The Calendar is an essential tool for keeping track of upcoming appointments, tasks, and critical deadlines. This section will walk you through the display and functionalities that you are available for the Office Calendar in SmartAdvocate, which is an essential tool for keeping track of upcoming appointments, tasks, and critical deadlines.

The Calendar is used in two different parts of SmartAdvocate. One is the Office Calendar, accessed by clicking the Office Calendar heading in the Top Tool Bar. The Office Calendar can display any appointment, task, or deadline in the SmartAdvocate system; however, only non-case appointments can be added from the Office Calendar. You can, however, view, edit, and otherwise work with case related appointments, tasks, or deadlines from within the Office Calendar.

The second part of the Calendar is the Case Calendar. This is a case page [usually] located in the General section of the case view. The Case Calendar can only display appointments, tasks, and deadlines for a particular case. [Only appointments for that particular case can be added.] The Calendar interface and functionality is slightly different between the Office Calendar and the Case Calendar, distinctions between the Office Calendar and Case Calendar will be noted as appropriate.

The Structure of This Page

Add Appointment Button: Used to add a new appointment to the calendar.
Show/Hide Filters Button: Used to remove or display the various filtering options on the page.
Favorite Filter Selector: Used to apply a saved favorite filter.
Range Selector: Used to set the date range for viewing calendar items.
Calendar Item Type Tabs: Used to select which, if any, appointments, tasks, and critical deadlines should appear in the calendar results.
Case Attribute Fields: Used to limit the calendar results to those associated with particular cases, based on the attributes of the cases. This element only appears in the Office Calendar, not in the Case Calendar.
Date Widget: Used to set the date range for viewing calendar items.
Date shortcut Buttons: Used to quickly set common date ranges and display calendar results.
Color Key: Provides a reference for the color-coding scheme of calendar items.
Save Filter Button: Adds a new favorite filter representing all of the currently applied filter criteria.
Reset Filters Button: Clicking this button removes all selected filter criteria, returning all filters to their defaults.
Apply Filters Button: Used to implement the currently selected filter criteria.
Calendar Display Buttons: Used to select different display formats for the calendar results.
Calendar Results Display: Displays the calendar results in the selected format. .

Adding an Appointment

To Add a New Appointment:

Click the Add Appointment button. This will bring up a New Appointment panel for you to input information; some fields will be filled by default. In the Case Calendar, the panel will display the case number, name, type, and sub-type in the upper left corner. In the Office Calendar, the panel will display the text, "Not Case Related."
Fill the fields in with your desired information. See the Add/Edit Appointment Panel for details about the fields.
Click Save to save the appointment and close the panel.
- If you decide you do not wish to save the appointment, click Cancel instead of clicking Save to undo the changes and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.

Displaying Filters

You may choose to hide the calendar filtering tools. This has no effect on the filters themselves (any applied filters will continue to apply until you change them) but will free up some screen space for the results. The Case Calendar has the filters hidden by default; the Office Calendar does not. Click the Show/Hide Filters button when the filters are displayed to hide them, or when the filters are hidden to display them. The text on the button changes depending on whether the filters are displayed or hidden.

Favorite Filters

You may save a filter that you can reuse later. The date range will be saved relative to the current date; e.g., if the range is from the current date to two days in the future when the filter is saved, then on the date it is reused the range will be from that date to two days from that date. The time is saved as an absolute; no matter what time it is when the filter is saved or reused, the times in the range will be the same as they were in the saved filter. If a filter was saved in the Office Calendar, it may be used in the Case Calendar, and vice versa; however, any entries in the fields that are absent in the Office Calendar will be ignored when using the filter in the Case Calendar.

You can also set a filter as the default filter. Doing so will cause the filter to be applied automatically every time you open the Calendar. After the filter is applied, you can still edit the fields or reset the filter entirely if you wish. You can save as many filters as you want, however you can only set one filter as the default; if a filter is already set as the default, setting a different filter as the default will remove the default setting from the previous default.
To save a filter:

Click the Save Filter button. This will bring up a small panel. If you are already using a saved filter, that filter's attributes (the filter's name and whether it is the default) will be entered in the panel.
Fill the fields in as desired. There are two: a required Text input field for the filter's name and a checkbox for whether the filter is the default filter.
Click OK to save the filter and close the panel.
- If you decide you do not wish to save the filter, click Cancel instead of clicking OK to undo the changes and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.

To apply a saved filter, select the name of the desired filter from the Filter selector.

