iCal shortcomings

I'm new to these forums so please forgive me if I bring up topics which may have been covered before. I've returned to the world of Apple after having left during their dark ages (OS versions 7-9). I'm a regular user of iCal but find some of its shortcomings perplexing. I had used Outlook during my time in the wilderness (Windows) and still use it at work, so there are some things in Outlook that I miss having that aren't available in iCal. Those include:

-The ability to have a recurring To Do. In Outlook one can create a To Do and have it repeat. This is handy for tasks you do on either a daily, weekly basis, etc. and you don't want to have retype or recreate a new one each time. Some people have suggested that I just make a To Do out of an Event in iCal and have it repeat that way. This doesn't fly with me because in my mind an Event and a To Do are two separate things and it hurts my sense of order to have to do that (sorry, I'm a bit OCD).

-Birthdays in iCal are pulled from your Address Book which is great. Saves me from having to type them into iCal when I've already took the time to enter them into Address Book. What I can't understand for the life of me, is why you aren't allowed to set reminders for birthdays? I've missed several friends birthdays because I didn't happen to glance at my calendar that particular day and it would have been nice to have some kind of reminder just like I can for any other type of iCal entry.

-In Outlook, once a reminder comes your way, you can choose to snooze it for whatever length of time you want. In iCal, your limited to a list of options from a drop-down menu which don't always fit my preference for a time to be reminded again. It would be nice to have the ability to set that reminder for whatever time I want rather than be forced to choose from a short list.

If Apple can address these issues I believe they would have a much better product in iCal and it would even have more business appeal.

Best Regards,


Sohrob