Q: iCal default calendar

Not that I have found.  It is an example of reduced functionality from the new iCal.

not sure what u mean, but any event can be changed to any calendar by clicking on the event and editing:

yes, I see. I should not even be here. I am a busycal user since the beginning.

As promised in a topic elsewhere:

iCal preferences, default calendar, last selected calendar: proposed improvements to behaviour and user interface (10.7, Build 11A511)

Removing the sidebar in iCal and Address is just plain stupid move made by apple

I guess I am back to Google products again!

Count me another loyal Mac user who finds the Lion iCal to be a step backwards. Having to edit each new event to select the calendar to which it is assigned is time consuming, frustrating and just bad design. Please, Apple, change this back to the way earlier versions worked. Software is supposed to get better from version to version, not worse.

Hey Guys,

I was frustrated too, UNTIL I foud a fix for this. its so simple. Simply click on the "calendar" button on the top left corner iCal. Right click on all calendars that are stored "On My Mac". (i.e. Delete "home" and "work" calendars.) This will push the other calendars upward, and thus change your default calendar.

Hope it helps!

Khaled

Makes no sense to me. I don't have any calendars "on my Mac" they are all in the cloud.

This didn't work.  It just deleted all my events made with the calendar "On My Mac". I want to make the defult the "iCloud" Calendars but I can only figure it out manually, one event at a time. Are there any other options to make the iCloud the defult calenders, not On My Mac?

I never used Lion, but in mountain lion you can set your default calendar to "selected calendar" which then works as you described.

I just upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion and ran into this annoying behavior too.  I'm glad to see that there is a "selected calendar" option on the preferences list, but I didn't spot it myself until I read your comment.  I agree with the folks at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3209030 that "selected calendar" should be the default on first upgrading, and it should appear at the top of the list rather than the bottom.