"So what kind of power does the appointment feature have in Daylite?"

This is a common question we get here in the Sales department, so we figured it would be a good idea to compile a few articles about the appointment features in Daylite, so that they are readily available to you. These articles can all be found in the Apple Help feature in Daylite 3.5.

About Appointments

An appointment is an activity that you have agreed to do at a specific time on a specific date. For example, you agreed to meet with your Client Bob Jenkins on Thursday June 10th from 3pm until 4pm. You can create appointments that span multiple days or just a few hours or minutes as you wish. You can also turn an appointment into a full day event. This shows up as a banner in your calendar. An appointment becomes a meeting when you link other Daylite users to it.

Appointments can be linked to groups, opportunities, and projects. You can link users, resources, or other Daylite objects to your appointments and have reminders set to notify you minutes, hours, or even days before the appointment or activity is due. If you have appointments that are repetitive, you can repeat them either daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly until you reach a finish date.

You can set a time zone for your appointments. If you want to schedule an appointment for multiple team members, you can take a look at the free/busy time finder and set up the appointment at a time that is convenient for all the team members. You can also record important information or discussions or decisions made during your appointments as Minutes.
Creating a new appointment

Appointments and the calendar work closely in Daylite to help you manage your schedule. Appointments are used to set aside a certain amount of time on a specific day to complete work. A calendar is a "virtual object" in Daylite, giving you a visual representation of appointments, meetings, holidays, and events based on the criteria you determine.

To make a new appointment using the menu:

1. Select Appointments in the navigator and choose Create > New Appointment.
2. Enter the appropriate information. Keep the following in mind:
• Select a kind of appointment. You can choose among the following:

Appointment: an agreement to be somewhere at a particular time
Event: an all-day or multi-day occurrence
Outbound call: a call that you make
Inbound call: a call that you receive
Chat: instant messaging
Meeting: a gathering of users in which the location and items they use can be identified as resources
Video: videoconferencing

• Assign a status to your appointments:

Tentative: Appointment tentatively booked, but will not allow overlapping
Confirmed: All attendees have confirmed the time/date
Postponed: Moved to an undetermined time/date
Completed: Appointment completed
Cancelled: Appointment cancelled

• To delegate the appointment to another user, choose Delegate... in the Owner menu.
• In the Time Zone menu, you can specify a time zone of your choice. The selected time zone applies to the start and end time of the appointment. If you choose a time zone that is different from the current application time zone (as defined in the Daylite preferences), Daylite will also display the local start and end time.
• To learn more about setting the time zone, refer to Changing the time zone for your calendar.
• In the Linked pane, you can link users, resources, and/or other objects to the appointment by clicking Link User, Link Resource, and Link Object buttons respectively. If you are working in a multi-user environment and you click the Link User button, Daylite opens a sheet showing all the current users and you can select those whom you wish to link to the appointment. This does not apply to single users of Daylite.
• Click Schedule to open a Free/Busy time finder to help you schedule your appointment at an appropriate time. This opens a sheet where you can view the schedules of all people involved in that meeting. The grey bar represents the meeting you have scheduled and the blue bar represents the busy times of the people involved in the meeting.
• Click More... to set up customized reminders to notify you minutes, hours, or even days before the activity is due.
• Click Repeat... to configure your appointments to repeat on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

3. Click OK.
4. Daylite adds your appointment as a scheduled item in your calendar.
You can also create a new appointment by selecting either the Calendars or Appointments button in the navigator and pressing ⌘ + N on your keyboard. Or, press Shift + ⌘ + B on your keyboard to make a new appointment.
You can instantly link a contact with a new appointment. Working from the Calendar view in the navigator, perform a quick search for a contact you want to include in the appointment. When you find that contact in your search results, drag and drop that contact into your calendar. If you drag into an empty space on the calendar, Daylite creates a new linked appointment. But, if you drag to an existing appointment, Daylite links the contact to the existing appointment.

