Calendar of Events
For
Local Units
June 29, 2009
Calendar of Events for Local Units
One option provided to local units is a calendar of events. The calendars are initially set up by
the County web team and are maintained by editors at the local unit. This manual gives an
overview of how to use the calendar and how to add events to the calendar.
Using the Calendar of Events
Local unit calendars are usually accessed using the regular URL of the website followed by
“/eventcal/” For example: http://www.cityofypsilanti.com/eventcal/ViewCalendar.do takes you
to Ypsilanti’s calendar of events.
When you access the Calendar of Events from a web site the month displayed will be the current
month.
Calendars can be divided into categories. When viewing a calendar you have the option of
viewing all categories or of choosing a specific category. To view a specific category within a
local unit’s calendar, choose a category from the second drop down under the small calendar.
The left side of the page has a small calendar that is used to navigate to new months and/or years
(see Calendar Navigation).
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To search the calendar, enter a word in the Search for text box and click the “Search” button. All
event titles will be searched. Once you have performed a search you can move from month to
month or even from year to year and the events displayed will be those that meet your search
criteria. To return to the full calendar view you need to click the “Clear” button next to the
“Search” button.
Across the top of the larger calendar to the right are icons which allow you to change your view
of the calendar. The Calendar View and List View icons allow you to view the calendar as a
traditional calendar or as a list of events, while the Day, Week, Month, and Year icons control
how much information you see regardless of whether you have selected a calendar or a list. If
you are using the list view you will see a link at the bottom to generate a PDF version of the list
of events you are currently viewing.
To view the details of an event, click on the name of the event.
To e-mail the event to another person, fill in the recipient’s e-mail address, your e-mail address,
and a message in the fields below the event details and click the “Submit” button. Clicking the
Format for Printing link will open a new window that contains only the event information
without the web page header and the small calendar to the left of the event. To return to the
listing or calendar of events either click on your browser’s back button or click on a date within
the small calendar to the left.
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Calendar of Events Maintenance
To edit calendars you need to be given editor access. Call the help desk and request access to
your local unit calendar.
Once you have been given access, you get to the login in page by adding “/eventcal/Login.do” to
the URL of the local unit. The uppercase “L” in Login.do is required. You will be asked to enter
your user ID and password. Your user ID and password are the same as those used to access
County webmail.
After logging in you will see some menu choices toward the top of the screen. As an editor you
will only see New Event and Logout.
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New Event
Clicking on New Event will allow you to enter the information for an event. There are many
options available when entering an event. You can enter a recurring event and change the time
and/or location for one or more of the recurrences. You can also add an event to one or more
categories in your calendar.
Event Info
Items with an asterisk on the screen are required fields.
Event Title – Enter the title of the event.
Contact Name – This will default to your name, but you can change it if needed.
Telephone – This may default to your phone number if the data is available, but you can change
it if needed.
E-Mail – This will default to your e-mail address, but you can change it if needed.
Location – Enter the location of the event.
Event Type – Select the event type that fits this event’s schedule. If it is a one time event,
choose “Single Occurrence.” If the event happens more than once but not in a set pattern, choose
the second option. If the event happens every 2 weeks or a pattern like that, choose the third
option. If the event happens the second Tuesday of every month or an equivalent pattern, choose
the fourth option. No matter which type you choose, you can make changes to the individual
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occurrences on the next screen. This is helpful for a venue change or a cancellation of one
meeting, etc.
First Occurrence Date – Enter a date in mm/dd/yy format or use the
to select a date using the calendar (see Calendar Navigation).
Start Time – Select the start time for the event.
End Time – If desired, select the time the event will end.
button next to the field
Selected Calendars/Categories – The calendars and categories listed in the right-hand list box
are those that the event will appear within. To add a calendar and category, highlight the desired
calendar in the left-hand list and click the “Add” button. To add multiple calendars/categories
hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard as you make your selections in the left-hand list. To
remove a calendar/category from the right-hand list, highlight it and click the “Remove” button.
Click the “Next” button to move to the next screen. Click “Discard Changes & Exit” to discard
your entries and return to the main screen.
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Details
The Details screen shows the detail for each event occurrence. You may change any piece of
information for one or more events. If the event normally follows a pattern but one event needs
to have its date changed, this is the place to do it. In the example above, the November meeting
falls on Thanksgiving so the date would need to be changed. To cancel an occurrence of an event
and have it remain on the calendar as “Canceled” click on the “Mark Canceled” check box next
to the occurrence that you want to cancel. If you have entered an event as a series but one or
more occurrence won’t be held, you can click on the “Skip Date” check box next to the
occurrence(s) that should not appear on the calendar (this works very well for skipping the
summer months, for example).
If you have started to set up your event and realize that you need more occurrences, you can
click on “Add New Occurrence” to add another occurrence to the screen. Occurrence dates do
not have to be in order so you can use this new occurrence to add one to the middle of the
sequence too.
Click on “Next” to move to the next screen. Click on “Discard Changes & Exit” to discard this
event and return to the main screen. Click on “Back” to return to the Event Info screen.
