iCal Questions

[iMatt mini]

Let's say I want to use iCal and my iBook as an alarm to wake me up in the morning. I have an annoying backup one just in case I don't wake up.
But here are my only concerns:
1. If I set it to play a song at 7:30 AM, and it's on the screensaver or it's asleep , will it still work?
2. This may sound stupid to some of you, but not a novice like me. Does iCal have to actually be opened to work or can I quit the program and have the alarm still go off?
3. Can I set a playlist to play instead of a song?

This will help me out a lot.
Thanks!

 

[robbieduncan]

Let's say I want to use iCal and my iBook as an alarm to wake me up in the morning. I have an annoying backup one just in case I don't wake up.
But here are my only concerns:
1. If I set it to play a song at 7:30 AM, and it's on the screensaver or it's asleep , will it still work?
2. This may sound stupid to some of you, but not a novice like me. Does iCal have to actually be opened to work or can I quit the program and have the alarm still go off?
3. Can I set a playlist to play instead of a song?

This will help me out a lot.
Thanks!

1. It will work if the screensaver is active. Not sure, it is possible to do this but I'm not sure if iCal wll.
2. There is a preference to turn off this behaviour (in the Advanced section) so I assume it's own by default.
3. No idea!

 

[tjwett]

1. If I set it to play a song at 7:30 AM, and it's on the screensaver or it's asleep , will it still work?

To make sure the machine is awake for the alarm you can schedule Wake/Sleep times from System Preferences>Energy Saver>Schedule

2. Does iCal have to actually be opened to work or can I quit the program and have the alarm still go off?

iCal does not need to be running. There is an iCal Alarm Scheduler that takes care of that for you.

3. Can I set a playlist to play instead of a song?

You can but it will require you to use the Run AppleScript alarm rather than Open File. Just save a new script with the following code...

tell application "iTunes"
	play playlist "Name of Morning Playlist"
end tell