# Evolution Calendar

This chapter will show you how to use the Evolution Calendar to manage your schedule alone or in conjunction with peers. To learn about importing calendar data, see importing-mail, which covers the Import tool.

## Ways of Looking at your Calendar

In Evolution, you can keep multiple calendars and overlay them one over the next. For example, you might have a schedule of events for work, one for home, and one for your favorite sports team. The shortcut bar lists those calendars, and you can check or uncheck the boxes next to them to show and hide the appointments in your calendar view. By hiding and showing different sets of appointments, you can be sure to avoid conflicts, while keeping a minimum of clutter in your view at any one time.

Appointments for each calendar appear as a different color.

The toolbar offers you four different buttons that can show you different views of your calendar:

- Day

- Work Week

- Week

- Month

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.

The Prev and Next 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 Today button in the toolbar.

To visit calendar entries for a specific date, click Go To and select the date in the dialog box that appears.

## Scheduling With the Evolution Calendar

### Creating Appointments

To create a new appointment, select File New Appointment click the New button on the left end of the toolbar, or double-click in a blank space in the calendar.

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 All day event. An All day event 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.

If you have more than one calendar, be sure to select the calendar in which you want to save the appointment.

Evolution supports the use of time zones. If you share calendar files with friends or co-workers, it is quite possible you will need to configure your tim ezone. To configure your time zone:

1. Select Tools Settings , and click the Calendar And Tasks icon in the settings dialog.

2. Click the Globe button in the Time section, located in the General tab.

3. Each red dot represents a major city. Click a dot and click OK to select your time zone.

You can also configure time zone 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 time zone 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.

#### Multiple Simultaneous Appointments

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.

You can have several Reminders, any time prior to the appointment you've scheduled. You can have one reminder of each of the following types:

Display:

- A window will pop up on your screen to remind you of your appointment.

Audio:

- Choose this to have your computer deliver a sound alarm.

Program:

- 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 Browse button.

#### Reminders Without Evolution

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.

If you are using a a calendar on a GroupWise or Exchange server, select a Classification for the appointment, to determine who can view it. Public is the default category, and a public appointment can be viewed by anyone on the calendar sharing network. Private denotes one level of security, and Confidential an even higher level. The different levels vary depending on your server settings; check with your system administrator or adjust your delegation settings.

If you are using a GroupWise or Exchange server, other people on the server can check your schedule to see if you are available at any given time. If you have an appointment that is flexible or that you wish to designate as "Free" rather than "Busy" time, check the Free box in theShow Time As section. Normally, appointments display as "Busy."

You can categorize appointments in the same way you can categorize contacts. Click the Categories button opens up a checklist. Check the box next to each category that matches the appointment you are creating.

#### Adding a New Appointment Category

You can add a new category to your category list by clicking on Edit Master Category List and single-clicking on Click here to add a category.

Once you've selected your categories, click OK to assign these categories to the appointment. The categories you selected are now listed in the text box to the right of the Categories... button.

Appointments with categories will appear with icons in the calendar display, and you can also search for appointments by category. To display only the appointments in a particular category, select Category Is in the search bar at the top of the calendar, and select a category.

The Recurrence 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 Exceptions, pick individual days when the appointment will not recur. Make your selections from left to right, and you'll form a sentence: "Every two weeks on Monday and Friday until January 3, 2008" or "Every month on the first Friday for 12 occurrences."

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 Open, or double-clicking the appointment.

### Deleting Old Events

Keeping a huge list of everything you did in the past will eventually slow down your calendar. To delete old events, select Actions Purge and enter the number of days of past events you wish to keep.

### Sending a Meeting Invitation

Evolution can be used to schedule group meetings and help you manage responses to meeting requests.

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.

#### Simple Announcements

If you don't need to collect attendance information when you're scheduling an event, and would rather just announce it, select Actions Forward as iCalendar. 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.

To schedule a meeting:

1. Select Actions Schedule Meeting . The Scheduling and Meeting tabs open.

2. If you have multiple Evolution email accounts, choose the one you'll use by selecting an item in the Organizer field.

3. Click the space labeled Click here to add an attendee to enter the names and email addresses of people you will invite, or click the Invite Others to select them from your contacts.

4. Save the Appointment.

An email is now sent out to all the recipients, inviting them to your event.

### Replying to a Meeting Request

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:

- Accept

- Tentatively Accept

- Decline

Click OK and an email will be sent to the organizer with your answer. The event will also be added to your calendar if you accept.

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.

Once you have added the meeting to your calendar, you can make changes to your copy, but be aware that if the original organizer sends out another update, your changes may be overwritten.

