75. Create and Manage Appointments  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 74 Navigate in the Calendar
 SEE ALSO 10 Synchronize PIM Data with Your PC 76 Tweak Calendar Options
Appointments are used in conjunction with the Calendar application to provide a way of scheduling events that require your time. Appointments are tightly linked to the BlackBerry calendar because they must have a period of time associated with them. Therefore, appointments can be shown visually in the calendar as taking up a chunk of time in your day, week, or month. Creating an appointment is simply a matter of specifying the subject, the location, the start time, the end time, and a few other parameters you might use to describe an appointment or meeting. Speaking of meetings, if you have access to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you can create a meeting by first creating an appointment and then inviting attendees. Beyond managing attendees for meetings, the Calendar application handles appointments and meetings in exactly the same manner regardless of whether you are using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. | 1. | Launch the Calendar Application On the Home screen, scroll to the Calendar icon and click the trackwheel. The Calendar application is launched and displayed on the screen. If you haven't created any appointments or meetings yet, your schedule is likely empty. However, if you've synchronized the calendar with your desktop PC, you might see some appointments and meetings in the list. 75. Create and Manage Appointments   TIP If you already use a calendar to schedule appointments and meetings in a personal information management (PIM) client such as Microsoft Outlook, consider synchronizing PIM data between your BlackBerry device and your desktop PC using the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software. See 10 Synchronize PIM Data with Your PC . If your company uses the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you might even have access to wireless synchronization with your PIM data. Check with your network administrator to see whether this service is available. | | 2. | Create a New Appointment Click the trackwheel and select New from the menu that appears. Click again to begin creating a new appointment; the New screen appears. TIP Press the O P key as a shortcut to create a new appointment or meeting. If the Enable Quick Entry option is enabled, there is an even quicker shortcut for entering a new appointment. Make sure you are in the Day format and scroll the trackwheel to select the start time of the appointment. Begin typing to enter the subject of the appointment, followed by the location of the appointment in parentheses. To change the end time of the appointment, just scroll the trackwheel. You can also change the start time by holding down the Shift key and scrolling the trackwheel. Click the trackwheel when you're finished to save the new appointment. See 76 Tweak Calendar Options for details on how to disable the Quick Entry option. NOTE The only difference between an appointment and a meeting is that a meeting has attendees. So, when I refer to creating an appointment , all the same rules apply to meetingsyou just invite attendees to turn an appointment into a meeting. Unfortunately, you can't create meetings on your device unless you are using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Without the BlackBerry Enterprise server, you won't see an option to invite attendees to an appointment, which would effectively turn it into a meeting. | | 3. | Enter the Appointment Details The Subject field is the first piece of information you must enter when creating a new appointment or meeting. This field describes the appointment and ideally is descriptive enough to immediately set the appointment apart from other appointments you schedule. In the example, I named the appointment Teeth Cleaning as a reminder for my next dental appointment. The Location of the appointment describes where the appointment takes place; you can enter any text you want in this field. In the example, I simply specified the dentist's office. The timing of appointments and meetings is important, so pay close attention to the date and time when entering a new appointment. If the appointment is scheduled to last all day, check the All Day Event option. Otherwise , leave the option unchecked and move on to specifying the start and end times for the appointment. Use the trackwheel to scroll through the Start and End fields and set the exact date and time for when the appointment starts and ends; hold down the Alt key to scroll through each date/time component. The duration of the appointment is automatically calculated from the start and end time, but you can set the Duration field directly, and the End field will change accordingly . Every appointment has a time zone associated with it, and you can change this field to reflect the time zone of the appointment location. The Time Zone field defaults to the time zone you set for your device; see 3 Set the Date and Time . An important part of creating an appointment or a meeting is establishing a reminder for it. You don't have to set a reminder for every appointment, but it is usually a good idea to do so. To set a reminder for the appointment, select an amount of time in the Reminder field before the start time of the appointment. For example, I opted to be reminded a day in advance of my teeth cleaning so I won't forget the appointment. NOTE If you set a reminder for an appointment and then turn off the power on your device, the device does not power on to issue the reminder unless you have