Custom repetitions

Question

Custom repetitions

I need to enter a repeating meeting event every month second to the last Thursday (unfortunately it is not always the third Thursday -as this July- which would make it easier to set a custom repetition). I did not find a way to configure this. Any idea?

Christian

iMac 24 Core2 2.16GHz, MacBook Pro 2.4 (2GB RAM), Mac mini,, Mac OS X (10.5.7), iPod Touch (32)

Posted on Jun 16, 2009 6:37 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

John Maisey

Level 5

6,934 points

Jun 16, 2009 7:37 AM in response to Christian Theussl

Hi Christian,

You can set an event to recur on the second to last week of the month, but not directly through iCal's user interface.

Make an event on the second to last last Thursday of the month, then set it to repeat (custom) on the last Thursday of each month. Drag the event to the desktop and delete it from iCal. Drop the desktop copy on a text editor (eg Text Edit) and look for the line near the end:

RRULE:FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=-1TH

and change it to

RRULE:FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=-2TH

Save the file and drag the it from the desktop back into iCal. It will now repeat on the second last Thursday of each month.

Best wishes

John M

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Answer 2

Ferd II

Level 10

104,221 points

Jun 16, 2009 7:43 AM in response to Christian Theussl

Christian,

Try the technique posted in this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9559349&#9559349

If you do not get it to work, I am sure that Austin Kinsella1 will stop by to help.

Good Luck.

;~)

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Answer 3

Jun 16, 2009 7:51 AM in response to John Maisey

Thanks a lot, works perfect. And thanks for the quick reply.

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Answer 4

Jun 16, 2009 7:57 AM in response to Christian Theussl

I'm glad it helped.

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Answer 5

Ferd II

Level 10

104,221 points

Jun 16, 2009 9:22 AM in response to John Maisey

Thanks John!

;~)

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Answer 6

Pallas A

Level 1

5 points

Jun 16, 2009 10:42 PM in response to John Maisey

Interesting solution, thanks - I was having the same problem.

Message was edited by: Pallas A

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Answer 7

Jul 3, 2009 7:30 AM in response to Christian Theussl

A quick follow up: yesterday I recognized that I could not access my calendars online (as a Web appliccation on MobileMe). I could see emails, contacts, but as soon as I clicked on the iCal icon I get the error message that "MobileMe is unable to load your calendar...". I followed advices found on [this thread|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1674198&tstart=0] and spent some hours troubleshooting but without success (using all my calendars with the desktop application iCal worked without problems).
I started to delete events in the past and in the future. But only as I deleted my modified repeating event the online calendar on MobileMe was working again! Don't know if I did something wrong when I modified that event, or the web application for calendars can not handle this kind of modification?

christian

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