A Short Guide to Using the CorporateTime Calendar
The parts of the calendar
When you first open your calendar account, the window you see is your In-box. This allows you to handle incoming and outgoing meeting invitations (see "Collaborative Calendaring", below). For now, you can close this window.
The window behind the In-box is your Agenda. This is what you would generally consider your "calendar". Most of your work will be done here.
There is also a Task List, which you may choose to use as your "to-do" list.
Navigating your agenda
Your agenda has three views: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. You can navigate between these views by clicking on the view buttons on the toolbar. You can also "drill down" from the monthly view by clicking on a week or day, and from the weekly view by clicking on a day.
To change the time frame you are viewing, use the date control bar. This consists of four buttons that look similar to ones you might find on a VCR plus a Today button and a small calendar icon. The calendar icon always brings up a small pop-up calendar to allow you to quickly navigate to a particular date. The other buttons vary by which view you are in:
View |
<< |
< |
> |
>> |
Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Daily |
Back 1 week |
Back 1 day |
Forward 1 day |
Forward 1 week |
Current day |
Weekly |
Back 1 month |
Back 1 week |
Forward 1 week |
Forward 1 month |
Current week |
Monthly |
Back 6 months |
Back 1 month |
Forward 1 month |
Forward 6 months |
Current month |
Meetings, Day Events, and Daily Notes
The three main types of calendar entries are meetings, day events, and daily notes. Most of the time you will be working with meetings, which have particular beginnings and ends and block off time in your agenda.
Day events and daily notes do not block off time in your agenda. They merely place notations on specific days. In theory, a day event is something that takes place all day while other things go on (i.e. an open house) while a daily note is just that -- a note to yourself. In practice, there is no difference between the two and you can establish your own distinction.
Each entry will have some or all of the following information:
- Title: for display in the agenda
- Start date and time
- End date and time
- Details: a large (possibly unlabeled) blank space for you to type in
- Invitees: see "Collaborative Calendaring" below
- Attachment: like in e-mail, you can attach a document to the entry
- Importance Level
- Access Level: see "Access Rights" below
- Reminder: the calendar can either pop up a reminder for you or display a note for a number of previous days.
To enter a meeting, day event, or daily note, simply click the appropriate new entry button.
Tasks
Your calendar includes a Task List, which can be used as your personal or professional to-do list. Each task entry has an optional start and due date, an importance level, and a progress indicator.
To enter a task, simply click the new task button: ((Get pic))
You can see your tasks on the dedicated task list or on the daily agenda view.
Collaborative Calendaring
The main benefit of the calendar system is that it allows coworkers to collaborate more easily by viewing each others' calendars and inviting each other to events.
To view another user's calendar, use the Open Agenda button ((PIC)) or choose Open Agenda from the File menu. Type the user's name at the prompt. When you view a calendar in this way you cannot write to it or make changes.
To invite another user to a meeting (or other entry), type his or her name in the Name field and click the Add button.
When you are invited to a meeting, it will appear both in your in-box and in your agenda. From either of these locations you can right-click on the entry and respond with whether or not you are planning to attend. The creator of the meeting will be able to see your response. You will not be able to edit any of the meeting information; only the creator of the meeting can do that.
Access Rights
You can put limitations on collaboration using access rights, which work in tandem with access levels.
Access levels are assigned to each entry. Your choices include public (which all users can see), normal, confidential, and personal.
Access rights are assigned to other users. This determines how much of your calendar information the other users may view.
Go to Access Rights under the Options menu. Notice the space at the bottom containing the phrase "Default: any unlisted person". Make sure that phrase is highlighted so that you can first set the default access rights.
Each tab above the name space includes different permissions that you can set. Ignore the first tab at this time; it is used to set up designates. The other tabs set how much information the "default" person can see.
Once you have set the default access rights, you can add additional people below "Default" just like you would to if you were inviting them to a meeting. Then select a name and change any access rights necessary. You must do this individually for each person that you want to have more (or less) access rights than the default.