ical default alarm time

Saluda Judy,

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

Go to iCal>Preferences...>General>(✓) Add a default alarm to all new events and invitations (XX) minutes before the start time.

;~)

Is there a way to do this for "all day" events? I set the default alarm time for events at specific times, but would also like to set a default time for an alarm for an all day event (and also to do items!)

Thanks

I am interested in this, too. But I don't want an alarm added to every event because I have hundreds. I just want to change the default to something other than 15 minutes. Is there a way to do this, maybe using Terminal?

Not sure how to do this in iCal, but I know for a fact that BusyCal allows you to set a default alarm time for all-day events. Check it out within BusyCal's preferences.

What we need is for iCal to let you set a default alarm time for normal timed events, say 15 minutes before its about to happen, and then for the all-day event not to be scheduled to begin at midnight, causing an alarm at 11:45pm the day before which is useless. It would be better if for all day events it created no alarm or else an alarm at a more useful time such as 9am. Does anyone know how to do this?

Why in the world was 11:45 pm selected as the default for a reminder? To remind me of my big midnight corporate meeting? I have never, ever used that as a message alarm time. Doesn't 8:00 am (beginning of the work day) make more sense? I do not want an alarm added as a default, but I would like the ability to set a default time for the times when I do set an event alarm. Alternatively, I would be just as happy if Apple would change the ridiculous 11:45 hard wired setting to 8:00 am.

Hi, I've often wondered about this. So I thought I'd take a look at the .plist

You will find the time in the key 'PersistentMenu-lastUsedAlarms > Item 0> AlarmDurationKey

You should be able to make out the default time in the value just before the ending '00+0000'

Edit this to what you will and the default time will change.

Not sure if the is the best way to get round this, but it definitely works.

EDIT: OK, it works once, but then isn't persistent, which is annoying. Perhaps someone could take this as a starting point and run with it.

Message was edited by: MrCairney

Message was edited by: MrCairney

I just found the solution which is ridiculously easy.

In iCal Preferences - General:

1. Mark 'Add a default alarm to all..."
2. Enter a value '-540' (minus 540) in "...minutes before the start time"

-540 is -60 x 9 which is 9 hours after "the day before".

The original post by Saluda Judy is almost exactly my question, except my issue -- which I believe is related to if not the same as the ical question -- is the default alarm time for TO DOs. When I create a 'to-do' in imail or directly in ical, and give that to-do a due date, then set an alarm for that to-do, the default time for the alarm is 11:45 pm the day before the due date. I would like to change the default time to something other than 11:45 pm the day before so that when I set an alarm for a new task, the alarm time is 8:00 am the day of, or whatever I decided to set my default to. I'm tired of having to change the alarm time for every to-do for which I create an alarm.

And to reiterate; I don't want to create an alarm time by default for each to-do. Rather, when I choose to create an alarm time for a to-do, I want the alarm time to default to my desired time (8:00 am, for instance).

The last post in this thread suggests it has to be done manually:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1104619

Message was edited by: monsoonmalabar

I feel like a bit of a dullard for not thinking of that myself. It works great many thanks Ekapon.

I'm dying for a solution for this too! The -540 minutes option is not the entire solution either, since for most (not "all day") events I do want the default 15 minute alarm time. Is there really no way to set an alarm on a specific time for the same day for all day events?