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Can I add my own small icons to use for events?
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The small icon can be selected to be displayed in the left border of an event. The collection of icons available for selection are maintained within an EventKeeper directory by EventKeeper staff. If you have an icon you would like to add, just make a suggestion, or better yet, send us the graphic file and we'll add it to the list. These graphics are very small so the graphic cannot be very complicated. They need to be GIF files, 32x32 pixels, have a transparent background and they MUST be available for public use without any copyright restrictions.
If you have special graphics that you'd like to use but do not want them added to the public set available to all EventKeeper editors, then let us know - arrangements can be made to support your own directory of icons.
In addition - You can always include any graphic you want within the body of an event description using the "IMG" tag. The graphics you point to can exist anywhere on the web; they do not need to reside on the EventKeeper server.
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Can I delete a bunch of events at once instead of one at a time?
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Yes, .... Several different things to know about deleting events.
1) If you are deleting Events from the standard event listing screen, or if you are a Team Editor (i.e. not ADMIN), events can only be deleted one at a time.
2) EventKeeper has a built-in "purge" function. This function will automatically delete all Events that are older than a certain "age". The "age" is determined by a setting in the Organization Edit screen ("Number of Days to Save Event" field). The default setting is 365 days. You can change this value to have EventKeeper delete your old events on a regular basis. For example, if you enter 30 in the "Number of Days to Save Events" field, EventKeeper will automatically delete events when they are more than 30 days old.
3) If you are an ADMIN editor and SUPEREDITOR is enabled, you can select a group of events and delete them in a couple clicks. This is a very cool function, but obviously pretty dangerous (a couple clicks can delete ALL your events!). We only turn on this feature by special request. Let us know if you need it.
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Can I edit a bunch of events at once?
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If you added an event using the "Multiple Events" checkbox, the changes to any one of the repeating events can be optionally applied to all the repeating events.
If you're wanting to make "group" changes to non-repeating events, you can ask us to activate SUPEREDITOR for you. It is what it sounds like... a way for the ADMIN editor to "super-edit" events. You can query on a set of events (e.g. get all events with the keyword #1 = "Children"), select ALL or some of the results of the query, then select a new value for a field (e.g. change keyword #1 to "Children's Programs"). You can also delete a group of events or do a group copy (i.e. copy all of last month's events into this month).
This is a very cool function, but also dangerous (a couple clicks can delete ALL your events!) so we only turn on this feature by special request. Let us know if you need it.
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Can I print a Monthly Calendar view for a subset of Events?
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Yes, anyone can do this (not just editors). When you are on the Event Listing page, select the keywords to list the subset of events that you want to show on the calendar. Then click the "Monthly Calendar View" link underneath the small calendar. Your Monthly calendar will display only those events defined on the Event Listing page.
Did you know? You can set the Event Name on the Monthly Calendar to be different than the name that shows up in the Event Listing. By default the same name is used, but when adding an event you can change the name that shows on the Monthly Calendar (e.g, use abbreviations, add a code to indicate location, etc).
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Can I put the EventKeeper page in a frame?
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Yes, if your Web site has been implemented using "frames", you can link to the EventKeeper event list or the monthly calendar or the Notes as another frame within your web site. See this example as implemented by Taunton Public Library (click on Calendar of Events on the left menu).
[Frames are typically seen as a static menu on the left and a portion of the page that changes with each menu selection].
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Can I send a 'Tell a Friend' email to more than one recipient?
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When using the "Tell a Friend" button on an EventKeeper page, you can send to more than one recipient by entering multiple email addresses on the "Recipient's E-Mail Address" field and separating them by a comma.
UPDATE: When using "Tell a Friend" from a "notes" page (as opposed to an event listing page), the link that is sent in the email now takes the user to the Notes Listing (instead of the Events listing as in previous versions). The link in the email also now takes into account the current keywords and date filters and takes the recipient directly to the Event or Note page as displayed by the sender when "Tell a Friend" was clicked.
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Can I show my users Events associated with all keywords except one?
