Help

I am just beginning to write this help page. With the debut of the new password and showcase features, I'm sure I will receive a healthy number of requests for assistance. I strive to make the site as intuitive as possible. When I discover a common area of difficulty, I will add information here to help others through it.

The first question on your mind is what's with the private and public calendars all of a sudden. Well, public calendars are what you have come to expect: widely accessible calendars which can be viewed or subscribed, if the person knows the URL. That's where the Showcase will come on...more on that later.

Private calendars are one big feature that .Mac is missing. These are calendars that can only be accessed with a password and optional username. Which password you ask? The interface will accept the owner's username and password (for the case when he/she wants to view their own calendar), and it will accept passwords as defined by the calendar owner for other people to use. These are managed with the "passwords" link on the left hand navigation links.

Let me briefly explain how this private protection mechanism works. First of all, understand that only a password is required. Using a username is optional, since that would mean two things for a visitor to remember instead of just one. You might find that only setting a password is sufficient security for your calendar visitors.

Next, a single password can protect multiple calendars. When creating a new password, you'll have a list of private calendars to apply it to. Just check multiple boxes if you want. (Note: to make an existing public calendar private, "Unpublish" it from within iCal and then "Publish" it again using your "private" URL.)

Finally, you can have multiple passwords protecting a single calendar. You'd use this when you want to maybe have two different groups of people accessing your calendar(s), and you want to be able to restrict their access separately.

Whew...that's a lot of new information to digest. Try to wrap your mind around it, and I'll write more here soon about the Showcase. If you do want to start adding your public calendars (not private!) to the Showcase, go ahead and start categorizing your calendars. The instructions on the editing page should give you a good idea of how to start!