iCal 1.5.4

[smsm1]

What's missing from iCal

Here's a list of what I think is missing:

1. Completion times for Tasks, rather than just dates.
2. Sometimes I have scrolled up or down on the page, thus there are events hiding. My phone has a little angle bracket to show that there are more events earlier in the day, or later in the day.
3. Unfortunatly I don't have a net conection at home yet so .Mac is no use for syncing calendars between machines, also allowing others to mod events etc. would be useful.
4. Link to address book cards, and be able to automatically add a particular person to an event. For example, my driving instructor to Driving Lessons.

 

[smsm1]

Spell checking in the fields that could use it!

I love that most apps under OS X support the built in spell checker. Yes, I am a terrible speller. It is beyond me why Apple does not support it in all of their own apps. Even Safari supports it in the very form I am typing in.

Cheers

How did you get Safari to check in this field

 

[~Shard~]

How did you get Safari to check in this field

Safari -> Edit -> Spelling -> Check Spelling As You Type

 

[Col. Panic]

how about outlook compatibility- i'd like to send an ical invitation to win users, but thats not working. ok, so i try vice versa, same no go.

You could try GroupCal 2.0. I am currently using this at work and it lets me manage (create meetings, book resources, etc.) my Outlook calendar via iCal. There are some minor issues but I think they are more an issue with Exchange than GroupCal or iCal.

 

[cubist]

Care to share what features are lacking and what you'd like to see done? It's easy to complain about something, but much more relevant to offer a reasonable solution. ...

Anyone who has used iCal for more than a few minutes knows that is, frankly, a poor product. I've submitted at least a dozen reports to Apple, mostly enhancements but also bug reports. Here are a few:
(a) Entry of To-do items is painfully cumbersome. You can't select the date from a picker, you have to enter month, day, year in separate fields.
(b) Since the dates don't advance automatically, and there's no way to update several items (e.g. move them to a new date - drag & drop would be good!), the To-do list is basically a waste of time. It doesn't sync to the iPod either.
(c) Sometimes, editing a To-do item will cause the program to crash.
(d) No way to purge old events (e.g. delete everything before 10/1/04). Why, the Newton had that in 1997. My cellphone does that.
(e) Changing a recurring event that has a deleted instance in the future doesn't work. It only changes the ones up to the deletion.
(f) In conjunction with iSync, the program seems to create duplicates frequently for no reason. Some events go to .Mac, some don't; some go to the phone, some don't.
(g) When you think about it, there really isn't a major difference between a To-do item and an event (an event automatically completes, a task does not). The program could make them look similar. Instead, we have the "palm dichotomy" where they're viewed in two different lists, edited in completely different ways.
(h) Did I mention sorting? There isn't any!
(i) I could go on and on...

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Anyone who has used iCal for more than a few minutes knows that is, frankly, a poor product. I've submitted at least a dozen reports to Apple, mostly enhancements but also bug reports. Here are a few:
(a) Entry of To-do items is painfully cumbersome. You can't select the date from a picker, you have to enter month, day, year in separate fields.
(b) Since the dates don't advance automatically, and there's no way to update several items (e.g. move them to a new date - drag & drop would be good!), the To-do list is basically a waste of time. It doesn't sync to the iPod either.
(c) Sometimes, editing a To-do item will cause the program to crash.
(d) No way to purge old events (e.g. delete everything before 10/1/04). Why, the Newton had that in 1997. My cellphone does that.
(e) Changing a recurring event that has a deleted instance in the future doesn't work. It only changes the ones up to the deletion.
(f) In conjunction with iSync, the program seems to create duplicates frequently for no reason. Some events go to .Mac, some don't; some go to the phone, some don't.
(g) When you think about it, there really isn't a major difference between a To-do item and an event (an event automatically completes, a task does not). The program could make them look similar. Instead, we have the "palm dichotomy" where they're viewed in two different lists, edited in completely different ways.
(h) Did I mention sorting? There isn't any!
(i) I could go on and on...

With regards to (e), the best solution I can think of is to add the ability to cancel an event rather than delete it.

 

[cubist]

And with respect to the apologists who say, "I think it's a consumer app, not a business one", and similar things: As a programmer, I would never have released this program to the public in its current form. It is an embarrassment, whether aimed at consumers, or kindergartners, or anyone else on the planet.

I hope somebody from Apple has picked up Mirko, BWhaler, and my comments and is putting them on their To-do list -- in some other program.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

And with respect to the apologists who say, "I think it's a consumer app, not a business one", and similar things: As a programmer, I would never have released this program to the public in its current form. It is an embarrassment, whether aimed at consumers, or kindergartners, or anyone else on the planet.

I hope somebody from Apple has picked up Mirko, BWhaler, and my comments and is putting them on their To-do list -- in some other program.

I'll gladly pick up all the comments, submit them in one big report, and encourage Apple to develop iCal 2.0 (for Tiger users, of course). I'm an ADC member (Online), and I've submitted things of this nature to Apple before. I'll have to do it when I return to my Mac, though.

 

[mirkojankov]

please do so!!!

