Basics4Mac - Setting iCal Event Options

There's more than meets the eye

Event options
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Many people haven't liked the changes in iCal from Tiger to Leopard. The Tiger version used a Drawer for Event options and the Leopard version uses a pop-up panel.

If you are a new Mac user, however and never used the old version, you might not be aware of the options that await you once you create an Event.

As a reminder, to create a new Event, click on the date you want to create the Event on and then type Command-N or go to File / New Event on the Menu Bar. Give the Event a name and then press Enter.

If that is as far as you are going with your Events, you are missing a whole lot of options.

To get to the options panel, double click on the Event. The first time you double click the Event, you get the full panel. On subsequent double clicks you will get a smaller panel with an Edit button. Click that Edit button to see the full options panel.

From the options panel, you can set the following options for your Event:

Edit the name of your Event.
Enter a location of the Event.
Mark the Event as "all day". (no start or end times)
Edit the start and end dates and times. (By changing the end date, you can create an Event that spans multiple days.)
Set the Event to repeat.
Change the Calendar that the Event is associated with.
Set an alarm to remind you of the Event.
Add attendees and send them an email invitation.
Attach files to the Event.
Attach a URL to the Event.
Enter notes for the Event.

After you have set the options, click the Done button.