Setting Filter Criteria

In the Office Calendar, there are three groups of filter criteria that can be used to determine what items appear in the results: the date range fields, the calendar item fields, and the case attribute fields. In the Case Calendar, the case attribute fields do not appear, so the only groups of filter criteria are the date range fields and the calendar item fields.

Setting the Date Range

The date range is determined by the fields in the range selector. There are four fields: a Date-widget drop down and a Formatted text input field for the start date and time of the range, and another such pair for the end date and time. The only way to change the start or end time of the range, other than by using one of your Favorite Filters, is by editing them directly as you would most other editable fields. The date fields, however, can be changed in several different ways.
One way is to edit them directly.

Another way is to use the Modified Date widget. This widget shows two months at a time instead of just one, and any date that would contain at least one result based on the calendar item fields and case attribute fields, is underlined and in bold. There are a few ways to use the widget to change the date range. You can click on any date in the widget to set that date as both the start and end date. You can click a date and, holding the mouse button down, drag the mouse to an earlier or later date to set the earlier of the two dates as the start date and the later of the two as the end date. You can also click a date, then hold the Shift key down and click another date to set the earlier of the two dates as the start date and the latter of the two as the end date. The Shift-key method is slightly more versatile than dragging the mouse, because you can click the first date, then use the widget's page-forward or page-backward buttons to change the displayed month in the calendar, then finally shift-click the second date, allowing you to set a range of any length you wish.

A third way is to use one of the date shortcut buttons. These provide preset and commonly used ranges that you can apply with one click. Clicking any of these buttons will both change the date range and immediately refresh the calendar results to reflect the new filters. The date shortcuts, and the ranges they set, are as follows:

Today: sets the start and end dates to the current date.
Tomorrow: sets the start date to the current date, and the end date to one day later.
Rest of the Week: sets the start date to the current date, and the end date to the following Saturday (or to the current date, if it is currently Saturday).
Next Week: sets the start date to the first Sunday after the current date, and the end date to the following Saturday
Two Weeks: sets the start date to the current date, and the end date to one week after the following Sunday (or to one week after the current date, if it is currently Sunday).
This Month: sets the start date to the first day of the current month, and the end date to the last day of the current month.
Next Days: sets the start date to the current date, and the end date to a number of days later equal to the number you insert into the associated Numeric input field.

Setting the Calendar Item Filters

The Calendar Item fields allow you to set which types of events you wish to see in the calendar results. The categories of items that can be displayed in the results are appointments, tasks, and critical deadlines (which include statutes of limitations). The Calendar Item fields are divided into three tabs, one for each category, and only one tab is visible at a time. Click the heading of the tab you want to access to bring up that tab's contents.

Each tab has one Checkbox field which sets whether that category is visible in the results at all, and some additional fields that set limits on which results in that category appear. If the checkbox in any tab is not selected, then none of the other fields in that tab are editable. Any Checkbox-select drop down field that is left blank is ignored and does not limit the results. The available fields are as follows:

Appointments:

Show Appointments: Checkbox determines whether appointments should be displayed in the results.
Attending Staff: Checkbox-select drop down; an appointment must have at least one staff member chosen to be displayed.
Appointment Status: Checkbox-select drop down; a status must be chosen for the appointment to be displayed.
Activity: Checkbox-select drop down; an appointment activity must be chosen for the appointment to be displayed.

Tasks:

Show Tasks: checkbox determines whether tasks should be displayed in the results.
Assignee: Checkbox-select drop down; a task must be assigned to a staff member to be displayed. By default, a task is assigned to the user who created it.
Status: Checkbox-select drop down; a status must be chosen for the task to be displayed.
Requester: Checkbox-select drop down; the requester must be chosen for the task to be displayed. By default, the creator of a task is set as the requester.
Type: Checkbox-select dropdown; a task category must be chosen for the task to be displayed.

Critical Deadlines:

Show Critical Deadlines: checkbox determines whether critical deadlines should be displayed in the results.
Type: Checkbox-select drop down; a category must be chosen for the critical deadline to be displayed.
Status: At least one status for the critical deadline or SOL must be chosen in order for the critical deadline to be displayed, whether a deadline is overdue. Critical deadlines may have multiple statuses; a critical deadline is always either open or complied, and the superseded and waived statuses are applied in addition to the open/complied status.
Party: Radio button; if All is not selected, the party subject to the deadline must be the selected party for the deadline to be displayed.

