In this section:
In your busy life, you have a lot to juggle. You need to stay in touch with people, schedule appointments, and check the weather to plan your travels.
To keep track of and communicate with contacts, Windows 8 provides the People app. After you enter information about somebody in the People app, you can send her messages by using the Messaging app, email, or Facebook, and you can map that person’s location by using Bing Maps.
You can use the Calendar app to create events and set reminders for those events if you like. You can also send invitations to any event by using email from within the Calendar app.
If you want to check out the weather today or on the day of an upcoming event, use the Weather app to see regional, national, and even international data about precipitation, temperature, and more.
The People app helps you manage your contacts. You can enter information about a person, including name, company, email, phone, address, job title, significant other, and website. There is also a Notes field to add information such as birthday, favorite movie, or whatever you want to remember about that person. After you add a contact, you can use the People app to send instant messages, post a message to that person’s Facebook account, or send email. You can also map the person’s location by using Bing Maps.
On the Start screen, click the People app tile.
Right-click.
Click New.
Enter contact information in fields, such as name.
Click Save.
Note
When entering contact information, click the + symbol at the bottom of the Name field. In the menu that appears, click a choice to enter a Phonetic First Name or Phonetic Last Name so that you can remember how to pronounce an unusual name. Click Middle Name or Nickname to enter additional name information. Click Title or Suffix to add a title such as vice-president or a suffix such as Junior or Senior to a contact record.
We all move, change jobs, and even change our phone numbers now and then. After you enter a contact, you might want to add more details or change information. For example, you might want to enter a new phone number or email address. You can easily make such changes and save them.
You can send messages to your contacts by using the People app. To do this, you must first enter an email address for the contact and be connected to the Internet. You can choose to use the Mail app, Microsoft Outlook, or an alternative mail app to send your message. For example, if you choose the Mail app, that app opens with a new email form already addressed to the contact.
With the People app open and All Contacts displayed, click a contact.
Click Send Email.
If prompted, click an email app to use to send your message.
Enter a message subject.
Enter the message contents.
Click Send.
Tip
The contacts you have stored in the People app are available to other apps. For example, if you use the Mail app to send an email message, when you begin to type an addressee’s name in the To field, a list of matching contacts from the People app appears. Click one to easily and quickly fill in the To field.
When you connect your Microsoft Live account to Windows 8 and have an Internet connection, you can connect to various online accounts by using the People app. For example, you can connect to Facebook, Twitter, Google, and LinkedIn. With an account connected, you can then apply settings for how to share your information and how to view information from that account. (See Chapter 2, for more information about connecting with a Windows Live account).
Tip
After you have set up an account on the All Contacts screen of the People app, you will see that account’s logo, such as the Facebook or Twitter logo, in the upper-right corner, showing you which accounts you are connected to. If a contact has an account on a service that you’re connected to, display that person’s information and click the Send Message link for the appropriate service. If that person is online, you can then enter and send a message to him at that account.
If you are in touch with somebody frequently, consider pinning that contact to the Start screen. After you do that, you can simply click that person’s tile to open her contact information. From that screen, you can quickly view more information about the person or send an email.
On the Start screen, click the People app.
Click a contact name.
Right-click the next screen to display a toolbar.
Click Pin To Start.
Enter the item to pin (for example, the contact name or the contact’s website).
Click Pin To Start.
Sometimes it’s helpful to get different perspectives on your schedule. That’s why the Calendar app offers you three views of your events: by Day, Week, or Month. From any view, you can quickly return to the Day, Week, or Month view that includes today’s date. For example, if you have scrolled six months forward to enter dates for your summer vacation, you can quickly return to today’s date in the current view by clicking Today.
Note
Try This!
Create a task and choose to save it to your calendar or to the Birthday or Holiday calendar. In all of the views, to help you differentiate them, events saved to My Calendar appear in green, events saved to the Birthday calendar display in a dark purple, and events saved to the Holiday calendar appear in orange.
Using the Calendar app, you can create events such as appointments, vacation time, concerts or any other point in time that you want to keep a record of. You can enter many details about the event, such as where and when it will take place, how long it will run, and whether it’s a recurring event.
On the Start screen, click the Calendar app.
Click a date. (In Week or Day view, click a time slot.)
Enter a title and description of the event.
