August 2000 Newsletter ; ManagePro Management and Team Effectiveness Software Tool

ManagePro Newsletter August 2000

Welcome to the month of managing events, vacations, other's availability, kid's expectations... and on the list goes. Thought that focusing on using the calendar would be appropriate this month, and so we are sharing some tips to help you take advantage of the resources provided by the calendar.

Here are our topic headings:

Top 7 features in the calendar
Solving common business questions with the calendar
What's available when integrating the calendar with Outlook - Palm Pilot devices.
What's new this month at Performance Solutions Technology.

1. TOP 7 FEATURES IN THE CALENDAR

The individual calendar displays a timeline bar on the left side, showing green when you have a scheduled appointment over a duration in time; red when two or more appointments conflict in time and duration. The group calendar does not include this feature if working in a shared access database.
The monthly view of either the individual or group calendar allows the user to drag and drop events and to-dos into different dates using the left mouse button.
Be careful about giving access in a shared database to the group calendar. It allows anyone with access to see everyone's to-dos and events, consequently it is best reserved for the team leader/manager.
Regardless of which calendar view you are in (daily, weekly, monthly), clicking on the title of an event, to-do or goal always brings up the detail of that item for quick review.
Also available in all three of those views is the ability to easily configured and display one or more of five data points (events, to-dos, goals, commitments and performance management activities).
The weekly view of the individual calendar is one of the best choices for an immediate overview of your commitments. It displays appointments first, then to-do's slated for that day.
You can email items from within the calendar view by highlighting them and then clicking on the email button (envelope), however there is not a button to email the entire calendar view. If you wish to email the calendar view you have, click on your Print Screen key, then paste the stored image into Word as a document and send the calendar (now displayed as a Word image) to whomever as an email attachment.

2. SOLVING COMMON BUSINESS QUESTIONS WITH THE CALENDAR

When do I have an appointment with...? *
Click on the Select Item button (the one with the question mark in the middle of a magnifying glass) and then type the first letter of the title of the appointment you have. Regardless of which calendar view you are in, it will go to the date of that event and highlight it for you.
How do I, as a manager, get immediate access to my own calendar? *
Highlight your name in the People/Team planner, and then click on your calendar button to display your calendar. Resize your calendar window to a 2 inch square in the bottom left side of your screen. (You can do the same with your personal to-do list, except resize it to the bottom right of your screen) Close the People/Team planner window. Resize your top level and individual goal screens so that they overlap but don't cover your calendar view by pulling up the bottom of those screens. You now have a view that has your personal calendar and to-do list always available as you work along in the goal planner views.
How do I find out who is available for a meeting?
Use the Action List button for this task. You might expand the Who column and use the wrench to make it double space so that you can see all the names if events are scheduled for more people than will display in a single column. Click to display only events, and be sure you have the events sorted by date. Now you can scroll down day by day and see who is currently scheduled for existing meetings on any given date, and conversely where the openings are to schedule your meeting.
How do I display both the start and end dates in the Calendar?
Many people would like to see both the Start date and Due date of their Goals. In order to do this open up the calendar and click on the configuration button, which has the picture of the wrench on it. On the right side of the window check the box marked "Show Start Dates in Calendar". Click OK and now the start dates will appear as well.
How do I create recurring events?
If you wish to schedule a meeting or event at repeated intervals throughout the year you can use our Recurring Event feature. To get there, go to the Quick Input menu and choose the Scheduler. You then need to create a title for the event, choose its type, and assign the proper people to it. Now jump to the bottom of the screen and choose the large "Recurring..." button in the lower left hand corner. The next window that pops up lets you define when the recurring event takes place. First enter the date range the events will take place in. If it's a meeting which starts at a specific time, say 10:00 am, put that time in BOTH the From and To boxes right after the date. If it's a 2 hour meeting, enter" 2 hrs" in the duration box. The ending time will automatically be calculated. The interval box defines the frequency of the event. If you meet once a week or month you would enter a 1. If you meet every other week or month you would enter a 2. Once a number is entered choose the proper time frame on the right. Once the interval is set you can then choose the Specific day in the last box, if necessary. For example if you meet every Tuesday click on the Tuesday button. You are now done with this window click OK and you will return to the previous window and all the calculated dates will be visible in the scheduled dates box. Click OK and all those dates will be entered in the calendar.

3. WHAT'S AVAILABLE WHEN INTEGRATING THE CALENDAR WITH OUTLOOK/PALM PILOT DEVICES

ManagePro exports and imports events or meeting data to Outlook's calendar. Within ManagePro do your data transfer from the Action List view, and then use your Export and Import utilities. Title, start date, and text/long description are the 3 primary fields that come across. Click on the following link if you wish to pull the technical white paper on this topic from our Website at: https://performancesolutionstech.com/outlooktomanagepro.htm.

4. WHAT'S NEW THIS MONTH AT PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS TECHNOLOGY.

We have repackaged and repositioned Teamware in the US and Canada markets to help ensure all of our users get the same great results. In the past only a minority of users got optimal returns from the software due to limited understanding of how to apply the software to business issues, and coping with people's response to the challenge of change imposed by new software. You can check out the rational for our change and the specifics of what is being offered by going to: https://performancesolutionstech.com/teamware.htm

Have a great month.

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