Setting the Case Attribute Filters

The Case Attribute fields allow you to limit the items that appear in the results to those connected to cases with certain attributes. These fields do not appear in the Case Calendar, because the items that appear in the Case Calendar results are already limited to the ones from that case. Any Checkbox-select drop down field that is left blank is ignored and does not limit the results. The available fields are as follows:

Case Staff: Checkbox-select drop down; if one or more staff members are chosen, at least one of those staff members must be on the item for it to be displayed. If none are chosen, the results will not be limited by this attribute.
Case Type: Checkbox-select drop down; if one or more case types are chosen, the case must have at least one of those case types for it to be displayed. If none are chosen, the results will not be limited by this attribute.
Case Status: Drop down, which allows the choice of Open, Closed, or All. The default selection is All; if All is not selected, a case must match the selection in this field to be displayed. Items that are not connected to any case will not be filtered out unless Closed is selected.
Office: Drop down; if All is not selected, the case an item is connected to must be associated with the office selected in this field for that item to be displayed. Items that are not connected to any case will not be filtered out regardless of the selection in this field. The default selection is All.

Applying the Filters

In most cases, setting filter criteria does not immediately apply those criteria to the calendar results. Only certain buttons trigger the SmartAdvocate system to actually apply the selected criteria. Pressing any of these buttons will immediately update the results to reflect the selected criteria.

To update the results by other filters, click the Apply Filters button. Clicking the Apply Filters button will simply apply the selected filters without changing anything else about them or about the calendar view, and in most cases, this is the method you should use.

Any of the date shortcut buttons will also apply the selected filters. However, these also change the selected date range, so they are only useful if you want to apply one of the date ranges that the date shortcut buttons can implement.

Any of the Calendar Display buttons will apply the filters. This includes the date selection tool within the calendar results. However, these also change the way the calendar is displayed, so they are only useful if you also want to change to a different view. Also note that the Report button will not apply the new filters in the current calendar view, but the report it generates will reflect the new filters.

Finally, using any of the table tools that affect the displaying of results, such as column sorting and pagination, will apply the filters. It is generally recommended that you avoid applying new filters using one of the table tools, because it can be confusing. The option is only mentioned here to ensure that you are aware it is possible, and so that you are not confused if it occurs.

The Calendar Results

The items in the calendar can be displayed in a number of ways. There are several categories that describe the ways the calendar can be displayed: as a table (grid), as a daily calendar, as a work week calendar, as a weekly calendar, as a monthly calendar, as a timeline, and as a report.

Color-Coding
Except for the report, each of the calendar display options use a color-coding system to indicate, at a glance, the status of calendar items. A key for the color-coding system can be found above the calendar display buttons; however, this key only applies to appointments.
The color codes for tasks are as follows:

White: Not Started.
Blue: Completed.
Purple: Canceled.
Green: In Progress (Pending).
Red: Overdue (not an actual status; applied to Not Started and In Progress tasks due in the past).

The color codes for deadlines are as follows:

White: Open.
Blue: Complied. Takes precedence over Superseded and Waived.
Yellow: Superseded.
Purple: Waived. Takes precedence over Superseded.
Red: Overdue (not an actual status; applied to Open deadlines due in the past).

Table Results

To display the calendar as a table, click the Grid button in the calendar display buttons. Each row of the table represents an individual appointment, task, or critical deadline. See Tables for general information about table structure and usage, including all buttons and other tools in this table that are not mentioned below.

The table contains the following columns:

#: Checkbox selector; if you check multiple boxes for the same type of activity and then right-click, you can then choose among several actions (mark completed, adjourn, cancel, etc.), which will apply to all of the checked items. This function is only available if all of the items you have chosen are of the same type (Appointments, Tasks, Critical Deadlines, or Statutes of Limitation). The Color-Coding for the item's status is the background color of this column. If you choose items of different types and then right-click, a message will pop up advising that "Mixed activities" have been selected and no additional actions will be available.
Date and Time: Data (text) entry. For appointments, the start date, start time, end date (if different from the start date), and end time of the appointment. For tasks and deadlines, the due date of the item and the date it was complied with or completed.
Staff: Data (text) entry. For appointments, the lead attorney on the case and the contacts attending the appointment. For tasks, the staff member assigned to perform the task, the staff member who assigned the task, and the lead attorney on the case. For deadlines, the lead attorney on the case and the paralegal on the case.
Activity Info: Data (text & contact-card link). For appointments, the contact at whose address the appointment takes place, the location of the appointment, the judge overseeing the appointment (if appropriate), and the court information related to the appointment (if appropriate). For tasks, the priority level of the task. For deadlines, the type of the deadline and the party subject to the deadline.
Case: Data (text & case summary link). The number and name of the case to which the item is connected. In the Office Calendar for Personal or Non-Case related appointments, an indication that the appointment is "Non-case related". This column does not appear in the Case Calendar.
Case Type: Data (text). The case type of the case the item is connected to, if any. This column does not appear in the Case Calendar.
Subject/Description: Data (text). For appointments and deadlines, the subject and comments of the item. For tasks, the subject and description of the item.

