iCal Lion is infuriating. How can I add a new event in a chosen calendar without having to create it in my default then edit it?

Simple, just double click on the date you wish to have an event on

Depends though which view you are at

daily/weekly/monthly/yearly

but yeah just double click on a day. Or a time 🙂

I have the same issue and I think, if you simply double-click this will create an event in the *default* calendar which is exactly the problem! Grrr! So I don't think this is actually the solution. Any thoughts anyone?

That doesn't answer the question, at least not for me. Double-clicking on a date in iCal Lion creates an event in the color of the default calendar. You have to edit the event after that to change color/calendar. To change the default calendar you'll have to go into the settings of iCal. Whereas in Pre-Lion iCal it was quite more convenient, because you could just click on the desired calendar in your calendar list (upper left), then double-click on a date, and by doing this you had created an event in the desired color/calendar.

Does anybody know a way to accomplish that in iCal Lion?

This is not an answer but might be helpful. I found the new iCal infuriating because of the faux leather look. I installed Busy Cal form the Mac App Store and found that app much more powerful than iCal, and more business-like. Just one thing: Busy Cal is expensive. But it gives you alle the options you want, including your posted problem.

What we are experiencing at the moment is an expected behavior. If all of us are looking at the same thing then there is no workaround because to me it looks very straight forward. Lion made a lot changes because its a whole new OS. This is not a Snow Leopard where it upgrades Leopard

If the new UI is not suitable to you then I would recommend filing an enhancement request in apple.com/feedback

I agree with pjhaas. There are other programs that can perform tasks to your liking. but for now, this is what the new Lion iCal offers. For a lot of people out there, this new UI is great. REMEMBER lion was based on iOS

its only natural for iCal to look like calendar in iOS

I guess people just don't expect a retrograde step. Saying that it 'looks' like iOS is one thing. Absorbing the short-comings of trying to work on a very small screen into a computer OS seems plain silly to me. Monitors now are pretty big so removing some useful functionality purely to align the aesthetic of a computer operating system to that of mobile devices seems like a step backwards. Moreover, from what I've read in various place, people don't even seem to like the aesthetic of the iCal either. So hmmm - bad Apple!

We are all entitled to our own opinions. So I respect you there brother

But then again, Apple has its own basis. iOS is what's selling like pancakes not Macs, so if the gazillions out there are using iOS device and have gotten used to the calendar in their iOS devices. Wouldn't you think it made sense if Lion has the same calendar look and feel?

Everything was considered and weighthed when they developed Lion. They even mentioned it in the press, They were blown away with the success of iOS so they are extending it to OSX.

Quite frankly, I like the old iCal but yeah I don't expect anything in SL to stay in Lion otherwise it'll be another Cat name related to Leopard

People should start looking at this perspective and not get STUCK in the old OS.

Pointless discussions later on... But:

I got it "fixed" !!

Just go to the Settings menu, and at "default calendar" select "last used/chosen" (or similar - I use the german version and there it's called "Zuletzt gewählter Kalender"). That's it.

...more exactly, it goes like this (in the english version):

Preferences -> General -> Default Calendar -> Last Selected Calendar

The solution doesn't really fix it; all it does is mean that when you add an event, it's added to the last selected calendar. It doesn't allow you to chose the calendar first and then add it as previously possible.

"all it does is mean that when you add an event, it's added to the last selected calendar": That was exactly my problem, and what I (seemingly by mistake) took to be treblig2001's - and your - problem. So at least my problems are solved for today... 🙂 What iCal wouldn't allow you I don't quite understand, I must admit. "Choose the calendar first and then add it"? Where's the problem with that? Or: What exactly do you mean by this?

The required approach is that you first click on the Calendars button in the top left of the app and highlight the calendar that you want to create an entry for. If you usually create entries for the same calendar, then the program's Preference setting described by others above is the solution.

Highlighting the specific calendar from the calendar button before you click to create the new event... but first you have to pick the last selected calendar option for the default calendar.

Thanks for the BusyCal pointer. This brought back the functionality I needed.

The new Lion iCal was a more like a cell phone calendar. Pretty brown leather though....that was a plus. paste sarcasm emoticon here....

So apple is trying to turn my Macbook Pro into a glorified iPad, eh?

Related to that preference, the following topic offers three simple proposals:

iCal preferences, default calendar, last selected calendar: proposed improvements to behaviour and user interface (10.7, Build 11A511)

8415/68530