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How to use the desktop version of Oracle Calendar

Overview

The desktop program is just one way of gaining access to your Calendar. It is the most suitable method if you are on campus at your desk. You can also access your calendar anywhere in the world by going to https://calendar.bath.ac.uk or, with Calendar 10, also via any mobile phone that supports OMA-DS technology (formerly known as SyncML).

Launching Oracle Calendar

Changing the settings

You may want to change the display settings to you can identify people and resources easily. From the menu bar choose Tools → Options... to access
the settings dialog box.

  

 

To make best use of the software the following options should be set:

This final formatting option enables you to identify people with similar names very quickly by displaying their departments as well as their names when you are searching.

It is important to remember that changes you make to any preferences will not take effect until you have closed and reopened the window in which these preferences apply. Some preference changes will not take effect until you restart Oracle Calendar.

Navigating Oracle Calendar

Initial display screen

Calendar launches by default into the In-Tray (turn this off via Tools → Options → General → Startup). This is where any notices of new Entries will appear, for example, meetings people wish you to attend.

From here you can:

Types of Appointments

When the In-Tray is opened the appointments are indicated by a variety of symbols - depending on what type of entry has been created.

Working with your Oracle Calendar In-Tray

Your In-Tray is where you receive all Agenda entries (eg. meeting invitations) from other Oracle Calendar users. Your In-Tray is also a place where you can keep track of the entries you send out to other Oracle Calendar users. The In-Tray contains four sub-sections:

The In-Tray starts to build your Agenda for you. If you accept a meeting then it is automatically inserted into your agenda.

Ways of accepting or rejecting a meeting

Meetings that you have been invited to appear in your Agenda in blue. There will be a question mark symbol to indicated that you have not accepted or rejected the invitation to that meeting. To accept or reject a meeting, double click the meeting. This takes you into the View Meeting screen.
In the Response box, select from:

You can also indicate that you would prefer another time for the meeting. Click Update.

If at a later date you wish to decline the Meeting all you have to do is right-click on the Meeting in your Agenda and select 'Will Not Attend'. The Meeting turns red in your agenda and anyone else invited to that Meeting will see you have declined.

Mail message

This dialog box appears when you choose to send an email concerning an Entry that you are creating, editing, deleting or replying to.

You are recommended to use the Email Notification facility so that people you have invited, who do not check their Oracle Calendar regularly, are aware that their time has been requested when they next read their email. They can then access Oracle Calendar to view the activity request in more detail.

Agendas

The Agenda screen shows you what either you, your colleagues or Resources have been booked for and therefore when you are busy.

The In-Tray is similar to the trays on your desk, whereas the Agenda is your diary and keeps track of everything.

Agenda views

The Agenda views can be displayed in three basic formats: Daily (the default), Weekly or Monthly.

The Agenda views not only allow you to see Entries, but also to edit existing Entries and add new Entries directly on a page. Agenda views can be resized as you require.

You can switch between the different layouts by clicking on the View Day, View Week or View Month tool buttons, as appropriate, at the top of the Oracle Calendar screen.

The Daily Agenda view

The Daily Agenda view is divided into three parts.

The Weekly Agenda view

This allows you to view your weekly diary. It's useful for getting an 'overview' of how busy or slack you will be that week!

The Monthly Agenda View

Selecting another date

Accessing Agendas

Oracle allows you to access not only your own but other peoples agendas so that you can book meetings, organise functions etc. Select File → Agenda → Open

Accessing your own Agenda

If you wish to open your own agenda, select the 'Open Your Agenda' button

Accessing other people's Agendas

If you wish to view the Agenda of another user:

If you are not sure of the person's name then click the Search button and type in their surname and find their name via that route. Common names may return lots of results - make sure you have set your display options appropriately to easily identify people.

Note: Some Entries will not be displayed, due to the access levels set by that person, and unless you have Designate rights you cannot make any changes to the contents of the Agenda

Accessing an Agenda as a Designate

If you have the right to work as a designate (eg look after someone else's diary):

When you work on someone else's Agenda as a designate, you can view, edit and add Agenda Entries owned by that Agenda, according to the rights that have been given to you.

Accessing a Group Agenda

The Group Agenda displays the Entries of a group of users (people and/or resources) on one Agenda page. This allows you to see the 'free time' available for a whole group. You can then schedule a meeting for a time when everyone is free. The only down side to this is ensuring that everyone keeps their calendars up to date.

Using a Group Agenda

Creating a new Meeting on an Agenda

Creating a Meeting shows that you are busy not only on your diary but also on everyone else's. Unless you complete these then the diary shows you are always free. If everyone keeps their diaries up to date this is helpful for all Oracle Calendar users in the whole University.

Note: You can select File → New → Meeting to bring up another New Meeting window

Options and sections to complete

Must-haves:

If you are planning a meeting, you can now add people or resources to this activity

Check Conflicts button

If you have not opened the Group Agenda but wish to invite several people, check that the time you have scheduled is OK by using this button. It interrogates all the agendas to check whether everyone is free and reports any conflicts.

Level of Importance

When you organise a meeting it is sometimes useful to indicate the importance/priority of it to other members attending. Don't abuse this - if you mark every meeting as important nothing is important.