Scheduling a meeting

Appointments are used to identify a scheduled amount of time to complete an activity or task. A meeting is a kind of appointment in Daylite. Scheduling a meeting in Daylite is a quick and easy way to notify users about an upcoming meeting and receive their responses. The following is the procedure to schedule a meeting in Daylite.

To schedule a meeting:

1. Choose Create > New Appointment.
2. From the pop-up menu located at the right-side of the Name field, choose Meeting as the type of appointment.
3. Choose a status for your appointment from the drop-down menu. Keep the following in mind:

• Tentative - Appointment tentatively booked, but will not allow overlapping.
• Confirmed - All attendees have confirmed the time/date.
• Postponed - Moved to an undetermined time/date.
• Completed - Appointment completed.
• Cancelled - Appointment cancelled.

4. Set a schedule for the appointment.
5. In the Linked pane, click Link User, Link Resource, or Link Object buttons to link users, resources, and objects respectively.
6. Note: You can view the schedules of participating users and select a suitable meeting time by clicking Schedule. This opens a sheet where you can view the schedules of all people linked to the meeting. The grey bar represents the meeting you have scheduled and the blue bar represents the busy times of the people involved in the meeting. You may make adjustments by entering a different meeting time, if required.
7. Set up reminders and repeating appointments (if necessary).
8. Click OK.
9. All users linked to the meeting receive a meeting invitation in their Notifications window.

All the users linked to the meeting get notified in their Notifications window. They can either accept or decline the meeting invitation. If the user declines the meeting invitation, they can also specify a reason. Either way Daylite notifies you in the Notifications window about responses to meeting invitations. Click here to watch a movie that explains all about scheduling a meeting.
To add users or create teams that you can use to schedule meetings, Choose Daylite > Preferences. Select the option Users & Teams.

If you delete a meeting in which you are an attendee, Daylite removes you as an attendee and will not delete the meeting. Only if you are the owner of the meeting and you delete it, it will be deleted as usual.

Adding users and resources to appointments

When you schedule a meeting, you can assign resources and also Select the availability of other Daylite users. This is to ensure that the meeting is scheduled at a time that is convenient to all the users linked to the meeting. A resource is an item(s) that people will use when holding a meeting. In Daylite, any meeting you schedule can include a list of resources (e.g., projector, board room, VCR.. etc). Resources can also be used for appointments that do not necessarily require a scheduled meeting. For example, if you wish to book the office projector for an upcoming presentation or to take it home with you, you can still use a resource.

To add users or resources:

1. Create a new appointment or open an existing appointment.
2. Click the Link User button.
3. In the sheet that opens, select the users you wish to add.
4. Click OK.
5. Note: You can add multiple users by holding down the Apple key as you choose your users.
6. To check your user's schedules, click the Schedule button.
7. A new sheet opens featuring the schedule of each user that you have included. Note the color bars in the schedule. The grey bar represents the meeting you have scheduled and the blue bar represents the busy times of the people involved in the meeting.
8. To add resources, click the Link Resource button.
9. Select the resources you wish to add.
10. Click OK.

Delegating an appointment

Delegation is the process of handing over the responsibility of a job to someone else in your team and staying updated about the changes and updates happening. In Daylite, you can delegate projects, opportunities, tasks, and/or appointments in your database to another user.

To delegate an appointment:

1. Create a new appointment.
2. From the Owner pop-up menu, select Delegate.
3. Daylite opens a new sheet.
4. From the Delegate To pop-up menu, choose a user whom you wish to delegate the appointment to.
5. Select the Notify Me of changes checkbox. By doing this, you can stay updated about changes made to the delegated appointment.
6. Click Delegate.
7. Click OK.
8. The user whom you delegated the appointment to gets notified in the Notifications window of Daylite.

The delegated appointment appears in the calendar of this user. Daylite will notify you about the changes made to this appointment in your Notifications window, if you have chosen to stay updated.

Only changes made to the Status, Start Date, and/or End Date of an appointment will be notified in your Notifications window.