Calendar - Time Zone Support

[markgpearse]

Just venting...

1. There is no easy way to delete time zones in the time zone support drop-down. I found some advice on how to do this using Terminal, but it shouldn't be this complicated

2. Central Daylight Time (in system settings/general/date & time) = Central Time (in time zone support.) Why the difference? Dallas is on Central Time/Central Daylight Time, while Mexico is on Central Standard Time.

3. It would be helpful if Calendar showed the actual time in the time zone selected in time zone support.

I've learned the hard way that when saving iCals generated in and for other time zones I switch to that time zone before saving.

 

[gigatoaster]

I don’t use calendar to manage time zones. Instead, I use this app: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1516950324

 

[NoBoMac]

Central Daylight Time (in system settings/general/date & time) = Central Time (in time zone support.) Why the difference? Dallas is on Central Time/Central Daylight Time, while Mexico is on Central Standard Time.

Basically, timezone names are not standardized, each country has their own names for their timezones, UTC-HHMM notation should be used but that will probably confuse most people.

Since on Mac, see what's under /usr/share/zoneinfo/ to see what a mess TZ support is (eg. /usr/share/zoneinfo/US and /usr/share/zoneinfo/Mexico)

In the case of US vs Mexico, yes, Mexico's TZ are similarly named, but, they do not observe DST so US is "Central Time", Mexico is "Central Standard Time". But if look at location above for Mexico, areas by the US border do observe DST (BajaNorte in the TZ database/tables).

Yeah, could be better, but personally never had issues with setting up events in different timezones. Think only time I've had issues is when in a different TZ and setting an event for home TZ: need to specify home TZ vs just going through the normal motions.

ADD: Some apps do this better. For example, on Fantastical for Mac, they show "Central (-5)", "Eastern (-4)", mash up of name and UTC difference. On iOS, I use Calendar 366 and it lists them via Region/City, but even then, get the odd balls like Indiana, which has cleaned up their TZ and DST differences, but even then, you get this painful notation to deal with.

 

[BigBlur]

2. Central Daylight Time (in system settings/general/date & time) = Central Time (in time zone support.) Why the difference? Dallas is on Central Time/Central Daylight Time, while Mexico is on Central Standard Time.

Central Time is either CST or CDT. It depends on the date of the event and whether the location observes DST.

When you add something to your calendar using "Central Time", you don't need to figure out if you should be using CST or CDT. For example, if you add something to your calendar right now for next February and choose Central Time, it'll end up being CST. If you add something for September, it'll be CDT.

Basically, if "Central Time" wasn't an option, you'd need to know if you should be adding the event using "Central Standard Time" or "Central Daylight Time".

3. It would be helpful if Calendar showed the actual time in the time zone selected in time zone support.

Doesn't it do this already? I recently went on a trip to Hawaii and added all my events using HST beforehand (i.e. Luau @ 5PM HST). When I was home (in Central Time), it showed the event/block on my calendar at 9PM (5PM HST = 9PM CST), but I could view the details of the event and see it was set to 5PM HST. When I got to Hawaii (and my phone adjusted to HST), then everything was displaying as expected based on local time.

 

[markgpearse]

Hey everyone, thanks for your responses. Great pointers. While I have been an "Apple" person for at least 35 years, I am new to Calendar. Until I recently retired I used Outlook on my work laptop to keep track of events, appointments, etc. I am quickly figuring out Calendar.