Creating an event
You can create a new event by going to Calendars. Select New event, or double-click the day you wish to schedule the event.
When you're not viewing the Calendars screen, you can also create a new event by opening your sidebar, navigating to the Calendar tab, and clicking the plus icon.
From the event creation screen, you can set your event information:
- What: The name of your event.
- Where: The location of the event. If you sync your calendar to a mobile device, this will allow you to open the location in a mapping app.
- Calendar: Choose which of your Fastmail calendars you would like to save this event to, if you have more than one.
- Color: Use the color picker to select a color that will help the event stand out. By default, the color of the parent calendar will be selected.
- Show as: Mark yourself as Free or Busy. If you mark the event as Free, you can have multiple events at the same time.
- When: The time and duration of your event. You can also change the time zone for the event.
- Repeat: If the event will happen more than once, you can toggle this option and set how you want the event to repeat. More info on creating a repeating event is available at our Repeating calendar events help page.
- Who: Add guests' email addresses, and they will receive an invitation to the event when you click Save.
- Organizer: After adding guests, you can select the identity you'd like to use to send the event.
- Reminders: Set email notifications or browser alerts to send you a reminder before the event at the time(s) of your choosing.
- Notes: Any additional notes about this event. These are shared with other invitees.
- Attach file: Any additional files related to this event. These are shared with other invitees.
Event invitations
Receiving an invitation
When receiving an invitation in Fastmail, you will be able to see the following details:
- The name of the event
- The date, time, duration, and time zone of the event
- The location of the event, and a link to view the location in a map via DuckDuckGo
- All invitees to the event
- Notes or attachments added by the sender
- RSVP buttons
Clicking Going, Maybe, or Not going will send a response to the sender via email.
You can click the Add to calendar button to view the event in your sidebar. (If you have already sent an RSVP to the event, this button will say View in calendar.)
This is what an invitation to you will look like in your email:
Sending an invitation
When creating an event, you can add guests by scrolling down to the Who section, clicking Add guest, entering the guest's email address in the field, and clicking Invite.
If you'd like to change the email address that is used to send the invitation, you can do so using our address picker: Click the dropdown menu labeled Organizer and select the desired address.
If you would like to add a guest to an event that you have already created, you can do so by finding the event in your calendar, clicking the Edit button, and adding the guest from there.
After a guest has been added, clicking Save will send them an email invitation to your event.
Guests can respond to your invitation by selecting Going, Maybe, or Not going. When a guest responds, you will receive their RSVP via email.
This is what their RSVP to you will look like in your email:
RSVP on the web
When sending an invitation to a guest who does not use Fastmail, the appearance of the invitation may look different, depending on how their email provider or client displays invitations. If the guest's email provider or client does not support calendars, they may not be able to RSVP directly from the email.
RSVP on the web allows guests to open the invitation in a Fastmail-hosted web page that is separate from the email. Your guest can click the View event status link to open the web page, view the event details, and send their RSVP, regardless of their email provider. If updates are made to the event's details, the web page will update automatically.
Note: The event status link is specific to your guest's RSVP. Sharing the event status link with anyone other than the intended guest could allow that person to modify your guest's RSVP. For this reason, you and your guest should avoid sharing an event status link or forwarding email invitations.
The event status page will look like this to your guest:
Invitation handling
By default, Fastmail will automatically update your calendar events when you receive an invitation or RSVP. If you prefer, you can choose to update your calendar manually instead.
Automatic calendar updates
To set up automatic calendar updates, go to Settings → Calendars. Click on the Calendar options tab at the top and scroll to the Invitations section. This is where you can choose how new invitations are handled, as well as calendar updates and RSVPs.
For new events, choose:
- which calendar to automatically add the event to,
- Note: Do not select a calendar that is shared to you (for a multi-user account), for your default calendar. The calendaring system will record the event as the calendar owner's, instead of as belonging to you.
- whether this is for all events, or just events from a particular group of contacts,
- and whether to leave the invitation where it is (unread), or whether to mark it as read and file it into a folder.
You will still need to RSVP to the event, which you can do from the original email or directly from your calendar event.
For new event invitations outside of the target group, event invitations are left to be handled manually.
For existing event updates, choose:
- whether to enable automatic updates to your calendars (including deleting the event if necessary),
- and whether to leave the event email where it is (unread), or whether to mark it as read and file it into a folder.
Manual calendar updates
For new events:
Your calendar does not update until you click the Add to Calendar button on the email. When this happens, the button changes to now say View in Calendar.
To set your RSVP status you can either:
- Set your attendance in the email itself, or
- Update the event in the calendar to respond on whether you're attending or not.
Deleting the event email is now safe as the changes are stored in the calendar.
For existing event updates:
Your calendar does not update until you click the Update Calendar button on the email. When this happens, the button changes to now say View in Calendar.
- For events you're organizing and the event mail is a participant RSVP, the update button sets their status in your event.
- For updates to an existing event, the update button applies the changes to your calendar.
Deleting the event email is now safe as the changes are stored in the calendar.
If you edit an event, all attendees are notified that the event has been changed.
Note: If you create an event in a synced calendar, its invitations will be from the other account synced to Fastmail. All RSVPs to the event will also be sent to this other account.
If you find you are having to do this frequently, consider migrating your calendars to Fastmail, or creating your events in your external account.
Setting an event reminder
An event can send you a reminder (or even multiple reminders) before it begins. It can send you an email or display a browser alert (you need to be logged in to see these).
For each alert, choose how you'd like to be contacted and how much time before the event you'd like to receive the notification.