Choosing Font Faces and Sizes for Calendar Elements
You can select font faces and sizes for almost every element on the calendar with the Fonts menu on the main Calendar Settings page (which you access by clicking on the Administer this Calendar link, usually at the bottom of your calendar). You can enter any font face name you want, but whether your users will actually see face depends on whether that face is installed on their computers. If you choose a font your user does not have on her computer, the face will revert to the default setting (which also is determined by the user's browser settings). So, if you choose some unusual fonts, you should also alert your users to install those fonts on their computers.
Caution: If you change the Event Time Text font face or size, that change will also apply to the event text in all events that have a start time but not an end time. This is a bug. You still get the Event Time Text to stand out from the event text by manually restoring the font and size you want at the beginning of your event text. Say you changed the Event Time Text font to Albertus Extra Bold but want the event text to remain in Arial. Just start your event text with the HTML tag: <font face=arial>. This problem should be remedied with the next version of iCal.
Applying Styles to Change the Appearance of Your Calendar
Previously, you could upload your own HTML cascading stylesheets and apply them to your calendar. When we upgraded to iCal 3.1 in March 2000, this ceased to work. Instead, iCal 3.1 has menus (Administer/Fonts) and Administer/Colors) that allow you to determine the exact appearance of just about every element in the calendar. What continues to work, however, is inserting your own style codes in your calendar's header, which then apply to all lower elements of your calendar.
For example, say you want to eliminate the underlining of links in the calendar and have the links instead appear as bold text. You can do that by inserting the following code into your calendar's header:
| <style>:link{Text-Decoration:None;Font-Weight:Bold} :active{Text-Decoration:None;Font-Weight:Bold} :visited{Text-Decoration:None;Font-Weight:Bold}</style> |
Or say you want the links to be in regular, non-underlined and non-bold text. Then insert this code:
| <style>:link{Text-Decoration:None} :active{Text-Decoration:None} :visited{Text-Decoration:None}</style> |
Similarly, you can insert any valid style codes into your calendar's header, and they will apply to all elements of your calendar (except the title). If you want the style to also apply to the title, put the code also at the beginning ot the title.
You can cut and paste these styles from any cascading style sheet file (.css), which is just a text file and will include the codes. Just enclose the codes inside the <style> and </style> tags.
Special Formatting Tips
- Don't put the # mark in front of the numerical color codes.
- Wherever the calendar asks for input of a color, you can use hex codes or HTML color names:
- Here is a List of Color Names and associated colors. All but one part of Calendars Net will recognize all of these names. When you create or edit an event, those color selection boxes will accept (in addition to any hex code) only color names that are 8 or fewer characters long. Thus, you can enter "azure" or "tomato" but not "mediumpurple". This is a bug that we hope will get remedied. You can, however, create Categories (see Administer/Categories) using any font color names, regardless of length. You can then assign your event to a category, thus bypassing the 8 character limitation in the event creation/editing form.
- Here are many Lists of Hex Codes showing the colors each code produces. You can enter any hex color code wherever you are asked to specify a color..
- If you want to implement a style sheet that makes the hyperlinks in your calendar appear in bold instead of underline, insert this in your calendar's header:
See the example at Extremely Thin Calendar.<style>:link{Text-Decoration:None;Font-Weight:Bold}
:active{Text-Decoration:None;Font-Weight:Bold}
:visited{Text-Decoration:None;Font-Weight:Bold</style> - If you don't use spaces between words, your calendar's columns may get distorted. Each column will expand to fit the longest unbroken string of characters. This seems to be a particular concern for calendars in German (very long words). You can also use this "feature" to make any of your calendar's columns wider than usual. Just create an event with text that includes a block of underscores (________) or of words connected with underscores instead of spaces. The width of the column will change to the length of the unbroken string.
- If you use a narrow width calendar (such as the Fits 640 setting under Administer/General Settings), then the Wednesday column may be wider than the events within that column. Solutions: Use the Month/Day Headings menu under Administration to shorten the column headings for the days of the week (Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun). Or use <font size=-1>Wednesday</font> as the "Long Name" for Wednesday.
- Send your tips to Calendars Net.
Putting Hyperlinks into your Calendar
There are several ways to put hyperlinks into your calendar:
- Inside the title, header, or footer, or inside an event you create, use ordinary HTML code to insert a hyperlink, such as:<a href=http://www.mywebsite.com/mypage.htm>Go To Mypage</a>
- If you want the entire text of your event to serve as a hyperlink to a small popup box with additional information, simply place the additional information in the Popup Text box on the event entry form. This will convert all of your event text into a hyperlink to the popup box.
