Designer Help Develop your unit Features and Tools

Calendar Text File

The WebCT Calendar Tool allows designers to post calendar entries which can be viewed by all unit participants. The Calendar Text File can be used to create multiple calendar entries.

• Download the Calendar Text File
• Edit the Calendar Text File using:
  • Notepad / TextEdit
  • Microsoft Excel
• Importing Calendar entries into WebCT

Download the Calendar Text File

You can import multiple calendar entries into WebCT using the Calendar Text File. The format of the text file needs to be followed, as in the example below.

Format:

:date,summary,URL,internallink,starttime(hh:mm),endtime(hh:mm),detail

Example:

A URL and an Internal Link (to a content module page or similar) can not be included in the same calendar entry. The Calendar Text File includes sample entries with each kind of link.

If you have entries in your calendar, you can download these as a text file.

From the WebCT Calendar Tool,

• Select Designer Options
• Select Compile Entries
• Select Download

You will then be able to save the Calendar Text File to your computer.

Editing the Calendar Text File

Once you have downloaded the Calendar Text File, you will need to open, edit and save it using Notepad / TextEdit or Microsoft Excel.

Notepad / Text Edit

• Open calendar_text.txt
• Edit the file to include your own calendar entries

You need to adhere to the format specified. Do not place spaces between elements except for Summary and Details, where sentences are allowed.

To save your file,

• Select File
• Select Save As
• Enter a filename and choose a plain text encoding (usually Western or Unicode).
• Choose a location to save your file
• Click the Save button

The file will now save to the location you specified.

Excel

• Open calendar_text.txt with Microsoft Excel
• Follow the "Text Import Wizard" steps to convert the file
• Select Delimited as the data type
• Select Comma as the value type

The text file will be sorted into spreadsheet columns, [see image here].

To save your file once complete,

• Choose to save the document in Microsoft Excel
• Save the file as .csv (Comma Delimited format) with .txt as the filename extension

The file will now save to the location you specified.

Importing Calendar entries into WebCT

To upload your edited Calendar Text File,

• Log in to your WebCT unit.
• From the Homepage, browse to the Calendar tool
• Choose Import Entries
• Browse your computers' hard drive for your file and Upload it
• Choose Add Selected
• When prompted, click the Import button

• A confirmation screen will display the Calendar entries

If entries are displayed correctly, click the Continue button to finish the importing process.

Once imported, your entries will be displayed in the Calendar.