Forms Expert - Creating Recurring
Calendar Items
Have you ever had to enter a meeting that recurs at
regular intervals, say a sales meeting every Monday? What about
entering a birthday reminder for every year?
You could simply enter each item in the calendar, one
at a time, but many don't realise there is an easier way: Recurring
Calendar Items. Using the Recurring Calendar Items, you can add a
series of appointments, meetings or reminders, which can then be
managed as a group.
Set up the Category
Before you can add a Recurring Item, you need to set
up the Category to handle Recurring Items. To do this, go into
Customize > Database > Category, select your Calendar Category
and Click Edit. Then edit the Date field. You will need to check the
"Recurring Date Field", if it is not already checked.
Technical Note: What actually happens when you
do this, is that Commence automatically sets up a Simple (single)
Connection between the items in the Calendar.
Defining a Recurring Calendar Item
 To
add a Recurring Item is very easy. Start by adding a new item to the
Calendar in the usual way; click the "+" button in the tool
bar, use the right mouse button to choose "Add Item" or use
a pre-defined agent. After you fill in the details and before saving
the form, click the "Recurring" button in the Detail Form
toolbar.
Technical Note: You will notice that when you click the
Recurring button, the date is replaced by "*".
Go ahead and save the Item, and you will be prompted
to specify the frequency and the start and stop dates.
Specifying the Date Range
Once you save the item, after clicking the Recurring
button, the Specify Date Range window will appear.
You can now specify the frequency of the Item, and
also when the Recurring Item should start and stop. Note that you can
use Natural Date Language in the date fields (e.g. 1 month from
today). When you click the OK button the form will be saved and all
the items created for you automatically.
Managing Recurring Items
One of the advantages of setting up recurring
appointments in this way, is that you can manage them as a
group.
 For
example, if you want to change the start time of all the recurring
group of appointments, double click any one of them to make an edit.
You will then be prompted to edit one or many of the group. If you
choose Many, the edit will apply to all the items in the group.
In a similar way, you can delete the items as a group.
Delete any one item, and you will be prompted to delete One or Many -
choose Many to delete them all.
It's worthwhile ensuring your Calendar category is set
up to handle Recurring items, and then spending a few minutes becoming
familiar with this simple, but incredibly powerful feature. It's sure
to save you time and effort.
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