iPod as Calendar: Using iCal

With Apple's iCal software, you can keep track of appointments, schedules, and events of all kinds. You can create multiple calendarsfor example, one for personal events such as birthdays and another for work appointments.

Use iCal to display multiple calendars at once to quickly identify schedule conflicts. You can also share calendarswith friends, coworkers, or complete strangersby publishing them through your .Mac account.

You can even download and use calendars that other people have created. Hundreds of free calendars are available in categories ranging from TV schedules to holidays to the phases of the moon.

You can also use appointment information from iCal calendars when creating wall calendars in iPhoto. Check a box, and iPhoto adds iCal events to your calendar. For details, see page 196.

iCal is included with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. If you're using an older version of the Mac OS, you can download iCal 1.5.5 from Apple's software downloads site (www.apple.com/downloads).

What does iCal have to do with the iPod? Simply this: You can copy your calendars to the iPod and view them on the road. You can also set up alarms in iCal and have your iPod beep to notify you of important appointments. Or TV shows.

Updating Calendars

Syncing calendars from elsewhere. You may also have calendar files that originated somewhere other than in your copy of iCalperhaps you downloaded a calendar from a Web site, or someone emailed it to you as an attachment, or you simply copied it from a different Mac. To add a calendar file to the iPod, drag its icon into the Calendars folder.

The iPod can also store calendars in the industry-standard vCal format. Files in vCal format end with the extension .vcs.

Navigating Calendars and Events

As with music and addresses, the iPod uses a drill-down menu scheme for calendars and events: the deeper you go, the more detail you get.

To display calendars, go to Extras > Calendar.

Calendar Tips

iCal Calling iTunes

Doug Adams' iCal Calling iTunes is a slick AppleScript that turns iCal and iTunes into a musical alarm clock: it enables iTunes to play a specific playlist at a time you specify.

iCal Calling iTunes is a cinch to use. Simply create an iCal event whose name is the same as one of your iTunes playlists. When the event time arrives, iTunes begins playing the playlist.

Silencing Alarms

If you've used iCal to specify that some events have alarms, your iPod will beep at the specified times. But there may be times when you don't want the iPod to beep.

To silence the iPod's alarms, go to Extras > Calendar > Alarms where you'll find three options: On (the iPod beeps and the alarm text appears on the iPod's screen); Silent (no beep but the alarm text still appears); and Off (no beep or alarm text).

Dates of All Kinds

You don't use iCal to manage your schedule? Don't let that stop you from sampling the world of calendars that other people have published on the Web. You can download hundreds of calendars in dozens of categories: sports schedules, TV schedules, lunar phases, celebrity personal appearances, holidays of all kinds, and more.

One place to find calendars is Apple's iCal Web site, but the

ultimate collection of calendars lives at an independent site called iCalShare (www.icalshare.com). I downloaded the Moon Phases calendar, and now my iPod knows the phases of the moon through the year 2015.

So even if you don't use iCal to manage your appointments, you might find it a useful tool for keeping track of events that take place elsewhere in the solar system.