Using Meeting Maker 8.5

Meeting Maker works on Windows and Mac OS X computers. There are some differences between Meeting Maker 7.5 and the new 8.5 version. Please review this page to learn the basics of using Meeting Maker 8.5.

Getting Started

• New users: Request an account
• Signing in to Meeting Maker
• Changing your Password
• Changing Preferences
• Entering your User Information
• Changing Display Options (font, size, etc..) 
• Changing Window Splits 
• Printing your Calendar

• Working with Banners
• Creating Activities
• Editing Activities

• Proposing a Meeting
• Inviting Guests
• Creating a Favorites List
• Responding to an Invitation
• Changing an Activity to a Meeting
• Working with Proxies

Getting Started

If you are a new user, request a Meeting Maker account.

Signing in to Meeting Maker

1. Launch Meeting Maker.
   • On Windows, go to Start > All Programs > Meeting Maker > Meeting Maker.
   • On Mac OS X, click on the desktop. In the Menu Bar, select Go > Applications. In the Applications folder double-click the Meeting Maker folder, then double-click the Meeting Maker Calendar application. Once Meeting Maker appears in the dock, if you wish to keep it there, click and hold on the icon then select Keep in Dock from the menu that appears.
2. Once you launch the program, you will see a login box; the Server name should read "mm_prod". If it does not, please refer to the appropriate installation page: Installing MM on a PC or Installing MM on a Mac. 
3. Enter your Meeting Maker username and password, then click Sign In.

The server upgrade would be a great time to change your password to keep it fresh! You should change all your passwords, not just your Meeting Maker password, on a regular basis. 

1. Pull down the Edit (Windows) or Meeting Maker Calendar (OSX) menu and select Preferences.
2. In the Login tab, enter your current password in the Current field.
3. Enter your new password in both the New and Verify fields.
4. Click OK to accept the new password. The change will be immediate and take effect the next time you login to Meeting Maker

Under the Edit (Windows) or Meeting Maker Calendar (OSX) menu, select Preferences... 
 

• General tab:
  • If you want to see names listed First Name, Last Name uncheck Show last names first.
  • In the Proposals section, if you check Auto-accept during free time, when you are invited to a meeting and are available, Meeting Maker will automatically accept the invitation and schedule the meeting for you.
  • If you would like to receive email reminders, you must complete the Email Settings section. Enter in mhc.mtholyoke.edu as the Local SMTP Host, then type in your email address and the email address that you want to your email notifications to be sent to. You must then complete the email-notification process in the Noticications Tab, as described below.
  • If you print to a Color printer, uncheck the Print in black and white only checkbox.
• Notification tab:
  • You may change the ways Meeting Maker notifies you when you are logged into Meeting Maker and someone proposes a meeting to you, or when a Reminder activates.
  • If you would like to receive email when new propsals and/or reminders arrive, check the respective Send Email Notification boxes in the When New Proposals Arrive and When New Reminders Arrive sections.
  • In the Reminders section you can set the default Reminder time for any new activities, meetings, or banners you create. Activities are items you create and do not include any guests, while Meetings are scheduled items that multiple people are invited to. The settings you make here will not change existing meetings - those need to be changed manually. 
• Filters tab:
  • If you use the Contact and ToDo Lists in Meeting Maker, you can create groups and priority names for those Lists here.
• Labels:
  • You can assign colors to each type of activity by using Labels. And if you want, you can customize those labels here.
  • You can click on the different color boxes to change the colors for each label.
  • You can also type in a name for each label if you wish.
  • The changes will appear in the Meeting Maker Label dropdown box immediately after clicking OK, and they will stay with your preferences as you use Meeting Maker on different computers.
• Colors:
  • The colors listed here are the background colors you see in the areas where no meetings are scheduled.
  • You can click on the color boxes to change them, similar to the boxes in the Labels tab.

You can change your user information so that others will know more about you. You can set your address, department, phone number, regular work hours, and other information. Meeting Maker also allows you to set normal work hours, which designate when you are normally available to meet. For instance if you work late on a particular day, or you work part-time, you can put this in your user information.

1. Under the Edit menu, select User Info...
2. Fill in the information to which you would like other Mount Holyoke Meeting Maker people to have access.
3. Under Work Days & Hours set your regular work hours to help others know when you are or are not available to work.
4. Click the Save button to save the information.

