Whether you are looking to organize your life or want reminders of upcoming birthdays, macOS calendar can do it all. Calendars are so much more than just a place to create events. Let’s take a deep look at all the things you didn’t know your Mac calendar could do.
Adding a Calendar
The Calendar app can host almost as many personal and work calendars as you can imagine. Adding a new calendar is easy.
1. Launch the Calendar app on your Mac. You can launch it from the dock or from Launchpad.
2. Click on File from the menu bar near the top of the screen and select “New Calendar.”
3. Next, type in whatever name you would like as a title.
4. Hit Enter and you have a new calendar.
Adding Accounts
1. In the Calendar app, choose “Calendar” in the menu bar and “Add Account.”
2. You now have the option of selecting what type of calendar you wish to add. It can be anything from iCloud, Microsoft Exchange, Google, Yahoo, AOL or a manually-entered option.
3. Each account will become listed on the Calendar sidebar. If the sidebar is not showing, select “View” and “Show Calendar List.”
Adding Events
1. Open the Calendar app, right-click on the date and type in a name for the event. This can be anything you want from a birthday, a dinner or a meeting with the boss.
2. Adjust the hours, minutes and AM/PM to make sure you have the appropriate start and end time.
3. If the event will repeat or is recurring, you can select “Every Day,” “Every Week,” etc., or enter a custom option.
4. You also have the option of adding an alarm if you want a notification ahead of the scheduled time. This can range from five minutes to two days before or any custom timeframe you would like.
5. There is even an option to set up a travel time so you know when to leave for an event if it’s not in your home or at your place of work.
Add Multi-Day Events
1. In the Month view, click on the first day of an upcoming event and drag the cursor all the way to the last day of the event. The Calendar app will automatically schedule the app for multiple days as all-day events.
2. In the Week view, you can drag the event across the “all-day” section at the top. If you click and drag across the days in the “all-day” section, the event will now get scheduled between the first and last day you have selected.
Add Events from macOS Mail
1. Begin by opening up the Mail app on your Mac and selecting “Preferences -> General -> Add invitations to your Calendar automatically.”
2. Once this setting is enabled, you need only to hover over a date or time in an email to see an option to add it to the Calendar app.
3. Only upcoming events can be scheduled, as the Mail app will not let you add historical events, even if they are as recent as the day before.
Create or Modify New Calendar Events with Siri
Siri offers a number of opportunities within the macOS calendar, as it syncs to your iPhone with iCloud, Exchange, Google, etc.
1. You can ask Siri for a summary of upcoming calendar events. Just say “Hey Siri, show me upcoming calendar events.”
2. To add a calendar event, say “Hey Siri, schedule a call with Mom tomorrow at 10 am.” Remember to replace the names and dates with your own information.
Open Files Before a Meeting
What happens if you have a recurring weekly meeting or a spreadsheet you need to update for a client every month?
1. To get started, create an event and then double-click on it so you see the “Edit Event” pop-up menu open.
2. Once the pop-up opens, click on “Alert -> Customer” so you see another small pop-up appear.
3. Click on “Message with sound” so you can see the drop-down menu and the option for “Open file.”
4. Click on the Calendar drop-down menu right beneath “Open file” and select “Other.”
5. This will bring up the Finder window where you can select the file you want to open each day/week/month.
6. A “+” button appears next to the first alert so you can create multiple alerts and/or multiple files opening each month.
How to Use Multitouch
Like plenty of other Mac apps, multitouch comes in handy for the Calendar app as well.
1. Swipe up or down with two fingers on the mousepad to move between different months when you are in month view.
2. If you are in week view, swipe right or left and jump between different weeks.
3. Go into the Day view, and from the left side of the mousepad, swipe left or right and move between different days.
Access Your Calendar from iCloud.com
In the event you need to access your calendar and you do not have your phone or computer, you can log in to iCloud.com and see your entire calendar.
1. Using any browser, go to iCloud.com and log in using your Apple or iCloud ID.
2. Note that in order for this to work, you need to be using iCloud sync for all of your calendar items to appear on the Web.
Once you open iCloud.com, click on the Calendar icon, and you will see your entire calendar.
3. If you are not using iCloud sync, go “Settings -> iCloud” on your Mac and make sure the Calendar box is checked off to enable syncing.
Apple’s Calendar app has long been a staple for millions of Mac users. Using these tips will allow you to master your Calendar and stay productive. If you don’t like the default Calendar app, there are plenty of excellent third-party Calendar apps around.
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