Enter appropriate information for the Where, When, Start time, and How Long settings.
Click the Save this Event button.
Tip
If you want an event such as a birthday or monthly meeting to recur on a regular basis, such as every week or every year, use the How Often setting in the event’s Details page. Just click the field and then click a time period: day, weekday, week, month, or year. The event is created for all recurring dates.
One reason to enter events in the Calendar app is so that you can be reminded of those events ahead of time. When you create an event, you can also apply a setting so that you are alerted prior to the event—for example, 15 or 30 minutes ahead of the event, a day ahead, and so on. When that specified reminder time arrives, the Calendar app will send you an email about the event.
On the Start screen, click the Calendar app.
Click an existing event or right-click the screen and then click New.
If you’re creating a new event, enter a start time.
Click the Show More link.
Click the Reminder field.
Click the setting for how far ahead of the event start time you’d like to receive a reminder.
Click the Save this Event button.
Tip
Sometimes it’s useful to be reminded of an event a week ahead and then again a day ahead. If you want a couple of reminders about an event, you will have to set this up manually. Set the reminder that’s furthest out—for example, one week. When that reminder appears in your email inbox, take a moment to go back and edit the event to add another reminder, such as one hour or one day ahead.
For many events, you will want to let other people know what’s going on. When you set up an event such as a party or conference call, you can invite people to the event by entering their email addresses in the Details form. You can also enter a message that will go to all invitees.
On the Start screen, click the Calendar app.
Click an existing event or right-click and then click New.
Click the Show More link.
Click in the Who field.
Enter and email address.
Click Send.
You can open an event’s Details page and add or change information you’ve included there. For example, if the time of the event has changed or if you didn’t know the location but now you do and want to add it, you can update these details. After you make the changes, simply save them and your event is up to date.
On the Start screen, click the Calendar app.
Click an event.
Click in a field, and modify the information as needed.
Click the Save this Event button.
Change is a constant in many of our lives. Luckily, the Calendar app helps you keep up with changes in your schedule. If an event such as a luncheon or business meeting gets canceled, it’s best to delete it from your Calendar, especially if you’ve set it up to send you a reminder. You can delete an event from its Details page.
On the Start screen, click the Calendar app.
Click an event.
Click the Delete Event button.
Click Delete to confirm.
The Weather app allows you to be prepared for what weather conditions will be in your location on any given day. You can display a few key points of data or more detailed information about the weather in a particular location, such as humidity and visibility. By default, Weather shows you only a week of weather forecasts, but you can view a few additional days beyond that.
On the Start screen, click the Weather app.
Click the More button. (If more information is already displayed, this button appears as a downward-facing arrow.)
Click the Less button. (If less information is already displayed, this button appears as an upward-facing arrow.)
Click the Forward arrow to scroll through a few more days of weather.
Tip
To change between temperature measurements in Celsius and Fahrenheit, right-click the Weather app screen and click the button in the lower-right corner, which will be labeled Change To Celsius if you’re currently displaying Fahrenheit or Change To Fahrenheit if you’re currently displaying Celsius.
Weather is a very useful app that helps you keep track of the weather where you are or the weather where you’re headed. To get the correct forecast, you first have to indicate to the Weather app the location for which you want a weather report. You can then get weather forecasts for just about any place in the world, in either Celsius or Fahrenheit.
On the Start screen, click the Weather app.
Right-click the screen.
Click Places.
Click the Add button.
Enter a location.
Click Add.
When you display the Weather app, you see your default or last-displayed location and some weather details for the current date, such as temperature, wind, humidity, visibility, and the barometer reading. You can also choose to view detailed weather reports from one of two sources, which might include services, such as Foreca, Weather.com, Weather Underground, iMap Weather, or AccuWeather.
With the Weather app open, click the More button to display weather details.
Click a weather service’s name under today’s weather to view that weather service.
Use the tools provided by your selected service to display hourly weather details or other information.
The Weather app provides a shortcut for viewing weather in locations throughout the world. You can display a map of the world, with major cities in regions such as Europe, South America, Africa, and Australia called out. The world weather map doesn’t offer every major city in the world, but it is a quick way to see the weather around the world and jump to any major city that is displayed. (Remember, you can use the Places feature in the Weather app to view weather from any town or city in the world.)
