Get Started Lesson 1: Create calendars, fields, and events

Time to complete: approximately 30 minutes

Welcome to your first lesson in how to use Trumba® Connect to publish and promote your events online and connect with your customers.

Tip You can print a printer-friendly version of this lesson by choosing Print from your browser's File menu. If you prefer to work with the lesson on-screen, it's probably easiest to have two browser windows open, one for the lesson content and the other for Trumba Connect.

Introduction

In Trumba Connect, you organize events using a combination of calendars, custom fields, and event templates. In most cases, you can manage all of your events using one calendar, one event template, and a few custom fields. That's the process we'll follow in this lesson using the example of an organization that publicizes community events.

The calendar that appears on the organization's home page contains events of several types, including Arts and Culture, Business and Technology, and Sports and Outdoor, aimed at community residents of different age groups.

In this lesson, you'll discover how to:

Rename the default calendar.
Create custom fields.
Add events to a calendar.

Tip Depending upon the nature of your organization, it may make sense to create more than one calendar and/or event template. Learn more about applying the relationships among calendars, custom fields, and event templates to your specific organization's events.

Rename the default calendar

The first time you sign in to Trumba Connect, you see a default calendar already created for your account. The calendar appears in the Current Calendar list.

The name of the calendar reflects the name you used when you signed up for your account.

We'll rename that calendar to better reflect its purpose.

Change a calendar's settings

You change a calendar's name and adjust other calendar-related settings by opening the calendar's Calendar Settings page.

Go to the Trumba Connect home page. Click Sign in to sign in to your Trumba account.
Under Current Calendar, your default calendar is listed and the calendar itself in Month format appears on the right.
Above the month calendar, click the blue Settings button.
Tip You can also change a calendar's settings by clicking the small arrow to the right of calendar's name in the Current Calendar list.
On the Calendar Settings page, for Calendar name, replace the default name with a more appropriate one. For this example, we'll use the name Community Events.
Under Display Options, for Time zone, select your own time zone. At the bottom of the page, click OK.
The new name appears in the Current Calendar list.

Create custom fields

Note The following steps apply only to accounts created after October 5, 2010. If your Trumba account was created before October 5, 2010, please refer to Accounts created before 10/5/2010: Create custom event fields.

A helpful way to think about custom fields is to ask yourself how your calendar visitors will want to filter, or limit, the events they see. For example, visitors to the Community Events calendar might want to filter events by:

Type of event (for example, Arts and Culture versus Sports and Outdoor).
Appropriate ages of attendees (for example, Children, Adults, or Seniors).

In this lesson, we'll create two new custom fields, Age Range, and Event Type, and add them to the Community Events calendar.

Tip In Lesson 2 in the Get Started series, you'll see custom field filtering in action when you add a filter spud to the published calendar.

Add custom fields to the event template

An event template is a collection of fields that you use to create new events. By default, the template includes fields such as description, location, start time, and event image, that apply to all events. By adding custom fields to a template, you modify the template to accurately describe the events your organization publishes.

If you haven't already renamed your default calendar, see Rename the default calendar above.
Under Other Tasks, click Define custom fields.
On the Define Custom Fields page, you'll see a default event template called Default Template.
The default template comes with one field already in place, a predefined field called Event image. This field lets you include images and photos with events.

Default event template with predefined Event image field
To rename the template to better reflect it's purpose, click Template Settings. On the Edit Event Template page, for Template Name, type the name Community Template. Click OK.
Pause your cursor over Add Custom Field. Select Create New Field.
On the Create a New Custom Field page, in the Field Name section, for Field name, type Age Range. Type a description if you want. This is useful primarily if more than one person will be adding events to your calendars and you want to provide guidance.
For Field type, select List of choices: [create a new list].
Tip You might want to take a look at the entire Field type list to get a sense of how many options you have.
For Possible choices click Add Multiple Values. In the window, type: Adults, Children, Teens, Seniors. Click Save Values.
For Select multiple values, select Yes.
For Display style, select Drop Down.
Leave Default value blank.
Tip If most of your events were targeted at a specific age range, you might want to select a default value to save time when adding new events.
For Value required, select Yes.
This means that, if you create an event and don't specify an age range, you'll see an error message.
For Visibility, two options are selected by default:
- Allow this field to be published means that the custom field will appear in events on your published website calendar.
  Tip The ability to prevent fields from appearing on published calendars allows you to use custom fields internally. For example, if more than one person creates events, you might create an unpublished field for private notes.
- Show this field on the event submission form means that, if the public event submission form is enabled on your account, this field will also appear on that form.
Click OK.
Repeat steps 6 to 15 to add another new custom field called Event Type. In step 9, add the values Arts and Culture, Business and Technology, and Sports and Outdoor. For Select multiple values, select No. Leave the display style as Drop Down and the default value blank. Require a value and, for Visibility, leave the two options selected. Click OK.
At the bottom of the Define Custom Fields page, click Done.

