Evolution and Planning


In the last chapter, I mentioned that Evolution was a great email client for those coming from the Windows world, particularly if they are used to working with Outlook. This is equally true when working with Evolution's calendaring applications.

Take a look along the top of the application, just below the menu bar (see Figure 12-1). The icons to the left let you quickly create appointments, send and receive email, print, and so on. To the right, there are a handful of icons providing different calendar views: a day, work week, and so on. There may also be a small down arrow on a button to the far right. If you don't have enough room to show all the calendar views, clicking this arrow shows you the remaining views available.

Figure 12-1. Evolution's calendar view.


The main window is broken up into three sections. The main calendar view is located in the center, to the right of the sidebar that lets you select the various Evolution components. To the right of the calendar view, you have one or more small calendars. Clicking a date in that smaller calendar lets you jump right to that date. Below the small calendars, you find a quick summary of your to-do items. Finally, a set of icons runs down the lefthand sidebar, providing you with quick access to Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks.

Tip

To select any number of days (and create your own view), just highlight a sequence of days in the mini-calendars to the right. The main calendar view updates with your selection.


Creating Appointments

You've got a big get-together coming up and you need all hands on the poker table, er, I mean, all hands on deck. Let's take a look at how to set up an appointment, or meeting.

Note

Meetings and appointments are, as I used to say in my youth, the same thing, only different. Similarities aside, the differences are substantial. An appointment is a personal event blocked on your calendar. A meeting can involve others and require group scheduling functions. In the Add dialog, appointments have only two tabs, Appointment and Recurrence. Meetings add a Scheduling tab and an Invitations tab.


The idea is the same. To create a new appointment in Evolution with a single click, move your mouse pointer to the New button and click (or press <Ctrl+N>). Notice that there is a down arrow beside the New button (see Figure 12-2). Clicking the arrow brings up a number of additional choices from creating a mail message to creating a contact in your address book. If you like, you can always take the multiclick route by clicking File on the menu bar, selecting New, and then selecting Appointment. If you are inviting others to this event, choose Meeting.

Figure 12-2. The Evolution New submenu.


Another way to do this is to double-click the time slot you want in the main calendar view. As soon as you do this, the new Appointment dialog appears (see Figure 12-3). Start by entering your Summary information (for example, Poker night), and a Location (for example, Jake and Michelle's house). A Start time has been entered as well as an End time but you may have to fine-tune those. Clicking the down arrow beside the date pops up a small calendar from which you can quickly pick the date. The drop-down list associated with the time is broken up in half-hour intervals. Next to the time is another drop-down box, this one labeled For by default. To the right of it is a duration time for the meeting. If you would rather specify an end time, click the For list and select Until instead. The display changes to allow you to enter an end time.

Figure 12-3. Creating an appointment in Evolution.


Quick Tip

Take a look along the top at the icons. You see one labeled All Day Event. Clicking here removes the start and end times and brings up a second little drop-down calendar. At this point, and this might be a bit scary depending on the nature of the event, you can change the second date to reflect a meeting (or appointment) that lasts more than one day.


If this is an important appointment, you likely want to be reminded of it. Click the Alarms icon. A simple Alarms window appears with a default of None selected as the alarm time. To activate an alarmfor example, 15 minutes before appointment (see Figure 12-4)click the combo box and select a time. Clicking that combo box also allows you to select from three additional settings. The other settings are 1 hour before appointment, 1 day before appointment, and customize.

Figure 12-4. The simplest alarm defaults to 15 minutes before your appointment.


If you choose Customize for your alarm setting, the bottom part of the dialog appears. Your default alarm is still 15 minutes (as shown in the Action/Trigger pane), but you can now Edit this alarm, Remove it, or add modifications by clicking the Add button. A highly customizable Add Alarm dialog appears (see Figure 12-5).

Figure 12-5. Evolution can remind you of your appointments in many different ways.


To create a different type of alarm, click the combo box directly below the Alarm label at the top left. The default is Pop up an Alert but you may decide to change it to Play a Sound or Run a Program. You can set a custom pop-up message and even specify a repeat for the alarm. Another way to look at it is how often do you want to be nagged? I've got mine set to remind me three additional times every five minutes.

When you are done with the new alarm, click OK. To add more alarms, all you have to do is click the Add button once. Now you get the idea.

Let's Do That Again: Evolution Recurrence

Before we move on to making this more than a one-person appointment, let's look at recurrence. If the gang meets for that poker game every week or every month at the same place and time, it just makes sense to enter the appointment once and have the system do the rest for you. Click the Recurrence icon at the top of the Appointment window and the Recurrence dialog appears (see Figure 12-6).

Figure 12-6. Setting recurrence information for an Evolution appointment.


