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Each employee is required to authenticate themself before viewing their schedule. PlaNet will prompt them for their Login ID and Password. Once these have been correctly entered, the system checks whether the user has any pending notifications. If so, the system will prompt the user with the notification screen. If not, the notification screen will be bypassed. After any notices have been displayed to the employee, he/she will be presented with the main screen. If the user is an administrator, there will also be an additional Administrator screen visible. If the user has forgotten their Login ID or password, an administrator is able to specify a new one for them.
Notifications are system messages that the user will receive. The user will receive a notification on one of the following conditions:
- The user was added to a meeting
- A meeting a non-originator was scheduled to attend has changed location or time, or has been cancelled
- There is a conflict in the user's schedule due to an added or modified meeting
- The user was removed from a meeting by the meeting's originator
- An employee removed him/herself from a meeting the user organized
Notifications are presented immediately after login to the PlaNet system. The notification screen displays all notifications in the order in which they were created. In the unlikely event that all messages do not fit into the window, a scroll bar is provided.
The user may choose to delete one or several selected notices. Simply highlight the notices that needs to be deleted and click the "Delete" button. The user may choose to close this window by pressing the "Close" button. In the case where notices are not deleted before closing of this window, the notices will remain in the system until the user deletes them.
In the PlaNet main screen, the user is able to see any 4 hour block, divided into quarter-hour intervals, for a given day in their schedule. The user can select which 4 hour block they are viewing with the scroll bar. Days with morning meetings have the top half of their buttons highlighted; afternoon meetings have the bottom half highlighted. The entire button is highlighted if the user is scheduled to be somewhere in both part of the morning and part of the afternoon. The following options are available for the user to adjust the time display for their schedule:
- The user can scroll through different time portions of the selected day
- Select a different day by clicking on the calendar
- Use the "Previous" or "Next" buttons to view other months
- Select a month from the drop-down list between the "Previous" and "Next" buttons.
- Drag the scroll bar to view the exact 4 hour block of that day
Meetings are displayed in the various time slots. If a meeting spans more than one 15 minute slot, then the meeting name will appear at the beginning of the meeting and ditto marks (" " ") will appear below the meeting name. Should more than one meeting be booked for a given time slot, the text "Conflict" will appear. The user may select "Modify Schedule" to examine the cause of the conflict - q.v. Meeting Details.
The system database stores schedules twelve months in advance, and deletes schedule information for months that are over one month before. In other words, the user can always choose to view all of last month's schedule, and up to a year ahead from the current month, but no further.Looking for Help Should the user require assistance with PlaNet, the "Help" button on the top right hand corner enables the user access on-line help system. Schedule Viewing and Modification
To modify or view in more detail a particular time slot the user can select it and press "Modify Schedule". The "Meeting Details" screen will appear, in which he/she can do the following:
- Add a new meeting
- Cancel their attendance at a meeting someone else organized
- Modify details of a meeting they organized
- Cancel a meeting they organized
More detail regarding these functions can be found in the "Meeting Details" section. Schedule Printing
The "Print" button prints the selected day's schedule to the default printer. Changing the Password
The user may change his/her password by pressing the "Password" button. The "Change Password" screen will be displayed for the user. Exit PlaNet
Pressing the "Exit" button will log users out of the PlaNet system. If present, the administration window is also closed. Meeting Details
Screen ShotMeeting SelectionThis screen is very powerful. We'll walk you through one step at a time. Remember that help is always available at the click of the "Help" button. A meeting has been selected on the main screen and "Modify Schedule" was pressed. This meeting is highlighted in the Meeting List in the top left corner; other meetings which overlap the scheduled time of the selected meeting are displayed in the meeting list as well. There is always one additional entry, "New Meeting". It is selected by default if you selected an empty time slot on the main screen. As the user clicks on a meeting in the list, its details are displayed on the remainder of the screen. Add New Meeting An employee can create a new meeting without difficulty. The following list may seem long at first glance, but testing with novice operators suggests the average learning time for this procedure is under 5 minutes.
- Select "New Meeting" in the Meeting List. Override the title by entering a new meeting title. Your name will appear under "Meeting Originator".
- Identify people listed in the "Company Personnel" area who you would like to attend. Select their name, and use the "Add" (>>) button to book them as a "Meeting Attendee". The "Remove" (<<) button performs the reverse operation. You may not remove yourself from a meeting you schedule.
- "Meeting Notes" may be used to communicate any message to all invitees. Providing a note is optional but is usually good practice.
- Should a periodic meeting be desired, this is the time to request it. We talk about this below. For now, we'll assume just the one meeting is being scheduled.
- Pick a location from the "Location" drop box.
- If you have a particular date and time you would like the meeting to be at, select this by adjusting the "Meeting Date", "Start Time" and "End Time" areas. (An alternative is to use the "Find Time" feature, discussed below.) As you adjust these parameters, you will notice that some of the names in the "Company Personnel" and "Meeting Attendees" areas will lighten and italicize, or return to normal. When a name is in dark and straight the person's schedule is free at the selected time; when a name is lightened and italicized the person is already booked at some point during the selected time. You may still ask them to attend the meeting, but be prepared to have them miss it, should their other commitment be more important to them.