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Yes, with EventKeeper Release 2.3.0, you can create a keyword of "NOT abc" where abc is the keyword for Events you do not want to include.
You must make the appropriate changes to ensure this works properly when displaying or linking to the EventKeeper page:
1) Add a dummy event and give it a keyword named "NOT abc" where 'abc' is replaced by the EXACT keyword that you wish to exclude. You don't want this dummy event to show up so you should assign it a date in the past.
2) Then, in order to have that choice be included in the keyword drop down list, you must "Show Past Keywords". (As an ADMIN editor, go to the Admin Page and select "Edit Org Info" to change the organization setup information. Go to the section called "Keyword Setup" and choose "Yes" for the "Show Past Keywords" field.)
Now the keyword drop down list will include the "NOT abc" choice and selecting that keyword will display events that have a keyword other than "abc".
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Can the Keyword list always show the same choices even if there are no Events for a keyword?
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Yes, you can force the keyword selection list to always show the same list of keywords even when there are no upcoming events for all the keywords.
The Eventkeeper default is this: The keyword list only shows keywords that have upcoming Events that match that keyword. (For example, "Board of Selectmen" will not show up on the list if there are no upcoming events with a "Board of Selectmen" keyword.)
To force the keyword list to include all keywords:
1) As an ADMIN editor, go to the Admin Page and select "Edit Org Info" to change the organization setup information. Go to the section called "Keyword Setup" and choose "Yes" for the "Show Past Keywords" field.
2) Now, go to the Event listing page. You will see keywords show up on the list even if they are only associated with past events.
3) If you don't have all the keywords you want because you may have deleted past events, you can always add a "dummy event" for any keyword that you want to force onto the list. i.e., add an Event with a PAST date and enter the Keyword.
A good example of this: The editor of the South Shore Arts Network calendar (unfortunately now defunct!) wanted all the towns to show up in the "All Locations" Selection List (keyword #2) even when there are no upcoming Events listed. This is also applicable to libraries that always want all the branches to show on the list even if there are no events entered for a branch.
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Do I need more than one calendar?
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How do you decide if you need to purchase more than one EventKeeper calendar service? Here are some considerations:
More than one Location or Department? If you have multiple locations that do not share any events you might want to buy a calendar for each location or department and keep them separate.
This is not necessary, however, if you are willing to use one of your available keywords as the "location". You can then direct users to an event listing filtered specifically for one location. Libraries typically use this approach to support multiple branches. Keyword #1 is used for the name of the branch, and keyword #2 is used for the type of event. Users can then use the keywords to display all events at a location (Keyword #1 = 'Main Branch') or all events of the same type at any location (Keyword #2 = 'Childrens Events').
Restricted Event Display? If you only want your users to see events at one location, you could buy two calendar services, or you can do it with hidden keywords and custom urls. For example, use Keyword #1 as the 'location', but do not display the keyword #1 selection list on the event listing. Build your url to link to the calendar with keyword #1 set to a specific value.
Editor Control? Editors can see all events on the calendar (both public and private), even though they may be prevented from editing them. Administrative editors can edit all events on the calendar. So, if you don't want editors to see the events of another group, you need a separate calendar.
Calendar Look and Feel?The style of a calendar will be the same for all groups that share it. If one group needs to have a different color scheme or logo, they will need a separate calendar.
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Do you translate English events to Spanish?
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EventKeeper provides an add-on service for a Spanish calendar. (This is not yet on the product list so contact us for details). Our Spanish calendar includes a complete translation of all the "static" text on an EventKeeper page (e.g. Months of the year, Days of the Week, Button text, links, etc).
We are not satisifed with the quality of automatic translators so we have not integrated a translator into the EventKeeper Editor. To add Spanish events, you would need to enter the Spanish text yourself. If the English version of the same event is already entered, you can start with a copy of the English event and then change the wording within the Event Editor. (We would appreciate any information about new and improved translations tools.)
To view a Spanish calendar in use, go to the link below for the Brockton Public Library. Click on 'En Espanol' and then click on 'Programas'.
