Calendar Options is available from the Options menu.

Options - Calendar Options

Calendar OptionsConnect to OutlookSynchronization ModeCalendar to useSet sensitivity to privateRemindersEvent descriptionsDefault locationOK

Note IconLearn more about the Calendar Options by looking through the rest of this help topic. Or, as an alternative, click on the option you are interested in on the screenshot above.

You can synchronize with a Google or Outlook calendar. This is a convenient way for brothers and sisters who have mobile devices to be kept up to date with assignment information. Please note that you must have already created an account with Google or Outlook.com (etc) in order to use this feature.

Note IconYou should set your meeting times in the program settings. Also, you need the Microsoft 4.6.2 (or higher) .NET Framework installed (it should have been done during installation if it was needed).

Here are just a few reasons why you might prefer to synchronize your information with a Google or Outlook calendar:

  • Your brothers can check on any number of assignments easily. Eg: Sound, Microphone etc.
  • Your brothers can check on the upcoming Midweek Meeting assignments.
  • Your brothers can check up on Weekend Meeting assignments (Outlook only).

Here are some points to remember about Google or Outlook calendar:

  • Don't make changes in Google or Outlook thinking they will also be made in Meeting Schedule Assistant, because it doesn't update that way.
  • You can still have your calendar set as Private in the General Settings but if the individual events are set to public they can be viewed by those you choose to share it with. That way your calendar won't show up in Google search result on the web.
  • Each calendar has it's own independent set of options.

Connect to Google or Outlook

The first thing you must do is grant permission for my utilities to access your account.

Connect to OutlookIf you are using Outlook, then click on the Sign In button. This will show a pop-up window for you to sign into your Microsoft account. There is a dedicated help topic providing an overview about the authentication process. Please familiarize yourself with it.

Connect to GoogleIf you are using Google, then click on the Authenticate button. Note, if you have already done this with the Public Talks application then you won't need to do it again. There is a dedicated help topic providing an overview about the authentication process. Please familiarize yourself with it.

You should then you should see a list of available calendars once you are connected.

At any time in the future you can click on Sign Out or Revoke to disconnect from your account.

Note IconHowever, please understand that this will not remove my application from your online profile. Should you ever want to do that you must manually log into your Google account and remove it.

Synchronization mode

There are three settings to choose from:

Sync Mode

None

Choose this setting to switch off synchronization completely.

Automatic

Select this setting if you would like Meeting Schedule Assistant to keep your Calendar up to date automatically. This will affect the following operations:

  • Saving a Sound Rota Report (SRR)
  • Saving a Meeting Work Book schedule (MWB

Prompt

Select this setting if you would prefer to choose when to send data to your Calendar. You will be prompted when saving your reports.

Calendar to use

Once you have connected to your account you should see a list of available calendars to use.

Select the calendar that you would like to use with Meeting Schedule Assistant. All events will be maintained using this calendar.

Location

A default location can be specified for each calendar event. This will usually be the address of your Kingdom Hall. More details are provided here about the benefits of specifying locations.

Note IconThe Congregation and Foreign-Language Group environments both have their own Location and Calendar settings.

Set sensitivity to private

This setting affects the visibility of the events when they are added into your calendar.

For example, if the setting is off, then the Privacy section of the event in Google will be set thus:

Google privacy

Note IconThere are times when it will be set to Calendar default. Don't be alarmed if it is set to that. It means that your calendar is private. Also, this setting will need to be unchecked if you wish to share the calendar with other brothers, otherwise it will simply show "busy" when they try to view your calendar.

If you are using Outlook.com, it would look like this:

Outlook privacy

Reminders

You can set reminder alerts for the events that are added to your calendar.

Reminders

Note IconNote that Meeting Schedule Assistant does not currently support all of the functionality available for reminder alerts.

First, set the interval to either Minutes, Hours, Days or Weeks. Next, select the required interval or type in your own value. The OK button will be disabled if you enter a value that is too large. The maximum is the equivalent of 4 weeks. This is a limitation imposed by the Google v3 API.

Reminders

If you are using Outlook it will look like this:

Reminders

Event Descriptions

Note IconPlease be aware that the event descriptions for Sound Rota assignments are schedule type specific.

You can customize how the events added to your calendar are described:

calendar snapshot

Event descriptions window
Do not include special events

Settings are also provided to exclude any special events from your calendar. For example, you might include special events when synchronizing your MWB schedule, but you might exclude special events when synchronizing your SRR schedule.

Create Weekend Meeting calendar events

Set this option if you want your MWB Weekend Meeting information to be included on your calendar. This will include information about the Public Talk and Watchtower Study.

Create individual events for each assignmentCreate individual events for each assignment (Google Calendar only)

This is an advanced option and should only be used if you are familiar with setting up filters in Google Calendar.

Note IconIt is beyond the scope of this help topic to provide further details. However, a video has been provided here that explains what it is and how it is used: Video: Setting up filters in Google Calendar

OK

You must close the window with the OK button for your changes to be saved.