The NEW Events Calendar Plugin

By Daniel Cho | Posted on: March 29, 2012 at 12:35 pm | Posted in General | Comments Off

For those of you who have a site on web.unc.edu and either hold events or have important due dates posted on your site for your audience, this article is for you! The Events Calendar Plugin is a very simple and efficient way to get information out to your audience in an organized manner. To activate this plugin you must activate both the “The Events Calendar” as well as “Events Calendar PRO” plugin. Follow these steps in order to activate the both plugins.

Activating the Events Calendar plugin

To activate the Events Calendar plugin, follow these instructions:

1) Go to your Dashboard
2) Select the “Plugins” tab on the left side menu
3) Find both the “Events Calendar” and “Events Calendar PRO” plugin and select activate (see below)
Note: The two plugins are not next to each other as the “Events Calendar PRO” comes before “The Events Calendar”. Make sure you don’t get confused and mistakenly activate ”WP Events Calendar” as we won’t be needing this plugin!

 

Once the plugins are activated, a new tab called “Events” will appear on the left side bar which will be used to add new events. (see below)

 

In order to alter the settings of your new plugin simply select the menu “Settings” from the left sidebar and click on “The Events Calendar” tab. (see below)

Adding Events

The Events Calendar plugin allows for users to create very detailed events compared to what has been available before. To add an event, click on “Events” on the left side bar in the dashboard and click on “Add New”. The new event page in the dashboard will look very similar to the new post or new page template. The title and supplementary content can be inputted just you would in a new page. There are a few basic components that must be configured:

  1. First, specify the time of the event and set the recurrence (ex. every day, month, etc.) The recurrence can be set to a customized setting if needed. You can check the box for an all day event if that is the case with your event.
  2. The event location details must be specified next. Note this information is not required but should be used if available. A great feature of the Events Calendar plugin is the ability to embed a Google Map frame in the event page. If you would like to include this, check the “Show Google Map” box.
    Note: You must also go in the settings of the Events Calendar and activate the Google Map option.

  3. The next order of business is to include the event organizer’s information. This is very useful when users have questions as they know exactly who to contact.

What Events Look Like

What the Events Calendar Looks Like

The events calendar has the option of being displayed in a list view or a calendar view. Either way, both views show all the events in a given month.


Selecting your Widgets

The Events Calendar plugin creates three new widgets. Each of these can be used at a user’s discretion as some may be more appropriate than others based on the type of website. Below will be a brief description of each:

  • Events Calendar: This is adds a small month calendar on a widget space that includes a “View all”  link to the main calendar. Events added will appear on this widget.
  • Events List Advanced Widget: This widget provides a list of all of your upcoming events as well as a “View all” link to the main calendar. You can customize the number of events that are displayed as well as other criteria such as address, city, state, etc.
  • Next Event Widget: This widget displays the next event in a given month. This widget is similar to the Events List Advanced Widget except that only one event will be displayed and there are no custom options. There is also NO link to the main calendar.

 

Events Calendar Settings

The Events Calendar Settings is located under “settings” in the dashboard. There are two important settings can be adjusted:

  • You can set the default view of the Events Calendar in calendar view or event list view. The number of events that is shown in the events list view can also be customized.
  • The next setting is crucial to note if you want Google Maps to be displayed on your event pages. The check box must be selected if you desire this feature. The dimensions of the embedded Google Maps can be customized here.
  •  Some users might find that their calendar takes up too much or too little space than what is shown in these examples. To adjust this, click on the “template” tab and you will have a variety of choices to choose from. Each template setting should change the way the calendar looks on your site!