- Inside a Popup Text box on the event entry form, there are two ways to insert a hyperlink:
- Use the ordinary HTML <a href=> tag, as shown above. Note: If you put any HTML tags into the Popup Text, then all of the text in the Popup Text box will be interpreted at HTML code. In order to have a line break, you will need to insert a <br> tag, for example. Or to start a new paragraph, you will need to insert a <p> tag.
- Or just type the destination into the Popup Text box like this: http://www.mywebsite.com/mypage.htm. Most browsers will interpret this as a hyperlink. The remainder of the text in the Popup Text box will be considered as plain text, so you will not need to insert a <br> tag to cause a line break or <p> to start a new paragraph.
Using Search to Create Many Calendars in One
To display only those events that contain a certain term, click on Search at the bottom right of the calendar. Enter your search term and how you want the results to be displayed. You can enter only one term; boolean logic is not yet implemented.
The search function enables you to maintain schedules for many persons or groups in a single calendar. You can search by text, by category, or both.
Search by Category
The easiest way to create many calendars in one is to assign a category to each group using the calendar. (Categories are created by clicking Administer this Calendar, Categories.) Then search by category, and the result will be all of the events for that group. You can then copy the URL that the search produces and put that URL into a link on your web page. Anyone who clicks on that link will get a calendar comprised only of the events of the group/category you selected. If you have, say 8 groups, you can do this 8 times and put 8 links on your web page, one to each group. Or you can simply put those links into the header of the calendar, as explained below
Search by Text
You can also search for text in the events and/or in the popup text. Just make sure that all events for Mary include the word "Mary" or that all events for the group CIR include the term "CIR". If two groups are sponsoring the same event, just enter it once like this: "Joint Event (CIR OLCV)". Then it will be displayed by a search for CIR or a search for OLCV. Because the search function does not yet have boolean logic, you can't search for "CIR or OLCV" to see the events for both groups on a single calendar. You can accomplish this, however, with a multiple merging calendar, which allows you to checkmark any number of group schedules you want to see.
Note that a completed search has its own web address that can be copied and put into your web pages (or can be put into the header of your calendar). Look at the Search Test calendar. The link in the header to the Alliance for Democracy events was created by (1) searching for AFD, (2) saving the location (click on the location bar, then Ctrl-C), (3) creating a header and inserting the link into the header.
Important Notes
Doing a search puts the user into a "search results mode" and displays the first month where the search term is found, even if that month is in the past. The user can then can navigate to other months of interest and will stay within the "search results mode" until clicking on Normal at the top of the calendar page. In "search results mode," only matching events are displayed.
When you are in "search results mode" you can navigate to other months, weeks, etc., in the calendar, and the calendar will show only the events that match your search. Thus, if you searched for events in the category Birthdays, and the result showed birthdays in July, if you click on August it will continue to show only birthdays in August. To resume Normal mode (which shows all events), click on the Normal in the upper right part of the calendar.
Note: Netscape 4.xx does not handle this. If you are in search results mode and click on a different month, you also leave search results mode.
Note: Using IE, Netscape 6.xx, Mozilla, or Opera, you stay in the search results mode as long as you click on other months. If your calendar is set to absolute mode or week mode, then clicking to move to a different time period will put you back into Normal mode.
One useful technique is to perform a search, then click on Year and List to see a list of all of the matching events in the current year. You can then navigate to other years. Then hit Normal at the top to get back to the normal calendar display.
Other Settings on Administration Menus
You can also change many aspects of the appearance of the calendar with the options under General Settings.
- If you put lots of text in the pop-up windows, you should seriously consider changing your default display style from Block (conventional calendar) to List, which shows each event and its pop-up text side by side. This also allows non-Javascript capable browsers to see the pop-up text. When you look at the Cool Calendars, check out their List views, which often show additional hyperlinks and graphics) and provide much more information than the regular, block views.
- Absolute position means that the monthly calendar displayed starts with the week of the 1st of the month. Sliding position means that the monthly calendar displayed starts with the current week. Be careful using the Sliding feature, as your users may expect the monthly calendar to start at the beginning of the month.
- Be sure to hit Save after making changes.
