# Creating Virtual, In-Person, and Choice Appointments

pickAtime makes it easy to offer virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences using your preferred online meeting platform. You can offer parents a choice between **In-Person** and **Virtual** meetings, or set all appointments to one type — and you can mix appointment types within a single event, across different teachers or different times of day.

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#### Enabling Appointment Type Selection

By default, the appointment type drop-down is hidden in the **Slot Generator** and **Slot Updater**. To enable it:

1. Go to **Settings / Vendor UI Setup**.
2. Under **Slot Generator**, check **"Show the 'Appointment Type' drop-down."**

Once enabled, you can set each slot to **Virtual**, **In-Person**, or **Choice** (parent selects) directly within the Slot Generator/Updater.

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#### Setting Up Virtual Meetings

You have two options for providing virtual meeting links:

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##### Option 1: Automatic Integration (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet)

pickAtime integrates directly with **Zoom**, **Microsoft Teams**, and **Google Meet** to automatically generate a unique meeting link for each appointment.

- A unique link is created per scheduled appointment.
- The link is automatically included in the parent's confirmation email.
- Works for both **Virtual** and **In-Person or Virtual** (Choice) appointment types.

> **There is no additional cost** for using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet with pickAtime.

**Setup steps (same for all three providers):**

1. Go to **Settings / UI Setup / Show Advanced Settings**.
2. Under **Online Meeting Provider**, select your provider (**Zoom**, **Google Meet**, or **Microsoft Teams**).
3. Create and publish your event as usual.

Each booking will automatically include a unique meeting link in the confirmation email.

**Provider-specific prerequisites:**

<div class="overflow-x-auto w-full px-2 mb-6" id="bkmrk-provider-prerequisit"><table class="min-w-full border-collapse text-sm leading-[1.7] whitespace-normal"><thead class="text-left"><tr><th class="text-text-100 border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.6)] py-2 pr-4 align-top font-bold" scope="col">Provider</th><th class="text-text-100 border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.6)] py-2 pr-4 align-top font-bold" scope="col">Prerequisite</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td class="border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.3)] py-2 pr-4 align-top">**Google Meet**</td><td class="border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.3)] py-2 pr-4 align-top">Google Sync must be set up first — see [Google Calendar Integration](https://pickatime.com/help/GoogleCalendarIntegration.html)</td></tr><tr><td class="border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.3)] py-2 pr-4 align-top">**Zoom**</td><td class="border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.3)] py-2 pr-4 align-top">See the [Zoom Integration guide](https://pickatime.com/help/ZoomAdminManagedApp.html)</td></tr><tr><td class="border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.3)] py-2 pr-4 align-top">**Microsoft Teams**</td><td class="border-b-0.5 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)/0.3)] py-2 pr-4 align-top">Microsoft Teams must be set up first — see [Microsoft Calendar Integration](https://pickatime.com/help/MicrosoftTeams.html)</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div>---

##### Option 2: Custom Meeting Links Per Teacher

Use any meeting platform (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, etc.) by manually assigning a link to each teacher.

1. Create your event as usual.
2. Go to the **Appointments** page.
3. For each teacher, enter their personal meeting link in the **Virtual Room** field.
4. Go to **Settings / UI Setup / Scheduler Display** and uncheck **"Display Rooms"** — this prevents long meeting URLs from cluttering the parent-facing scheduler.

> We recommend also enabling **"Replace the Email Body with the Printable Schedule of Appointments"** under **Settings / Notification Setup**, so parents receive a clean table of appointments that includes their meeting link.