• To change the text of activities, go to Edit > View Options. You can change the font, font size, week number, with or without weekends, what day the calendar opens to (for example, always open to have Monday be the first day), as well as the time it opens to. 
  
• To change the Calendar view, there are several options under the main View menu, such as One Day, One Week (the default), Monthly, Text (new!), and Group View (formerly Master Calendar).

In Meeting Maker 8.5, you can modify the amount of space occupied by each of the three sections of the Calendar windows.

Between each of the three sections (Banners, Activities, and Options) you will see a line dividing each boxed section. If you move the mouse onto that line, the mouse will change to a double-pointer icon and you can then click and drag the line to the left and right (or top and bottom) to shrink one window and enlarge the other. The changes will be saved the next time you login to Meeting Maker, but only for your personal calendar. The changes made to windows of proxied calendars will not be saved.   
 

Printing your Calendar

1. If your schedule is not already visible, select the type of calendar you wish to print under the main View menu.
2. If you have a color printer and wish to print in color, go to Edit (Windows) or Meeting Maker Calendar (OSX) > Preferences > General and make sure that Print Black and White only is unchecked.
3. If you wish to change the printer options, go to File > Page Setup. Here you can set Portrait or Landscape, and the Printer Margins. If you are not sure what the margins are for your printer, click the Printer button and select your printer, then in the Page Setup window, put 0 in each of the Margin areas and Meeting Maker will automatically set the margins to what the printer is able to do.
4. Go to File > Print Schedule to bring up the Print Schedule window.
5. Set the dates you wish to print, the format you wish to have printed, and how many days per page you want.
6. If you wish to make more customizations, click on the Form Options button, then click on the tab for the format you selected to be printed. All other tabs will be blocked from making changes.
7. You can now select the font, font size, the types of activites you want printed, and the range of hours you want printed. So if you want to just print work hours, set the times to 8:30am to 4:30pm. That way you won't see the extra hours on the printouts.
8. Click OK to save the Form options, then click OK again to show the printer dialog box, then click Print to print the calendar.

Using Banners and Activities

Working with Banners

A banner is a flag that can be dragged across one or more days without interrupting your availability. For example, you might use a banner to mark days when your boss or co-worker is out of town, or to mark days you need to work on a project without having particular hours that need to be set aside for it. A banner appears in the Daily Calendar and Monthly Calendars as a streamer.

Creating Banners:

1. Click Create Banner on the top left-side module.
2. Fill in the appropriate information and click Create Banner. The banner will now appear in your Daily Calendar: 
    
   and the Monthly Calendar:
   

Editing a Banner:

1. In the Daily or Monthly Calendar view, click on the text of the banner.
2. In the window that pops up, edit the information, and click the Update button on the bottom right of the window.

Deleting a Banner:

1. In the Daily or Monthly Calendar view, click on the text of the banner.
2. In the window that pops up, click the Delete Banner button on the bottom left of the window.

1. To put an activity on your schedule, you can either go to File > New Activity/Meeting or, in the calendar itself, click on the start time of the meeting and drag to the end time.
2. If you created an Activity from the File menu, an activity window will appear: 
    
3. If you did the click and drag in the calendar, you will be able to type in the name of the activity in the new item on your calendar. You can then double-click on the activity to get the dialog box that's shown above.
4. Enter a short description of the activity for Title. Enter other information as needed, such as location and an agenda.
5. If you want to set this Activity as a recurring event, such as a weekly meeting, select how often the meeting repeats from the Occurs Once dropdown menu. Then select the times that this meeting will be scheduled. If it doesn't have an end date, check the Ongoing checkbox that will appear.
6. Under the Options, checking the item as Private will mark the activity confidential so that someone with proxy access to your calendar will not be able to see the details of this activity, just that you have something scheduled at that time. Checking the item as Flexible will indicate you may still be available for meetings at that time to someone who is proposing a meeting to you. For example, your student assistant's hours might be marked in your calendar as flexible because you need to know when she will be working for you, but you don't necessarily have to spend the whole time working directly with her.
7. Click Create Activity to make the activity part of your calendar.