Activate recurrence by clicking the This Appointment Recurs check box. Choose how often you want this appointment to occur and with what frequency (for example, every 2 weeks on Thursday). Directly below is the Exceptions dialog. Click the Add button and a small dialog appears where you can enter the date. There's a small arrow to the right of the date field that brings up a small calendar from which you can make your selection. Select those days that don't apply to the standard recurrence (for example, your holidays) and click OK. You can specify as many exceptions as you like. When you are happy with everything, click the Close button to go back to your Appointment window. Click Save and your new appointment appears in your main calendar view.

The Makings of a Meeting

What really sets a meeting apart from an appointment, other than a menu option, is that you need to organize and invite people other yourself. Creating a meeting in Evolution is similar in many ways to an appointment, but the focus is on people.

Click File on the menu bar, navigate to the New submenu, and click Meeting. Another way is to click the arrow to the right of the big New button on the top left and select Meeting from the list. For those who prefer the keyboard for such things, press <Shift+Ctrl+E>. The Meeting dialog appears, ready for you to add details and, of course, people (see Figure 12-7).

Figure 12-7. Setting up a new meeting.


Along the top, just below the icons, you should see yourself listed as the Organizer of the meeting (assuming you created the entry). Directly below that is a list of attendees. At this point, only you are listed. To the left is a button labeled Attendees. Click that button and a browser for your address book pops up, making it easy to add those who are attending the meeting. With each person you add, you can define that person's role in the meeting. Add them based on whether the individual acts as chair, a participant (required or not), an optional participant (that is, an observer), or Resources.

Below the attendee information, things start to look more like the appointment dialog of earlier. Add summary information, start and end times, and a description. You could just close the dialog at this point but Evolution offers a handy tool for those of you in an office environment. Possibly the toughest thing about getting a whole lot of people together is finding a time when everyone (or nearly everyone) is free. Look along the icon bar at the top of the Meeting window and click the Free/Busy button. The Free/Busy dialog appears with a list of attendees and their available times (see Figure 12-8).

Figure 12-8. Scheduling a meeting with Free/Busy information.


Aside from being able to check other users' free time, you can also use this screen to add further attendees. Just click the Contacts button. Near the bottom of this window, you see the word Autopick in a drop-down box. To the right and left are buttons with double arrows on them. Click these and Evolution automatically selects the next block of time (either before or after your initial attempt) in which all invitees are free based on their published Free/Busy information.

When everyone is added and you finally click OK, Evolution prompts you with a request to send an email invitation to all of your participants (see Figure 12-9). Click Send and your attendees are sent a message in which they can choose to accept or decline the invitation to attend.

Figure 12-9. After you have entered all of the information pertaining to a meeting, Evolution asks whether you want to alert your attendees.


Tip

Eventually, your calendar becomes packed with old appointments and meetings, information that serves no purpose but to slow you down. A purge of old data is healthy from time to time. Click Actions on the menu bar and select Purge. A pop-up dialog appears asking you to select the age of appointments you want deletedthe default is to delete anything older than 60 days.


Tasks and Other To-Dos

When using Evolution, your to-do items are called tasks. Looking at Evolution's main calendar display, you see a summary task list in the lower right pane. Adding a new task is as easy as clicking the Click to Add a Task field. Type a brief description of your task, and then press <Enter>. For a task-only list, click the Tasks button in the lefthand sidebar. That provides you with a much larger view and another quick-entry field.

The click to create method I describe here is for simple tasks. To add more constraints such as a due date, status information, or a detailed description, you can right-click one of your tasks and select Open. To create a detailed task from the beginning, click the New button or select New Task from the File menu. A Task dialog appears offering you a much more detailed view of task creation(see Figure 12-10). The new window allows you to enter a description of the task, assign a start date and time, as well as a completion date and time.

Figure 12-10. A more complete task dialog.


Click the Status Details button to assign priority and status information, such as whether the task has been started, and its percentage of completion (see Figure 12-11). You can also add attachments to the task or refer to a Web page. When you are finished entering your information, close the Task Details window, then click Save to close the new task dialog.

Figure 12-11. Adding status information to a task.


One last, and fairly important, feature is the ability to delegate this task to someone else. Right-click the item you want in the task list and select Assign Task from the drop-down menu. The Task Edit dialog appears showing you as the organizer of the task but with you as the one required participant (it looks very much like the dialog used to add attendees to a meeting). To assign another user to the task, remove yourself from the attendees list, then add a new individual. You can click the Attendees button to enter your address book. When you have entered the information, click Save to update your task. A window pops up asking you whether the assigned task should be sent. The correct answer is, of course, Send.




Moving to Ubuntu Linux
Moving to Ubuntu Linux
ISBN: 032142722X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 201

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