To alter the priority of a Meeting, double-click on the Meeting and set accordingly from the 'Importance' drop-down box at the top of the Edit Meeting dialog box.

Setting the Access Level for a Meeting

Double-click on the Meeting and set accordingly from the 'Access' drop-down box at the top of the Edit Meeting dialog box. There is more on access levels later in this guide.

Recurring Activities

If this event is taking place lots of times then it is worth selecting the Repeating tab.

Setting up a Reminder

It is very easy to set up a Meeting but it is very embarrassing if you forget to attend! Therefore the Reminder tab in 'Options' is very useful. If you set a Reminder, a pop-up dialogue box will appear at a specified time (minutes, days, months or years!) before the event to remind you. When it appears, you can Snooze the reminder till another time slot or Clear it.

Editing entries

Rescheduling an Agenda Entry

To reschedule an entry that you own, click on its entry so that it is highlighted and then select the menu option Edit -> Reschedule. Alternatively right click on the meeting and select Reschedule. Specify the new date and/or time in the Move Entry window and then click on OK.

Amending Agenda Entry details

You can amend the details of an Entry that you own, by double-clicking on its time slot in the Agenda. Make the corrections required and then click OK. Alternatively right click and select Open.

Deleting an Agenda Entry

To delete an entry that you own, click on its entry so that it is highlighted and then select the menu option Edit followed by Delete. You are asked to confirm that you want to delete the Entry. Alternatively right click and select Delete.

Duplicating an Agenda Entry

To duplicate an entry that you own in another time slot, click on its entry so that it is highlighted and then select the menu option Edit followed by Duplicate. Specify the additional date and/or time in the Duplicate Entry window and then click on OK.

Managing Groups

The Manage Groups dialog box (Options menu, Manage Groups) allows you to add and modify groups of users.

Types of Groups

Working with Resources

Oracle Calendar can be set up to show rooms and equipment as resources that can be booked. This will not be used for 'general' room bookings but can be set up for specific rooms that departments have created.

To view the Agenda of a Resource:

  1. Click File → Open → Agenda (as per usual)
  2. If you want to quickly find your Resource, enter r: then the name of the Resource, eg. 'r: My Resource'. If there is more than one Resource you will be prompted with a list of matching Resources to select from. If there is only one Resource it will open that Resource's Agenda
  3. If you cannot remember the name of your Resource click on the magnifying glass. Click the Resources tab, tick the Search by Resource button and click Search.
  4. Select the Resource and click OK to open the Resource's Agenda

You can then book the meeting / room / resources. You can also book a resource at the same time as booking the event in your own diary. When you book a resource you are asked if you would like to email the person who 'maintains' the room. Answer YES in order for them to know what is going on.

Defining Access Rights for other Oracle Calendar users

You can use Oracle Calendar to store meetings that are not necessarily about work. To facilitate this, Oracle Calendar allows you to specify different access levels for all Events and Tasks. The interpretation of the Access Levels are up to you, however new users are set so that:

You can amend and refine these defaults by going to Tools | Access Rights and changing the settings for the 'Default (Any user).' entry.

By default, all users possess some limited rights to view your Agenda. These limited rights allow others to invite you to meetings and check for potential scheduling conflicts. However, Oracle Calendar allows you to grant different people greater or lesser access to your Agenda. You can allow others, like an assistant, to modify entries you make in your Agenda.

To grant or change access rights

When you have completed your changes for access rights, click on OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

Caution: Be careful that you do not remove all access rights for a username. If you do, that user cannot invite you to meetings. Deleting the user from the list will give that user the same rights as the rights that you specified in 'Default: any unlisted person.'

Printing

Click on the Print tool button to display the Print dialog box, which enables you to choose:

Note: The default options given correspond with your current view. For example, if you have a weekly view on-screen then Print will give you this default

You can click on the Options button to customise any of the standard print formats provided. You can save your customised format under its own new name as a separate format that will be included in the list of formats offered in the Print dialog box in future.

Working with Tasks

Besides activities, such as Meetings, you can also use Oracle Calendar to maintain a To-Do list and remind you when certain tasks are due.

Creating a Task Entry

Click on the New Task tool button to open the New Task dialog box or press the F7 key.

Select OK to close the dialog box and add the new task to your task list.

Viewing your Task List

As you work on your tasks, you can adjust the percentage complete of each task in increments of five percent. At any time, you can view the tasks on your task list to see the status of each task. To view your task list, select the menu options File → Open → Tasks or click the Open Tasks icon on the toolbar. You can open another person's tasks as a designate if they have given you access to do so.

Entering Notes in your Agenda

You can use Oracle Calendar's Daily Note function to leave yourself notes.

To create a Note

Go to File → New → Daily Note or click on the New Daily Note tool button to open the New Daily Note dialog box.

When you have entered all of the information you want to enter for this note, click OK to create your note. Your note is created and now appears on your Agenda on the date you specified.

Viewing a Note

When you wish to view the details of a note, or make changes to one, simply double-click the note in the Note View area to open the Note Entry and view or modify as required.

Searching the Agenda

You can search for items in your Agenda. Select Tools | Search Agenda or click the Search Agenda button.