Lion: Is it possible to fix the behavior of New Event in Month View?

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37 points

Lion: Is it possible to fix the behavior of New Event in Month View?

I desperately want to be able to choose the default length of new events added while in month view.

I view iCal in Month View and I'm often adding events for next week rather than the current week. When adding a new event while in Month View, iCal assumes the event is all day long and there's no preference to change this behavior. To change the event to the length of a typical meeting, you have to:

Double click the event.

Then click EDIT.

Then click to deselect the "ALL DAY" checkbox.

Click to enter a new time for the event to start.

Then click a new time for the event to end because iCal assumes the event is 8 hours long.

If the event you're adding starts after 4PM, you're going to have to change the end DATE too, because iCal assumed the event lasted into the next day.

MY GOD! All of that, just to add a 1 hour meeting at 4:30 next Tuesday.

Sure, I could use the new + button to add an event at a specific time, but for that 4:30 meeting, iCal still assumes the meeting lasts until 12:30 the next morning, which means a ton of click click clicking to edit the event iCal got wrong in the first place.

I realize I can type out the specifics in that silly bouncy New Event "+" box... but it's annoying to have to type all of that when, previously, all I had to do was double click next Tuesday and type "Meeting with john" and set the time to 4:30.

The new iCal is infuriating. I'm especially shocked that clicking "New Event" in the menubar doesn't open a new event to edit. Instead, it opens the silly bouncy "+" box. If I wanted that, I'd have clicked in the stupid + box! I'm downright shocked by the poor UI decisions in the new iCal. I assumed this stuff would be fixed in 10.7.1. Obviously not.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7), I heart my Apogee Duet.

Posted on Aug 22, 2011 3:20 PM

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Answer 1

CT

Level 7

23,987 points

Aug 22, 2011 5:24 PM in response to Jalpuna

Wow. Somebody didn't get their cup of coffee this morning.

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Answer 2

Jalpuna Author

Level 1

37 points

Aug 22, 2011 7:03 PM in response to CT

Thank you for the oh so helpful reply.

Seriously though, I'm a long time Apple fan, but I'm finding the new iCal to be really frustrating. Things take so many more clicks than they should. Part of me is wondering if Apple is intentionally crippling some of their Lion apps in order to encourage developers to create better versions for the app store (where Apple gets a slice of that revenue too). I guarantee the $50 app BusyCal is selling more now that Lion is out. Not because BusyCal is great, but because the new iCal is so bad.

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Answer 3

JonCW

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0 points

Oct 3, 2011 1:15 PM in response to Jalpuna

If you open Terminal (the program) and type in the following:

defaults write com.apple.iCal 'Default duration in minutes for new event' 60

It will fix the duration to 60 min

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Answer 4

Jalpuna Author

Level 1

37 points

Oct 3, 2011 7:19 PM in response to JonCW

Are you sure that works in Lion? All new events are still an entire day. If I click the "all day" button to disable it on a new event, the event created becomes 8 hours long (10AM to 6PM)

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Answer 5

JonCW

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Oct 3, 2011 9:35 PM in response to Jalpuna

Sorry, you are right. In month view it doesn't work. I was able to modify it in week view.

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Answer 6

Jalpuna Author

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37 points

Oct 6, 2011 12:07 AM in response to JonCW

I was just logging on to ask if you were viewing in week veiw instead of monthly view.

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Answer 7

GR VWD

Level 1

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Oct 13, 2011 9:50 AM in response to Jalpuna

I agree. I'm not very technical but the default to "all day" in the month view *****. I'm sorry I updated to Lion. There are a lot of other things that weren't very conceived either. This is just one of many. Did you find a solution to the problem in Month View?

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Answer 8

Jalpuna Author

Level 1

37 points

Oct 13, 2011 10:14 AM in response to GR VWD

Sadly, I didn't. iCal is click intensive these days unless you type everything out and get it exactly right, including some things (like which calendar) that you don't get the opportunity to set the first time.

