The New Events Calendar
The Premium Plus Events Calendar is our most advanced calendar to date and it is now available to ALL of our members. This calendar is loaded with features that will help change the way you run your parent group.
How to use your Premium Plus Events Calendar
ALL Digital PTO Members have access to our most feature rich calendar, the Premium Plus Events Calendar. This calendar is very powerful and allows you to display your events in a variety of ways including the ability to filter events by specific categories.
Step 1: Verify that your Premium Plus Calendar is activated
The Premium Plus Events Calendar is activated automatically for most members. To verify your events calendar, check the left side navigation of your admin interface and look for a menu called EVENTS CALENDAR with a little PURPLE number 3 for the icon. If you see this option, your Calendar is activated.
Step 2: Deactivate other calendars if necessary
If you signed up for Digital PTO before July 28, 2014, you may have one of our older calendars activated on your site. You are welcome to keep this calendar, or you can switch to the Premium Plus Calendar. Please note, if you switch, your events will NOT be carried over, you will need to re-enter future events. If you have the Premium Calendar or the Standard Calendar activated, you can deactivate them by going to PLUGINS and then click the DEACTIVATE link under the Calendar Plugin Category.
Step 3: Adjust your Settings as needed
If we installed your calendar for you, your settings should be just fine as they are, but if you need to make adjustments, go to EVENTS > SETTINGS and you can adjust them there. There are three major settings you’ll want to look at on this page. First check to see that your “Calendar Page” is set to Events Calendar (or whatever your calendar page is called). This will add the calendar to the page that has already been set up for it. Second, if you want your display to look like a traditional USA calendar, change the “Week Starts On” setting to Sunday. Third, under “Available Views” change the default setting to the MONTH view (it starts on Posterboard). This is get your calendar set up in the most traditional way.
Step 4: Set Up your Categories
One of the most amazing elements to the Premium Plus Calendar is the ability to assign different categories to your calendar. Assigning events to categories will allow your users to filter their calendar view to their specific needs and will also help color code your calendar to make it easier to read. Common categories are: Fundraisers, Events, School Days, Holidays, Restaurant Nights, Class Parties, Deadlines, etc. We HIGHLY suggest that you use the categories as this is a great feature of this advanced calendar. To set up your categories, go to EVENTS > EVENT CATEGORIES. Enter a Category Name and a Category Color. You can select Parent Categories, add descriptions and images as well if you’d prefer, but these are not necessary. Then click ADD NEW CATEGORY. Repeat for all of your categories. You can always add more later, but it’s best to get at least a few started.
Step 5: Adding an Event (Basics)
Once you have established some categories to get you started, go to EVENTS > ADD NEW to add your first calendar event. Enter a TITLE, Enter the DATE and TIME (or select ALL DAY).
Step 6: Adding an Event (Location & Other Details)
After you have entered the name and dates and times, click on the green header that says EVENT LOCATION DETAILS. If you would like to add the location and address of the event, this will display a nice Google map on your event details page for your users. Be sure to click the box to display a Google Map if you want that to show. This is optional. Clicking on the additional green headlines (Event Cost and Tickets, Organizer Contact Info) will give you additional fields you can specify if you wish. These are also optional.
Step 7: Adding Additional Details about your Event
Below the event details boxes, you will see a familiar text input box that allows you to add as much detail about your upcoming event as you wish. This works the exact same way that the News Posts and Info Pages work. Feel free to add as much or as little information as you want in this box.
Step 8: Select a Category your Event
If you assigned some categories when you set up your calendar (HIGHLY SUGGESTED), it is now time to select a category (or more) for your event. The categories are found to the right of the Event Details.
Step 9: Publish your Event
Once you have added all of the information you want to include, click the PUBLISH button (or UPDATE if you are updating) and your Event will be live on your website! Congrats! You’ve added your first event!