I'll gladly pick up all the comments, submit them in one big report, and encourage Apple to develop iCal 2.0 (for Tiger users, of course). I'm an ADC member (Online), and I've submitted things of this nature to Apple before. I'll have to do it when I return to my Mac, though.

that would be great! you could compile them all and post them, so that we can add up. i would suggest you to do in a 'structured' way, so that each comment can be done to a certain very specific point (ex. 1.b.) and added up by all the others. there have been great and useful ideas in this thread, and as most of people said (myself inclusive), these are only the first thoughts - many more are hidden somewhere.

if you want to do it, go for it, you'll have a lot more of my, and i'm sure of other people's, ideas and suggestions. let's all be a part of solution!

mirko

 

[kcmac]

You could try GroupCal 2.0. I am currently using this at work and it lets me manage (create meetings, book resources, etc.) my Outlook calendar via iCal. There are some minor issues but I think they are more an issue with Exchange than GroupCal or iCal.

I used this and it deleted my calendar events. I was using the demo. The devs are really responsive but didn't really know what happened.

All I can say is, back up your calendars before you use this software.

 

[BWhaler]

I'll gladly pick up all the comments, submit them in one big report, and encourage Apple to develop iCal 2.0 (for Tiger users, of course). I'm an ADC member (Online), and I've submitted things of this nature to Apple before. I'll have to do it when I return to my Mac, though.

Thank you very much for doing this. I have submitted more lists via the regular product feedback channel than I can count, and it has been a fruitless endeavor.

So hopefully a list coming from an ADC member will carry more credibility. I really appreciate your offer.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I'll gladly pick up all the comments, submit them in one big report, and encourage Apple to develop iCal 2.0 (for Tiger users, of course). I'm an ADC member (Online), and I've submitted things of this nature to Apple before. I'll have to do it when I return to my Mac, though.

I know, I'm quoting myself...

Anyway, I've gathered all the suggestions and submitted them in an ADC Bug Report. Hopefully Apple will listen to us.

 

[vannote]

How did you get Safari to check in this field

As the other poster mentioned.

Edit / Spelling / Check Spelling as You Type.

or as I prefer

Simply Cmd-: or Cmd-;

Regards

 

[vannote]

Anyway, I've gathered all the suggestions and submitted them in an ADC Bug Report. Hopefully Apple will listen to us.

Did you mention the Spell Check?

I will have to pull a radar together for Address Book as well. Again, No spell checking in fields that would obviously benefit from it.

Cheers

 

[antirealist]

Another iCal peeve I have is with Month view. The closer to the end of the month you are, the less information is displayed about future events. You may have to switch to the next month view just to see what's happening in a few days time. This is daft, IMHO. Even Outlook allows you to scroll week by week in this mode.

I think this is a good example of software imitating a physical model - a monthly calendar - too literally, and handicapping itself in the process.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Did you mention the Spell Check?

I will have to pull a radar together for Address Book as well. Again, No spell checking in fields that would obviously benefit from it.

Cheers

Yes, the spell check was included in the report.

 

[gojira]

iCal = Big Disappointment

By this point in time, I had HOPED that iCal would have morphed into a decent, full-featured application. I hate to say it, but it really doesn't compare to the current Palm Desktop (aka Claris Organizer 2), which hasn't had a major update since long before Apple sold it to Palm, like around 1996.

Yes, there are plenty of third party calendar applications available, but as others have said here, scheduling is at least as important as email. SO, why doesn't Apple take iCal seriously. Apple needs a really SLICK integrated address, calendar application with great system wide integration, power and a cool interface. Think Mail, iTunes or GarageBand.

This feels like the Apple of old... release an application with loads of potential. Apple loses interest, the thing slowly dies on the vine and fades away. Shall we name names? HyperCard. AppleWorks (yes it lies in a state of perpetual stasis). Claris Organizer. OpenDoc. CyberDog. It sickens me to go on...

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Update on the submission to ADC

I just got an email reply from ADC; they want me to submit each issue separately. I don't have time to do that today or tomorrow - I'll have to do it on Wednesday, December 1st, 2004.

 

[asif786]

By this point in time, I had HOPED that iCal would have morphed into a decent, full-featured application. I hate to say it, but it really doesn't compare to the current Palm Desktop (aka Claris Organizer 2), which hasn't had a major update since long before Apple sold it to Palm, like around 1996.

Yes, there are plenty of third party calendar applications available, but as others have said here, scheduling is at least as important as email. SO, why doesn't Apple take iCal seriously. Apple needs a really SLICK integrated address, calendar application with great system wide integration, power and a cool interface. Think Mail, iTunes or GarageBand.

This feels like the Apple of old... release an application with loads of potential. Apple loses interest, the thing slowly dies on the vine and fades away. Shall we name names? HyperCard. AppleWorks (yes it lies in a state of perpetual stasis). Claris Organizer. OpenDoc. CyberDog. It sickens me to go on...

You're right. Appleworks is an embarassment. I think Apple is developing iCal 2.0 right now though, and it'll be a release that wows us all (i hope..)

/asif

 

[BWhaler]

You're right. Appleworks is an embarassment. I think Apple is developing iCal 2.0 right now though, and it'll be a release that wows us all (i hope..)

/asif

I hope you are right. I really hope Apple has iCal 2.0 up their sleeve and it has not previewed yet in Tiger.

Tiger so far has shown v1.6 of iCal, and at best it's a lackluster upgrade with a handful of enhancements.

But I hope you are right.

 

[jimmer]

iCal - power hog

Hi,
Has another noticed that iCal (all versions) loads extremely slowly.
I have iCal in the start-up folder and it really effects the the start-up time.

iCal is a real power hog. Apple should work on this.

Am I missing something?

 

[paleobiology]

BIrthdays on iCal

If only it would remind me to put peoples birthdays in so I could remember them.

There is a great little program called iCal Birthday Shifter that you can google for. It grabs you address book Bdays and sticks em on iCal. Its donation shareware.