sidebar missing from iCal in Lion — seeking a third party product to restore lost functionality

Jason Goldsmith wrote:

Does BusyCal work in full screen mode? This would be essential if it were to function as a work around.

Busycal does work in full screen mode

Could not agree more - the "new" ical looks like something the windows people would come up. I also use multiple calendars - losing the sidebar is adding additional time to simple tasks like creating new events that is hurting my productivity. And defaulting every new event to an all-day event? Insane... One can only hope that the Apple people will fix this in the next software update. I don't want to send $50 on a 3rd party app, nor should I have to.

Thank you for posting this - I am in the same boat here and, rather than rant, I will take this up with Apple directly. I'll keep an eye on your post - HOPEFULLY, some developer will come up with a fix for the missing sidebar and the other supposed "improvements."

I disagree. Windows is complex and feature rich -- often so complex that it is seemingly impossible to use. The new Apple calendar is stripped of almost all features and tools, and then wrapped up in a design that can only be described as an embaresement (why doesn't spell check work in Safari?). I want Calendar to be a useful business tool, not a toy. It should have the tools of Windows along with the ease of use associated with Apple.

Point taken. I filed a complaint with Apple (as per the very first post in this discussion) and will keep my fingers crossed that someone actually pays attention to the amount of disgruntled folks out there...

Just thought I'd add for those that may have missed it, but if you use the Month view, and you want to create an entry that is not "All-Day", just put a start time, or a start time and end time when you create your new event.

For example, if you put in:

"Dr.'s Appointment 9:00 AM"

It will automatically create an entry at 9AM rather than an All Day event, even when in the month or year view. The end time can also be specified like so :

"Dr.'s Appointment 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM"

It also removes the start/end times from the event "Subject" automatically (parses them out) so that your end result looks like this but with the proper start/end times already set:

"Dr.'s Appointment"

With those options, and setting your default alert times, at least that issue is now a non-issue for me.

i have 10 calendars - from various sources - gmail, local, tripit, weather, package tracking. with a home based business - these are INTEGRAL to working. previously i would send trip info from hotel, flight etc onfirmation emails to tripit -- it creates an awesomely accurate calendar update (it's only ical feed for the individual), then i would copy that event (in iCal) and paste it to a shared out gmail calendar - which was then populated to the travellers cell phone - allowing him to see flights, times, confirm #, hotels, trains, autos you get the idea.

so today i booked a bunch of planes trains and autos --- and tripit flawlessly created the events - i attempted to copy the event and paste it to gmail (in ical - note the tripit calendar is read only)... failed. i am unable to paste the event. no error - no paste, not in right click menu either. in the past i just selected the destination calendar in the side bar - and the date - and pasted - voila new event. not so now...

i did send feedback. the fact that apple has begun to re-design the OS to cater to what seems to be just the noobies is unacceptable. having this stuff is fine - as long as you can turn it off - and put it back to power user mode. (ie - frankly i dont need giant icons of all my apps on the desktop - and that feels like a noob windows user desktop)

btw - the floating calendar window doesnt even Show all my calendars - so not only does it hide the usefull part of the calendar screen but it doesnt even function as its designed as they didnt bother test w/ more than 2 or 3 calendars it seems.

very frustrated.

Mary Lou, the calendars are all there in the stupid floating window, you just can't see them. With Lion's new scrollbar-less interface, they're more implicit, you need to scroll blind.

If you hover the cursor over the floating window list, a thin slice of scroll bar will appear on the right. You can move that with your mouse or use track pad/mouse gestures. Either use two fingers on a trackpad to scroll down, use the mouse scroll button or click and drag the mouse down past the bottom item visible in the list.

Re the copy: In this instance, the floating calendar list actually functions properly. After you've copied your event from your read-only source calendar, you need to select your target calendar in the list. Then paste.

Bring back the iCal sidebar!

Hi kathy;

Yes i am aware that the calendars are all there - but the fact that i have to scroll in the first place is cludgy.

re: pasting --- that would seem to be the way it should be done - and indeed i did immmediately test that - however - that did not work - even after selecting the correct calendar to paste to - it fails to paste (and right click menu showed not option to paste either)

Finally - the muting of all colours - again not allowing the users to determine whether they wanted any bright colors - was the last straw. I have one calendar that i use to remind me to do something (i know i could use a to-do - but the color issue would remain w/ that) -- i had it in BRIGHT pink -- so that i would immediately see it in a clogged calendar full of events and travel plans -- apple mutes that to baby pink - even after i verified i had selected the brighted pink i could see - yup baby pink. it annoys me that apple feels that i should never have any bright colors (what if i had a vision issue -- this os w/ its muted colors and monotone icons would be absolutely impossible to view)

i gave up on iCal and installed busy cal .... it allows a side bar, works flawlessly for copy and paste, allows bright colors -- and the to do works too (that never worked for me in ical), doesn't constantly error when updating between gmail and my mac, and frankly - whats that mac saying - oh ya - it just works!

i guess iCal / Apple has 30 days to fix iCal - or at least allow power users to put it they way they need to work - since this is NOT a toy. or its a purchase of busyCal - even thought its nearly 50.00.

ml

BusyCal is now and has always been far superior to iCal, analyse how much your time is worth to you and then buy it, you'll be happy you did.

Graham Perrin wrote:

I don't know how to make this clearer: this topic is focused solely on iCal — either Apple fixing iCal, or a third party product that will restore to iCal the lost functionality.

I was not replying to you, yours is not the only post here, I replied to the poster who is using BusyCal.

For the record I do not recomend Outlook 2011, please address that snip to someone else.

As you only want to use iCal I can't see any question to answer so, bye.

I have about twenty calendars and it is very annoying to manage them without the sidebar. Apple, please, give us an option to have it back!

Just can't believe why this essential functionality has been removed. Please DO give us that basic possibility back. How are we now supposed to see which calendar corresponds to which colour? Why change something that was close to perfect? I used to recommend iCal for years to lots of friends and colleagues, but for the moment it doesn't look like I'll be able to continue my support for iCal on Lion.

(It reminds me a bit of the new "music" app on iOS5 for iPad, replacing the former "ipod" app. The redesign of this app is also clearly a step backwards in terms of functionality, and just doesn't deliver what we all expect and really appreciate from Apple.)

For the rest a very happy Apple user.

Downgraded to Snow Leopard. With iCal unusable, there was just nothing compelling enough to keep Lion.

Wake me up when they fix iCal.