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Questions and Answers
AVAILACAL calendars are easy to use but we recommend that calendar owners study the User Guide to ensure a proper understanding of how to manage and administer the calendars. The following questions and answers are a supplement to the User Guide. If you have a question which isn't answered here, in the user guide or elsewhere on the web site please contact us, we are here to help.
Q. How far in advance can I enter availability details on a calendar?
A. You can enter availability details for up to two years ahead of the current date.
Q. Can I try out the system before I sign up?
A. Yes. Our live demo account will let you create and edit fully functional calendars. You can also view and edit the demo calendars on an internet enabled WAP device if you have one.
Q. Do the calendars show past bookings?
A. No. The calendars show future availability from today's date onwards.
Q. When I look at my calendar it has the calendar administration control panel above it. How can I prevent other people from changing my calendar?
A. Unless you give them the password, other people do not see the control panel for your calendar. You are seeing the control panel on that computer only because you are logged-in with the password. To see the calendar as the public sees it (no control panel), log out and reload the calendar page.
Note: If you log-out and return to the calendar in the same browser you may still see the control panel because the page hasn't been refreshed in your browser. In this case even though you can still see the control panel above the calendar it will not allow you to alter the calendar because the server has already logged you out. The control panel will disappear if you refresh the page or attempt to edit the calendar.
Q. The rental agent for my apartment has given me a password so I can update the calendar he has created for me. How do I use it?
A. Go to your calendar and click in the pale box just below it and to the left. Carefully type-in your password and press enter on your keyboard. You should then be able to update your calendar. If you cannot log-in with your password, please contact your agent to confirm that your password is correct. Calendar-specific passwords are issued at the account holder's discretion. If the actual Availacal account is not your own we cannot and will not confirm your password.
Q. Why is the password box on the calendar display invisible?
A. The password box is not relevant to most people who will view the calendar so it is designed to be as inconspicuous as possible. If because of your screen set-up you can't see the box at all, move your mouse pointer over the area until the cursor changes to an 'I', then click.
Another possible reason is that, for security reasons, repeated attempts to log-in with a wrong password will cause the password box to actually disappear completely. Re-check your password, and try again a few hours later making sure that your keyboard [Caps Lock] is off.
Q. How do I view or update a calendar from my WAP telephone?
A. To access a calendar with a WAP device: Use the device to go to http://availacal.com/wap and enter the calendar ID. Alternatively, if you want to access a calendar directly without keying in the calendar ID. you can create a bookmark on your WAP device like this...
http://availacal.com/wap/c.asp?id=ID
(Replace ID with the calendar ID.)
Note: Your WAP device must be configured for internet access to view calendars on it. See the User Guide for instructions on editing calendars via WAP.
Q. How can I adjust the number months shown on a web page calendar?
A. By default the calendars show 6 months ahead of the current date and users can click to see 12 months ahead instead. However, by adding &mo=M to the link you can display between 1 and 24 months ahead on one calendar. Simply replace the M with the number of months to display. The following link would show a calendar for 8 months ahead.
http://availacal.com/ac.asp?id=ID&mo=8
(Note that this does not apply to WAP devices which only display one month at a time due to their limited screen sizes.)
Q. Is it possible to adjust the number of months shown for each calendar when showing a multiple calendar view?
A. By default, multiple calendar views show two months per calendar. You can change this to three months by adding &mo=3 to the link address.
Q. Can I clear a calendar and then start to use it for something else?
A. Yes, if you are the account holder. Log-in using your master password, follow the procedure outlined in the user guide to delete the calendar and then create a new calendar.
Q. Why would I want to choose a time zone for a calendar?
A. It is not essential to do this but the timezone setting controls the time of day when a calendar indicates that the current day has ended. If you enter a higher number than your real time zone offset, calendars will automatically 'shut-off' availability earlier in the day. For example: If the rental location is in EST timezone (-5) and you set the calendar timezone to GMT (0), the calendar will show that availability for the current day expired at 7 PM instead of at midnight. People viewing the calendar do not see any mention of the timezone. It just tells the calendar what time 'today' becomes 'yesterday' as far as your availability is concerned.
Q. How do I get the calendar to include a link to allow the user to return to the previous web page?
A. Simply include the address of the web page to return to in the link with &ret= before it, like this...
http://availacal.com/ac.asp?id=ID&ret=www.mywebsite.domain/mypage.html
Don't include the http:// part of the return page address and remember that link addresses should not contain any spaces.
Q. How do I get the calendar to pop-up in a new browser window?
A. The easiest way is to put the text target="_blank" in an HTML link, like this...
<A HREF=http://availacal.com/ac.asp?id=ID target="_blank">Check Availability</A>
Alternatively you can use a Javascript 'new window' function. (There is plenty of information about how to create pop-up windows elsewhere on the internet.)
Q. How do I embed a calendar so that it appears inside an existing web page?
A. You can do this an HTML frame or an inline frame (Iframe). Iframes provide a neat way to seamlessly integrate calendars in an existing web page, remember though that not all browsers support Iframes so if you use an Iframe you should provide a clickable link to the calendar as well. Here is an example of how to do this...
This snippet of HTML script will embed a calendar in an Iframe in your web page. Copy and paste this into the HTML script of your page where you want the calendar to appear. The text link 'SEE CALENDAR' is designed to be shown if your visitor's browser doesn't support Iframes. You can copy and paste this script snippet into your own web page. The only change you need to make is to replace the word Example with your own calendar ID. You must do this in both places where the word Example appears...
<IFRAME align="center" frameborder="no" scrolling="yes" height="406" width="660" src="http://availacal.com/ac.asp?id=Example"><A HREF="http://availacal.com/ac.asp?id=Example" target="_blank">SEE CALENDAR</A></IFRAME>
To see an example of a calendar embedded in a web page click here.
Q. Can I show all of my calendars at once on the same screen?
A. Yes, there are various ways to do this. You could place all the calendars in Iframes in a web page on your site, or simply use a link like this...
<A HREF=http://availacal.com/multiview.asp?u=AccountID>Show all Calendars</A>
This multiple calendar view will display calendars any two or three month period during the next 12 months (24 months when logged-in). To see this working with the calendars that are currently active in the Live Demo account click
here. If you log-in to the Demo account you will be able to create, edit or delete these calendars.
Q. How do I get the multiple calendar view to show 3 months instead of 2, and include a link back to my web page?
A. To show three months per calendar instead of two; add &mo=3 to the link. To include the address of the web page to return to add &ret= followed by the URL of the web page excluding the http:// part.
You can also include a page title by adding &t= followed by the desired title. If you want to use spaces in the title use a + instead of a space, like this: &t=My+Title
Q. How safe is my calendar data from hackers, hardware failure or viruses?
A. Availacal employs a whole battery of advanced security techniques including multiple distributed backups of calendar data. Calendar owners also have a role to play in this scheme by safeguarding passwords and keeping separate records of bookings. We recommend that passwords chosen use mixed characters and are not simply words which appear in a dictionary. If you suspect that someone has gained unauthorised access to your account please contact us immediately.
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