10 Minute Guide to Schedule+ for Windows 95 - Lesson 6 - Setting Up Appointment Options   In this lesson, you will learn how to use the various appointment options to enhance your daily schedule. Setting a Reminder Do you have any pressing appointments that you canít possibly miss? Then the Reminder feature can really help you remember them. You already learned a little about inserting a reminder icon into your appointment in Lesson 5. When you set an appointment, a reminder icon that resembles a tiny bell appears in front of your appointment description, as shown in Figure 6.1. Figure 6.1 Reminder icons are easy to spot in your daily schedule. By default, Schedule+ inserts a reminder icon whenever you type a description in the daily schedule. You can also insert a reminder using the Appointment dialog box. It Didnít Remind Me! If you set a reminder for a time setting thatís already passed, the reminder canít alert you to the appointment. For example, if itís 3:00 and you add a 3:15 appointment to your schedule with a 20-minute prior warning, you will not receive the reminder.  To set a reminder with the Appointment dialog box, follow these steps: 1. Double-click on the appointment in the Appointment Book, or click on the Insert New Appointment button on the toolbar to add a new appointment to your schedule. 2. The Appointment dialog box appears on-screen. Make sure you select the Set Reminder check box. When you select this option, additional options appear in the dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.2. Figure 6.2 The Appointment dialog box 1. Choose an advance time for the reminder to have Schedule+ display a reminder box on-screen when the appointment draws near. 2. To exit the dialog box, click OK. Quick Reminders To quickly insert a reminder icon for an existing appointment, select the appointment and click on the Reminder button on the toolbar. After setting a reminder, you will be reminded about your appointment only when itís time for the reminder to appear. (You learn all about the Reminder message box later in this section.) In order for the reminder to work, however, you must have your Schedule+ program open or minimized. Turning Off the Default Reminder Setting If you get tired of Schedule+ inserting a reminder icon every time you type an appointment into the Appointment Book, you can turn off the default setting. To turn off reminders, follow these steps: 1. Open the Tools menu and select Options. 2. In the Options dialog box, click on the Defaults tab. 3. Deselect the Set reminders for appointments automatically check box. 4. Click OK to exit the Options dialog box. To turn the default setting back on again, simply repeat the steps above, this time selecting the automatic reminder check box. Using the Reminder Message Box But when does the Reminder feature get around to reminding you? It depends. What advance time did you set? You can control when the Reminder feature reminds you of an appointment. In the Appointment dialog box, you can select the Set Reminder check box to choose what time the Reminder feature calls your attention to the appointment. Fifteen minutes beforehand is a typical setting. The catch to using this feature, however, is that you need to have your computer on and have Schedule+ running (or minimized). In addition, you need to be in the same room with your computer or you wonít see or hear the reminder. When your appointment nears, the Reminder message box pops up on your screen (depending on when you set it to appear), as shown in Figure 6.3. When the Reminder message box appears, you hear an audible beep, and the message box suddenly interrupts what you are doing. The message box itself displays your appointment and its scheduled time. Figure 6.3 The Reminder box pops up on your screen to remind you about your appointment. In the Reminder message box, you also see a description of the appointment and where your appointment is to take place (if you entered this information when you created the appointment). With the options at the bottom of the box, you can choose to remind yourself of the appointment again as the time for the appointment gets even closer. Click on the Notify me again option if you want another reminder before the appointment, and then select a time for the reminder. If you donít need another reminder, select the Donít notify me again option. When you finish with the Reminder message box, click OK to exit. I Didnít Get a Reminder! By default, Schedule+ is set to show reminder boxes along with an audible beep. However, if you turned these settings off, you may be missing all of your reminder boxes. To check, open your Tools menu, select Options, and click on the General tab. Select the Set daily reminder, Set audible alarm, and Enable reminders check boxes. Click OK to exit, and your reminder boxes should work. Setting Recurring Appointments Some of your appointments happen every week or every day, such as a weekly staff meeting or a daily car pool. Rather than typing these appointments over and over again in your schedule, use the Recurring option. The Recurring option is available on your toolbar, in your Insert menu, and even in the Appointment dialog box. Hereís one way to set up a recurring appointment: 1. Select the appointment on your schedule. 2. Click the Recurring button on your toolbar. This opens the Appointment Series dialog box. (See Figure 6.4.) 3. Use the tabs to set up information about your recurring appointment. Click on the When tab to designate when the appointment occurs (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly) and what day it falls on. You can also set the exact time of the meeting. Make your adjustments to the settings. 4. To set a reminder for the appointment, click on the General tab, which looks just like the one in the Appointment dialog box. Use the Set Reminder option to add a reminder to the recurring appointment. 5. Click OK to exit the dialog box, and Schedule+ sets your recurring appointment. A recurring appointment always appears with a circular icon beside it in your Appointment Book. Figure 6.4 The Appointment Series dialog box. Setting Private and Tentative Appointments If youíre using Schedule+ on a network, youíll be happy to know about the Private option. This option enables you to keep appointments hidden from others who have access to your schedule on the network. By assigning the Private icon to an appointment, you can keep others from viewing the details about the appointment. To assign a private icon to a selected appointment, simply click on the Private button on the toolbar. Another way of keeping important items on your schedule away from prying eyes is to use the Hide Text command. After you assign a private icon to your appointment, follow these steps to hide the text: 1. Open the View menu and select Hide Private Text. 2. Click anywhere outside of the appointment, and Schedule+ hides the text description on your daily schedule. See Figure 6.5. 3. To see the text again, click inside the appointment or repeat step 1 to turn off the Hide Private Text view. Figure 6.5 Hereís an example of what a private icon and a tentative appointment look like. The Tentative option enables you to set up a tentative appointment in your daily schedule. Schedule+ applies shading to tentative appointments (see Figure 6.5). This shading clearly lets you know that the time slot can be made available if more pressing engagements come up. To make an appointment tentative, click on the appointment slot that holds the appointment, and click on the Tentative button on the toolbar. In this lesson, you learned how to add appointment options to your daily schedule. In the next lesson, youíll learn how to edit and move appointments in the Appointment Book.

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