Update Options A and B (Smart Update)
There are two main options when editing a repeating series of events:
Option A: Replace Series
Completely replace all events in this repeating series with information in this update.
This option will replace the old series with a new series having the information in the update. Previous edits to the events in the series will be lost.
Example, if you previously edited the description of one event in the series then edited all events in the series then that description will be replaced by the description in the update being saved.
Option B: Smart Update
Note: Smart Update must be turned on by the Administrator to use this feature by going to Admin Menu > Options > Advanced tab > Enable Smart Update
Use Smart Update to preserve information in existing events of this repeating series.
When saving a repeating event, Smart Update provides options to preserve information in individual occurrences of the repeating series.
Example: You have a weekly meeting at 9:00am and have entered individual meeting agenda’s in the description for each weekly event in the series. You now are changing the time to 9:30am, Smart Update will help preserve the agenda’s in the past occurrences.
Note: The Smart Update dialog will not always appear when saving changes to a repeating event. For example, if you are editing a repeating event and extend the end date and have not edited any individual occurrences, then the program will just proceed with adding the new events for the extended date since no existing events will be affected by this particular update.
The following explains the structure of the Smart Update screen and options.
You changed the following items:
Smart Update provides a summary of the changes made to the repeating event. Types of changes include: Content, Time , Date, Saved/Draft Status and Repeat Pattern.
The following options may or may not be available, depending on the type of changes. Smart Update determines the options that can be available to the particular update:
Here are your choices:
Choose Which Events to Update: Refers to which events in the series will receive the update. You must select one of the options to use Smart Update.
- Completely replace all events in this repeating series: The update will be applied to all events. Similar to Option A: Replace Series but can be used with the ‘Update only changed content’ option to preserve event information in fields not affected by the update.
- Update only events with date on or after: The update will be applied to events that occur on or after the date you set. Events before the date are not changed.
- Only remove events and do not change other events: When setting the start date later or end date earlier, this option will only remove the events outside the new date range and not change information in remaining events.
- Only add events and do not change other events: When setting the start date earlier or end date later, this option will only add the events using the information in the update and not change information in existing events.
- Only move events and do not change information: When changing the date of a monthly by date or yearly by date repeating series, this option will only move the occurrences to the new date and leave other information intact.
Choose What Content To Update: Refers to what content information fields to update in the event that will be updated. The choice you make in the ‘Choose Which Events to Update option determines which events will be affected by this option. When this option is available, you must select one of the choices to use Smart Update.
- Update all content, using the values in this update: Will overwrite all content information fields (e.g. title, description, etc.) with the values in the update.
- Update only changed content, other content will not be updated: Only the information fields that are changed will be overwritten in the affected events. For example, if you change the description, only the description field will be overwritten and other fields like the Title will not be affected.
Enabling / Disabling Smart Update
Smart Update can be enabled or disabled by going to the Admin Menu -> Calendar Options -> Advanced tab and checking the box under “Smart Update For Repeating Events“.
Note: In all edits of a repeating series, the repeating master record will be updated with the values of the last update, regardless of how many events the update affected.
Keeping It Simple
Smart Update does have it’s limitations. In general it is good to keep your events manageable using the following tips:
- Don’t Let Repeating Events Get To Complicated: Rather than continually changing a repeating series that occurs frequently and extends over a long timeframe, you may consider ending the repeating event at a certain date and then using the Copy button to begin a new version of that repeating series. This will help prevent accidentally overwriting you historical data.
- Break Complicated Updates Into Simpler Steps: When using Smart Update to make many changes at the same time, you may be uncertain as to how the different options will affect the repeating series. In this situation, it is advised to perform the update in several simpler steps until the desired outcome is achieved.
Reminder Settings
When you edit all repeats in a series and set reminders, those settings apply to the entire repeating series.
There is no Smart Update option to preserve reminder settings unless they have been set by editing individual occurrences of the repeating series.
Smart Update will retain reminder settings belonging to a single occurrence of a repeating series if that occurrence is not affected by Smart Update (e.g. not removed or overwritten)
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