iCal timezone : set floating as default

I agree 100% with this. Why on earth can't we have an option to make floating time zone the default. iCal does nothing but screw up my appointments when I travel. This seems simple enough. I guess more people just have to request this feature.

I agree. It should be an option to make floating the default. I have to select floating for every single entry. What a bother!

How is this not fixed yet? Thanks to the posters, but Apple . . .???

Read an article : Calendar (Yosemite): View a different time zone

I posted this to a user that wants floating events on his iPhone. It also helps with laptops. OK it is not as good as those arrogant #^% @#(%*#$% at Apple not listening to us for 3 years asking for this, but it is the best I can do.

This might work. Create a whole lot of floating events in iCal on your laptop / desktop and put them at the end of your day. You can do this quickly by creating one event in iCal that is floating and then copying it. You do that by dragging the event with your finger on the Option Key. This gives you floating events in your iCal which you are not using yet. Then when you want to use your iPad just drag one of these events from the end of the day to where you want it and use it.

It should work. I tested it just now on my iPad and laptop and it worked perfectly. I use Lion as an operating system. I don't know for Leopard. I use a weekly view. On Lion you cannot drag from the end of one week into the next. This has been corrected in Lion. I use ONLY floating events as I travel a LOT. It is the best way for me.

For creating floating events on my laptop I don't create new events, I always copy an existing event. This way all new events are automatically floating. It took a little while to get used to it. Now it is second nature to me. Since many events are the same as past events, it also saves time not typing in the event details.

For example I might schedule playing badminton at irregular times in a week. I simply create one event and then drag a copy to the new event's locaiton. It is already floating and named correctly. Otherwise I drag a different event and just rename it.

This does not work on the iPhone / iPad / iPod as you cannot copy events. That is why you need to create extra floating events on your laptop at the end of the day so that you can drag them down when you want to use them.

Thanks Steve Maximus. This works! Now if only, when one prints in month view, the time (in floating time zone) would print. Right now, it doesn't. I've complained about both not being able to set floating as default, and about the printing problem. Maybe these problems will be fixed with Mountain Lion?

I am glad to have helped. These forums get full of people complaining and arguing about what services should and should not be available on Apple computers. I have a totally different view. YOU decide what you want and if your computer company CAN offer it, then it SHOULD. Therefore it upsets me that for 3 years people have been asking for this solution to be built in and Apple has ignored them. Regardless I am glad that I could post a real solution here, not an opinion, not a complaint. I know how much this matter to you and I am happy I helped.

Carolyn, I posted a solution on the forum. I hope it helps.

Thank you. This is a great, common sense solution. I have gotten used to working around the problem, by copying events and editing them, but this takes it one step further. I am also amazed that Apple has not addressed the underlying issue, which is floating timezones should be a default option, but I am happy to have a workaround in the meantime. Thanks for sharing.

I am glad it helps you. These things really add a lot of unnecessary time to our lives. It is Apple arrogantly ignoring this issue for three years, when all they had to do was have ONE check box that says "Set Default Time Zone To Floating". That would take one programmer maybe 1 day to do? Instead thousands of us complain and they do nothing about it. It makes me feel like they are becoming another Microsoft. Very sad. Thanks again.

Another rediculous problem I encountered since switching to Apple.

How in the world is the default setting not floating, and then how in the universe is it not even possible to set it to default?

Also I cannot even make a floating appointment on my iPhone. Nice integration of iOS and OSX. I guess Apple has a long way to go to integrate the OS's and I doubt they will make it before competition will. Changing timezones will always affect your appointments booked in per phone. Why does Apple not see that when I put an appointment at 10 o clock on monday morning, I probably mean 10 at the location I am going to? This is pretty logical right? I guess Apple's iCal is not made for the travellers among us. Please stay in your timezone or it gets too complicated, would perhaps be a good warning on the box.

What is sad is that Apple could fix this with a day of programming to give its customers choice and they refuse to. The new Apple thinks it know better. Just sad and stupid.

Firstable, what is the point to have your iCal telling you your appointment in Rome will be at 4pm in Montreal (hometown) I DON'T CARE WHAT TIME MY ROME MEETING WILL BE AT MONTREAL ! I will be at Rome. What timezone is really for? How to book an internationnal flight when it start and ending in two differents timezone. If you book your ical for a meeting in London IT'S BECAUSE YOU'LL BE THERE ! So you want to know at what time your meeting really is. Timezone in iCal it's just a sick useless option. Yes, why "floating" can't be an option on mobile devices too or even set by default like the other timezone. At the end Floating IS a timezone. The one used by people who travel. Yes Apple, EVERYBODY. I try to keep my calm here but the guy who came at the Office on monday morning with this idea should go work for Microsoft. iOS7 rocks, thanks Jonathan Ive. So, Sir Ive if you read this please fix that mess. They are nothing without you. 😍

This is an issue I have faced many times and unfortunately its not trivial.

a) Outlook has solved it by creating an option to show TWO timescales in the day or week view. That works fairly well if you generally work with 2 or 3 timezones. They have after the initial 3 years also mastered it for Daylight saving times (different starting times in different countries and northernly and southernly countries have clearly different directions..).

b) Outlook also enables you to select different timezone for departure and arrival of flights - giving you the possibility to register them as many here have wished.

c) Floating is an interesting concept, as to me that indicates you dont know in which timezone it will be. If the changes are small like within American or European timezones respectively it works well.

If you travel intercontinental the floating event will float to mid day or midnight quite easily. As long as you are aware its simple.

My solution to the time zone issue is simple. My home time zone is U.S. Eastern time. I just leave my calendar on that time always. No matter where I am in the world, my events are listed as in Easter time. So if I list an event in london at 6 PM, my iCal says 6 PM Eastern time. That doesn't matter. I ignore it. I know it's London time.