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Brockton Public Library
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How can I add formatting to an Event or a Note?
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Yes, you can add formatting to any text field in EventKeeper (e.g. Event description, Note description, Event name, etc.) using standard html formatting "tags". If you know the tags, just put them in any text field.
If you don't know the formatting commands we help you out by providing a special popup editor window (click on the "E" button next to the Event or Note descriptive text field) where you can select formatting options that add:
Header Text
Italics Text
Bold Text
Centered Text
A New Line (and/or a blank line)
An Active Link.
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How can I hide a note that I don't want to delete?
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You can change the category of the note from "General Note" to "Popup Note" (via a radio button selection when editing the Note) and then it will be available only when associated with an Event and will no longer show up on a Notes listing page.
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How do I add new keywords?
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When you add an event (or note) you have two options for entering keywords: 1) select from the list of existing keywords, or 2) enter a new keyword in the field provided. When a new keyword is added for an event (or note), that keyword automatically shows up on the Keyword drop down list on the Event page.
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How do I change the colors on my EventKeeper pages?
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If you are an Admin Editor, you may click on the Admin Page button at the top of the Events page. Once on the ADMIN page, click on the Edit Org Info button. On the Org Admin page, scroll down or click on Page Colors to get to the relevant fields.
You may type directly into those fields if you know what you want to enter, or you may click on Interactive Colors to go to the Page Color setup page. The Interactive Colors page lets you pick colors from a palette and get immediate feedback on how your page will look. Or if you are trying to match your web site exactly, you can enter in exact color codes.
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How do I create a group of notes?
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Use the Note Keyword field. This works very much like the keyword filters available for Events. When you assign a keyword to a note, it will be added to the list of keywords that the user sees when viewing the notes list. When the user selects that keyword, just those notes will appear in the list.
Example:
This collection of editor questions is maintained as an EventKeeper list of notes. The questions are the titles of the notes. The answers are provided in the text of the note. Each note is assigned a keyword which separates the questions into categories.
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How do I send my users directly to a particular group of notes?
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Create a special URL that tells EventKeeper to display only those notes that have the keyword. You can create the URL when you are logged in as an editor. Go to the list of notes and pick the keyword from the drop down list. When the correct notes are displayed, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Make URL” button. EventKeeper will open a new browser window with the correct URL. You may then copy that URL when creating your custom link to the particular group of notes.
Example:
If you would like to create a link which goes directly to the questions about EventKeeper notes it would look like the one below. If you like puzzles, you can probably figure out the meaning of the different elements of the URL but you don’t need to. You can create the URL as described above.
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Click here for FAQ related to EventKeeper Notes
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How do I turn on the event 'Tell a Friend' button?
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In addition to the page-level 'Tell a Friend' (useful for telling someone about the entire calendar, you can specify that you want the 'Tell a Friend' button to show up next to each event. You can do this as an ADMIN Editor on the Organization Editor screen. (Click "YES" for the "Show Tell a Friend Button" selection under Miscellaneous).
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How long has EventKeeper been in business?
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EventKeeper is the product of Plymouth Rocket Inc. Plymouth Rocket, the company, has been in business since 1997 but the two principals of the company have over 45 years of computer systems and consulting experience between them.
The product EventKeeper has been in use by various clients since the summer of 2001. The first production release of EventKeeper was in January of 2002.
And since this question usually is another way of asking whether we're going to be in business tomorrow, the answer is YES! We are very committed to this business, we are a small company and plan only moderate growth as necessary to expand our install base and continue with excellent support of our clients. We have several new products in the works and basically this is what we do and we love it.
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I'm only using one keyword, so how do I remove the second keyword selection from the Event list?
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If your organization only needs one keyword to organize the Events, you do not need to show the second keyword. (Similarly, if your organization chooses not to use keywords at all, you can remove them from the Event List).
