urShadow's Blog: Five Tip Friday – BlackBerry 10.2.1 Calendar Tips

In this week’s installment of Five Tip Friday here are five must-know BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1 calendar tips.

Don’t forget to leave a comment and let me know if you have a question or topic suggestion :)

Subscribe to a public calendar (ICS)

Did you know that you can subscribe to an iCalShare (ICS) calendar? I use this to add schedules from my favorite teams so I always know whenever they are playing.

On the home screen swipe down from the top of the screen
Tap Settings > Accounts > > Subscribed Calendar
In the Calendar Name field, enter a name for the calendar
In the Server Address field, enter the address of the public calendar in ICS format
- For example, http://server/calendar.ics
Tap Done

Running late? Send an “I will be late” message

If you attend a lot of meetings you are going to love this feature! Instead of keeping people waiting, send a note to the meeting organizer, or to everyone on the invite, and let them know just how late you’re going to be.

Open the event, either from the calendar app or from the event reminder
Tap >
In the dialog box, move the slider to indicate how late you will be
Tap Email All or Email Organizer

Easily add your conference details to meeting invitations

If you host a lot of meetings, this must-know feature makes adding your conference call details to a new invitation a breeze. Best of all, you can add different conference options in case you use multiple providers.

In the calendar app, swipe down from the top of the screen
Tap Settings > Mobile Conferencing >
Enter the conference call bridge information, such as phone numbers and access codes
Tap Save

The next time you set up a meeting, you can add the conference/bridge information by tapping the calendar details and selecting a previous conference, or you can add a new bridge setting.

Quickly create a follow-up meeting with previous details

Didn’t conquer everything you needed to do in a particular meeting? Use this tip to quickly create a follow-up meeting that includes meeting details such as the participants, subject, and notes from the original event. You can create follow-up meetings from past and future calendar events as well.

Open a calendar event
Tap >
Enter the information for the follow-up meeting
Tap Save

Change how your calendar appears

If you find yourself constantly changing your calendar views, consider changing your default view using the following steps. You can also customize your working hours, what day the week starts on, as well turning on or off one of my favorite calendar features—growing numbers that make it easy to see what days you are busy. To see an example of growing numbers, check out the last two screenshots in this post.

In the calendar app, swipe down from the top of the screen
Tap Settings > General
- To change the view (day, week, or month) that you see when you open the calendar, in the Default Calendar View drop-down list, tap a view
- To change the day that the week starts on, in the First Day of the Week drop-down list, tap an option
- To change your working hours, in the Working Hours section, in the Start and End drop-down lists, tap an option
- To use growing numbers to indicate the busyness of a day, set the Growing Numbers switch to On

Bonus—white or black background? You decide!

Using a BlackBerry Z30 or Q10? Because your device has an OLED screen you can optionally use a dark background within the calendar that helps conserve battery life. Try switching back and forth a few times to decide what option you prefer.