The solution is really simple. Double Clicking on a day while in month view shouldn't create a new day-long event. It should open the gray edit event pop up box so I can create a new event with the correct info the first time (which calendar, notes, etc). The current way is to create a new event and then double click THAT to fix it.

For example: Want to create a new event using your Work calendar? Unless your Work Calendar is your default or the last calendar you used, you can't. You can only create a new event using whichever calendar pops up, and then you have to double click the event you created so you can fix it.

Using the + sign popup box for inputing using native language works when what you need to do is simple. The moment you want to create a new event that isn't dead simple, you're lost in a sea of extra useless clicks to acomplish what should be a simple task because there is no way to get it right the first time,

I'm not convinced anyone at Apple uses iCal on a Mac these days. They probably use iPads, which is why they don't realize how much of a step backward the new iCal for Mac is.

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Answer 9

Dec 4, 2011 4:16 AM in response to Jalpuna

I too was annoyed by this. I do not want to use the + to start a new event.

This does work:

1. Double-click on the day you want in month view

2. Enter the event title _with_ a start time ( and optional end time)

3. Press Return (this is important)

4. Press Cmd+E if you want to edit it

The key here is that iCal assumes that you want a day long event since you do not include a start time in the title. If you do not include an end time, it defaults to one hour.

Item 3 above is important. If you press Cmd+E before pressing Return, it will lose the start time and default to midnight. This is a bug.

Scott

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Answer 10

Dec 20, 2011 7:43 PM in response to Scott Atchley

I got another bug and figure I would post it here as well.

I can't double click to add event on Ical Monthly view all of a sudden. Whenever I double click, nothing happens. Same thing happens on the year view.

I can only add event now using the stupid + signs, or go into daily or weekly view. HELP!

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Answer 11

Feb 17, 2012 10:13 PM in response to Scott Atchley

This is a terrific solution, and I wanted to highlight how helpful it is, with an example:

1. In Month view, double-click a day.

2. Type "Bob 7-8pm".

The event appears, with Bob beginning at 7pm and ending at 8pm.

On a related note, another annoying bug (and it is a bug) occurs as follows:

1. In Month view, double-click a day.

2. Type an event name (e.g., "Bob") and press enter.

An event titled "New Event" is created (NOT with the title "Bob.") It "forgets" what you just typed.

That's the first time in recent memory I've seen a blatant bug make it into the final build of an OS.

At any rate, thanks to Scott for the solution (and no snark.)

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Answer 12

rocky63

Level 1

0 points

Mar 2, 2012 1:03 PM in response to coolhandpete

In month view, if I double click on a day NOTHING HAPPENS.

If I right click on a day I get a choice of "New Event" or "Paste event". If I choose "New Event" nothing appears to happen. However, if I search for "new" I'll see that the search results show a new event on the day I originally clicked -- but it doesnt' show in the calendar.

Most frustrating.

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Answer 13

Jun 19, 2012 8:07 AM in response to Scott Atchley

Thanks for the tip. I had recently discovered that including something that looks like a time in the event title creates a timed event (unfortunately, in this case it actually works against me). But I hadn't incorporated what was an annoyance to me so as to be beneficial for creating shorter events.

Hope the "double-click-in-month-view-creates-an-event-of-default-duration" when Mountain Lion is released. In the meantime, Jalpuna, don't you think Scott at least deserves a "helpful" credit? 😉

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Answer 14

Jun 22, 2012 5:24 AM in response to Jalpuna

This feature in iCal drives me nuts, and I'm a huge Apple user and fan. Is there any way to register constructive user complaints with Apple about this? iCal on my iPad and iPhone are so easy to use, so this is really frustrating and in my view non-trivial.

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Answer 15

Jun 26, 2012 12:44 AM in response to hughfromwestminster

There are a lot of instances of this - especially with iCal.

Unfortunately, I am finding that the new Apple has gotten arrogant. They have forgotten the magic word: "Customer".

But, competition will fix this problem.

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