#### There Can Be Only One

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.

### Getting Responses to Meeting Requests

Once you get a reply to your meeting invitation, you'll need to view it inline in the email. Click the attachment and select View Inline. At the bottom, you can click OK to update your attendee list.

### Scheduling Meetings and The Free/Busy View

In addition to the standard meeting scheduling tools, you can use the Free/Busy view to check whether people are available in advance. The Free/Busy feature is normally a function of dedicated groupware servers such as Exchange and Groupwise. However, you can also publish Free/Busy information online, and access Free/Busy information published elsewhere. If not everyone you collaborate with publishes Free/Busy data, you can still use iCal event invitations to coordinate schedules with other people.

To access the free/busy view:

1. Open or create an appointment in the Calendar window.

2. Click Actions Schedule Meeting

3. Open the Scheduling tab.

#### Appointment Scheduling Window

Appointment Scheduling Window

Attendee List

The Attendee List lists off the people who have been invited to the respective appointment. It also shows their RSVP status.

Schedule Grid

The Schedule Grid shows the published Free/Busy information for the people you have invited. This is where you compare people's schedules to find free time to schedule the appointment. Individuals will only have visible scheduling information if they use the same GroupWise or Exchange server you do (that is, if they are in the same organization as you), or if they publish free/busy information at a URL you can reach and you have entered that URL into their contact card using the contact editor.

Meeting Scheduler

The Meeting Scheduler allows you to schedule the meeting in the Free/Busy window.

#### Scheduling an Appointment

To schedule an appointment, you'll first need people's free/busy information. If you're using the Evolution 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.

Regardless of how you get the information, Novell Evolution will display it in the Scheduling 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.

Adjust the meeting time, either by dragging the meeting borders or by using the Autopick buttons to choose a time automatically, then click Save and Close. Attendees on an Exchange server will have the appointment updated automatically; others will receive email notification of any change in plans.

Read full-advantage to learn about how to use this feature with the Evolution Connector for Microsoft Exchange.

#### Publishing Free/Busy Data Without a Groupware Server

You can publish Free/Busy information to a WebDAV or other web server with HTTP PUT support. Check with your system administrator if you are not sure.

To set up Free/Busy publishing, select Tools Settings , then click the Calendar and Tasks tool. In the Free/Busy Publishing tab, click Add and enter the URL for your upload server. Select the frequency with which you wish to upload data, the calendars for which you wish to display data, your username and password, and then click OK.

To have Free/Busy data published immediately, go to the Calendar tool and select Actions Publish Free/Busy

#### Accessing Free/Busy Data Without a Groupware Server

If someone gives you a URL for Free/Busy data or their web calendar, you can enter it as part of their contact information in the Contacts tool. Then, when you schedule a meeting with them, Evolution will look up their schedule and display it in the meeting planner.

## Multiple Calendars and Web Calendars

To create a new calendar, select File New Calendar . If the calendar is one you plan to store locally, you need only provide a name and color. If it is a remote calendar, enter the name, color, URL, and a refresh frequency. The refresh frequency determines how often Evolution will check to see if the calendar has changed. If you are working with someone who publishes an online calendar, you may want to check for updates every thirty minutes. On the other hand, if you have displayed a sports team schedule in your calendar, you may not need to refresh it more than once a week, if at all.

The website icalshare.com has an extensive list of shared online calendars, including national and religious holidays, phases of the moon, sports, and local and regional events.

## The Task Pad

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 Tasks button in the shortcut bar or in the folder tree.

To record a new task, click the Add button in the toolbar. Evolution will pop up a small window with five items in it:

Summary:

- The description you enter here will appear in the To Do list itself.

Due Date:

- Decide when this item is due. You can either type in a date and time, or select one from the Calendar and time drop-down menus.

Start Date:

- The date you intend to start working.

Description:

- 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.

Classification:

- Sets who will see it if your calendar is shared.

There are more options in the Details tab such as priority and progress settings.

Once you've added a task to your to-do list, its summary appears in the Summary 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 Open. You can delete items by selecting them and clicking on the Delete button.

The list of tasks is sorted in a similar way to the list of email messages in Novell 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.

### Task Groups

As with calendars, you can create multiple task groups. Task groups are more easily organized in the dedicated Tasks tool. Each task group is assigned a color, and in the Tasks tool shortcut bar you can hide and show task groups just like calendars. In the calendar display task pad, tasks from all visible task groups will appear, color coded by group. To create a new task group, select New Task Group. You will be prompted for a name, color, and location for the task group. If the task group is online, you will need to provide the URL for it.