For adjourned appointments, this column also includes the adjournment details (the new appointment dates and times, the staff member who entered the adjournment, the contact who requested the adjournment, the reason for the adjournment, the contact who approved the adjournment, and any comments on the adjournment).

Hour-by-Hour (Daily and Weekly) Calendar Results

To display the calendar in an hour-by-hour format, where the placement of each item exactly corresponds to the start and end time of the item, click the Day or Work Week button in the calendar display buttons.

The Day display is an hour-by-hour listing of any single day's items, while the Work Week display is an hour-by-hour listing of the items in a five-day period from Monday to Friday of any week. Other than the number of days displayed, there are no significant differences between the two settings.

The displays divide the day into increments of a specified length. By default, this is a half-hour; to change the increment size, right-click in a blank part of the calendar and select the desired increment size. Items in the calendar appear as blocks, sized and placed according to their start to end times. The blocks align with the selected increments exactly, even if the times of the item do not; a block's top border is the mark at or immediately earlier than the item's start time, and the block's bottom border is the mark at or immediately after the item's end time. The exception are items whose start and end times are identical; in particular, tasks and critical deadlines, which do not have times that can be manually specified, are listed as though they were appointments of zero length. This yields blocks that are sized at one unit of length, regardless of the size of the increment.

Each block contains information about the item; this information may include the item's subject, the case the item is associated with (in the Office calendar), the comments on the item, the contact whose address provides the location of the item, and the judge overseeing the item (if appropriate). For items where the upper and lower borders of the block do not exactly match the start and end times of the item, the exact times of the item are also included. Each block's background is colored according to the Color-Coding for the item's status.

Each block also has a narrow stripe running down its left side. This stripe is used to depict the length of an appointment more exactly than the half-hour rounding of the blocks; there are thin horizontal lines within this stripe that reflect the start and end time, and the span between the two stripes is usually highlighted in a color different from that of the main block. (Items that are Confirmed, Pending, or overdue do not have any coloring in the left stripe.)

The blocks' width depends on how many other items are listed in the calendar at the same time. If multiple items are being displayed for the same half-hour period, SmartAdvocate will automatically divide the available horizontal space among the items that are displayed. Note that the days displayed in the calendar, and the date range used to filter the items, are not connected to one another. Any item outside the filtering date range will not be displayed, even if it is during one of the displayed days, and vice versa. For this reason, it is recommended that you make sure you set your filtering date range to cover the displayed days.

Any item that spans multiple days will be displayed at the very top of the calendar, above the hour-by-hour division of the day. Such an item will have an arrow indicating the dates the item begins and ends, or, if the item starts or ends during the displayed days, it will have Clock Icons to indicate its start and end times. If the days displayed include the current day, there will also be a horizontal line across the entire display representing the current time of day; this is helpful for knowing at a glance how soon an appointment will be happening.

Day-by-Day Calendar Results

To display the calendar in a day-by-day form, where items are grouped by the day they occur and listed in order of their start times, click the Week or Month button in the calendar display buttons. The Week display is a day-by-day listing of the items in a seven-day period from Monday to Sunday of any week. The Month display is a day-by-day listing of the items in a five-week stretch starting on any Sunday and ending on the Saturday of the fifth week. Other than the number of days displayed and the arrangement of the days, there is no significant difference between the two settings.

Items in these calendars are displayed as blocks. The blocks' sizes are unimportant; they are simply large enough to contain the text within them. They are ordered by start time. Each block contains the information about the item, including the start and end times. Each block's background is colored according to the Color-Coding for the item's status. The start and end times are listed as text, except for multiple-day items.

Note that the days displayed in the calendar, and the date range used to filter the items, are not connected to one another; any item outside the filtering date range will not be displayed even if it is during one of the displayed days, and vice versa. For this reason, it is recommended that you make sure you set your filtering date range to cover the displayed days. Any item that spans multiple days will be displayed at the top of each day it spans, regardless of its start or end time. Such an item will have an arrow indicating the dates the item begins and ends, or, if the item starts or ends during the displayed days, it will have Clock Icons to indicate its start and end times as in the Timeline display setting (see below).

