Creating an Event

An event is one signup sheet: a fall festival, a classroom potluck, a night of parent-teacher conferences. Everything else in Manifyst — slots, items, custom questions, signups — belongs to an event.

Choose a starting point #

Go to Manifyst → Add Event. Before the event form opens, choose the kind of signup you are building:

• Volunteer shifts — several people can choose staffed shifts, roles, or work periods.
• One-person appointments — individual meeting or conference times. Manifyst suggests one signup per attendee, and new appointment slots start with capacity 1.
• Potluck or items — attendees claim food, supplies, equipment, or other contributions.
• Mixed shifts and items — one event needs both staffed times and things people can bring.
• Repeating event — a schedule that repeats; each date becomes its own signup sheet. See Recurring Events.
• Start blank — the standard form without suggested signup defaults.

These are starting points, not separate event types. Your choice does not hide any tabs or settings, and you can change every suggested value. If you return to Change starting point before saving, Manifyst keeps the event details you have already entered.

Fill in the event details #

After choosing a starting point, fill in the event form.

1. Event Details — the Title is what participants see at the top of the signup page. Description appears just below it, so use it for the who/what/why. Slug controls the event's own URL and is generated from the title if you leave it blank.
2. Date & Time — choose what the page should show: Scheduled date, Date TBD, or No date. Scheduled events need a Start Date; add an End Date only when an event runs across several days. Date TBD and No date events can be activated and accept signups without a date. Turning on Repeats makes a scheduled event a repeating series — see Recurring Events.
3. Organizer — the name and email shown on the event page. The email address is also where organizer notifications go, and it becomes the reply-to address on them.

Click Save Draft. Manifyst creates the event without publishing it and opens the best next tab for your starting point: Slots for shifts or appointments, Items for a potluck, and Slots followed by Items for a mixed event. Start blank returns to Event Details. The remaining tabs and settings are always available.

Preview, activate, and share the event #

The publishing panel stays at the top of Event Details, so the event's status, visibility, and main actions are together.

1. Click Save Draft whenever you want to save your work without opening the event to attendees.
2. After the draft exists, click Preview as Attendee to open the real event page in a new tab. This is an authenticated preview: only a signed-in Event Manager or an Event Organizer assigned to that event can open it. Sending the preview URL to someone else does not expose the draft.
3. Add at least one slot or item, then click Activate Event. If neither exists, Manifyst warns that attendees will have no signup choices. You can return to the event or choose Activate anyway.
4. After activation, use Copy link to put the attendee URL on your clipboard or View event to open it yourself.

An active event can later be changed to Cancelled or Completed. Its existing link remains readable and clearly explains that signups are closed.

Signup and display settings #

Once the event exists, the Event Details tab gains the settings that govern how people can sign up.

1. The tab strip — Event Details, Slots, Items, Form Fields, Signups, Shortcode — appears only after the event has been created.
2. Signup Settings:
   • Require users to be logged in to sign up turns off guest signups for this event only.
   • Require an email address is on by default. Turn it off for committee-style sheets where a name is enough; confirmation, reminder, and self-cancellation emails naturally require an address.
   • Allow attendees to cancel their own signup puts a cancellation link in every confirmation email.
   • Cancellation deadline (hours before) stops self-cancellations close to the event — 48, for example, means nobody can drop out inside the last two days.
   • Max signups per user limits how many slots one person can take on this event. 0 means unlimited. See How do I stop one person taking every slot? for how a person is identified.
3. Display Settings:
   • Display style chooses the standard slot cards, a classic numbered signup sheet, or a committee table with task descriptions.
   • Show signups publicly lists the people who have signed up on the event page. Names are shortened to a first name and last initial.
4. Categories group related events. Create and manage them under Manifyst → Categories, select them on the event, then use a category archive, block, or shortcode to show the group together.
5. Visibility appears in the publishing panel:
   • Public events can be opened by anyone after activation.
   • Private events are only visible to signed-in WordPress users.
   • Password protected events require the event password, even for signed-in managers. They stay out of event lists, archives, and sitemaps, so share the direct event link and password with attendees. See How do password-protected events work?.

Use Save Draft before activation or Save Changes afterward.

The events list #

Manifyst → Events lists every event with its date, status, and signup count.

1. Add New Event starts a new signup sheet.
2. Each row shows the event's status and how many people have signed up so far.
3. The row actions take you straight to the parts of an event: Edit opens it, Slots and Signups jump to those tabs, Export downloads the signup list as CSV, and Copy link puts the event's attendee URL on your clipboard so you can paste it into an email or newsletter.
4. Duplicate asks for a new date, then creates a draft copy with the original setup, slots, items, custom fields, categories, visibility, and password. Signups are never copied.

Deleting an event is permanent and takes its signups with it — export the list first if you might need it.

Next #

• Add time slots so people can pick a shift.
• Ask extra questions on the signup form.
• Show the event on your site.