Chapter 31. Tracking Appointments on a Calendar
Nobody feels like they have enough time to do what they want, so the next best solution is to plan your time so you don’t forget what you’re supposed to do at any given time. By using the Calendar app on your iPad, you can organize your schedule and set appointments. To make sure you don’t forget an appointment, you can set an alarm to alert you.
Since you may be tracking appointments on both your computer and your iPad, you may need to synchronize all your appointments as explained in Chapter 20. By doing this, you can make, edit, and delete appointments on either your computer or iPad and then synchronize this information with both devices.
In this chapter, you will learn how to store and manage appointments in the Calendar app on your iPad.
What You’ll Be Using
To store and manage appointments on your iPad, you need to use the following:
Understanding the Different Calendar Views
To help organize your time, the Calendar can display different views so you can focus on what you need to get done for a particular day or look at a long-range schedule to see what you might have coming up in the next week or month.
These are the four types of views you can see:
Day Displays a 24-hour timeline for all appointments for a single day
Week Displays a 24-hour timeline for all seven days of the week
Month Displays appointments (but not starting or duration times) for an entire month
List Lists all scheduled appointments regardless of starting date, time, or duration
The Day view is best for seeing what appointments you have for any specific day, such as today or tomorrow. The Week view lets you see appointments for the next several days so you can plan ahead. The Month view helps you identify free time in case you want to plan something such as a vacation or business trip and need to know when you don’t have any appointments. The List view lets you see all of your appointments at once regardless of what days or times they may be scheduled on.
To view the different ways the Calendar can display appointments, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Calendar. The Calendar screen appears.
Tap the Day tab. The Day view displays a list of all your appointments for that day on the left side of the screen. On the right side of the screen, the Day view displays a monthly calendar and a timeline that shows you when each appointment is scheduled, as shown in Figure 31-1.
Tap any date displayed by the calendar in the upper-right corner of the screen. The Day view displays your appointments for your chosen date.
Tap Today in the bottom-left corner of the screen. No matter what day you were currently viewing, the Today button immediately shows you your appointment list for the current day. (The Today button works in all the different views; in other words, Day, Week, Month, or List.)
Tap any date displayed at the bottom of the screen. Notice that the list of dates at the bottom of the screen also shows the previous and next month that you can tap.
Tap the Week tab. The Week view displays a list of all your appointments from Sunday through Saturday, as shown in Figure 31-2.
Tap any week displayed at the bottom of the screen. The Week view displays your appointments for your chosen week.
Tap the Month tab. The Month view displays a list of all your appointments for the entire current month, as shown in Figure 31-3.
Tap any month displayed at the bottom of the screen. The Month view displays your appointments for your chosen month.
Tap the List tab. The List view displays all your appointments (regardless of when they’re scheduled), as shown in Figure 31-4.
Tap any appointment in the left side of the screen. The right side of the screen displays the date for your chosen appointment.
Setting an Appointment
When you want to set an appointment, you can define the following items:
A description of the event
A location
Start time
End time
Whether to define the appointment as a repetitive event
Whether to display and sound an alert before the appointment
What calendar to put the appointment on (Home, On My iPad, or Work)
Any additional notes about the appointment
You don’t need to define all of these items. For example, you might skip defining the location of the appointment. In addition, the Calendar automatically uses default settings for every option except for the event description, location, and any additional notes you might want to add, so you can just focus on typing a description of your appointment such as “Doctor’s appointment” or “Secret meeting with Elvis Presley.”
To create an appointment, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Calendar. The Calendar screen appears.
Tap the plus sign that appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The Add Event window appears with the virtual keyboard, as shown in Figure 31-5.
Tap the Title text field, and type a description of your appointment.
(Optional) Tap the Location text field, and type a description of the location where your appointment will take place.
Tap the Starts/Ends field. The Start & End window appears, as shown in Figure 31-6.
Tap the Starts field, and then scroll through the date picker at the bottom of the Start & End window to choose a date and time.
