This article goes into detail about the various options that are available when creating a new Appointment, as well as the concept of Appointment instances, which will be necessary to understand before creating recurring Appointments.
Appointment Instances
Whenever Appointments are created, at least a single instance of that Appointment also gets created. The Appointment itself holds the majority of information that is supplied when creating a new Appointment (such as Name, Content, Creator, etc), whereas the instance(s) associated with the Appointment hold the start and end dates.
This separation of details into two technical components allows for recurring Appointments. Recurring Appointments exist when there is a single Appointment that is associated with more than one instance, giving the Appointment multiple start and end dates. This arrangement can be setup when creating the Appointment (see Recurrence Frequency under Options below).
This means that if you ever wish to modify the details of an Appointment, and it is part of a series of recurring Appointments, you have the opportunity to modify all of them at once. See Modifying Appointment Instances for more information.
Options
- Name – The main reference given to this Appointment, this is the label that users will see when viewing their Calendar tool.
- Visible To – Option used to determine who will be able to see this appointment. If set to Just Me, no other users aside from yourself will be able to see this Appointment. Otherwise, selecting Me and Others will reveal a set of targeting selectors, letting you determine which users will be able to see the Appointment. See Targeting for more information on usage of targeting selectors.
- Attach Content – If set to Yes, links or files can be added to form part of the description of this Appointment.
- Content – Rich text editor, allowing for formatted text to be entered. This field is typically used to enter the main description of the Appointment, giving yourself and others an understanding of the purpose of the Appointment.
- All Day Appointment – Turning this option on will cause the Appointment to span the entirety of a given date. This option will disregard time zones, making it an ideal option to mark public holidays, where the holiday is nationwide in a country that spans multiple time zones.
- Start – Date and time field that is used to set the beginning time of the Appointment instance (if used in conjunction with the Recurrence Frequency option, this will act as the beginning time of the first instance).
- End – Date and time field that is used to set the finish time of the Appointment instance (if used in conjunction with the Recurrence Frequency option, this will act as the finish time of the first instance).
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Timezone – If the option All Day Appointment is not selected this field appears providing the option to select the timezone to which the created Appointment instance will be based, this would have the same timezone as the user by default, however, it can be modified to a different value.
Note: Other users would see the appointment time according to their own selected timezone, for more information on all the fields an account can update, please check the following article: Updating My Account Details.
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Recurrence Frequency – By default, this option is turned off (set to Never). Turning this option on (setting it to any option other than Never) will create multiple instances associated with this Appointment, each having different start and end dates. Turning this option on will reveal a number of options, all of which affect the dates of these subsequent instances, as well as the total number of instances that will be created.
- Daily will let you choose between having an instance created every X number of days following the first instance, or every weekday.
- Weekly will let you choose which day(s) of the week an instance should be created for, every X number of weeks.
- Monthly will let you choose between having an instance created for a numbered day in every X number of months (e.g. the 14th day in every two months), or an ordinal day in every X number of months (e.g. the second Wednesday every two months).
- Yearly will let you choose between having an instance created for a specific date every X number of years, or an ordinal day in a specific month every X number of years (e.g. the second Wednesday in June every three years).
- Range of Recurrence – This option becomes available if the Recurrence Frequency option described above is turned on, and affects the number of instances that will be created for this Appointment. This option can be set in two ways: the first allows for the range to be defined by an absolute number of instances that will be created, and the second method accepts an End by date that acts as the date after which no more instances will be created for.
- Send Reminder Email – This option contains a dropdown with a preset number of days, and the option Never. This determines how long before an instance of the Appointment a reminder email will be sent to the shared users.
- Colour – Colour picker field, this option determines what colour the Appointment's instances will be highlighted in when displayed in the Calendar tool.
- Allow Replies – Turning this option on will allow the shared users to leave messages on instances of this Appointment. See section Leaving a Message on an Appointment in Navigating the Calendar for more information.
- Notify Creator – This option becomes available if the Allow Replies option is turned on. Turning it on will ensure that email notifications are sent to the Appointment creator whenever a message is left on one of its instances.