your device set to automatically power itself on and off. See 16 Automatically Turn Your Device On and Off to learn more about this option. The Recurrence field allows you to create an appointment that recurs on a regular schedule. A good example of a recurring appointment is a weekly status meeting in which you meet with co-workers to get up-to-date on the status of current projects. To set the meeting as a recurring meeting, change the Recurrence field from None to Daily, Weekly, Monthly , or Yearly . Based on this setting, additional fields appear that enable you to get more specific about the appointment or meeting recurrence. You can get very detailed with the recurrence of an appointment. For example, you can select Weekly in the Recurrence field and then select 1 in the Every field that appears, meaning that the appointment occurs every week; a value of 2 in the Every field results in an appointment that occurs every other week. Then select F as the day for the recurring meeting, and the meeting will take place every Friday. The Mark as Private option on the New Appointment screen allows you to flag the appointment as a private appointment. Private appointments can't be seen by anyone else, even if they have permission to access your PIM folders. The last piece of information you can enter for a new appointment or meeting is a text note that is stored in the Notes field. This can be any text you want that provides additional details about the appointment or meeting. | | 4. | Save and View the Appointment When you finish entering the details for the new appointment, click the trackwheel, select Save from the menu that appears, and click again. The new appointment is saved and added to the calendar. Depending on the current date you have selected and the calendar format you are viewing, the appointment appears on the screen. Any reminders you set for the appointment are activated. TIPS If you don't immediately see the new appointment in the current calendar view, click the trackwheel, select Agenda View , and click again. The off format shows all upcoming appointments and meetings, so you won't miss it in that view. If you need to change an appointment, scroll the trackwheel to select the appointment, click the trackwheel, and select Open from the menu that appears; if this is a recurring appointment, select Open the series or Open this occurrence to open the entire series or just the one occurrence of the appointment, respectively. Click once more, and the Appointment Details screen appears, allowing you to edit all the appointment's properties. If you change a meeting, you are prompted to inform the attendees who were invited to the meeting (see step 5). This is usually a good idea because they might not otherwise know about the meeting change. | | 5. | Invite Attendees to the Meeting If you use the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you have the option of inviting attendees to an appointment, which turns the appointment into a meeting. Inviting attendees to a meeting is similar to specifying recipients of an email message in that you use the address book on your device to select the attendees. To invite attendees to the new meeting you created, click the trackwheel and select Invite Attendee from the menu that appears. Click once more, and the Select Address screen appears. To select attendees for the meeting, scroll the trackwheel to select the attendee, click, and select Invite from the menu that appears. Click once more, and the attendee is added to the meeting. Repeat these steps to invite additional people to the meeting. When you're finished, click the trackwheel and select Save from the menu. Click again and invitations are sent to the meeting attendees. These invitations are either sent directly through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server as appointment requests or as email messages if you or the invitee aren't using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. TIP You don't have to invite yourself to a meeting that you create; you are already associated with the meeting as the person who created it. NOTE In addition to being able to create meetings and invite attendees, you can also receive meeting invitations if you're using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. You can respond to a meeting invitation by accepting, accepting with comments, declining, or declining with comments. The meeting request appears as a message within the Messages application. If you delete a meeting invitation (message) before responding to it, the meeting request is deleted from your device and you won't be able to respond to it. You can also receive meeting requests in traditional email messages, even if you aren't using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. | | 6. | Delete an Appointment/Meeting Appointments and meetings often get cancelled, in which case you might need to delete them from the calendar. To delete an appointment, scroll the trackwheel to select the appointment, click the trackwheel, and select Delete on the menu that appears; for a recurring appointment, you can delete the entire series ( Delete the series ) or just the selected occurrence ( Delete this occurrence ). Click once more and you are prompted to confirm the deletion. Click Delete to delete the appointment or Cancel to cancel the deletion. TIP If you delete a meeting, you are prompted to inform the attendees who were invited to the meeting. This is usually a good idea because they might not otherwise know about the meeting cancellation. The attendees will receive the meeting cancellation as a message in the Messages application. | |
