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Q: Notification center and Calendar

Hi, I don't want to be interrupted by the notification center.  I therefore turned on the do not disturb from 00.00 to 23.59.  However, this disables the Calendar alerts, which I like to appear on in the middle of the screen with an accompanying sound (like it did in Snow Leopard).  Is it possible to turn off the notification center without disabling the calendar alerts?

 

Thanks, Mike.

Various Duel G5 and Intel Models, somewhere a mac classic, Mac OS X (10.5.8), OS 10.4 10.5 and 10.6

Posted on Sep 18, 2016 12:11 PM

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Q: Notification center and Calendar

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  • by dianeoforegon,Apple recommended

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 18, 2016 12:36 PM in response to oxcart
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 12:36 PM in response to oxcart

    You can turn off individual apps in System Preferences > Notifications. Select each app you do not want to appear and uncheck options or select Alert style as None.

  • by oxcart,Helpful

    oxcart oxcart Sep 18, 2016 2:23 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 2:23 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    Thanks for your reply.  Unfortunately, your solution does not disable the Notification Center completely.  It still irritates you on a daily basis with various items such as OS upgrades.  I only do those occasionally, so it pesters me every day about it.

  • by dianeoforegon,Apple recommended

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 18, 2016 2:23 PM in response to oxcart
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 2:23 PM in response to oxcart

    Open the App Store Preferences and uncheck automatically check for update. Do this at your own peril. Updaters fix issues and security updates are critical.

  • by oxcart,

    oxcart oxcart Sep 18, 2016 2:23 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 2:23 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    Good idea, thanks!

     

    Even if one does not take the security updates immediately you still benefit from the heard immunity.  That's like when parents refuse to vaccinate a child and rely for protection on the fact that all the other children are vaccinated.  I don't mean to be selfish, it is just that I prefer to do it once a month instead of being bothered on a daily basis.  On the other hand, I am still running Snow Leopard on my main computer and it is a good long while since that had a security update.  Of course, I don't launch the downloads those dodgy web sites initiate unsolicited.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 18, 2016 2:27 PM in response to oxcart
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 2:27 PM in response to oxcart

    Really, updates only take a few minutes. Most don't require a restart and can be done in the background. When you drive do you use a seat belt? If you think you can't be bothered because when was the last time you had a wreck?

  • by oxcart,

    oxcart oxcart Sep 24, 2016 2:11 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 2:11 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    "Really, updates only take a few minutes. Most don't require a restart".

     

    I did a fresh install yesterday and did not have to wait very long for the glad tidings to arrive, namely, 'update available'.

     

    I then had two choices:  "restart"...  'no way I'm in the middle of something.'  But wait, that notification up at the corner is an irritation, so I have to select select the other choice which "details".  But, that invokes my old friend, the App Store! 

     

    If I say that the Notification Center is now the biggest irritation on OSX, I mean it as the biggest compliment possible.  I waited till OS10.6 came out to upgrade from 9.2 because it took till then to get up to productivity speed.  Now that I have jumped from 10.6 to 10.12, I begin to see a pattern emerge.  Maybe my next upgrade will be to 10.17.

     

    BTW, if any of you are thinking about Office 2016, don't bother, I have just downgraded.  Can you believe it... there are no floating toolbars.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 24, 2016 2:28 PM in response to oxcart
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 2:28 PM in response to oxcart

    Waiting long periods between updates will result in lots of new features to learn.

     

    If the update is unavailable, was that perhaps Sierra? The servers have been swamped with users trying to download the new macOS.

     

    I have to agree that Microsoft has really dumbed down Office on the Mac. It's trying to make both the Mac and PC version look exactly the same. If Windows version won't let you do something like customize a toolbar, then you can't do it on the Mac. Doesn't work the other way around. Let's don't talk about subscriptions...

  • by oxcart,

    oxcart oxcart Sep 25, 2016 4:38 AM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 4:38 AM in response to dianeoforegon

    My point about the update is not that I want to wait a long time between them, just that I might not want to do it right now.  So, in the case of the latest Thunderbolt update I mentioned above, I was given two options:  1, restart my computer right now or 2, "see details", which opens the App Store.  Any sensible designer would have provided an option to dismiss the reminder or to do the installation after the next restart.

     

    I have since then restarted the computer a couple of times but the update did not happen, so it is waiting in the wings to interrupt me at a later date.  Of course I could, and probably will, preempt it.

     

    Anyway, I will file a bug report, even though I don't really believe the oft quoted position that nobody at Apple reads these forums.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 25, 2016 12:10 PM in response to oxcart
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 12:10 PM in response to oxcart

    Verify your options in System Preferences > App Store. Make sure you don't have the automatically download and install checked.

     

    AppStore.png

  • by oxcart,

    oxcart oxcart Sep 27, 2016 9:56 AM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 9:56 AM in response to dianeoforegon

    Thanks for that tip.  I feel that I am making progress.  I wonder if you can help me with my other problem.  Before I describe it, I should say that I am not just being picky.  I am a technical writer and sometimes you have to rack your brains looking for the right word or figuring out how to structure a sentence or a paragraph.  It breaks my train of thought when a notification pops up and it can take 5 minutes to get over it.  Sometimes you feel you just had the correct turn of phrase for what you are trying to say, but then after the notification you suspect that what you eventually come up with was not so good, and that can bum you out for a good long while.

     

    Anyway, I am minding my own business when an invitation to a meeting pops up.  With iCal these arrived as emails in which there were buttons to accept or decline the meeting.  You only saw those when you went to your inbox so there was no questions of an interruption.  How do you stop them popping up?

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 27, 2016 10:48 AM in response to oxcart
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 10:48 AM in response to oxcart

    Go to System Preferences > Notifications

    Scroll down to Calendar in the list.

    Uncheck options to show notifications on lock screen and play sound.

     

    calendar-alert.png

     

    Another option you might like since this gets everything.

    Set Do Not Disturb for specific times

    When Do Not Disturb is on, you don’t receive notifications on your screen or hear notification sounds. However, the notifications still appear in Notification Center.

    OS X Yosemite: Turn off notifications

  • by oxcart,

    oxcart oxcart Sep 27, 2016 12:00 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 12:00 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    Thanks.  What does 'lock screen' mean?  I took it to mean during sleep or something.

     

    Anyway, I think the problem with Calendar is going to make me took for an alternative.  I've read that Fantastical is good.  The trouble with do not disturb is that it prevents desired notifications, ie. your meeting starts in 15 mins.

     

    The problem is that they have bundled Mail, Calendar and the Notification Center.  If only they provided a preference setting to undock them from each other.  Not exactly rocked science, I would have thought.  Indeed, it is reminiscent of that old problem with emails showing up in a finder search.  You could put the Mail folder in the Spotlight privacy tab, but then the the search function in mail did not work.    It took them many many upgrades to fix that and I remember a discussion that ran to 23 pages, or something.

     

    Finally, before I go away:  I can't mark this question as solved but I would like to highlight your helpful answers.  However, the 'Helpful' button is greyed out.  Sorry.

     

    Best wishes,

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 27, 2016 12:11 PM in response to oxcart
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 12:11 PM in response to oxcart

    I suspect you'll find Fantastical will give you the same results. It uses Apple's Notifications as well.

     

    Growl could be an alternative for your notifications. Check out Growl in the App Store.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 27, 2016 12:16 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 12:16 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    What happens when you uncheck the option?

     

    Check out Wunderlist. It's free and has options for notifications. You might find that if you use Wunderlist for some items and Calendar for others you'll find a workaround for getting notifications that suits your workflow.

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