To change the display of keywords on the Event List screen, you have to be an ADMIN editor. Go to the Admin Page and select "Edit Org Info" to change organization information. Go to the "Keyword Setup" section and select "No" for the appropriate "Show ... Keyword.." field (there's one for Event Keyword 1, Event Keyword 2, and Note Keyword)
Here's an interesting twist on displaying or not displaying keywords: You might want to use keywords when adding events even though the user cannot select a different keyword on the Event List. This is useful if you want to add links on your Web page to a keyword-filtered list but not confuse the user with the ability to select a different keyword once they are on the page.
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Is there a way to change the colors for the 'Monthly' calendar view?
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UPDATE !! - Yes, as of Release 2.4, the Background color of the page (outside of the Monthly Calendar) can now be changed using the Org Editor!!
On the Monthly Calendar, there’s not currently as much color customization as there is on the Event Page. Here’s what the color settings are:
- Monthly Calendar border – This is set to the same color as the “Date Bar” on the event page. It cannot currently be changed just for the monthly calendar.
- Today’s date box – This is set to the same color as selected for today’s date on the small calendar on the event page.
- The background (in the calendar) is set to white and cannot currently be changed. This was done originally so that the monthly calendar would still be readable when printed.
- The background of the page (outside of the calendar) is set to match the background color selected for the event page. The background on the event page could also be set to an image and that would carry forward to the monthly calendar.
- The Name of each Event on the monthly calendar matches the color that you choose when you create an event. Different colors on Event names are sometimes used to differentiate categories or locations.
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My old Events did not delete like I expected!
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If you have set up to automatically delete events but they seem to still be on your calendar (and adding to your count!), check these things:
1) On the Organization Edit screen set "Number of Days to Save Events" to the number of days you want your oldest event to be. (It defaults to 365). When the event is older than that, it will be eligible for deletion. e.g. set to 30 to only keep events that are 30 days old or less.
2) Remember to set "Automatic Deletion of Events" to YES. (It defaults to NO).
3) Also, know that the purge function (for safety's sake) is run by us manually and we run it at least once a week, but some weeks only once a week. So some of your events might be as old as 36 days old before they are actually deleted. Send us an email if you need the purge to run today.
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What happens when EventKeeper is down?
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There are several different reasons why EventKeeper (or any other Web site) may be "down" or inaccessible. If the EventKeeper Web server or site is down, the user will get a "page cannot be found" error screen the same as they would for any other web site that is experiencing problems.
EventKeeper does try to limit the down time by detecting one type of error that may occur -- the case where the EventKeeper database may be temporarily down. In this case, EventKeeper will automatically redirect the user to a backup EventKeeper database. User access to EventKeeper will be uninterrupted, although the user may experience a short delay during the redirection. When the database is down, editors will not be able to add or edit information. The EventKeeper database is backed up twice a day to two different locations.
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What is the difference between Popup and General Notes?
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Popup Notes are notes that can only be associated with an Event. (Add the Note, then select it when adding the Event). General Notes can be used as Popup Notes and they can also be presented to the user in a list format.
A list of General Notes is a useful way to present information that is not always tied to a particular date. For instance, this listing of EventKeeper "Customer Support FAQs" is implemented using General Notes. Each question is entered as an individual Note.
In addition, you can assign keywords to your General Notes and present the user with a subset of your General Notes which has been filtered using a keyword (similar to the way Event List keywords work). For example, on this "Customer Support FAQs" page you can select a keyword to see only the Notes relating to "Page Colors". In an example for a library, you could enter General Notes for children's programming, assign them a keyword of "Children's Programs" and put a link on your home page that would go to a list of just those notes. (Make URL for Users would assist you with that last step.)
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What's the best way to include a month-long event?
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The question:: What's the best way to use Eventkeeper for things like month-long art exhibits or things that aren't related to an event, such an Amnesty Month for library fines?
Answer:
Two suggestions:
1. Art exhibits can be entered as an event where the start date and end date are different. The events are sorted by start date and will show up on the event list until the end date has passed. So an event from May 1-31 will display first on the list from May 2-30 (and also display on the 1st and ther 31st but not necessarily first if there are other events. When editing an event, the end date can be entered differently from the first by removing the checkmark next to start date and selecting a second date.