The Timeline

Clicking the Timeline button in the calendar display buttons will display the calendar in timeline form. In this form, the calendar displays ten consecutive units of time. There are several options for the length of a single unit of time: a year, a quarter, a month, a week, a day, an hour, or fifteen minutes. To change the length of a unit, right-click on empty space in the timeline, hover the mouse over Time Scales, then change the selections in the sub menu. The smallest selected time period is the one used for the length of one unit. By default, a unit is one day long; in this setting, the Timeline functions similarly to the Week or Month setting. You can also select how extensively the units are captioned: you can include a caption for every possible unit length, if you wish. The captions appear above the timeline, ordered from the largest unit's caption on top to the smallest on the bottom. However, there is little or no advantage to using labels other than the one for the length of one unit, since larger units' captions will generally contain redundant information.

The timeline is in some sense a combination of the hour-by-hour and day-by-day display styles. Items are displayed as blocks, and their vertical size is determined only by the amount of text in them, as with the day-by-day styles; however, they extend horizontally to depict their length and their start and end times, similar to the way that the hour-by-hour displays extend blocks vertically. For items whose start or end time do not exactly align with the time units in the timeline, Clock Icons are used to indicate the exact time. Each block's background is colored according to the Color-Coding for the item's status. Note that the time units displayed in the calendar, and the date range used to filter the items, are not connected to one another; any item outside the filtering date range will not be displayed even if it is during the displayed time, and vice versa. For this reason, it is recommended that you make sure you set your filtering date range to cover the displayed time.

Results Report

To display the items in the calendar in the form of a report, click the Report button in the calendar display buttons.

The report lists each item in order of the start date of the item (within a single date, the order of items varies). The information displayed in the report is essentially the same as in the Table Results, but with no links, only text.

Clock Icons

Clock icons appear in the Day, Work Week, Week, and Month displays for items spanning multiple days, and in the Timeline display for any item where the start or end time of the item does not align with the time unit borders. A clock icon is a simple depiction of the face of a clock, with hour and minute hands positioned to represent the specified time. To distinguish between AM and PM times, the color of the clock's face is different: for times between 12:01 AM and 12:00 PM, the face is yellow, and for times between 12:01 PM and 12:00 AM, it is black.

The Date-Widget Tool

The display options that present items in some calendar form (specifically, Day, Work Week, Week, Month, and Timeline) include a tool for selecting the time period being displayed. This tool has four components: a page-back button, a button labeled Today, a date-widget drop down, and a page-forward button.

The page-back button shifts the displayed period back to the one ending immediately prior to the start of the current one, while the page-forward button advances the calendar to the period beginning immediately after the end of the current one. (For example, in the Work Week and Week views, each button shifts the displayed period by one week; in the Timeline view, each button shifts the displayed period by ten time units.)

The Today button shifts the period to the one beginning with, or nearest to beginning with, the current date. (For example, in the Day view, the button would switch to displaying the current date; in the Month view, the current date would simply be in the first week of the period displayed, since the period always begins with a Sunday.) Similarly, the date-widget dropdown shifts the period to the one beginning with, or nearest to beginning with, the date selected.

Right-Clicking

Except for the report, each display setting provides context-sensitive menus when you right-click on individual items or on empty space in the calendar. Right-clicking on a task brings up the options for that task; see Tasks in the Case Summary page for a description of these options. Right-clicking on an appointment brings up the options for that appointment; see Pending Appointments in the Case Summary page for a description of these options. Right-clicking on a critical deadline only offers one option, View Critical Deadlines; selecting this opens the Critical Deadlines page for the case to which that deadline applies.
Right-clicking on empty space brings up options mainly for the calendar display itself. Some of the options only appear in certain display views. The available options are:
New Appointment. This option serves the same purpose as the Add Appointment button; see Adding an Appointment.

Go to This Day: Only available in the Week and Month views. Opens the selected day in the Day view.
Go to Today: Opens the current day in the Day view.
Go to Date: Opens a panel allowing you to select a date and a display setting. Opens the selected day in the selected setting, functioning the same way as selecting a date in The Date-Widget Tool for that display setting.
Change View To. Expands to a sub menu containing the five display settings. Changes the view to the selected setting, functioning the same way as clicking the button for that setting.
60 Minutes, 30 Minutes, 15 Minutes, 10 Minutes, 6 Minutes, and 5 Minutes. Only available in the Day and Work Week views. Changes the increment for that view to the selected time span.
Time Scales. Only available in the Timeline view. Expands to a sub menu containing Year, Quarter, Month, Week, Day, Hour, and 15 Minutes. Allows you to select the increments for the Timeline.
Time Scale Captions. Only available in the Timeline view. Expands to a sub menu containing Year, Quarter, Month, Week, Day, Hour, and 15 Minutes. Allows you to select which time-period labels appear at the top of the Timeline.