Tagged: iCal

Sharing calendars with iCloud

The transition from MobileMe to iCloud couldn’t be easier, but the features and functions you have or don’t have couldn’t be more cloudy (pun intended). One of the common misconceptions I keep hearing about is that once you move to iCloud, you no longer can share a single calendar with other users. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

iCloud calendar sharing

iCloud calendar sharing requires a visit to your iCloud web page

You can share an iCal calendar with any iCloud user – but you’ll have to visit the iCloud.com calendar page to do it. Just click the little icon next to the calendar or reminder list you wish to share, and enter the email address of the user you want to share with. That’s it.

Quickly add events to your iCal calendar with Remind Me Later

I love the simplicity of iCal as my calendar application of choice on the Mac. But one thing that seems unnecessarily cumbersome is adding events to the calendar.

When I want to add a simple reminder to my calendar, I have to launch iCal, find the date (if I’m lucky it’s in the same week I happen to be displaying), click to add an event, double the event name to edit it, click yet again to make time adjustments, then place a bandage on my bleeding head from banging it on my desk. It shouldn’t be that difficult.

Thankfully, Remind Me Later (Free) relieves me of the keystrokes and the bleeding head.

Remind Me Later

Remind Me Later makes adding events to iCal easy

Remind Me Later lives in the menubar, and allows me to add calendar events using simple plain language in a single dialog box which I can activate with a keyboard shortcut, or clicking the icon in the menubar. It’s even smart enough to understand that fri 530pm means “this Friday” at “5:30 pm.” I just love how simple the interface is, and am amazed at how such a single feature app can make my day easier.

Once you download the app from the website or the Apple Mac Store, you make a few configurations in the preferences and you’re off and running. If you use iCal, and add frequent new events, Remind Me Later is virtually the perfect add-on.

Accepting an invitation on a specific Apple iCal calendar

If you have multiple calendars set up in Apple’s iCal application and you receive an invite from a friend, family member or client, you can easily decide which calendar you want the invite to be placed in. Simply hold down the Accept button, rather than just clicking on it, to get a pop-up menu which allows you to choose which iCal calendar it should be placed in.