Before I start today’s topic I will answer emails I have received this from a couple of readers. “Are you going to write about which computer I should purchase for Christmas?” Sorry, but no for a couple of reasons.
First, I stopped doing this several years ago because they always sounded the same. Next, it is fairly easy; purchase a good brand with the biggest numbers you can afford. By, “numbers” I mean hard drive size, amount of RAM, number of ports, most pixels on the monitor, etc. Third, due to the dates of the holidays this year, this is my last column until the second week of 2018 so there is no time.
I will answer this, to the outrage of many, “If money were no object what computer would you buy right now?” If the first part of that statement were true, I would get the latest Microsoft Surface Pro version available. I have used older versions (two years old) and they are very good. That being said, some of them have a higher price tag than an Apple system which started out too high to begin with.
Now onto my last article of 2017. I use calendars much of the time. I, as many, use Outlook’s calendar at work. For my personal use I am dependent on Google’s Calendar which is excellent.
No matter the calendar you use I have a recommendation which you may not have tried yet. That is meeting invites. Say you are having a party, meeting, lunch, whatever where you would like to invite other people. We will also pretend you know all of their email addresses. You can pretty easily set up an appointment with those individuals. The following is for Google’s Calendar app but they all work much the same way.
Click in the date on your calendar and a new appointment will open. A small window will open where you may add the title, edit the date, begin and end times for the meeting, but then click “More.” Here you get to the details which are all optional. The required information you have already entered so you could have hit “Save” before “More.”
You can set the new screen to repeat if it is weekly, monthly, etc. Next you can add the location. If you input an address in the location it is helpful for people who accept the invite if they use Google Maps or Waze for their travels. It will pop up in those apps to warn them when they need to leave to get there on time. Conferencing will allow you to use Google Hangouts to chat with people at the appointed time. Add a note to the invite.
On the right is the really vital add in “Guests.” Here you can enter the people’s names, if they are in your contacts list or email addresses if not. Then when you Save the invite it will ask you to send the guests the invitation. When they receive the emailed invite they can Accept, Decline or Tentatively accept the meeting. You will be notified of their response which will be kept in the meeting information in your calendar. That way you can check their intentions at any time.
Also, if you set notifications everyone who accepts an invite will be notified at the appointed time you have set.
Reviewing your appointments is easy too. Open your calendar and click on the date to see all of the information.
