10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes Mail 4.5 - 19 - Using the Calendar In this lesson you learn how to make entries in your calendar. You also learn how to accept meeting invitations and how to check the available time of others. Making Calendar Entries Entries that you make in your calendar will affect your free time availability. Although others may not be able to view your calendar, they may be able to view your free time. Check with your Notes administrator if you are having difficulty seeing the free time of others. There are several types of calendar entries you can create: Appointment is a meeting with a non-Notes user, such as a client, or a personal appointment such as a doctor's visit. You cannot invite others to an appointment. You can enter an appointment as one time value, and it can occur once, or repeat. Invitation is an appointment in which you want to include and invite others. Those you invite must be part of your Notes Mail system and Notes will automatically notify them for you by sending them an invitation in their mail. It is possible that you may also find cc: Mail users and Office Vision users in your Invitation list if your systems administrator configured Lotus Notes to include them. Event has a duration that lasts for more than one day such as a vacation. Events can occur for a number of consecutive days, or they can be repeated (see Repeat, later in this lesson for more information). Reminder is a note to yourself which will display on your calendar in the time and date you assign to it. Anniversary is a repeating occasion that you wish to appear on your calendar weekly, monthly, or yearly. You can create a calendar entry at any time while in Lotus Notes and you don't have to have the Mail database open. To create a calendar entry: From anywhere in Notes Select Create, Calendar Entry from the menu. From your Calendar view in Mail Choose New Entry on the Action bar or double-click on a date or time slot in the calendar. Follow these instructions to complete the calendar entry: 1. Select the type of appointment you want to create: Appointment, Invitation, Event, Reminder, or Anniversary. Depending upon the type of calendar entry you choose, the entry fields will vary slightly (see Figure 19.1). Figure 19.1 The fields will vary depending on the calendar entry you choose. 2. Enter information in the the fields in the document. (The remaining fields on the document will vary slightly depending upon the type of entry you have selected): Date. Enter the date or click on the Calendar button to see a miniature calendar. Use the left and right arrows at the top of the calendar to move from month to month. Click on the day to select the date. Figure 19.2 shows the miniature calendar. Figure 19.2 Choosing a date. Time (does not appear for Anniversary or Event). Enter the time or click on the Clock button to see a time scale. Drag the indicators up or down on the scale to set the time and duration of the appointment. Duration (appears only for Event). Enter the number of days the event will last. Description. Enter a brief description of the appointment. Reservations (appears only for Invitation). Three options appear in the Reservations section: You can reserve any available room, a specific room, or resources such as a projector or computer. These options may not be enabled in your company. You should speak with your Notes ad-ministrator regarding this section of the form. Pencil in marks the entry on your calendar, but does not affect your free time. Not for public viewing prevents others from seeing this appointment. Use this if you want to enter a confidential or personal appointment, such as a doctor's visit. Others can see that your line is blocked out but will not see the actual appointment. 3. Use the Repeat button on the Action bar for appointments that will occur on more than one date such as a monthly meeting. In the Repeat Rules dialog box, select the Repeat interval from the drop-down list. Based on that choice, set the specifics of the frequency and intervals. Then set the Starting Date. Choose Until and set the ending date or For, and set the length of time. Click OK. 4. Click on the Alarm options button on the Action bar to receive a reminder of this entry. In the Alarm dialog box, specify the number of Minutes, choose Before or After, and enter an Alarm Message. Click on OK. If you set a default appointment alarm in the Calendar profile and don't want an alarm for this appointment, check Turn Alarm Off in the Alarm dialog box and then click OK. 5. Click the Save and Close button on the Action bar to save your appointment. Viewing Free Time When you invite others to a meeting, you can check their free time by selecting Click here to find free time for all invitees in the invitations section of your calendar entry. To create a calendar entry, invite others and see their free time: 1. From the Calendar view of your Mail database, click on the New Entry button on the Action bar. 2. Select Invitation as your calendar entry type. 3. Complete the Brief Description, Date and Time fields. If appropriate, complete the Detailed Description field. 4. Complete the Send Invitations to field. If you would like to invite others whose attendance you do not require, enter their names into the Optional Invitees field. You can type the names in the field or click on the down-arrow button to select the invitees from the Names dialog box 5. Choose Click here to find free time for all invitees to see their free time. The Free Time dialog box appears as shown in Figure 19.3. This box displays a white bar behind the name of each person whose free time is available for viewing (gray if it is not). Blue bars indicate busy times for each person, and a red or green bar represents the appointment you are creating. If your appointment bar is green, the time is OK for everyone, and that information is displayed on the left of the Free Time dialog box. If there is a conflict in schedules, the dialog box will display "Scheduled time is not OK for everyone," and the appoint-ment bar will be red. Figure 19.3 The Free Time dialog box. 6. If your scheduled time is not OK, you can change the Date and Time fields in the Free Time dialog box. You can also change the list of invitees by clicking on the Change Invitee List button of the dialog box. 7. When you are satisfied with your appointment, click on OK to close the dialog box. 8. Click the Save and Close button on the Action bar to save this calendar entry. Notes will send invitations to those listed in your Required and Optional Invitee lists. This meeting will now appear in your calendar. Responding to Invitations Invitations that you receive from others will appear in the Inbox view of your mail as well as the Meetings view. Meetings will only appear in your calendar if you created them yourself, save someone else the rights to create them, or accepted an invitation. Figure 19.4 shows an invitation from Ann Klein in the Inbox view of Mail. Figure 19.4 An Invitation displays in the Inbox view of Mail. To respond to an invitation: 1. Open the invitation by double-clicking on it in your Meetings or Inbox view of Mail. 2. Select your response by using the buttons on the Action bar. (See Figure 19.5.) Those choices are: Accept mails an acceptance notice to the person who initiated the invitation and adds the meeting to your calendar. Decline sends a regrets notification to the person who initiated the invitation. Other gives you the option to Decline with comments, delegate this meeting to someone else (who will be automatically notified), or propose an alternate time or location. Figure 19.5 Responding to an Invitation. 3. Choose the appropriate selection and click on OK to save and close the document. In this lesson, you learned how to create calendar entries, invite others, and see the free time of others. You also learned how to respond to an invitation. In the next lesson, you will learn how to make e-mail look professional with formatting.

©Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.