Welcome back everybody!

Hopefully everyone was able to enjoy some sunshine and fun these past two months, I know that I did!  Now that we are back into the swing of things, you might need help getting your self back into a routine/schedule.

Planning is always a good thing, as time management can allow you to be more efficient (and less stressed).  Using your computer's calendar capabilities allows you to schedule things for your self, your classroom, the school, and even your family!  Within iCal and Zimbra, you can create various "calendars" that are categories for events, as well as SHARED calendars that can help you and other NSD employees schedule things together.

If you were here at WM last spring, you may recall my tech tip from May 31st - Making appointments/sharing calendars with Zimbra .  (Don't worry, I'm not offended if you don't.)  I detailed how to create an appointment (event) for yourself, as well as how to invite others.  With Zimbra you can also share a calendar with others (giving them various levels of access - view only, view with a password, view and edit-NSD only, and public view).  Our building now uses the Public view option, which Leah populates with events that happen here at school.  To see her calendar, click on the link from Woodmoor's homepage, or go to http://www.nsd.org/wmcalendar .  I too share my STS calendar on the WM teacher resources page ( http://www.nsd.org/wm_teacher_resources ), and it is also available to anyone who is a part of the g.woodmoor email group. (To learn more about Zimbra's calendars, watch their online video tutorials .)

Now these are all fancy features of the NEW online Zimbra webmail.  But what about users that are still primarily using AppleMail?  As most of the classified staff use shared workstations, we are more familiar with Zimbra, but classroom teachers and office staff are used to using AppleMail, and with it iCalendar.  Did you know that you can sync your Zimbra calendar with your iCal?  For teachers and staff members who like to use iCal because it gives you those lovely little pop-up messages, I suggest that you create your calendars using Zimbra, and then have your iCal synced to that calendar so that you receive your reminders on your assigned workstation.

The following information is courtesy of KB Article 506 :

The online Zimbra calendar will allow you to sync your Zimbra calendar to iCal. However, it does not support all features (no custom day times, no attachments, no HTML message, and more).

NOTE: Apple iCal is not the supported calendar client for the district. If you are having problems with iCal, go to the Zimbra web client.

Here's how you can set up iCal to sync with Zimbra:

1. Launch iCal from your Dock (or go to Applications -> iCal ).

2. In the Menu Bar at the top of your screen, click on iCal -> Preferences.


3. Click on the Accounts tab.

4. In the lower left corner of the window, click on the + (plus sign) to add an account.

5. Click on the drop-down menu next to Account Type, and select CalDAV .


6. Next to User name enter your NSDNet username. Next to Password enter your NSDNet password. Next to Server address enter mail.nsd.org . Click Create.


7. Close out of the Preferences window. You should now see your Zimbra calendar events in your iCal calendar.

Oh, and a few other things..... Did you know that you can sync your Zimbra calendar with a mobile device?  You can now set an email address (or phone text messaging address) to receive calendar notifications. In Zimbra...

Go to Preferences->Notifications to set this option.

If you set it, you have an option on any calendar or task event to send a notification. The Notifications are sent from the server, so they are sent even if you are not logged in (unlike MeetingMaker, which required you to be logged in to the server).  You can even have notifications sent to your cell phone as a text message, so when I am walking around school, and have my cell phone with me, I can receive a text message reminding me to be somewhere!  (The reminder is sent to my phone as an email address.... number@txt.att.net ... Remember, text messaging rates do apply!)

Enjoy the features that Zimbra provides :)
Megan

PS - please bookmark/add to favorites my Tuesday Tech Tips on your internet browser, http://www.nsd.org/wm_tech_tips .  I will be posting all of this year's tech tips there.  You will also see a link to all of LAST school year's tech tips (in case you want to find out/revisit something that I mentioned in the past.... which may very well likely make a come-back at some point during this school year).