Quick Start Uniplex Time Management

Quick Start Uniplex

Time Management

Written by Centreline 2000 Consulting

Date: January 1994

Version: 2.00

Uniplex’ Time Management program is in the Advanced Office module. Time Manager, or Calendar, lets you manage your personal time through diary functions and reminder alarms.

The time manager can be used across a group of people for scheduling meetings, automatically checking each persons' diary for free time.

The time manager can also be used for managing the booking of specific resources, for example a meeting room.

Firstly, you must start up Uniplex. Time Manager is then accessed from the Uniplex main menu. In the centre column of options you will see:

T - Time Manager

Press T to select Time Manager. You will then see displayed the main time manager menu.

This menu lets you access all the normal time manager features. Further options are also available from this menu by selecting the Administration option. We will look at this later.

Uniplex calls each item in your Time Manager an "event". Each event is kept within your calendar. To add a new event to your calendar now select option 4 - Add Event.

This is the main calendar entry screen. You enter the required fields and then enter <ESCAPE> <E> to save the entry. You can use <ESCAPE> <Q> to quit from this screen. The fields are explained below:

Enter the details on this screen for a booking today, between the hours of 9 and 10am. Make sure the Event Class is set to "confirmed". When all the details are correct, enter <ESCAPE> <E> to save the entry.

Now add another event, between 10 and 11am which is provisional.

Finally add a third event, between 1pm and 4pm which is Invitational.

Enter <ESCAPE> <Q> to quit from this screen.

The first three menu options on Time Management all provide views of your calendar. When viewing your calendar you can switch between views. Select option 1 - At-a-Glance.

You can see the whole of the current month displayed. Today will be highlighted. Notice, next to today’s date you will see a number in brackets. This number is the number of appointments you have for the day.

Press <SPACEBAR> to switch views. This time you have a month's view but a coloured bar shows you the times of day on which you have bookings. Note that this page shows a 24 hour clock.

Press <SPACEBAR> to switch views again. This view shows the current fortnight. Notice that your booking times are marked by a coloured bar.

If this is the first time you have used the diary then you will have few entries. This screens fill up as more entries are made to the diary.

You can move around each of these screens by using the cursor keys to move around the days, weeks and months. Put your cursor on today’s date in any of the displays. Now press <RETURN>, here you can see the days events in a little more detail.

There is a ring menu at the top of this screen which lets you modify the calendar entries.

The Amend/Inquire screen lets you view the events for a particular date. You can change the details for an appointment or you can delete it altogether.

Here is the summary of the ring menu options:

For example, to move an appointment to a new date, select "EDIT", select the specific event, enter a new date and save the event.

To delete an event, select "REMOVE", select the specific event, enter <*> to confirm the deletion.

A block booking allows you to schedule a regular event, such as a weekly meeting. The appointment is added to your diary across a range of dates automatically.

There are two block booking entry screens. The first allows you to select a number of days between meetings, this is usually used for weekly meetings. The second allows meetings to be specified on a monthly basis.

Each of the screens is similar to the basic Add Event screen. There are new fields that allow you to specify the range of dates within which the booking will be repeated. For example, starting today, repeating until the end of July.

Weekly bookings ask you to specify the "Repeat number of days". This is the number of days between meetings. So, for a weekly meeting you would enter 7. Make sure the start date is set for the first meeting you want booked - which may not be today’s date.

Monthly meetings allow you to specify repeated appointments in a different way. You set a meeting to apply to a certain day, rather than date, for example:

First Monday in every month

Second Friday in every second month

First Working Day in every third month.

Uniplex will calculate which specific dates these are and enter the appointments into the diary for you.

To edit or delete the repeating events you must select the Block Booking Edit option. To edit or delete an individual event within the block booking you can use the normal edit screen.

Uniplex allows you to search across one or more diaries to find time(s) that are free for everybody. This is very useful for scheduling meetings and ensuring availability of all the attendees.

Select the Schedule option from the main Time Manager menu. You are taken to the Scheduling form. Here you must specify the calendars you wish to search. You can select other users, but you can also select resources such as meeting rooms or projectors and so on.

You must also enter a start and end date for the search. These are the dates in which you must find free time.

The start and end times specify the earliest possible time the meeting could start and the latest time it must finish. This gap is normally much longer than the actual length of the meeting (specified next).

You must specify the length of time required. You specify this in hours and minutes. This would be the length of the meeting.

Select two diaries, one of which should be your own. Enter today and next month as the start and end dates. Enter 9am and 5pm as the start and end times. Enter 1 hour for the length of meeting. When these are correct, enter <ESCAPE><E>.

The next screen shows you the first date at which a free time slot (indicated by "F") has been found for all the diaries. The gap is long enough for everyone to attend the full meeting. You may also see "B" markings - these indicate bookings in each diary. You can select "next" on the ring menu at the top of the screen to move to the next free space.

To make a booking in all the diaries you can select "add" or "invite". In either case an appointment is made in the other user's diary, but an invitation can be turned down (useful when inviting VIP’s for example).

You are asked to enter the start time. Uniplex gives you the earliest possible start time it has found as the default. Enter the start time you require and press <RETURN>. You are then taken to a regular Add Event form where you fill in the usual details.

Notice there is an option marked "Mail Notification" - if this is set to "Yes" (the default) - then all the users are notified by electronic mail that the diary event has been booked. They can then check their diaries and see the event details.

Otherwise, enter the details as for a normal single event. Enter <ESCAPE><E> to save the event and notify the users.

Cancel or rescheduling for group meetings can only be done through the special Group Booking option. Editing your personal event will not affect other diary entries.

Alarms and reminders are simple messages that appear on your screen to remind you of specific events. These may be sent to you from the diary, or you can enter your own alarms.

Select option 6 - Create an Alarm. This takes you to the alarm form. The fields are described below:

Enter a message for yourself and leave all the other settings at their default value. Enter <ESCAPE> <E> to save the alarm.

Uniplex checks for alarm messages about every minute, so you may have to wait a little while before the message appears on your screen. When it does you will see your message, and the time it was sent. To clear the message, just press <RETURN>.

Normally you would not need to delete the alarm, once the alarm is triggered it is automatically deleted. However, if you have a repeating alarm you wish to delete then you must select option 7 - Delete an alarm. Select the alarm to remove, press <RETURN> and enter <*> to confirm the deletion.

You can print your time manager details in different formats. Select option P - Print Calendar to print a listing form of all your events. Select option L - Print/View Plan to print "organiser" style pages.

Print Calendar screen asks for start and end dates and whether you want a summary or detail format. You may send the output direct to your default printer by entering "PRINTER" in the Output File field.

The merge format is special option that you can use to integrate the data into other Uniplex tools such as Report Writer to develop your own diary formatting.

Print/View Plan lets you print your calendar in a variety of formats all of which are suitable in size for putting into an organiser system.

You select the print format, from daily to monthly, the starting date and the Print file. The Print File should be set to "PRINTER" to print direct to your default printer.

You will probably wish to experiment with the various formats to find a style that is appropriate for you and your method of working.

You can also print a simple listing of your alarm entries. You can print to a file or direct to the printer.

Note: If you default printer is set incorrectly in the Time Manager press <F9> for Uniplex Desk Popup, press <0> for Uniplex Util Popup, press <3> for Set Print Defaults. On this form select the printer name you wish to set as default. Leave the print style set to calendar. Enter <ESCAPE> <E> to save the default setting.