You should be able to find a menu entry called Events and, if you click on it, you should see the Add New link.
This should bring you to the event editor.
The event editor hopefully won’t contain too many surprises: it is intentionally almost identical – at least at first glance – to the regular page and post editor used by WordPress itself.
Just as with a page or post, you can add a title and description to your event. The expected controls for saving it as a draft or publishing it are present, too:
Event Time #
Of course, events have specific bits of information associated with them that most pages and posts don’t require – start and end dates, for instance, not to mention venues and organizers.
Fields to set all of these things can be found below the description editor, in an area called the events meta box:
Let’s look at each of the settings in this area in turn. First, the date and time fields.
- The Start/End – this is simply when the event starts and finishes. Clicking into either date field will pop up a date picker, where you may select your desired dates from a calendar. Event start and end times may be selected from a drop-down menu, or you may enter your dates and times manually if you prefer. If you already checked the All Day Event box you will not be able to specify a time for your event
- The All Day Event checkbox is useful when the event is taking place on a particular date (or dates) – but you don’t really know when, or else feel that it is good enough to say it takes place “all day” without being more specific
The above covers creating a singular, non-recurring event.
Event Venue #
If this is your first time using The Events Calendar, you’ll see this list of fields for creating your first event venue. If you’ve created a venue for a previous event, you’ll have the option of selecting an existing venue from a drop-down menu (you may also type into the search box to narrow your options). Entering a new venue name and selecting the Create option from the menu options will display the new venue form fields below, allowing you to create a new venue for your event.
It’s also worth noting that you don’t need to create (or use) a venue. If you prefer not to specify a venue, simply move on to the next section.
Provide a name for the venue and any optional address details – if you like – a contact phone number and website. The last two checkboxes control whether a map should be shown to visitors and/or a link to a map should be displayed.
If your event is happening a little off the beaten path and there isn’t a mappable address, you can use latitude and longitude instead. To do this, leave the venue without an address. After you’ve created the event, go to Events > Venues and edit the Venue in question. You’ll see an option there for adding coordinates.
Organizers #
Similar to the venue details, you can select any pre-existing organizer details that you have already entered. Also – just as with the venue details – this area is completely optional.
You do not need to provide organizer details and, if you do, you need only provide as much information as you want to. Keep in mind that if you opt for multiple organizers, any organizer meta (like the phone number or email) will not show on the frontend-only the organizer names will be listed.
Event Website #
The next section in the New Event Admin lets you (again, optionally) provide an event website:
This is particularly useful if you are showcasing events organized by external organizations and they have a dedicated event website.
Event Cost #
Once again you can pass on by and leave these alone if you like. If you don’t provide a cost, then no cost details will be shown to visitors. If the event is actually free then simply provide a cost of 0 (zero).
Do also note that, in the interests of being as internationally friendly as possible, you are able to make a currency symbol display either before or after the actual amount.