1. To edit an activity on your schedule, double-click on the activity in your calendar.
2. If the activity you wish to edit is a recurring activity (the Title and Location fields will be un-editable), after opening the activity you must click the Change button in the bottom right part of the Window. When you click the Change button you will be asked which meetings you'd like to change. Select the option you want and click OK.
3. Enter a short description of the activity for Title. Enter other information as needed, such as location and an agenda.
4. If you want to set this Activity as a recurring event, such as a weekly meeting, select how often the meeting repeats from the Occurs Once dropdown menu. Then select the times that this meeting will be scheduled. If it doesn't have an end date, check the Ongoing checkbox that will appear.
5. Under the Options, checking the item as Private will mark the activity confidential so that someone with proxy access to your calendar will not be able to see the details of this activity, just that you have something scheduled at that time. Checking the item as Flexible will indicate you may still be available for meetings at that time to someone who is proposing a meeting to you.
6. Click Update to save the changes to the activity.

Proposing Meetings and Setting Proxies

Proposing a Meeting

1. Go to File > Create Activity/Meeting.
2. Enter a title for the meeting in the Title box.
3. Enter a place for the meeting in the Location box.
4. Specify reminder and labeling options in the Options section. The options that you set here will only be valid for your calendar and do not apply to your guests' calendars. They will be able to set their own reminder and label for the meeting.
5. If you would like to add comments or an agenda to the meeting, enter them in the Agenda section.
6. Click on the Guests tab to invite other people to your meeting. To invite guests, click on the Edit List button at the bottom of the list of names. If you wish to add from your Favorites list, in the Add Guests to Meeting window, click on the dropdown box and select Favorites. For more detailed ways on inviting users, look at the Inviting Guests section below. Once all your guests have been added, click OK.
7. After you click OK, the guests will be added to your meeting, and their availability will be shown in the Guests tab next to their name. The colors in the available times match the colors in the legend at the bottom of the window. You can change the colors for the legend by clicking on the square color icons in the legend.
8. Once everything is how you want it, click the Notify Guests button (it used to be Create Activity, but changes when you add Guests).
9. If any of the guests either have meetings scheduled for that time or are not set to work during that time you will get a message saying that the required guests are unavailable. If you click Yes, it will continue anyway. If you click No, you can go back to the meeting, remove the guests in question and add them as Optional or CC instead of Required.
10. After the guests have been invited, the meeting will appear on your calendar. You can now double-click on it to see the status of the invite for each user. There will be a green check mark if they accepted, a red X if they denied, and nothing if they didn't reply to the proposal yet.
11. You can also look under the Options tab of the meeting to see if any of the guests have added comments to the meeting.

Note: Although all guests will receive a meeting invitation, the meeting will only appear on your guests' calendar after they have sent you an affirmative reply or if they have their calendar set to automatically accept meetings they have time for.

Inviting Guests

When you are proposing meetings, you will need to choose the participants from the list of people who have Meeting Maker accounts.

1. When creating or modifying a meeting, click on the Guests tab.
2. Click on Edit List.
3. For each guest you want to invite, double-click that person's name. The name will appear in the list of Guests as a required guest. You can also select a user (by clicking once) and use the Required >> or Optional >> buttons to move them to your Guest list.
4. Click on the Guests tab to check if there is a known conflict with this meeting. The Guests tab displays the guests' busy time in red, free time in gray, and time outside work hours in blue.
5. When you are finished inviting guests and setting the Details and Schedule, click the Create Activity button. The window will close, and the meeting proposal will be transmitted to your guests and will appear in your calendar.

Creating a Favorites List

In Meeting Maker 8.5, the QuickList has been renamed to Favorites. If you invite a lot of the same people to meetings and want a faster way to do it than constantly looking for them in the Public Directory, Favorites may be the answer!

Favorites works much like the FirstClass Addressbook. You can have groups of users as one Favorite, or have each user be a single Favorite.

