Setting and Defining Employee Blocks

Employee block booking definitions are used for individual employees, typically when multiple employees share a column in the appointment book.

When you begin to schedule an appointment for an employee, employee blocks for that employee are displayed to indicate which time slots cannot be used. If you try to schedule an appointment in a blocked time slot, a message is displayed.

Click Yes to schedule the appointment anyway, or click No to find another time slot. When you click No, the appointment is displayed in reschedule mode. Click-and-drag the appointment to another location in the Appointment Book. As you are dragging, you can see the available time blocks.

To define employee blocks:

Select ApptBook > View > Block booking employee. The title bar at the top of the screen indicates that you are in View Employee Block Booking mode.
Click the Calendar to select the date for which you are setting a time block. The Appointment Book displays that date.
Click-and-drag in the appropriate column to select a time block. The block is displayed in purple.
Click once on the purple time block. The Choose Employee window is displayed.
Highlight the employee name and click OK. The Block Booking Specification window is displayed.

Employee colors are defined on the Scheduling tab of the Employee Properties window, and display on appointments for which the employee is the producer as well as block booking. To edit a color, select Lists > Employees. Select the employee and click Edit. Click the Scheduling tab, and then click on the color to change it.

Click Select. The View Employee Block Definitions window is displayed.
Select an existing definition from the Description column and click OK. You are returned to the Block Booking Specification window.
To change the Block time ranges, select the applicable times from the drop-down lists.
To change the Effective dates, double-click each date field to bring up the Calendar. Click the calendar date to enter it into the field. You can set the block for a maximum of two years, with the end date at the end of the second year.
To select additional Chairs for this specification, press and hold the Ctrl key while clicking other chair names in the list.
To have this specification recur in the Appointment Book, enter a number of days in the Repeat every field. For example, 1 for daily, 7 for weekly, 30 for monthly, and so on.
When you have finished, click OK. You are returned to the Appointment Book in View Employee Block Booking mode, which enables you to see the defined block. When you return to View Active Appointments mode by selecting ApptBook > View > Active appointments, the defined employee blocks are not displayed.
You can right-click a block to remove, clear, copy, or edit the block’s properties.

Employee blocks are displayed only when you try to schedule an appointment for that employee, to indicate times when the employee is not available. If you want the blocks to be visible, use block booking for production.