how do you change color of an event in a calendar in ical

That is my exact issue as well... as soon as I change the color of an eent in iCal, it disappears on the Exchange calendar my admin has access to. I really don't understand why we can't do something as simple as changing the color of an event.

It's all very well creating a different calendar (category) for each type of events to colour code them but they still appear as grey dots on the Month view defeating the whole point of colour coding?

Saracen1 wrote:

It's all very well creating a different calendar (category) for each type of events to colour code them but they still appear as grey dots on the Month view defeating the whole point of colour coding?

Then use something else.

I found something very funny: I can color tag different type of events in the SAME calendar with different colors in iCal on my iPhone 4S with IOS 7.1 . However iCal on my Macbook Pro with OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 does NOT have this feature !!

traveller1948 wrote:

I found something very funny: I can color tag diffrent type of events in the SAME calendar with different colors in iCal on my iPhone 4S with IOS 7.1

I can't do that on mine, tell me how.

SORRY 😮 I am NOT using the iCal on my iPhone 4S but WEEK CALENDAR from UtiliTap. Check it out on http://www.weekcal.com/. I am so utterly used to this particular calendar that I complete forgot iCal on my iPhone. In WeekCal you will see the colors but in iCal you won't see them. WeekCal will sync with iCal without problems.

These are screen shots from WeekCal 🙂

There is only posibility, when u want to use Google calendar synchronization - to create MORE calendars inside your Google account (login Google, goto Calendar, goto Setting, goto Calendars, goto Create new calendar, Save) Then u have to distribute events among all your Google calendars, these will be all synchronized to your iCal client and there u can choose different colors for these - in fact calendars "folders". I use it so.

Your solution isn't really a wash. You are thinking about calendars in the context of personal use not business use. A common business practice is to share your calendar with people in your company, but if you use multiple calendars to accomplish your color coding that quickly becomes cumbersome/confusing when you have 45 calendars for your 15 coworkers if they just want 3 colors each.

I completely agree with your suggestion to use something else though. iCal or now Calendar is a pretty basic program that is okay for personal home use but falls apart very quickly in a business context. I also couldn't careless about being color events within a single calendar but a few of my clients insist on it and insist on apple and it causes a ton of problems because apple hasn't added this very minor feature.

I am with you - I am using shared calendar - so annoying that I cannot just create a colour for one type of event and a different colour for a different event. Meetings blue and visits green.

With a shared calendar - it would be crazy to add different types of calendars. With so many people it would be very easy to miss someone off one.....

Please apple, this cannot be this hard. Even if make it just on the mac so it can be seen on iPad and iPhone, but the colour needs to be assigned on the main mac - would be fine.

I don't really see why if a user makes a user request, people seem to be offended. Even if he makes it in the Apple Support Forum (where else? and why is that such a problem anyway?).

Judging by the responses, iCal can be considerably improved with some simple changes, for example allowing colour coding within one calendar. It would be also very handy if you could export the calender to a spread sheet (although I found other programs that do this).

As for myself I had already figured out the colour coding with different calendars. But it doesn't work for me. For one thing, if I have an agenda meeting that is shared with others, putting it into a different calendar than the company Exchange calender kills all its connections so when somebody else sends an update for the event, I do not see it. So, I now have ten different categories ('calendar's) of things, in order to keep track of the different activities within my work, but I also have a general yellow exchange calender and in there are all sorts of different things I cannot categorize, simply because they are linked to agenda's of other people in my company.

It is strange that some responses seem to say: well just go find yourself another application (which company would ever say that? Only Apple, I guess?)

Yes you are absolutely right - I have exactly the same problem and its 4 years since you asked the original question. It is almost useless and pointless to have to have a different calendar to colour code events.

Why can't Apple simple add the facility that you have with Files and Folders - i.e. you do Command I and get the option to add a colour to the title of a particular folder or document or file?

PS What is kind of weird about some replies from experts with many points - no offence 😉 - is that some seem to argue from a 'company perspective' … i.e. not acknowledging that you have a point, and maybe say 'yes I agree you have a point - that's worth me [ the expert] taking up with Apple Rather than spending ages - though well meant - try to offer a work around as if that is somehow a solution.

That said I think that vast majority of the posts from experts who are answering masses of questions ( had have huge personal scores) are being really helpful to the community and I thank them for it!

I used to be able to change my calendar colors easily, I think it was in the menu. But after upgrading my OS, I can't find it anywhere. I have all my calendars in colors from before, but need to change a color, and can't find where to do it. Was that option taken away? It was there for years before!

PLEASE APPLE ADD COLOR TAGGING TO EVENTS!!!

Please use a different program for your calendars, this is not a feature of iCal and probably never will be.

It takes one click to select a calendar and (your way) one click to select a color.

If you can't adjust to that you are out of luck with the Apple Calendar, use Googles.