Sharing family calender!

I believe the only way to let others make changes is (currently) via syncing through a .Mac account. Basically you set up each user to sync calendars to the same .Mac account.

You can't edit calendars with Publish and Subscribe.

When you say "same .Mac account", you mean "same user name", correct? My wife and I share a family .Mac account with diff. user names, and I can't make changes to a calendar she originated on her computer. Or can I?

Peter,

Do you have a .Mac Family Pack (ie 5 .Mac accounts) that just you and your wife share?? If so, there are many options for you.

When I said same .Mac account, I meant a single .Mac account, where all Users (eg. You and Your wife) set up .Mac to sync calendars, etc., to the same single .Mac account.

If you have 5 .Mac accounts you have many options. If you explain what you want to accomplish we can give you more specific advice.

Your situation is different than James' as he is/was trying to "share" on a "private" server.

We have the .Mac Family Pack as you describe. Right now we only have two users active, my wife and I. She has a calendar on her computer covering the kids' school events. She's published it, I subscribe to it. Only she can change it. I'd like to set up a "family calendar" that we can both change.

Peter,

There are a few options here to do what you want, and they'll take a while to explain. If no one jumps in with solutions, can you post here again on Saturday and I'll have more time to explain them over the weekend. They aren't difficult to implement. I assume you are both on Macs.

DB

It's official -- no else posted! So if you'd be so kind to post re the issue I discussed in my previous post, that would be great.

Thanks.

OK Peter,

First tell me a couple of things. Everyone on Tiger? Are we talking about two computers? Do you have more than one User account on each computer? (eg do you share a home computer?) And what's the future for those 3 extra .Mac accounts? Can we use one for the "family"? If you have three kids, you might want to reserve the extra three, one for each kid. If you only have two kids, no problem. Not to worry though. We can make this work either way, but let's choose the best place to start. Can we use one account for the "family"?

I guess I should explain. If you know about fast user switching, you know how easy it is to share a computer and still allow everyone to have there own "stuff". We could set up a "Family" user on both you and your wife's computer that would then use .Mac sync to allow you both to access the calendars. Alternatively, (for example) we could set up an extra user on your computer to sync to your wife's .Mac account.

So part of the decision is a) do you have enough .Mac accounts to keep a separate one for the "Family", and b) do you want to set up a "Family" account, or would you and your wife prefer that the Family calendar stay in her account, allowing you to be able to edit all of her calendars, not just the kids stuff.

This might take a few posts but it really isn't that hard to do. And after you see how it's done, you can make it however you want.

Can I jump in on this discussion? I'm trying to set up the same concept. A family calender on one computer with 4 users. I want to have all the calenders shared. I tried moving the calender files to the "shared folder" but it seems like it keeps creating new files in the individual users folder. There's got to be a way to share calenders amongst users on one computer. I'm currently running 10.2.8

Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave,

Sure, why not. But you have to answer a few question first as well. Your situation is similar but clearly different. You are on one computer and Peter is on two. But you can essentially do the same thing. The main differences between you and Peter will be that you'll be dealing with multiple users on one computer while Peter will be dealing with multiple users across two computers.

You do need a .Mac account. Do you have a single or a Family Pack? If you haven't purchased, a Family Pack is a bargain (5 users for the price of less than the cost of 2 single users). And you have far more flexibility with a 5 Pack for calendar sharing. With a single .Mac account you have editable access to all calendars in all user accounts. There will be no "personal" calendars. With a Family Pack (5 .Mac accounts) we can set up sharing in various combinations.

So you want to be able to edit, not just see each other's calendars, right?

See Peter's questions if you have a Family Pack.

If not, can you deal with switching Users (via Fast-User-Switching) to edit each other's calendars, or do you want everyone to be able edit each others calendars from within their own acct? The latter option means there are no private calendars.

Get back with answers ASAP so I can know what your situation is before I start explaining to Peter.

Some one should just write a tutorial for these options.

Seems silly to have to have a .mac account in order to share calenders on my own hard drive. It's like driving around the block to borrow your own lawn mower. In my search I found that someone has written a fix software to deal with this problem but you need 10.4 or higher. It allows you to share calenders in the same way you share iTunes playlists etc. I do have a website of my own. But I would have to "publish" to my site and then my wife would have to "subscibe"?? Then if she makes changes she has to publish and I have to subscribe? crazy. What is the "fast-user-switching"? That may be the best bet.

My wife's on Tiger, I'm on Panther (that may change, but for now that's the situation). Kids too young for .Mac accounts, at least for a few years. Re the different possibilities you mentioned, I'd rather go with the "adding an extra user on my computer" option than the "both of use a family account" option. Not a problem for me to be able to edit my wife's calendars, I'd only edit the one. BUT... would I end up with all of her calendars in my iCal when I'm logged on as her, so to speak? Or could I (as her) create just one calendar with the same name as her school calendar (e.g., "School") and just sync to that (allowing me to post changes as well)?

Let me see if I have it:

1. Log on as Wife.

2. Open iCal. Create "School" calendar. Make changes to School calendar, sync to .Mac.

3. Log off, log back on as Peter.

4. Sync to School (I'm already subscribed to School as Peter).

This will allow me to end up with School in my Palm along with my personal calendars, since my Palm uses Peter as its identity.

Have I missed something? Also, if I don't create her other calendars on my computer, I won't get them when I sync to .Mac, correct?

Thanks again for your help.

Dave,

"Sharing" can be 3 different things as far as Ical goes.
1) There is sharing calendars that other's can edit. If I share this with you, you get to change it.
2)There is sharing calendars that another can see (that update automatically). If I share this with you, you get to see it, even after it changes.
3) And there is sharing exported calendars (updates would be manual). If I share this with you, you only get to see it as it was when I sent it to you. I would have to send you updates for you to see changes.

