This FAQ is to help explain the creation and use of Events in a Plato web.

What are Events for ?

Events allow the author to record a diary item with a date and time.

How do I define an Event?

An Event is defined in a similar way to other items, such as actions or documents. It can have a title and description and have up to 4 attached documents. There is a user-definable qualification - category. You can define its visibility. It has Date, Time and Time zone fields. It also has a pair of fields to allow for the creation of repeating Events.

What is the category?

The category is a means for grouping classes of Events. You may define new categories.

What is the visibility?

See the general FAQ on visibility.

What are repeating Events?

When an Event is created it can be set to repeat weekly, or every 2 or 4 weeks. The number of repeating Events can also be specified. So a weekly conference could be created for the next 3 months. After creation these can be updated individually or as a set.

What appears on the home page ?

As usual, a maintainer can configure the number of Events to appear on the home page. The section contains the date and time of any future Events, sorted by date. The section header is a link to the summary page.

What appears on the summary page ?

By default only future Events are shown. Events can be subsetted by category or a number of date ranges (future, past, next month etc.) or grouped by category. Sorting is by default by on date, but the column headings are links that allow the data to be sorted on different fields.

Why can I not archive Events?

Unlike all other items, Events are not archived but automatically deleted a preset period after their date has expired.

What is the alert checkbox for?

Most items allow the creator/updater to send a preset e-mail alert to the list appropriate to the visibility level. It contains identification of the creator/updater and a URL to view the item.

Editing or Updating the Description Field

Can I use the Wysiwig editor?

If your browser has the necessary support then a wysiwig editor pane implemented in Javascript will appear next to the Description Field to allow you to format some descriptive text for this .

Can I still edit the html source using the Wysiwig editor?

Yes, select the "Source" button, a popup window in which you can edit the html source directly will appear. When you close that window any updates will then be shown in the editor pane.

Can I paste in text into the Wysiwig editor?

Yes, if you have selected text, then use your regular paste key (typically control-v). If the select text is html source then you should paste it into the "Source" popup window.

If the alert checkbox is selected will the html be translated to text?

Yes, it is rendered to text using the Lynx browser. If you have a document of more than one paragraph to ensure correct formatting use "Format->Normal" to insert paragraphs.

Generating icalendar files

Can I generate icalendar files to import into my diary?

Yes, we support experimental generation of icalendar files (following IETF RFC2445) for events less than one day.

Plato Events Timezones

What do the Plato Timezone fields mean?

Timezone Field	Explanation
CST/CDT	The local time in Chicago, USA - Central Time Zone . CST is standard time, and CDT is when Daylight Saving Time in effect.
EST/EDT	The local time in New York, USA - Eastern Time Zone . EST is standard time, and EDT is when Daylight Saving Time in effect.
GMT/BST	The local time in London, UK . GMT is Greenwich Meantime, and BST is British Summer time, the designator for GMT+1, that is GMT with Daylight Saving in effect.
MST/MDT	The local time in Denver, USA -- Mountain Time Zone . MST is standard time, and MDT is when Daylight Saving Time in effect.
PST/PDT	The local time in Los Angeles, USA -- Pacific Time Zone . PST is standard time, and PDT is when Daylight Saving Time in effect.
CET	The local time in Paris, France -- Central European Time Zone .
Localtime	The local time stated in the event description . This is usually used when the event is in none of the above timezones.

A useful resource for checking local times around the world is: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

Further information on Plato including troubleshooting tips is available here