2. For important announcements, e.g. perhaps the Amnesty Month, some folks use the Event List header. As an admin editor, you can enter text that will show up as part of the event list header. This is done on the Org Edit screen. You don't have to, but you might want to use some simple HTML formatting as part of the header. The new field editor will help with that.
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When an Event is deleted, is the associated Note also deleted?
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No, Notes are only deleted if the editor choses to manually delete them. Notes are not automatically deleted as part of the automatic Event "purge", nor are they deleted if a linked Event is manually deleted. Notes may remain in the system without being linked to any Events.
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Why did my events disappear?
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Sometimes confusion arises from the difference between events that have been deleted and those that are not currently displayed. Your organization has a collection of events stored in the EventKeeper database and you and your patrons can select which of those events to display on the screen.
Ordinarily the drop down list which has the months in it is set to All Months. That selection means that the user will see events in the database beginning with today's date. This is the default setting because it requires fewer clicks by most users for them to see the events that they are interested in.
However, events prior to today have not been actually deleted from the database until either an editor manually deletes them or the system automatically deletes them as requested by the organization's administrative editor.
Often, you can see that there were events on previous dates (that are still in the database) by noticing the underlined days in the small graphical calendar. And you can view those previous events by selecting either the actual current month, or Current Month, or Include Past.
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Why does it take so long to save a new event?
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The problem the user was encountering was that each time a new event was being added or modified (by an editor) it seemed to take a very long time to save the event and return to the event listing to continue with additional edits.
Answer: The problem is not really with saving the event. The time delay occurs because on each return to the event listing, the entire screen refreshes (i.e., retrieves all the organization's event data from the database). One way to reduce that refresh time is to change the "filters" on the event listing while you are editing. For example, if you are editing Children's Programs, change the keyword to show only events for Children's Programs. Or change the display to show only one month of events. Any filtering to reduce the number of events on the page will speed up the "save event" process.
Note: This time delay when refreshing the page with a lot of events is particularly noticeable in edit mode due the additional processing necessary to post each event in an "edit format". While a calendar that has lots of events (300 or more) will obviously not refresh or load as quickly as one with less events, the refresh in normal user view mode is done very efficiently. If you find unacceptable delays in loading your event calendar as a USER (i.e. from your web site link), please let us know immediately.
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Why does Location field jump when editing it?
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With Release 2.4.1, the LOCATION field for an event can now be selected from a list of existing Locations (this was a client request). You can now select your Location instead of typing it in and risking typos and incorrect location names.
This is a good thing. However, if you have used a long location name on any event, the display field on the Event Editor form needs to be expanded so you can see the longest Location name. We didn't like our first implementation (the whole screen was wider, requiring the user to scroll right) so we decided to only enlarge the field (and screen) while the user was actualy making a Location selection. We're still not crazy about the way the screen jumps but it's our best thought right now!
To prevent this, you can find out which event or events use the extra long name and change the Location to something smaller. This will shorten the Location field and prevent the Location drop down from expanding
Reminder: The list of Location selections is derived from ALL events, even those events that are in the past and not currently displayed. Select Month = 'Include Past' to see ALL your events.
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Why does the same keyword show up twice on the drop-down keyword selection list?
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You must be very careful when entering keywords for Events or Notes. When editing an Event (or Note), it is highly recomended to always select the keywords from the list of existing keywords unless you really are adding a completely new one. If you always select from the list, you will not have this problem.
If you are seeing this problem, go in and edit the Events (or Notes) that are showing up with the duplicate keywords. Look carefully at the keyword and see if there are any extra spaces between words or at the end of the keyword. Two spaces will show up on a Web page as one space which is why it looks like duplicate keywords even though they are not exactly the same. Remove the extra spaces from the keyword, save the Event (or Note) and repeat until all the "different" Events (or Notes) show up with one keyword.
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