howto Add a dog anniversary

[bradl]

Did you know you can add your dog's birthday (or gotcha day if you don't know the birthdate) to the calendar? If it's your dog's anniversary it will be featured as Today's Dog on the front page.

 

To add your dog's anniversary date to the calendar, you'll add an all-day event, select the Dog Anniversary calendar, and set the event to repeat annually.

You can add an event from your +Create menu or from the calendar page. 

1. Set the new event to be "all-day."

2. Edit the day to reflect the birthday or anniversary (you can set the year too although the calendar doesn't keep track of age  like your birthday can in your personal account profile). Set the event to repeat (optional, but necessary if you don't want to have to keep adding it every year).

Note: it is a sad inevitable fact that all our dogs will die eventually. This means that at some point you will be reminded of the birthday of a dog who has passed. If this will cause you more stress than you can handle you can ask me to remove your dog's calendar entry at the appropriate time. Or you may consider whether you want to add your dog at all. It's up to you.

3. Give the event title your dog's name. For the sake of front page readability please limit the title to the dog's short "call" name only.  

In the description for birthdays I like to add the actual birth year to give visitors some context. Explain what the event is recognizing (birthday, gotcha day) in the description.

The calendar entry edit box is similar to the post box so you can even add photos or a story if you like. You also have the option of adding a cover photo for the event (similar to your profile). Be certain you are adding this event to the Dog Anniversary calendar. 

4. Save the event and on your dog's anniversary it will be listed as Today's Dog.  If you make a mistake (it happens on setting the date sometimes) you should be able to edit the event you just created for a limited time (typically two hours). 

[Autumn & Lola]

I added Lola's birthday and 'gotcha day' to the calendar by following a link someone else had posted. Now I can't find the calendar on my own. Is it on the home page? I need to edit one of the dates.

Thanks!

[Lupinegirl]

I see it as one of the menu options under the Browse tab. It's also under Event in the + Create menu at the top of my page by my name. I use a tablet though so it might be different for a computer. 

Edited March 4, 2016 by Lupinegirl

[bradl]

Several ways to go. Browse → Calendar. The calendar normally shows All Calendars but you can toggle your view to just one (I suppose that would be useful for an event cluttered with more events than ours).

Another trick: use the Activity Stream (all activity) and you can scroll back in time and find a link to your added event. 

[Autumn & Lola]

Thanks Lupinegirl and Brad.  My home page doesn't look like the screen shot above (no tabs), but I found it in the end.   Mine has three icons in the upper right-hand corner.  One looks like a file box (kind of!), the second is the search function and the third is three horizontal lines. When I click on the 3rd icon, I get a drop down menu, where I found Browse-->Calendar.   This is on my laptop. I will have to check later how it is set up on my tablet.

Thanks again.

[bradl]

Ah, you are describing the mobile view;  the display switches to it any time browser resolution is less than 980 pixels wide.

The icons represent a newspaper (it links to your Unread Content activity stream), the search icon, and the standard mobile 'hamburger' menu icon.