10 Minute Guide to Schedule+ for Windows 95 - Lesson 5 -  Scheduling Appointments   In this lesson, you will learn how to set appointments in your daily schedule. Making an Appointment Are you ready to start filling in your daily appointments? You can select any time slot in your Appointment Book and enter an appointment. Use the scroll arrows on the right side of the Appointment Book to move through your time schedule. (There are more hours than the typical 8:00 a.m.ó5:00 p.m.; scroll up and down to find them.) Take a look at Figure 5.1.   Figure 5.1 Entering appointments is easy. To enter an appointment, perform these steps: 1. Click on the time slot into which you want to insert the appointment. 2. Type in a description of the appointment. If you type an exceptionally long description, you may not be able to see the whole description in the Appointment Bookís time slot. 3. When you finish, click anywhere outside of that time slot. Your appointment is now set in the Appointment Book. Howís that for fast? Itís easier than actually writing in a paper appointment book. By default, Schedule+ assigns a reminder to the appointment; it appears as a bell icon at the front of the description. Youíll learn more about reminders and other icons later in this lesson. In many instances the appointments youíre keeping track of require more time than 30 minutes. You can easily block out a longer time slot. To enter a longer appointment, follow these steps: 1. Click on the time slot where the appointment starts. 2. Hold down the left mouse button and drag to the ending time slot. This highlights all the slots you select, as shown in Figure 5.2. 3. Release the mouse button. You can now type in your appointmentís description, and Schedule+ sets the appointment in your Appointment Book (see Figure 5.3). My Life Is Longer Than 30-Minute Increments! If you prefer to work with increments of time other than the default 30-minute time slots, you can do so. Turn back to Lesson 4 and follow the steps for changing your Appointment Bookís time increments. Figure 5.2 You can easily select more than one time slot when you enter an appointment.   Figure 5.3 Here's an example of what a longer appointment looks like in the Appointment Book Once you enter an appointment, you can do all sorts of things to it: You can edit the appointment at any time. (See Lesson 7.) You can move it to another date or copy it. (See Lesson 7.) You can delete it. (See Lesson 7.) You can view it in weekly or monthly view. (See Lesson 9.) You can set up the appointment so that Schedule+ reminds you when the appointment time gets close. (This feature is turned on by default.) More on this in Lesson 6. Youíll learn how to do each of these things in the lessons to come. In the meantime, thereís another way you can enter appointments into your schedule. Quick Return to Today You can return to the current date on your Appointment book by clicking on the Today button on your toolbar. Using the Appointment Dialog Box Another route for entering more detailed appointments is to open the Appointment dialog box. To do this, double-click on a time slot. The Appointment dialog box appears on-screen, as shown in Figure 5.4. You can also access this dialog box by clicking on theInsert New Appointment button on the toolbar, or by opening the Insert menu and selecting Appointment. The Appointment dialog box has four tabs for entering data. The General tab, shown in Figure 5.4, has options for setting up a new appointment. The following list explains what each one of these options controls:   Figure 5.4 The Appointment dialog box. When This area shows the start and end times of your appointment. You can type in other times and dates as needed. The arrow buttons next to the times enable you to scroll through other hours. The drop-down arrows next to the dates enable you to view a monthly calendar to select a new date. Description text box This text box is where you type in details about your appointment. For example, letís say youíre entering your lunch date with Bob in your daily schedule. You can type Lunch with Bob in the description text box. When you close the Appointment box, this description appears in your daily schedule. Where You can type the location of the appointment in this text box. Set Reminder If you want a reminder of your appointment beforehand (an on-screen message and an audible beep), select the Set Reminder option. When you select this option, additional controls appear for designating when the reminder message is to appear. (The message that appears is simply a dialog box telling you about your appointment.) For example, you can set it up to send you a reminder message fifteen minutes before your appointment. When you add a Reminder option to your appointment, a tiny bell icon appears next to the description in your schedule. Private To keep your appointment descriptions away from the prying eyes of others, use the Private option. This hides your appointments from other users on your computer network, but you can still see the appointments in your schedule. When you add the Private option, a tiny key icon appears next to your appointment description. Tentative If your appointment is tentative, use the Tentative option. This keeps the appointment time from appearing as untouchable in your Planner feature. This is beneficial if youíre networked and people are trying to set up meetings with you. (More about the Planner in Lesson 15.) When you select the Tentative option, a tiny check mark with a question mark icon appears next to the description in your schedule. Command button The command buttons at the bottom of the dialog box are standard. Use the Delete button to remove appointments, and use the Make Recurring button to set up an appointment as a regular recurring part of your schedule. To set an appointment with the Appointment dialog box, follow these steps: 1. Double-click on any time slot in your daily schedule. This opens the Appointment dialog box. 2. Click on the General tab to bring its options to the front of the dialog box. 3. Set a specific time and date in the Start and End drop-down lists by clicking the up and down spinner buttons or clicking in the Start and End text boxes and typing a time and date. (By default, these boxes show the current date and the time of the time slot you double-clicked on in your schedule.) 4. Type a description for your appointment in the Description text box. 5. You can add any additional options, such as a reminder or a recurring appointment, by selecting those options now. 6. When you finish, click OK, and Schedule+ sets your appointment. The appointment now appears on your schedule. Option Icons When you assign an option such as a reminder to your appointment, an icon appears next to the description in your daily schedule. You need to learn to recognize the icons that appear in your Appointment Book and remember what they mean. Table 5.1 should help you out. Table 5.1 The Appointment Bookís Option Icons Icon Name Description Location Indicates that there is a specific meeting place for the appointment. Reminder Schedule+ reminds you about the upcoming appointment as it gets closer. Private Schedule+ keeps other users on your network from seeing the appointment (if youíre networked). Tentative Schedule+ notes the appointment as a tentative item on the schedule. In Lesson 6, youíll find details about using each of these option icons in your own Appointment Book. Use Your Toolbar, Too! You also find icons for the Reminder, Private, and Tentative options on the toolbar. When entering appointments directly without using the Appointment dialog box, click on the appropriate button on the toolbar to use any of these three options. You can turn the options on or off by clicking on the toolbar buttons. Using the Other Appointment Dialog Box Tabs There are some other things you can do in the Appointment dialog box besides set appointments. If youíre networked, the other tabs in the Appointment box are useful for scheduling appointments. Use the Attendees tab to view a list of the people who are attending the appointment with you. (See Lesson 16 for more information.) Use the Notes tab to create notes about your meeting or to type up a meeting agenda to distribution to the attendees. (See Lesson 7 for an explanation about how to use the Notes tab.) Use the Planner tab, a miniaturized Planner feature that youíll learn about in Lesson 15, to view everyoneís schedules to help you pick a free time for all. The Auto-Pick button helps you locate the first free time available for all of the attendees. In this lesson, you learned how to add an appointment to your daily schedule. In the next lesson, youíll learn how to add the many appointment options to your appointments.

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