Finding a time

Making one

Start at Find a time. You need a title and your name, and no account. Add your email and we'll send you the links, plus a short note at 6 pm on any day somebody answers.

A template fills in a title and sensible hours for things like a team practice, a book club or a stand-up, and you can change either before you share it.

Dates, or days of the week

"Which days" offers two kinds of grid.

Specific dates is a run of days in a row: pick the first day and how many, up to 31. Use this when you're settling one occasion, like a dinner some evening next week.

Days of the week asks about Mondays, Tuesdays and so on, with no dates at all. Use it when you're looking for a regular time, like a weekly practice. People answer "Mondays at 7:00 pm" rather than a particular Monday. Because there's no date, a grid like this can't have a time locked in (more on that below).

With an account, a repeating thing goes further. It asks the same question, also lets people say which weeks they're away, and lays the weeks out once you pick a time.

The hours, and how long each time is

Under "Change the hours, or how long each one is", set the earliest and latest time you'd consider, and how long each time is, anything from 5 to 240 minutes. A line underneath works it out as you type, such as "12 times a day, 30 minutes each".

A latest time earlier than the earliest runs past midnight, which is handy for a late game or a night shift. Those small-hours times sit at the bottom of the evening they belong to and are marked "next day", so nobody reads 1 am as the start of the day.

A grid can hold up to 1,500 times in all, on every plan. If the days and hours add up to more, the form says so; fewer days or longer times fixes it.

Time zones

A grid is set up in one time zone. The form starts from the one your browser gives us, or Toronto if it doesn't give one, and it names the zone beside the hours. To use a different one, change "Time zone" under "Edit the details" on the console before anybody answers. The page people answer on says which zone the times are in.

If some of your people are somewhere else, say so in the description. Once anybody has answered, the zone can't change, because every answer is held against it. A copy can use a different one.

How people mark their times

Each day is a column and each time is a box. People pick every time that works for them:

• On a phone, tap a box, or press and hold one, then slide to fill a block.
• With a mouse, click and drag. Starting on a box that's already picked clears instead.
• With a keyboard, the grid is one stop. The arrow keys move, space picks, and holding shift while moving marks a block that Enter fills.

Above the grid are "I'm free any time", "None of these work", "Copy one day to the rest" and "Undo". Those need JavaScript. Without it the grid is a set of ordinary checkboxes, and marking times works the same way.

Then a name, an email if they want a copy and a way back to change it, a note if you've allowed notes, and "Save my times". Saving with nothing picked still counts as an answer, which is how somebody says none of it works. They can change their times, or take their answer back, until the grid closes.

Somebody signed in with a usual week saved arrives to find their times already marked, and a line saying so. Nothing is sent until they press save. More about a usual week.

Reading the results

Everybody sees the results under the grid, and you see them on the console too. Two parts:

Best times. Up to five stretches of times in a row, all on the same day, where the most people are free, and the same people all the way through. Each one says how many, like "6 of 8", and names who can't make it. On a days-of-the-week grid they read like "Mondays, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm".

Everyone's times. The whole grid again, shaded by how many people can make each time, with the count in every box. The darkest shade is kept for times everyone can make. On a grid with more than 600 boxes, like two weeks of whole days, the page people answer keeps it one step away, behind "Show everyone's times", so the page stays quick to open on a phone. The best times are always there, and the console always shows everything.

On the page people answer, two choices sit above the best times. "Without" works it out again as if one person weren't coming (once names are showing), and "Only times everyone can make" greys out the rest. They're a plain form, so the address afterwards can be sent to somebody else.

Hiding names until you close it

"Hide who picked what until you close it" keeps people from seeing each other's names, so nobody picks a time just because somebody else did. Everyone sees how many can make each time, and you see everything. Names show once you stop taking responses, lock in a time, or the closing date passes.

Locking in a time

When you've seen enough, "Lock in a time" on the console lists the best times. Pick one and press "Lock in this time". The time you lock in is the whole stretch, so if everyone is free from 9 to 5, that's the time.

Locking in closes the grid. The time goes at the top of the page with "Add it to your calendar", and everybody who left an address gets an email with a calendar file attached. So that nobody's inbox fills up, that email goes out at most 3 times a day for one grid; lock in again after that and the console says you'll need to tell people yourself.

Picked the wrong one? "Open it again" takes the time off and opens the grid again. Then lock in the one you meant.

A days-of-the-week grid has no date to lock in. Its best times are the regular times that suit most people, and "Tell people something" on the console is how you let everyone know which one you've chosen.

What you can change later

Under "Edit the details" you can change the title, the description, your name and email, what it's for, the time zone until somebody answers, the closing date, and the two options: hiding names, and notes. The days, the hours and how long each time is can't be changed. To ask about different ones, start a new grid from Find a time; "Make a copy" keeps the same ones.

Running your page covers the rest of the console: closing, messages, the spreadsheet and deleting.

What's free, and what isn't

Everything above works on the free plan, where a page takes up to 200 answers. Choosing the day and time a reminder goes out, your own link ending, colour and logo, and a PIN are part of the paid plans; What's on each plan compares them.