After you add two fields, you see three fields listed under the event template.
Back in the Trumba editing environment, at the top of the calendar, click Add Event. Notice that the Event image, Age Range, and Event Type fields are now available in the form.

The default Event image field and the fields you added appear in Add Events form.
Go on to the next section where you add three events to the Community Events calendar.

Add events

In this section, you'll learn how to manually add new events to the calendar that you just renamed and customized.

Note If you decide to subscribe to Trumba Connect, and you currently store your event information in another calendar program or database, you don't have to re-enter the information manually into Trumba Connect. You can import event information in a number of common file formats. Learn more about importing events.

Add events to a calendar

If you haven't already added two new fields to the event template, see Create custom fields above.
On the Community Events calendar, find a date that is a few weeks in the future.

Click the arrow at the top left edge of the calendar to create an event in a different month.
Click the +Add link in the top right corner of the date to add an event to the date.
On the Add an Event page, add the following event:
- For Description, type Jonah and the Big Whale.
- For Location, type Seattle Children's Theatre.
- For Start, select 2:00 PM for the start time.
- For Age Range, select Children.
- For Event Type, select Arts and Culture.
Click Save and Add Another.
Add two more events as follows, clicking Save and Add Another after you create the first event:
Event 1:
- For Description, type Monthly Tech Talk.
- For Location, type Public Library Auditorium.
- For Start, select the day after the date for the first event. For start time, select 6:00 PM.
- For Age Range, select Adults.
- For Event Type, select Business and Technology.
Event 2:
- For Description, type Gentle Tai Chi.
- For Location, type Ravenna Senior Center Rec Room.
- For Start, select the day after the date for the Tech Talk event. For start time, select 9:00 AM.
- For Age Range, select Seniors.
- For Event Type, select Sports and Outdoor.
Tip Optionally, you can try adding an image to one or more of the events you just created. In the Event Information form, find the Event image field. To the right of the field, click New. In the Add an Image window, click Browse to find an image on your computer. Under Image Properties, type a friendly display name that describes and identifies the image. Click OK. The image display name and size appear in the Event image field.
Click OK.
Back in the Trumba editing environment, you see the three events you just created on the calendar.

The dates of the events you created may not match the events shown here.