Tap the Ends field, and then scroll through the date picker at the bottom of the Start & End window to choose a date and time.
(Optional) Tap the All-day on/off switch to read ON if you want to define an appointment to take an entire day.
Tap Done in the upper-right corner of the Start & End window.
(Optional) Tap the Repeat field. A Repeat Event window appears, as shown in Figure 31-7. Tap a time period such as Every Week or Every Month, and then tap the Done button in the upper-right corner of the Repeat Event window.
(Optional) Tap the Alert field. The Event Alert window appears, as shown in Figure 31-8. Tap a time period such as 5 minutes before or 1 hour before, and then tap Done in the upper-right corner of the Event Alert window.
(Optional) Tap the Calendar field. A Calendar window appears, as shown in Figure 31-9. Tap a calendar, such as your Google or Yahoo! calendar, and then tap Done in the upper-right corner of the Calendar window.
(Optional) Tap in the Notes text field, and type any additional description or notes you want to remember about this appointment such as Don’t forget to bring birthday present or Remember, Mr. Grutchins is allergic to peanuts.
Tap Done in the upper-right corner of the Add Event window when you’re finished typing information about your appointment.
Editing (or Deleting) an Appointment
After you have defined an appointment, you can always modify it by changing the start time or date or turning an alarm off or on. You also have the option of deleting the entire appointment.
To edit an appointment, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Calendar. The Calendar screen appears.
Tap the appointment you want to modify. The Edit Event window appears, as shown in Figure 31-10.
Make any changes to your appointment.
(Optional) Tap Delete Event at the bottom of the Edit Event window if you want to delete your entire appointment. A red Delete Event button and a black Cancel button appear at the bottom of the Edit Event window. Tap Delete Event or Cancel.
Tap Done in the upper-right corner of the Edit Event when you’re done editing the appointment.
Searching for an Appointment
You may have set an appointment and suddenly can’t remember what date you assigned it. Rather than waste time scanning your appointments, you can search for it by typing a word or phrase that is part of your appointment, such as the location or name of the appointment.
To search for an appointment, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Calendar. The Calendar screen appears.
Tap the Search field that appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. A virtual keyboard appears.
Type a word or phrase that appears in the appointment that you want to find. As you type, a Results window appears, listing all appointments that currently match what you typed (even if it’s just one letter), as shown in Figure 31-11.
Tap an appointment in the Results window to view that appointment.
Viewing Calendars
If you have many appointments, you could organize them into different calendars, such as storing your personal appointments on your Yahoo! calendar and your work-related appointments on your Google account calendar.
To view the appointments you’ve made on a particular calendar, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Calendar. The Calendar screen appears.
Tap the Calendars button that appears in the upper-left corner of the screen. The Show Calendars window appears, as shown in Figure 31-12.
Tap a Calendar name such as Yahoo! or Gmail (Google) to clear or select a calendar. If you clear a checkmark from a calendar, all appointments stored on that calendar are hidden. Tap the checkmark again, and they reappear.
To define a default calendar to use for storing your appointments, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Settings. The Settings screen appears.
Tap the Mail, Contacts, Calendars button that appears in the left of the screen. Scroll down the right side of the screen until you see the Default Calendar button as shown Figure 31-13.
Tap the Default Calendar button and tap the calendar you want to make your default calendar.
Additional Ideas for Using Calendars
Calendars can help keep your life organized (just as long as you take your iPad with you so you can see your calendars). If you’re trying to achieve a goal such as losing weight or giving up smoking, set a repetitive appointment with words of encouragement. Now during the day, this supportive reminder will pop up to help you stay focused on your goal, as shown in Figure 31-14.
Since you can store appointments far into the future, take a moment now to set an alert for important dates such as upcoming anniversaries, birthdays, or other events that you can’t afford to forget. Now your iPad can help make you look like a genius when you remember all those birthdays of loved ones.