Tech Forum

I pondered how to do a brief one or two page summary, but decided that members in my unit would be best served with a longer document showing how to use the calendar with the tasks they will most likely perform.

I don't expect to print this out for each member, although I might e-mail it to the membership. I'll probably produce a copy for each presidency, but that'd be the extent of my hard copies.

jacoblindseth wrote:Do you happen to have the PP presentation you used?

I had posted this in a different thread: https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?6568-Training-videos-for-new-calendar
but, here is what I said and posted there. Maybe it will help some others with ideas:

I have been asked by our Bishop to do a Ward "activity" where I go over the new tools and websites and such. I have titled my presentation "On The Web, But Not Of The Web---A Guide to the LDS Superhighway". I will be using the power point files shown here. You will notice that it says the presentation is being done by Bro. Seymour D. Webb. That is just meant to be funny (get it? "See More of the Web") Anyway, I plan to use this and a slightly modified version of the "How to sign in" document previously attached in this thread by another member. As you can see, I will be using this in conjunction with an actual connection to see the sites. I also will be demoing a few of the I-Phone/Android apps that are available.

Thanks to all of you for producing and sharing great handouts and presentations for those of us without this talent. I will make use of these when I feel our ward and stake are ready... And I will give credit to those created them....

nutterb wrote:I pondered how to do a brief one or two page summary, but decided that members in my unit would be best served with a longer document showing how to use the calendar with the tasks they will most likely perform.

I don't expect to print this out for each member, although I might e-mail it to the membership. I'll probably produce a copy for each presidency, but that'd be the extent of my hard copies.

Very complete, and thank you, all! If you post it, may we use it? I intended to get far more detailed later then the one that stated this thread as well. While my original document was a very general introduction, this more detailed ones will be fabulous for different purposes, especially for leader training. How to distribute them? Yes, each editor probably needs a hard copy of calendar instructions given at Ward Council.

For the ward...

This and any PDF (unsure on power point?) can be placed in "news and information" section of your "classic" website (because there is not a way to do it on LDS.org yet.) I will then send each member a broadcast email with a link to that specific document by calling it up on my screen and copying the URL to paste into my email. I'll use tinyurl perhaps? That way, I'm sending a small "text only" email with no attachments. You can't attach files when sending to your leaders or ward via the LDS.org "clerk and leader tool" broadcast email service.

If I use the directories' email function, however, it uses my own email client, (mailto:,) so I probably could attached a PDF, but some members on dial-up will not like me because of the download time! (And, my provider once accused me of spamming when I sent PDF's to 32 family addresses.)

Alternately, you could do it similarly by posting PDF's on google docs and distributing that URL, but why not keep it "in-house?"

Use it to your heart's content. Let me know if you see any room for improvement*.



*Especially if you notice I missed any names or contact info. I tried to scrub them all out, but I've been known to make mistakes.

nutterb wrote:Use it to your heart's content. Let me know if you see any room for improvement*.

*Especially if you notice I missed any names or contact info. I tried to scrub them all out, but I've been known to make mistakes.

I quickly looked over your very good document and found a couple of items that you may want to look at.

The first is just something that hit me as unclear that could cause more questions or misunderstanding. On page 2, item 1, Subscribed Calendars, the explanation caused me to reread it several times. Without any previous experience with the calendar or a good understanding of the calender it just doesn't seem to get across what checking or unchecking a calendar title really does. You may want to consider something like the following. "Calendars to which you have subscribed (described later) may be displayed on your customized calendar by checking the box next to the title. Events for unchecked calendars will not be displayed."

The next applies more to the setup of resources at a location than the explanations of the calendar. On page 3, in the graphic of the Event Details, a resource listed is "For Information Only". It is possible to have conflicts for events that have this resource selected when actually no resource is desired. Is it possible that this resource was added with the intent to avoid creating conflicts? To avoid creating conflicts for events that are "information only" use the Location "Other Location" rather than an actual location and then put something descriptive in the Location Details such as "This is for information only".

I'm missing something really obvious and can't seem to figure out how to edit a post :facepalm:

Here's an updated version. Sorry it took so long.

nutterb wrote:I'm missing something really obvious and can't seem to figure out how to edit a post :facepalm:

You can't - you're limited as to how much time can pass before you can do back and edit a prior post.

RussellHltn wrote:You can't - you're limited as to how much time can pass before you can do back and edit a prior post.

That's great! I much prefer system settings over user incompetence!

nutterb wrote:I'm missing something really obvious and can't seem to figure out how to edit a post :facepalm:

Here's an updated version. Sorry it took so long.

That's a nice handout -- it's very helpful to see all the good ideas that are coming from the community.

One thing that's a bit tricky in documenting the calendar is dealing with all the different permissions. One particular possible point of confusion in your handout: your first screen shot has both a Create Event button and a Subscribed Locations box. Neither of those will be present for regular members -- you have to be at least an editor to see either of those elements. But if your primary audience is calendar editors and approvers, then that's not a problem.