The Events Calendar application shows the calendar view of all staff events, or specific types of events or team events.
The Events Calendar is a versatile App which allows you to add events in various Categories and Sub-Categories, and advertise the events so they show in the Home Page What's New feed.
The Events Calendar starts without any folders, so you'll need to add at least one category (i.e. folder) before adding content. Each Category is considered a completely separate calendar, so if you want all events to show on one calendar but have users more easily locate specific event types (e.g. Lunch & Learn) then add a Subcategory to your Category. If events don't need to be separated out by users, just have one Category for all events and no Subcategories.
Once you've added a Category, you'll be shown the calendar view.
The Events Calendar App comes with a standard layout for its default home page, List View, and Item View, as shown with sample content below. All layouts can be customized. If you have only one Category, the Home Page and the List View are the same, as shown below, with an event shown on the 30th.
Add Events Calendar item to Outlook (2) - click the icon to download an ICS file to your computer, then click to open the file to add to your Outlook calendar. If the event is later deleted, you'll receive notification. Note that this function is enabled by Category, so you may need to click Manage Categories under Toolbox on the right, then click the Category name and check the box for Enable Add to Outlook feature.
Alter users' default view - click Properties and under Default View change users' view to either day, week, or month; or set a default event start or end time (if you leave these blank it's up to users to complete the fields).
Choose which fields to display - click Manage Fields to view the current fields on the calendar. Some of the fields can be toggled such as 'Sub Category', this is done by deselecting the Display checkbox.
'Prevent overlap of events with the same category and sub-category' shows any conflicts when the item you're publishing either conflicts with an existing calendar event created on the same parent calendar level, or if the parent calendar and sub category matches. This is the most common selection, as many calendars may have multiple sub-categories but you wouldn't want a conflict to occur if the sub-categories don't match.
'Also prevent overlaps between category and any sub-category events' shows conflicts where the item's parent category or any of the other sub categories have an overlapping scheduled date/ time. This would work for a case where you have two meeting rooms with a divider in the middle; if the divider is removed, the parent category would have a meeting during this time, likewise, if you used one of the sub-categories, you wouldn't be able to book an event for the parent category during the same date/time.
Add an approval function - click Approval Workflow, then click on a folder name to assign an Approval Manager workflow by folder - this can be a handy feature for vacation approval as shown in the blog example earlier in this article. Learn more about managing folder workflow in the App Overview article.
These are just a few of the many ways you can customize the Events Calendar application so it fits with your organization's needs.
Events have some special considerations, so adding events to the Events Calendar has a few extra steps to ensure that the right settings are in place.
Within the Events Calendar, click Add, top right.
Description - full html editing of event description, so you can add links, images, etc.
Editing a regular event is just like editing any item on the intranet. Go to the item and click the edit pencil on the right side of the item.
Editing recurring event is a bit different. For each recurring event except for the first in the series you have the option of editing either the occurrence of the event (1), or editing the entire series (2), similar to Outlook. You can also delete the occurrence (1) or the series (2). When editing the first event in a series changes made will affect the entire series and overwrite any changes made to specific events in the series.