- Press "OK", and the meeting will be scheduled. If you press "Cancel Meeting" instead, the meeting will be cancelled.
Periodic Meetings
Screen ShotThis section of the screen is to allow the user to indicate if a meeting will be repeated at a certain interval. Peroidic meetings are meetings with same meeting times and are held on multiple days. The following intervals are available:
- Daily
- Daily, including weekends
- Weekly
- Every second week
- Monthly
- Quarterly (once every 3 months)
To request a periodic meeting, check the"This meeting is periodic" box, and select a time interval between meetings. "Period Start" is the day of the first meeting; "Period End" is the day after which no more of this meeting will be scheduled. If you don't want a periodic meeting, uncheck the "This meeting is periodic" box. Find Common Time
Screen ShotThe user will enter the desired meeting duration, start and end dates for the search, and earliest and latest times for the meeting. PlaNet will provide a list of times, any of which will not conflict will all meeting attendees' schedules. PlaNet will use the date and time the user selects. The user will be informed if no such time exists. Modify Meeting If a user is the originator of the meeting, they may modify the information of the particular meeting. Modification is performed by editing the meeting details. If a user is not the originator, the only modification they can make is to remove themselves from attendance. Each meeting attendee is notified of alterations made by the originator. The originator is notified if someone decides not to attend a meeting. Cancel Meeting
Screen ShotWhen this button is pressed by the originator of a meeting, the meeting will be removed from the originator's schedule and the schedules of all meeting attendees. The program asks for confirmation:the default is "No", preventing accidental cancellation. Cancel Meeting Attendance
Screen ShotA user can inform PlaNet that he/she will not be attending a meeting by removing him/herself from the list of "Meeting Attendees". They must subsequently press "OK".
The "Change Password" screen enables a user to change their own password. Users are required to enter their desired new password twice to ensure that an inadvertant typographical error does not prevent them from accessing PlaNet. To change his/her password, a user must do the following:
- Type in the current password in the Current Password box
- Type in the new password they want to use in the New Password box
- Type in the new password again, this time in the the Confirm New Password box
- Press "OK".
To avoid the password change, the user can press "Cancel". ISSI recommends, but PlaNet does not require, that users change their password once every two months.
The administrations screen is only available to an administrator. This screen allows the user (this will now always refer to the administrator) to work with Employee management, or meeting Location management.
The primary tasks available for this screen relate to employee management. There are a number of options available for users of this screen. The user can add, (view or) modify, and delete employees. The administrator selects an employee from the alphabetically sorted list via mouse and scrollbar, or via keyboard (typing in the first few characters of the name will jump to all the names with that prefix, should any exist.)
The user can also type the first letter of an employee's last name in the list box, and the list will position itself to the first employee in that sublist of employees whose names begin with the typed letter.
Adding an Employee
Screen ShotThis screen allows a new employee to be added to current list of employees.
The following information must be entered to add an employee:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Login ID
- Password
- Status (Administrator or User)
- Comments (optional)
Any of the above can be entered by clicking in a white box and typing. This screen also contains an administration checkbox to indicate if the user being added is an administrator. Pressing "OK" will add the employee to the system; pressing "Cancel" will close the Add Employee window without adding the employee.
Login IDs must be unique. In addition, the combination of First Name and Last Name must also be unique. PlaNet will inform the administrator of the problem. Common solutions are to add a middle initial (or the full middle name) to the first name field, or to use a nickname. Modifying an Employee
Screen ShotWhen modifing an employee, a screen similar to the Add New Employee screen will appear. The user can click on the desired attribute (First Name, Last Name, Login ID, Password, Comments) of the employee and then make changes by typing the information for that attribute. Once this is done, the user can press the OK button to confirm the changes. If the user wishes to cancel the changes, the Cancel button can be pressed. Deleting an employee
Screen ShotTo delete an employee, the user can select the desired name of the employee and highlight it. When looking for an employee, the user can nagivate throught the list of employees by using the scroll bars, or typing the first letter of the employee's name to position the list to the first employee whose name starts with the typed letter. Once the desired employee is selected (the name is highlighted), the user can initiate the deletion by pressing the Delete button on the right side of the screen. Following the press of that button, a confimation screen will appear and ask the user for confirmation of the deletion along with a warning message indicating that all meetings for that particular employee will be cancelled. For confirmation, the user can press the OK button. To cancel the deletion, the user can press the Cancel button.
To gain access to the location management functions, the user clicks the Meeting Rooms checkbox. A list of locations will be displayed where the employees list used to be. To switch back to the employees list, the user can click the Personnel checkbox.
As with the employees list, changes to the locations can be made by pressing the Modify button. Adding and deleting can also be done by pressing their corresponding buttons.
The following location management functions are available from this screen.
Add a New Location
Screen ShotTo add a new location, the user can type in the new description. To confirm the location, the user presses the OK button. To cancel the addition, the user presses the Cancel button.
Modify Location
Screen ShotTo modify an existing location, the user can edit the existing description and press the OK button. To cancel the modification, the user can press Cancel.
Delete Location
A screen shot has not yet been prototyped for this feature.To confirm a deletion of an existing location, the user can press the OK button. To cancel the deletion, the user presses the Cancel button.