How To Print A Calendar
The calendar link from the left column will show you the calendar's event list the first time you use it. The event list view allows you to customize the date range displayed, the categories of events to display, and other things. To see the customary landscape-formatted month view, click the corresponding tab at the top of the calendar screen. The month view should be relatively easy to print, and it should adjust automatically for Internet Explorer users. If it does not look like a traditional 4-5 week calendar, then try scrolling to the bottom and clicking the "Toggle Month Code" button you will find there.
Set Your Printing Preferences to Print Landscape
Landscape printing is sideways, with the long dimension of the paper going left and right instead of up and down. The calendar is sized to fit best on a sheet of paper this way.
Set Your Margins to Zero and Adjust from There
The calendar is sized to take up nearly all the space on the paper. The dimensions should usually be the same, but sometimes it can expand a little bit vertically. To see how the margins look...
Use your Print Preview Function Until You are Satisfied
If the calendar is coming out too high on the paper, increase the top margin. If it's too far left, increase the left margin. If it seems too big even when the margins are set to zero, look for a setting that automatically adjusts the scale to fit things on one page.
Remember to Print in Color If You Have a Color Printer
You can also print in black and white or gray, if you prefer, but then the color-coded categories will not be as easily seen. You should also set your browser to print the graphics or images.
Select Categories to Remove Unwanted Items
The Select Categories link at the bottom of the calendar will allow you to adjust which categories are displayed. You can "turn off" a category (like Bethany or Concordia, for example) so that those events will not show up.
For More Event Info, try As Event List
Each event can have a description associated with it. Those descriptions won't show up in a printed calendar when it is in the regular calendar view. But if you select the Event List tab at the top, you will get a listing of the events that does include the descriptions and much more. In that view, you can still select the categories that will be displayed.
For a More Compact Arrangement, Toggle Time Format
The Toggle Time Format switches the format of the event start times back and forth between 12-hour and 24-hour time. 24-hour time is more concise, because it does not require "AM" or "PM" to be attached to every event. If you are comfortable reading 24-hour times, using them can result in better formatting of the calendar.
More about Internet Explorer
When Explorer 7 was in development, it was promised to greatly improve support for Internet standards like the Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) code used in our calendar. Unfortunately, it seems Microsoft was unable to include that particular compliance in its flagship browser, though much smaller companies and even collections of volunteers have accomplished it in competing browsers. This is somewhat disappointing, though not entirely unexpected. Microsoft has a history of difficulty complying with standards that allow interoperability with competing software. If you are limited to using a Microsoft computing environment, you are probably familiar with the frustrations it entails. I sympathize, but have only limited resources to devote to things like our web calendar.
The good news is that I have managed to incorporate an alternative behind-the-scenes calendar structure into the month view, so that most of it will automatically adjust and display correctly in Internet Explorer. If you would like full functionality in the calendar, I can only suggest that you try another browser. There are multiple free alternatives to Internet Explorer, all of which seem to work better. I can only recommend that you try them. I suggest Firefox or Opera, both free.