1. To edit your Favorites go to Edit > Favorites. 
2. On the left is all the items on the Meeting Maker server. The Show All dropdown item shows all the items on the server. If you click on Show All you can filter the list by Users, Groups, Resources, etc..
3. On the right is your list of Favorites. If you already have items listed in the Favorites side, they might have different icons next to them. The icon with two bodies in it is a group, the icon with one body is a single user, and the computer monitor icon is a Resource (such as a classroom or vacation calendar for an office). You can double-click on the two-bodied icon to see who is a member of the group you created, but be careful because double-clicking on anything else in the righthand pane will remove them from the list!
4. To add single users or resources to your quicklist, find them on the left and click the Add >> button in the middle.
5. To add entire groups to your quicklist, select the group on the left, then click the Add >> button in the middle. If you double-click on the group on the left, it will show the list of users in the group instead of adding the group!
6. To create a group of users in your Favorites, in the middle row of buttons, click New Group, name the group, then add users to the group as normal. To get back to your main list of Favorites, use the dropdown menu on the top right and select Favorites. You can also create groups inside of groups.
7. To remove items from your Favorites, select the item on the right and click the Remove button. Double-clicking on single users and resources will also remove them from the Favorites list.

When someone invites you to a meeting, or changes a meeting, you will receive a message in the Proposals window of Meeting Maker. To view your messages:

1. Click on your main Meeting Maker Calendar to get to your account. This is to make sure you don't accidentally look at the proposals of an account you have read/write access to.
2. Go to View > Proposals. This window automatically opens when you first login to Meeting Maker, so you'll probably recognize it.
3. If there are any bold items in the Proposals window, click on the triangle next to them and you will see the items for that Proposal section. 
4. Double-click on the item you want to review.
5. The time and agenda will be listed in the Details tab. The Guests tab shows who was asked to attend the meeting and who was CC'd. In the Options tab you can add notes that everyone will see, as well as change the reminder time and label for the meeting in your calendar.
6. At the bottom of the meeting is the Can you attend? question. Click the appropriate response button (Yes, No, or I'll decide later) and click Reply. If you select I'll Decide Later, the meeting will stay in the Recieved Proposals, but will no longer be in bold. If you select No, it will move to the Declined section. If you select Yes, it will go to the Accepted section.
7. If you wish to delete the Proposal item, click on it once to highlight it, then click the Delete icon in the Proposals window. Use caution with this as it cannot be undone!
8. You may close the Proposals window at any time and get it back by going to View > Proposals.

If you set up an activity on your own calendar and want to go back and turn that into a meeting with others, you can modify the activity by inviting guests to it.

1. Double-click on the text of the activity you want to change. The activity window will pop up.
2. If this is a recurring event, click the Change button and select the meeting options you wish to change.
3. Click on the Guests tab.
4. Follow the directions above for inviting guests.

To allow other users to view or change your calendar, you have to provide them with Read Only or Read/Write proxy status. Most Read/Write proxies are created for sharing calendars between bosses and administrative assistants. If you check any of your activities or to-do items as private, your proxies will not be able to view the name of your activity - they will only see that you have something scheduled.

Likewise, to be able to view someone else's calendar, he or she must first give you proxy rights. Once permission has been given, you can add the user to your Proxy Favorites for quick accesss from the Proxy menu.

Important: You should only choose people who need access to your schedule as your proxies. You do not need to be on a proxy list to invite or receive invites from other users and they can usually see enough information in the Guests tab when they propose a meeting with you.

Allowing others to see (Read Only) and/or edit (Read/Write) your calendar:

1. From the Proxy menu, select Share Calendar...
2. In the left pane, select the name of the person you want to let see your calendar and click either Read/Write or Read Only. Read Only prevents the person you add from directly adding activities to your calendar. They will still be able to invite you to meetings as usual. 
3. Click OK.
   

Viewing calendars that you have been given proxy access to:

1. From the Proxy menu, select Edit Favorite Proxies
2. In the left pane, select the name of the proxy you want to add to the Proxy menu in the Meeting Maker Application. Usually you want to add everyone who has proxied you to your Favorites so they all show up in the Proxy menu. This is new to Meeting Maker 8.5, as in 7.5 all proxied users were added to the Proxy menu by default.
3. Click OK.
4. If you look under the Proxy menu now, each calendar you added to your Favorites will be listed with Open in front of it. If you click on each Open calendar, a new window will appear with the proxied calendar.
5. If there are calendars that you don't want in your favorites menu because you don't open them that often, you can still access them by clicking on the More Proxies option under the Proxy menu. Select and Add the proxies you want to open, then click OK.