iCal and your MacBook help you stay organized


Apple has provided a very effective but easy-to-use program called iCal to help you track important dates, schedule appointments, and even share your calendar entries with friends and family.

Of course, there’s more to iCal than just entering appointments and remembering someone’s birthday; you can set alarms for important events or dates and create your own events that you can invite your contacts to.

Create Calendars

How you set up your calendars is completely up to you. You can have a single master calendar with all of your events and schedules on it, or you can create multiple calendars for different aspects of your life.

To create a new calendar, first open iCal by clicking the icon in the dock. You will be presented with two premade calendars - Home and Work. To add a third, either select File > New Calendar or click in the calendar window and then click the + button in the corner of the iCal window.

Enter a descriptive name for your new calendar. iCal organizes multiple calendars by color, so you can also click the small box to the right of the name and turn calendars on and off. To change a calendar’s default color, click the name of the calendar you want and then click Edit > Get Info. Select a new color from the pull-down menu.

Create a Calendar Entry

To get started with creating entries in your calendar, you first need to click the name of the calendar you want to work with. Once you’ve chosen the correct calendar, you can drag your mouse across the day and time that your event takes place and then click it to access more options. Your selection doesn’t have to be perfect, because you can correct any errors in the forthcoming dialog box.

Enter a name for your event, correct start and end times, if necessary, and a location or any other additional information, and then save your entry to add it to the calendar. Some of the options that you have for each entry include setting a reminder alarm, repeating events (such as birthdays and anniversaries), and adding a guest list. You can always edit your entry by double-clicking it on your calendar or by selecting the event name and then selecting Edit > Get Info.

How you add an event depends on what view you are in. If you are in Month view instead of Week view, double-click the day to add something to your calendar instead of dragging your mouse across the preferred day and time.

You can create line breaks in your calendar entries by pressing option-return. Use this feature to create lists within an event, such as to assign dishes to people for a potluck or to accomplish anything else you can think of.

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Note: This article was sent to us by: Josh Roys at 11282010

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