Repeat Versus Standalone Event
Not every calendar system interprets this the same way, so here is what LiveWhale’s calendar is doing:
- Repeating: Think of it like a course a student would register for, such as a Monday and Wednesday weekly class or a three-day seminar. If you are going to the event, you are attending on each and every day of the event.
- Standalone: If you are signing up to attend a particular event, you are doing so for that particular instance. If you need to state that a particular event repeats in its entirety multiple times (e.g. a theatre production, hours of operation), you will need to make a duplicate of the event (on the event listing screen menu options).
Best Practices (How to Duplicate Events)
Given the manner in which LiveWhale works, you will more often than not be working with standalone events. That means you will need to
- duplicate the event (select it and then select Duplicate from the dropdown menu and Go) and
- edit it (change the date/time, remove the “(copy)” from the event title, and set it to “Live” instead of “Hidden”).
The Hours of Operation Method
Some events may need to be both duplicated and repeating events, such as hours of operation. Normally, when you create a repeating event in a calendar like Outlook, you see it displayed on each day no matter the view. In LiveWhale, it only appears the first time in a particular view.
For example, if the event occurs on Monday and Wednesday, and you are looking at the Week View of the events, you will only see it appear on Monday. If that same event repeats weekly on Monday and Wednesday, and you are looking at the Month View of the events, you will only see it on the first Monday it began in the entire month.
The Month View is not considered as important a view, so the Hours of Operation Method focuses on making your events visible on the Week View. For example, in order to make the repeating event appear on all days of a week, you will need to make a copy of your repeating event based on each day of the week until, typically, the end of the semester.
- Create your event with all the information needed for the first weekday the event is on.
- If it is specifically hours of operation for a facility, the Event title should be something like
- “Rock Climbing: 8:00 A.M. – 9:00 P.M.” or
- “8:00 A.M. – 9:00 P.M.” with the term “Rock Climbing” in the Event description and as a Calendar Tag (for a calendar view for that specific facility).Otherwise, use the event name as normal for the Event title (e.g. “Math Study Skills Workshop”).
- Set the Date and time for that specific day and its hours, not rolling over into another day.
- Set it as a Repeating event to see the additional repeating options.
- Change How often to Weekly, so it repeats on that weekday.
- Make sure the Starts is the first day this should begin (the Event date) and Ends is the last of that weekday of that semester or whenever the event ends.
- Save the event and go back to Your Events.
- Select the first instance of that repeating event, and select Duplicate from the dropdown menu, then Go.
- Repeat 1 – 4 for the next appropriate weekday, and adjust the date for that weekday.
There is an atypical day when the event cannot be held (e.g. holiday).
You can scroll down to that specific instance of the repeating event, and make it Hidden. It does not affect the other instances of that repeating event.
There is an atypical day when the event cannot be held at the time or the hours have changed.
You can scroll down to that specific instance of the repeating event, and make it Hidden. It does not affect the other instances of that repeating event. Then you can make a separate event specifically for that day’s atypical time.
This event repeats multiple times in the same day.
How you create this depends on the type of event. If attendees should be making appointments, then you can use the entire time block of the operating day and the RSVP appointment slots. Otherwise, the each time slot will have to be treated just like each weekday – as a separate event to repeat weekly.
Don’t want office hours displaying on your calendar view.
First, make sure your hours of operation events are all marked as the Event Type Office Hours. Then contact University Web Operations about a custom calendar view.
Things to keep in mind working in Your Events
- If you have a repeating event already in your list, LiveWhale displays additional copies of that event representing each day it will occur, which can be confusing to work with considering they don’t indicate which start date they are originally associated with.
- When you use any of the menu options (particularly with duplication of events), please do not refresh the page, as this will repeat the commands previously acted on, despite the boxes and options not being selected visually.