So, which do you want to do. In some cases folks want to do all three (or at least 1 and 2.

You have to have .Mac to do #1.
#2 is possible through the internet or locally via a webDAV server (eg iCalShare, iCalX), or through a local network or on a single computer via a 3rd party app such as iCalPublish.
# 3 is possible.

You can do any of these with Panther or Tiger though some folks have reported some problems when trying to sync between Tiger and Panther.

Now about "crazy". I understand your sentiments, but I don't believe you are going to find any "included with the computer" or "free" solutions that offer anything more, unless you want to dive into open source.

Fast-User-Switching. In "System Preferences..." (under the Apple menu), there's an "Account" selection. In there is where you set up multiple users. At the bottom of the Account/User list is "Login Options". There you will find "Enable fast user switching" which allows more than one user account to be logged into your computer at once. Download "Welcome to Mac OS X 10.3" here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50071
and turn to page 9.

So if you need more help we need to know what version of OS X you are on, and what you want to do given the limitations. And you might want to start a new thread as it seems like your path will be significantly different than Peter's. Just the same, you will likely pick up a lot following this thread.

Kinda sorta. First. I hesitate because I've heard of some folks having a hard time with syncing Panther and Tiger together. And other folks have problems with isync and Palm. So you have two possible strikes against you, but then again, mostly all we hear here is the squeaky wheels. Those without problems (the vast majority I hope) don't come around here much.

To get a few misconceptions out of the way:
1) When editing her calendars, you will be accessing (editing ability) all of her calendars. While a user can choose which calendars to publish, users can't choose which ones to sync, they all get synced. (maybe next year).
2) You aren't going to sync to school from your user account. Syncing means being able to edit.
3) There are a lot more steps to this than what you listed.
4) Only one of you is going to "create" a calendar. If I understand correctly, she has already created "School". You (under her user) are going to sync to it. You are not going to "Create" duplicates of her calendars. Under your user, you will subscribe only to the calendar(s) that you want, and that she has published. You won't have to publish what she has already published. You'll see as when it syncs to her user on your computer, it will display as published.

OK here goes. Bear in mind I don't have panther in front of me so I'm describing the Tiger setup. You'll have to sort out if there are differences (or just get Tiger).

On wife's computer, under system preferences, .Mac:
a) Account is set to HER .Mac account right?
b) Under SYnc, "Synchronize with .Mac" is checked and set to "Automatically" (only use other settings if you have a slow dial-up internet connection, or you want to deal with resolving conflicts, such as when you change something and she changes the same thing at about the same time) Calendars should be checked in the list. Click sync now for good measure.
c) under the "Advanced" tab, only her computer should be listed (unless you already managed to set up her acct on your computer). Hit the "Reset Sync Data..." for good measure (Computer to .Mac (the blue ball)). To be safe, "Replace" only "Calendars" in the pop-up list.
d) in iCal, she should "Publish" the school calendar.

I'm going to post this and then comeback with more.

Now, on your computer (remember, I'm in Tiger so you will have to sort out the differences if any, with Panther). I'm explaining as if you haven't set up another user yet.

a) Go to "System Preferences", "Accounts". Hitting the plus symbol, add an account. Name this "wife" or "Sweetie Pie" or what ever you want that will keep you out of trouble and maybe even endear you to your wife. Give her admin privileges at your own risk. Choose a nice picture (I suggest he rose, or another flower). Remember you will be acting under her name so you best behave while in there. Implement "Parental Controls" at your own risk. Close system preferences
b) Switch to her new user accct on your computer. Back to "System Preferences", select .Mac. Under the "Account" tab, Enter her member name and password. Like before, under Sync, "Synchronize with .Mac" is checked and set to "Automatically" (only use other settings ...) Calendars should be checked in the list. An alert should now pop up. Select "Replace data on this computer". Click sync. Under the "Advanced" tab, her computer and you computer with her user should be listed.
d) Launch iCal, and you'll see all of her calendars. Edit as if they were you own (at your own risk; you can see why I was leaning toward the "Family" user option). Notice the "School" calendar is published. If you make changes here they will soon be reflected every where that calendar can be seen.

BTW: I forgot to have you take note of the Subscribe to URL so you'll have to dig that up. Not sure if you can do this in Panther but if you control-click on the published calendar, you can copy the URL in Tiger. When I publish in Tiger, I always send an email to myself with the View and subscribe URLs.

OK. Break for another post.

OK switch back to your user.

In iCal, subscribe to the "School" calendar. Select "Refresh" every 15 minues if you want to stay up-to-date. Uncheck "Remove alarms" and "Remove To Do's" (as you wish). Now you'll see any changes that you or she makes (within 15 minutes).

And if you want to edit "School" all you need to do is switch to her user.

Warning: when logged into her User on your Mac, be careful about her alarms. You can save yourself some of this potential problem by selecting "Turn off alarms when iCal is not open" in the advanced preferences, and quitting iCal when in her user, or better, simply logging out except when you need to edit "School". Hopefully Appple will fix this "Family" problem in the next rev.

Warning 2: Remember, I did warn you about the Tiger/Panther sync problem.

Warning 3: I'm assuming you should be able to see any subscribed to calendars on Palm, but you might want to go to the iSync discussion, or the Palm Support website to be sure you set the sync up properly. I strongly suspect the problems folks report, are mostly connected to folks not being careful (or simply being reckless) when they set up iSync.

I hope this is all worth it. And I hope Apple makes it just a bit easier to set this up in future versions of iCal/.Mac. I'm sorry I wasn't able to walk you through the Panther version of this setup, but comeback if you have any questions.

WARNING FOUR: BACKUP BEFORE DOING ANY OF THE ABOVE (sorry I didn't think of saying this earlier).