30.
7) It lets the admin skip a particular occurrence of a recurring
event. To do this view the Event Details box as in 6 above and click the check box
titled “skip this date”
Editing a Calendar Event
To edit a calendar event you can
start the process in either of two ways:
1)
Click on the link titled “Edit Events” in the left nav bar and view the list of either the “one-time events” or “recurring
events”. Then select an event to edit by clicking the “Select” button next to the
event name.
2)
The second way to edit an event
is to view the Admin Calendar and find the event displayed there. Select the radio
button titled “edit event”. Click on the event name to display the edit page.
The “Modify Event” page will be
displayed by actions 1 or 2 above. Change any of the fields and then click the “Save
Changes” button.
Skipping a Date in a Recurring Event or Consecutive-Days
Event
If you have a recurring event and it is not
going to be held on one or
more of its scheduled dates you can tell the calendar to skip it (not display it)
in the Public Calendar.
To do this:
1)
Display the Admin Calendar and view the event on the date you wish to skip.
2)
See that the “show event details” radio button is selected.
3)
Click on the event name to pop up the Event Details window.
4)
Check the box titled “skip date”
5)
Click the submit button.
In the Admin calendar the event
name is displayed on dates that it is skipped. However, the event name is displayed
followed by the word “skipped” on any of those dates.
Changing the Start Time for One Date of a Recurring Event or Consecutive-Days Event
You can change the start time on
one particular date of a recurring event. Do the following:
1)
Display the Admin Calendar and view the event on the date you wish to skip.
2)
See that the “show event details” radio button is selected.
3)
Click on the event name to pop up the Event Details window.
4)
There you will see the label “change the
time on this date”. Use the hours and minutes drop downs to set the time.
5)
Click the submit button
If you had wanted to change the
start time for all dates of a recurring event see the instructions above titled
“Editing a Calendar Event”.
Setting up an Event That Repeats But Has No Pattern
If you have an event that occurs
several times, but does not have a pattern, there is a way to save some time as
you set up the multiple occurrences.
The steps are:
1)
Set up the event for its first occurrence
as a one-time event, but do not submit yet.
2)
Uncheck the box labeled “clear fields upon Submit”. (You will find it alongside
the Submit button.)
3)
Click Submit
4)
Change the date and time to that
of the next occurrence and then submit again.
5)
Repeat step 4 for each additional
occurrence.
Adding a Holiday or Note to the Calendar
To add a holiday or note to the calendar use the link titled “Holiday Definitions”
found in the left nav bar. On the CB calendar there is very little
difference between putting a holiday or note on the calendar. To define a holiday, do the following:
1)
In the field titled “Holiday Name
or brief note” enter the text to display on the calendar. Keep it brief and view
the printed calendar to see how many letters will fit when printed.
2)
Select a text color
3)
Select the date you want the holiday
to display on.
4)
Check the box titled “Every Year”.
(Only for holidays that occur on the same date every year)
5)
Click the Submit button
Notes have more variability than
holidays.
Some of the things you may
want to do with a note:
1)
Check the box “Show this note on
the admin calendar, but not the Public”
2)
Display a note every
month on a particular day. After you enter the date of first occurrence select the
box titled “Every Month”.
3)
Enter a note that does not display on a particular date, but it displays in a box
without a date. To do this:
a)
You must specify the month of occurrence
by entering
any date in that month in
the “Date of Occurrence” field.
b)
Check the box titled “this note has
no specific date”.
4) Repeat a note every month and display it in a box without a date. To do this check both “Every Month” and “this note has no specific date”
Printing a Calendar
You can print a calendar from both
the Public Calendar and the Admin Calendar. In each case you can print a one page
or two page calendar. The "Print A Calendar" page gives you a few more options.
The printing options are:
1)
You can print choose to print in
color or black and white, rather than the printer default.
2)
You can print the one page calendar
in the standard one month format or print two weeks per page.
3)
You can print the two page calendar
as the standard one month format or print it in a four week format.
View Room Schedules
The View Room Schedules page lets
you select a date and room. It will then display a graphical view of how that room
is scheduled.
Print Room Setup Information
You can print room setup information
that will assist the custodial staff and others who must set up rooms prior to an event. It
is a listing of events in chronological order. It displays the maximum number of
people for each event, the block of time that is set aside to allow for room setup
and the details of the setup that is required.
A Review of
Calendar Features
It is a web calendar that embeds
in your Church Website:
1)
Your webmaster can
embed the calendar link in your church website and the calendar will display month
after month.
2)
The public can click on an event name to get details of the event.
3)
They can print the calendar in beautiful
high resolution.
It lets your staff maintain room
reservations:
1)
The calendar maintains
room reservation.
2)
We let you know if you try to double-book
a room.
3)
You’ll have contact, rental and
room setup information at your finger tips.
Help for your Admin:
1)
All event setup fields are on a single page: event name, description, date,
time etc.
2)
You can set up a recurring event and it displays month after month.
3)
You can print the calendar in three
flexible formats: single page, double page and 14 day.
4)
You can maintain administrative
events and notes that only display on the Admin calendar.
Automation Pages for Your Church Website
Ask us about embedding an Upcoming
Events page and an Upcoming Worship Services page into your church website. Those
pages display a list of event names and descriptions that you maintain with the
calendar. It means less work for
your webmaster and a website that is easy to keep
up-to-date.
We also have a “Sermons Online” page that lets you maintain your list of sermons on your church website.