One of these days you'll get orgisansed, right? (No, it's not a typo, it's a quote from the movie Taxi Driver.) Jokes aside, maintaining a calendar of events for work and home is always a bit of a juggle. One calendar might be located on your mobile phone, another one at work, one on your home computer, and probably the most important one stuck to your fridge. ICal can be used to sync all of these different calendars into one and you can even sync other people's schedules. No longer will you forget your partner's birthday, your wedding anniversary, or even your great aunt's birthday bash.
- Add events & to-do lists
Enter iCal, a free application now in its third iteration that comes shipped with Mac OS X Leopard. By default the application is easy to find as it shares a default space on the Apple Dock. If you can't find it, view the applications folder in Finder and click on iCal.
Start screen
Edit an entry
Adding events to iCal
The main column, which can be viewed by day, week, or month is where you'll add and subtract events in your schedule. We've found using the weekly view is the most intuitive way to look at a calendar but feel free to set your own view according to personal preference. To add a new event, make sure you've selected a calendar from the left Calendar column then double-click on the time and date the event is set to start. A new box will appear in the colour corresponding to which calendar it is and will allow you to edit the space with a name. For more advanced editing, double click the new event block and more options will be available.
As shown in the image above you can add in detailed information for each entry and invite people you know to events. You can also give the event a date, set the length of time for the event, add in the location, repeat the event for multiple days, give yourself an e-mail reminder before the event, add relevant attachments associated with the event, and add URLS and notes. While this advanced editing is handy, most day-to-day tasks can be used by dragging and dropping and resizing events on the calendar interface.
To-do list
Add a to-do list
iCal includes a to-do list which can integrate with Apple's Mail program. To insert to-do items, either add them via Apple's Mail program or add them via iCal. The two programs will sync with one another. Inside iCal the panel can be hidden. Click on the tack button on the bottom right of the application to view the pane.
To add a new to-do list item, double click on the right panel, or click on File -> Add new to-do item, or use the keyboard shortcut of Command +K. To edit an entry simply double-click the to-do field. If you're one that needs to keep on top of things with reminders, the to-do functionality adds a nifty feature that will send an email, sound an alarm, open a file, or even run a custom script to remind you of important tasks.
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