An introduction to LWC for calendar users, from the basics (like creating and managing events) to the not-quite-as-basics (like adding other event feeds to your calendars).
Getting oriented
A tour for the community of the general LWC interface, mainly focusing on the links in the top toolbar and toolbox dropdowns as well as basics like logging in.
Logging in
The login page for LiveWhale Calendar is almost always the URL of your calendar site plus /livewhale/. So if your calendar is located at calendar.yoursite.edu, you can log into LiveWhale at calendar.yoursite.edu/livewhale. Your calendar page may include a custom login link, in the footer or elsewhere.
The LWC toolbar
The LiveWhale Calendar toolbar is your gateway to all LWC’s functions. The “Toolbox” section contains most of these links; here’s what it looks like for a typical calendar user.
Left side links These links are available to most LWC users. The header is your group name (ours is “LiveWhale” in the above screenshot). Most of the topics listed here are covered below on this page.
Changing user settings
To change your password (when you’re using LWC’s built-in authentication model), email address, or notification preferences, click the “User settings” link in the user menu at top left. There are some optional developer settings here as well.
Events List
Your Events List is the best way to see all your events at once. You can edit events, filter events by tag, date, or other criteria, and set options for several events at once.
Event display
Here’s a look at the Events List. We’ll discuss specific sections in more detail below.
Add a new event using the blue button at top.
The right side panel allows you to filter events by a wide range of criteria to find the events you want.
The main events list lets you make changes in bulk using the checkbox at left (see below); add stars to events, and change their status from Live to Hidden; and see a variety of info about each event. Tap the event title to edit it.
Managing events in bulk
To make changes to several events at once— apply a tag or event type, add or remove stars, etc.— check several events and use the “With checked items…” dropdown to select an action.
Filtering events
Using the right side filtering options to locate the event(s) you want to edit.
The various options, including a keyword search, should make it easy for you to locate any upcoming or past event.
Creating events
Here’s the Add (or Edit) Event page. There’s a lot to it, so we’ll discuss it section by section.
The basics
Top:
Enter the event’s title in the “Enter a title for this event” space, and a short summary if appropriate below.
Tap the “Add/change images“ square [+] to add a photo to your event, or simply drag an image from your computer onto that square.
Left column:
Tapping the “Featured event” star marks your event as featured, and may be shown in “upcoming featured event” lists.
Tapping the globe marks your event as shared (see Community Features for more details).
Date is a required field, of course; time is optional. (Check “All Day” for events that are in fact all-day events.) You may set an ending date and/or time by tapping the appropriate checkbox. There are repeating options for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly events, with a range of options for getting more specific.
Locations are discussed in more detail below.
Right column:
Events may be posted as Live or Hidden; Hidden events are never shown on public calendars, and are thus useful for events you’re working on but aren’t ready to promote yet.
Select the event types that are appropriate for your event. This list is the same for all calendar users; make sure to check “Open to the Public” for events you do want to promote outside campus.
Tags are descriptive keywords that help categorize your event. Tags are often used with event widgets— to create a list for a specific subset of your events— so you should think of tags as an additional organizing tool for your calendar.
Event details
Top:
In lieu of an event description, you can choose to link to another site for event information. If selected, the link on your calendar or event widget will lead not to a calendar details view, but to this link instead.
Left column:
Enter an event description of any length. A number of text formatting tools are available, and you can add images and video to the event description as well.
Related content is a great way to give an event more context. You can link to a webpage (say, the resume or portfolio page of a featured speaker) or to one of your other events. You may also attach files (see below).
Right column:
Contact information is optional but definitely useful for people wanting more information about your events. If you always use the same contact info on your events, default contact info can be stored in your group settings (your calendar administrator can add that).
Event cost is an open-ended text field. (For schools with online payment integration, that information is located in the RSVP section below.)
Display style lets you choose between two views of your event: one with a large cover image, and the other with just a simple image view (or gallery, if multiple images are attached).
Event with hero image
Event default view
RSVP
Sharing and Privacy
For more information about suggesting events to other groups, see Community Features.
Note: This is a separate feature from the Live/Hidden selector; an event can be both “visible by everyone” and also Hidden; these options don’t affect each other.
Privacy options affect who can see your events at all. By default your events can be seen by any calendar visitor, but you can also limit visibility to any user logged in via your SSO (green icon), or any logged-in user in your specific calendar group (red icon).
Canceling events
You can cancel an event if you want it to keep displaying on the calendar; if you don’t want it to be on the calendar at all, you can simply delete it.
Cancel an event by tapping either the Cancel Event button at the top of the page, or the “This event is canceled” checkbox at the bottom. This will add “Canceled: ” to the beginning of the event title.
Working with images and files
Although most of the time you’ll probably add images to your events directly when creating them, you can also manage your image library directly. And files—essentially anything downloadable, but usually PDF files— can be a great way to include more information with your events without turning your event description into a wall of text.
Images
The Images library (which is linked in your toolbox) contains all the images you’ve posted to your events.
Collections Your images are organized by default into “collections.” Any images you’ve uploaded directly into events go into the “All Images” collection, but you can create new collections to organize them after the fact. And when uploading images, you can organize them into collections as well; this is very useful when uploading event photos, for example.
When viewing the images in a collection, you can filter them by tag, collection, year, or (if you’re an administrator) group. The “Quick Upload” target lets you drag images directly from your desktop into the image manager.
When editing an image, you can manage caption, credit, and other fields to help you organize and present images. You can also replace the image from here— if you need to replace an old image with a new one, just click that “Replace this with a new file from your computer” button, choose a new image, and your image will be updated sitewide automatically.
Files
Just about any file you can download can be attached to an event; PDFs and Word documents are the most common, but other file types are OK too. Files have fewer customizable options than images, but for the most part work just the same.
Adding linked calendars
One of LiveWhale Calendar’s most powerful features is its ability to add all the calendars you already use. Events from your other calendars— no matter the source— sync automatically and invisibly with LiveWhale Calendar, and are integrated seamlessly with the other events on your calendar.
Basics of adding calendars
A linked calendar usually begins with an ICAL feed. Most calendar products offer links to ICAL feeds; if you need to incorporate a calendar that doesn’t, contact our support team.