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See Also Lesson 2 Publish and embed calendars Lesson 3 Control and promotion spuds Lesson 4 Scheduled calendar email Lesson 5 Event and calendar actions Lesson 6 Event registration	Get Started Lesson 1: Create calendars, fields, and events Time to complete: approximately 30 minutes Welcome to your first lesson in how to use Trumba® Connect to publish and promote your events online and connect with your customers. Tip You can print a printer-friendly version of this lesson by choosing Print from your browser's File menu. If you prefer to work with the lesson on-screen, it's probably easiest to have two browser windows open, one for the lesson content and the other for Trumba Connect. Introduction In Trumba Connect, you organize events using a combination of calendars, custom fields, and event templates. In most cases, you can manage all of your events using one calendar, one event template, and a few custom fields. That's the process we'll follow in this lesson using the example of an organization that publicizes community events. The calendar that appears on the organization's home page contains events of several types, including Arts and Culture, Business and Technology, and Sports and Outdoor, aimed at community residents of different age groups. In this lesson, you'll discover how to: Rename the default calendar. Create custom fields. Add events to a calendar. Tip Depending upon the nature of your organization, it may make sense to create more than one calendar and/or event template. Learn more about applying the relationships among calendars, custom fields, and event templates to your specific organization's events. Rename the default calendar The first time you sign in to Trumba Connect, you see a default calendar already created for your account. The calendar appears in the Current Calendar list. The name of the calendar reflects the name you used when you signed up for your account. We'll rename that calendar to better reflect its purpose. Change a calendar's settings You change a calendar's name and adjust other calendar-related settings by opening the calendar's Calendar Settings page. Go to the Trumba Connect home page. Click Sign in to sign in to your Trumba account. Under Current Calendar, your default calendar is listed and the calendar itself in Month format appears on the right. Above the month calendar, click the blue Settings button. Tip You can also change a calendar's settings by clicking the small arrow to the right of calendar's name in the Current Calendar list. On the Calendar Settings page, for Calendar name, replace the default name with a more appropriate one. For this example, we'll use the name Community Events. Under Display Options, for Time zone, select your own time zone. At the bottom of the page, click OK. The new name appears in the Current Calendar list. Create custom fields Note The following steps apply only to accounts created after October 5, 2010. If your Trumba account was created before October 5, 2010, please refer to Accounts created before 10/5/2010: Create custom event fields. A helpful way to think about custom fields is to ask yourself how your calendar visitors will want to filter, or limit, the events they see. For example, visitors to the Community Events calendar might want to filter events by: Type of event (for example, Arts and Culture versus Sports and Outdoor). Appropriate ages of attendees (for example, Children, Adults, or Seniors). In this lesson, we'll create two new custom fields, Age Range, and Event Type, and add them to the Community Events calendar. Tip In Lesson 2 in the Get Started series, you'll see custom field filtering in action when you add a filter spud to the published calendar. Add custom fields to the event template An event template is a collection of fields that you use to create new events. By default, the template includes fields such as description, location, start time, and event image, that apply to all events. By adding custom fields to a template, you modify the template to accurately describe the events your organization publishes. If you haven't already renamed your default calendar, see Rename the default calendar above. Under Other Tasks, click Define custom fields. On the Define Custom Fields page, you'll see a default event template called Default Template. The default template comes with one field already in place, a predefined field called Event image. This field lets you include images and photos with events. Default event template with predefined Event image field To rename the template to better reflect it's purpose, click Template Settings. On the Edit Event Template page, for Template Name, type the name Community Template. Click OK. Pause your cursor over Add Custom Field. Select Create New Field. On the Create a New Custom Field page, in the Field Name section, for Field name, type Age Range. Type a description if you want. This is useful primarily if more than one person will be adding events to your calendars and you want to provide guidance. For Field type, select List of choices: [create a new list]. Tip You might want to take a look at the entire Field type list to get a sense of how many options you have. For Possible choices click Add Multiple Values. In the window, type: Adults, Children, Teens, Seniors. Click Save Values. For Select multiple values, select Yes. For Display style, select Drop Down. Leave Default value blank. Tip If most of your events were targeted at a specific age range, you might want to select a default value to save time when adding new events. For Value required, select Yes. This means that, if you create an event and don't specify an age range, you'll see an error message. For Visibility, two options are selected by default: Allow this field to be published means that the custom field will appear in events on your published website calendar. Tip The ability to prevent fields from appearing on published calendars allows you to use custom fields internally. For example, if more than one person creates events, you might create an unpublished field for private notes. Show this field on the event submission form means that, if the public event submission form is enabled on your account, this field will also appear on that form. Click OK. Repeat steps 6 to 15 to add another new custom field called Event Type. In step 9, add the values Arts and Culture, Business and Technology, and Sports and Outdoor. For Select multiple values, select No. Leave the display style as Drop Down and the default value blank. Require a value and, for Visibility, leave the two options selected. Click OK. At the bottom of the Define Custom Fields page, click Done. After you add two fields, you see three fields listed under the event template. Back in the Trumba editing environment, at the top of the calendar, click Add Event. Notice that the Event image, Age Range, and Event Type fields are now available in the form. The default Event image field and the fields you added appear in Add Events form. Go on to the next section where you add three events to the Community Events calendar. Add events In this section, you'll learn how to manually add new events to the calendar that you just renamed and customized. Note If you decide to subscribe to Trumba Connect, and you currently store your event information in another calendar program or database, you don't have to re-enter the information manually into Trumba Connect. You can import event information in a number of common file formats. Learn more about importing events. Add events to a calendar If you haven't already added two new fields to the event template, see Create custom fields above. On the Community Events calendar, find a date that is a few weeks in the future. Click the arrow at the top left edge of the calendar to create an event in a different month. Click the +Add link in the top right corner of the date to add an event to the date. On the Add an Event page, add the following event: For Description, type Jonah and the Big Whale. For Location, type Seattle Children's Theatre. For Start, select 2:00 PM for the start time. For Age Range, select Children. For Event Type, select Arts and Culture. Click Save and Add Another. Add two more events as follows, clicking Save and Add Another after you create the first event: Event 1: For Description, type Monthly Tech Talk. For Location, type Public Library Auditorium. For Start, select the day after the date for the first event. For start time, select 6:00 PM. For Age Range, select Adults. For Event Type, select Business and Technology. Event 2: For Description, type Gentle Tai Chi. For Location, type Ravenna Senior Center Rec Room. For Start, select the day after the date for the Tech Talk event. For start time, select 9:00 AM. For Age Range, select Seniors. For Event Type, select Sports and Outdoor. Tip Optionally, you can try adding an image to one or more of the events you just created. In the Event Information form, find the Event image field. To the right of the field, click New. In the Add an Image window, click Browse to find an image on your computer. Under Image Properties, type a friendly display name that describes and identifies the image. Click OK. The image display name and size appear in the Event image field. Click OK. Back in the Trumba editing environment, you see the three events you just created on the calendar. The dates of the events you created may not match the events shown here.
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