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Content
The Content screen is used to enter the body of your event. The content is entered using a
WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor (see WYSIWYG). Choose a template from the
template drop down if you want to use an existing template. Templates are our attempt to create
consistency across calendars. If you are using a calendar that has templates, you should use the
template so your calendar entries will be consistent with those others create. If you do not have
templates and you would like them, please call the help desk to make this request. After you
have entered your data click on “Save Changes & Exit” to save and return to the main screen.
Click on “Discard Changes & Exit” to discard the event you are entering and return to the main
screen. Click on “Back” to return to the Details screen.
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WYSIWYG
The editor used to enter events has many of the same buttons you would use in Microsoft Office.
You can type in your entry or copy and paste from Word or notepad. If you want to copy
something from a Word document you should use the “paste from Word” button explained
below. Using this button will keep your Word formatting while cleaning up the extraneous
information that Word uses behind the scenes. If you don’t use this button when pasting from
Word you could end up losing part of your event content because that behind the scenes stuff
will be saved with your text and it could take up too much room in the database. You can format
text as you go or get all the information in and format it at the end. To format as you go, click on
a format button on the toolbar then type in what you want formatted. To stop formatting, click on
the button again to turn it off. To format something that you’ve already typed, highlight the text
to format and click on a format button on the toolbar.
Format options:
Bold text
Italicize text
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Underline text
Strikethrough text
Align left
Center
Align right
Justify ( align left and right)
Choose paragraph, header, etc. to format your text
Make text larger or smaller
Cut selection to clipboard
Copy selection to clipboard
Paste contents of clipboard
Paste contents of clipboard as plain text
Paste from Word (keeps Word formatting, but cleans up behind the scene stuff)
Search within the editor
Find/replace within the editor
Bulleted list
Numbered list
Outdent (only visible if you used indent first)
Indent
Block quote
Undo last action
Redo last action
Create/edit link
Remove a link
Insert an anchor tag
Insert a picture that’s already available on the Internet
Clean up messy code (especially if you forgot to use “Paste from Word”)
Edit HTML source
Insert date
Insert time
Preview (not perfect – changes font)
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Select text color
Insert a new table
Table row properties
Table cell properties
Insert row before the current row in a table
Insert row after the current row in a table
Delete current row from table
Insert column before the current column in a table
Insert column after the current column in a table
Delete current column from a table
Split merged table cells (only usable after merging cells)
Merge table cells
Insert horizontal line
Toggle guidelines/invisible elements
Subscript text
Superscript text
Insert custom character (like windings in Word)
Toggle full screen mode
Show/hide paragraph marks and other editing characters
Insert non-breaking space character
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Editing an Event
To edit a specific event, locate the event within the calendar and click on the event’s title. If you
are logged in you will see an Edit This Event link at the bottom of the page. Click on the link and
you will be able to edit the event.
Event Info
Here you can change the event title, location, contact information, and calendar availability. If
you have an event that occurs on several days and you want to change the location for just one of
those days, don’t change the location here. Go to the Details tab to change information for
individual occurrences. Click the “Next” button to move to the next screen. Click the “Save
Changes & Exit” button to save changes to this page and return to the Calendar of Events. Click
on “Discard Changes & Exit” to discard any changes and return to the Calendar of Events.
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Details
Use this screen to change the date, time, or location for a specific occurrence of an event. Check
the Mark Canceled box next to any occurrence that should be cancelled. Check the Delete
Occurrence box next to any occurrence that should be deleted. If the event is one that is posted
because of the public meetings act you want to mark it as canceled rather than deleting it. If a
date for one of the public meetings is changed you should cancel the occurrence on the old date
and add a new occurrence for the changed meeting date.
Click “Back” to return to the previous screen, or “Next” to move to the next screen. Click “Save
Changes & Exit” to save changes to this screen and return to the Calendar of Events. Click
“Discard Changes & Exit” to discard changes to this screen and return to the Calendar of Events.
Click “Add New Occurrence” to add a new occurrence to this event.
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Content
The Content screen works the same as for adding an event.
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Calendar Navigation
The calendar popup can be used to select dates for date fields. Any time you see this button
next to a date field you can click on it to popup a calendar.
When the calendar pops up, today’s date is always highlighted in blue. As you move your mouse
around the calendar without clicking on anything, helpful messages appear in the bottom portion
of the calendar (where the following calendar says “Select date”).
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Any time you want to return to today’s date on the calendar, click on “Today.” To pick a
different day within the same month, just click on the day you want to choose. There are two
options for moving to another month. The
button can be clicked to move back one month
at a time or the
button can be clicked to move forward one month at a time. Clicking on
either of these buttons and holding down the mouse button will cause a drop down menu of
months to appear. Selecting a month from the drop down will move you to that month within the
current year.
To move to a new year use the
button to move backward one year at a time or the
button to move forward one year at a time. Clicking either of these buttons and holding down the
mouse button will cause a drop down menu of years to appear. Selecting a year from the drop
down will move you to the next year while keeping the month and day the same.
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Clicking the
button will give you some basic help on using the calendar. Clicking the
button will close the pop up window and fill the date field on the screen with the calendar
date selected.
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