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WiscCal

MyUW-Madison WiscCal Web Calendar Tutorial

Welcome to the Web Calendar Tutorial, designed to help first-time users easily navigate their way through the product. In this tutorial, you'll pick up the basics of using the Web Calendar, manage a few sample Entries in your Agenda and learn how to make your Agenda available to others.

A first look at your Agenda

The default view when you sign in to your Agenda is the Week View--one week's worth of information.

Before you create any Entries, take a look around your Agenda. Notice that the day of the week is highlighted in red, with a blank row below it: "No Meetings." This means you have no Entries scheduled for today, but we'll take care of that shortly.

The bar of icons running across the top of the page is the toolbar, your primary means of performing operations in your Agenda. With the toolbar, you can change how your Agenda is displayed, create any type of Entry, view another user's Agenda or sign out of the system.

The arrows on either side of the Calendar icon let you scroll backwards and forwards in a week. For now, though, we're going to go to the Day View and create some Entries. Click  on the toolbar to get started.

A word about Entries

Entries are the basic building blocks of your Agenda. They allow you to manage important events with Meetings, keep track of projects with Tasks and post reminders to yourself with Daily Notes. You can create Day Events to mark off anniversaries or birthdays and even generate an Entry that occurs on a regular basis.

There are four types of Access levels you can assign to an Entry: Normal, Public, Personal and Confidential. Depending on the Access Rights you set, users will be able to see certain types of Entries, but not others.

Assignment 1: Creating a Meeting

This is the Entry you'll probably use the most to manage your Agenda. It represents anything you want to schedule that has a specific start and end time.

Click  to bring up the New Meeting page. This is where you enter all the relevant information about the Entry.

Do This

  1. On the General tab, give your Meeting a title, date and duration. Then enter some text in the Details section. It will show up in your Agenda when you create the Entry.
  2. The Importance level is indicated in your Agenda by arrows of different colours. Give the Entry an Importance level of High.
  3. Set an access level for the Entry. Access levels determine who can see the Entry when she or he views your Agenda.
  4. On the Notification tab, choose a few people you'd like to inform about the Entry. Write their e-mail addresses in the Enter E-mail Addresses section, separating each address with a comma.
  5. Don't worry about the other options on this page. We'll cover them later. Click Create.

Assignment 2: Viewing a Meeting in your Agenda

Now let's take a look at how the Meeting from the previous example appears in the Web Calendar. Depending on your preferences, Entries will display more or less information in your Agenda. The following example illustrates how changing your preferences affects the display of the Entry.

Use the Date Picker--or the arrow buttons to the left and right of it--to find the Entry you created in Assignment 1. 

  • represents the Meeting in your Agenda.
  • The title, start and end time are shown.
  • Your Meeting details appear in the Agenda, accompanied by  
  • represents the Importance level.

Do This

  1. Click  or  on the toolbar to bring up the Preferences page. 
  2. Your viewing choices are displayed in the Display section. Deselect the "Meeting end times" and "Entry icons and details" checkboxes. 
  3. Click OK to return to your Agenda and view the Entry. You'll notice that it only shows the Meeting icon, start time and title.

Tip

It's a good idea to have these defaults on at all times when you first start to work in your Agenda. As you get accustomed to managing your schedule with the Web Calendar, you can then customize your preferences.

Assignment 3: Creating a Task

As the next step in the tutorial, you're going to create a Task. A Task is a project that is either ongoing or has a specific start or end date. Configure a Task's importance level and enter a description for the Entry on the same page. Use Tasks to keep track of any assignments you need to complete.

Click  on the toolbar to bring up the New Task page.

Do This

  1. Pick a Task you need to complete by a specific date. Give it a title and write related text in the Description section.
  2. Select the "No start date" radio button in the Start section. Then give your Task a due date and time in the Due section.
  3. If it's a project on which you've already done some work, indicate its Complete percentage in the Status section.
  4. Click Create when you are done. The Task now appears in your Daily Agenda.

Assignment 4: Creating a Repeating Entry

Your next task is to create a Repeating Entry--an Entry that occurs over a period of time you specify when creating it. Remember, you can't edit a Repeating Entry as a whole after you create it. if you want to make changes later, you'll have to change each individual instance of the Entry.

Click  on the toolbar to bring up the New Day Event page.

Do This

  1. Enter the normal information for the Day Event like you did with your Meeting in Assignment 1.
  2. In the Repeating Options section, change the Don't Repeat pull-down default to Weekly. Then choose a date in the Until range. For example, if you selected Dec. 5, 2000 in the Until range, your Entry would occur every week until that date.
  3. Now choose a day of the week on which the Entry should occur. For example, if you selected Dec. 5 2000 in the Until Range and Wednesday as the day, your Entry would occur every Wednesday until Dec. 5.
  4. Click Create when you are done.

Assignment 5: Viewing an Event Calendar

Your last assignment is to search for and view an Event Calendar on the system. Created by your system administrator, an Event Calendar is a Agenda that uses Entries to represent different activities of a given organization. For example, a concert hall could have its own Event Calendar, with Entries representing shows on different dates. Your system administrator could create an Event Calendar for company events or vacation records. It's a feature that allows you to filter information into your Agenda, create a list of favorite Event Calendars and then access that list through a pull-down menu in any of the views.

Click  to bring a page where you can search for Event Calendars.

Do This

  1. Check the "Event calendar search" radio button and click Find. The Web Calendar displays a list.
  2. Select one and click View. If you want quick and convenient access to the Event Calendar, click Add to favorites. It then appears in a pull-down menu in your Agenda.
  3. Entries booked by your system administrator appear in the Day, Week or Month Views of the Event Calendar. Click on any Entry to view it and copy information into your Agenda. It's an intuitive way of keep track of events and activities you're interested in.
  4. Click  when you're ready to return to your own Agenda, 

Wrapping up

Congratulations, you've finished your Web Calendar Tutorial! You're now ready to take advantages of the powerful scheduling tools this Web Calendar has to offer. If you're not sure how to do something, or just want more information about a feature, please consult the Web Calendar on-line help for more information.

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