On the main Calendar Settings page you can:
- Change the color of text and backgrounds. If you use a background other than white, you should set your browser
not to print the background. For ideas on color schemes and layout, check out the Cool
Calendars. Keep in mind that many color combinations will print out on a laserjet printer as black-on-black
or gray-on-gray, not showing the words. If you need a printed calendar, your color scheme should be very light
text colors on dark backgrounds or dark text colors on very light backgrounds.
- You can select colors from the pop-up window or you can click on Alternate Color Assignment and enter colors
as RGB hex codes or color names.
- Note: Here, all valid HTML color names work, even those with more than 8 characters.
- Be careful about making the color of text the same as the color of background. Obviously, that will cause the text to disappear!
- Here is a cool, very small program named Color Picker, which shows you the hex code for the color upon which your mouse pointer rests. You can use this to determine exactly the hex codes of the colors on your web site. You can then use the Alternate Color Assignment page to make your calendar colors match precisely.
- You can select colors from the pop-up window or you can click on Alternate Color Assignment and enter colors
as RGB hex codes or color names.
- Put a background image or texture behind your calendar. For details, see Putting Images in a Calendar.
- Specify font faces and sizes for virtually all elements of the calendar screen. To see what fonts you have installed on your computer, go to Tools/Internet Options/Fonts in MS Internet Explorer or go to Edit/Preferences/Appearance/Fonts in Netscape or Mozilla.
- Add headers and footers to appear on your calendar. These can include HTML, hyperlinks, and images.
- Change the month or day headings; some users have changed these headings to Spanish, German, Danish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Czech, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, and some languages we do not recognize.
- Use the Add-Ins menu to check any Add-In lists you want your calendar to display, such
as various sets of holidays (U.S., Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Muslim, Jewish,
Christian) or Moon Phases. Some sets of national holidays (U.S., Britain, etc.) and Christian Holidays overlap
somewhat (Christmas, for example), so checking both boxes will produce some redundancy on your calendar. If
you have other sets of holidays to contribute, email them in ASCII text to Calendars
Net. Save this file to see the format of the add-in file. We would really
appreciate getting holidays lists in languages other than English.
- Thanks to Fred Farber for extending the Jewish holiday schedule through 2006.
- If you see events on your calendar that you cannot delete by using the regular event editing links, it is very likely that these events are on your calendar because an Add-In box has been checked on this menu, perhaps by accident. Look carefully at the list and uncheck all of the boxes.
- Note: You can upload your own add-in lists; save this file to see the format of the add-in file, which need the .idt extension. After composing your list locally, use the Calendars Net Upload System to upload it to us. Any .idt file you upload will be entirely public and available to all users of the public server. You then would go to your calendar, Administer, Add-ins, and check the box next to your new list.
- Every add-in list must have the extension .idt. Some ASCII text editors automatically add a .txt extension to any file they save. Thus, you may think you have saved myaddinlist.idt when in fact you have saved myaddinlist.idt.txt. Uploading files with final .txt extensions will not make them available on Calendars Net. You can in most cases stop your ASCII text editor from adding the .txt extension enclosing the file name you want to save in quotation marks. Thus, you would save "myaddinlist.idt".
- Publish your calendar to a one or more static HTML files: see Printing a Calendar and Posting Static Calendar Pages on Your Web Site below.
- Delete entire months of old events, making your calendar load a little faster. Note that this function deletes only individual events and does not delete periodic or duration events.
Oops, I Removed the Administer Link from my Calendar
At the bottom of the Display Options menu are checkboxes that allow you to show or not show the Navigation Bars, the Style Bar, or the Edit Bar. If you do not show the Edit Bar (which has the Administer This Calendar link), the only way you can administer your calendar is to go to:
my.calendars.net/NAME/admin
or
www.calsnet.net/NAME/admin
where NAME is the name of your calendar.
Direct Links to Administration Menus
You can also get to administration submenus via the browser address line by adding the following to the end of your calendar's web address:
| Display Options | /admin/displayopts |
General Settings |
/admin/settings |
Colors |
/admin/colors |
Title, Header, Footer |
/admin/headfoot |
Fonts |
/admin/fonts |
Security |
/admin/security |
Add-Ins |
/admin/adins |
Month/Day Headings |
/admin/dayheadings |
Email Notification |
/admin/emailnotify |
Publish Calendar |
/admin/publishcal |
Delete Month Events |
/admin/cleancal |
Data Importing |
/admin/dataload |
Data Exporting |
/admin/dataexport |
For example, if you want to go directly to the security settings, you would go to http://my.calendars.net/mycalendarname/admin/security. Just add the /admin/security to the end of the URL you use to get to your calendar.
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