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Powaqqatsi · Oct 8, 2003, 08:30 AM

iCal 1.5.1 is available from Software Update.

MojoRising022 · Oct 8, 2003, 08:38 AM

So is iSync 1.2.1 once you install iCal

Powaqqatsi · Oct 8, 2003, 08:50 AM

Originally posted by MojoRising022:
So is iSync 1.2.1 once you install iCal

Yep, noticed that after installing iCal

WJMoore · Oct 8, 2003, 09:02 AM

Here's what's new:

iCal 1.5.1 is easier and faster use with its enhanced Info Drawer, To Do alarms and notes, and more keyboard short cuts. iCal 1.5.1 also includes improved time zone support and personalized calendar colors.

If you use iSync to synchronize your calendars, you must to upgrade to iSync 1.2. Also, if you synchronize calendars across multiple Macintosh computers, you should upgrade all of your Macs at the same time.

JKT · Oct 8, 2003, 09:40 AM

Well, this is unbelievably sloppy programming by Apple - the info drawer appears OFFSCREEN if you use the main window at full screen size. Arrrrgggghh! What does it take to get programmers to code auto-window resizing into their apps?

Sheesh.

Otherwise, some very welcome enhancements

yellowdog · Oct 8, 2003, 09:46 AM

Originally posted by JKT:
Well, this is unbelievably sloppy programming by Apple - the info drawer appears OFFSCREEN if you use the main window at full screen size. Arrrrgggghh! What does it take to get programmers to code auto-window resizing into their apps?

You're right. The To-Do list auto-resizes, but not the info drawer. The same problem exists in Mail where the mailbox drawer disappears off the screen. A real pain. You have to set up the iCal window initially to allow for that to happen. Bummer.

Jerommeke · Oct 8, 2003, 09:49 AM

Damn, another reason to buy a Dual G5 with 2 17" screens

cpac · Oct 8, 2003, 09:59 AM

drawer thing is annoying, but at least its MUCH MUCH faster. (at least on my TiBook 500)

BrunoBruin · Oct 8, 2003, 10:23 AM

Originally posted by cpac:
drawer thing is annoying, but at least its MUCH MUCH faster. (at least on my TiBook 500)

Definitely MUCH faster. It went from four bounces for initial launch to ONE for me.

VEGAN · Oct 8, 2003, 10:32 AM

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
iCal 1.5.1 is available from Software Update.

I hit the "Info" a few times before I figured out that the having iCal full screen and seeing the info drawer... er... doesn't really happen...

I'd rather have them make the info drawer like the "to do" drawer...

Powaqqatsi · Oct 8, 2003, 10:45 AM

Originally posted by VEGAN:
I hit the "Info" a few times before I figured out that the having iCal full screen and seeing the info drawer... er... doesn't really happen...

Me too, I even trashed the prefs for iCal

I tought they were corrupted. As for speed, iCal was already very fast for me (867Mhz TiBook), I don't understand what everyone complained about, but the new version seems to start up slower.

CatOne · Oct 8, 2003, 10:58 AM

Originally posted by BrunoBruin:
Definitely MUCH faster. It went from four bounces for initial launch to ONE for me.

Faster shouldn't really refer to LAUNCH time... that's not really related to the app performance at all.

keston · Oct 8, 2003, 11:19 AM

Is it just me, or is iCal now not being dematelized (by metalifizer.. i'm not positive it did before). Also the borders in between the panes in transparent (i can see my desktop pic thru it).. this looks like a new bug.

ph0ust · Oct 8, 2003, 11:49 AM

so does it now import the birthdays from your [apple] contacts?!?!

lngtones · Oct 8, 2003, 12:13 PM

Originally posted by ph0ust:
so does it now import the birthdays from your [apple] contacts?!?!

My iCal already did that...

willed · Oct 8, 2003, 12:29 PM

Originally posted by JKT:
Well, this is unbelievably sloppy programming by Apple - the info drawer appears OFFSCREEN if you use the main window at full screen size. Arrrrgggghh! What does it take to get programmers to code auto-window resizing into their apps?

Oh!!! That's where it is! I was just about to post a topic asking where the info draw had gone!

That is the worst bit of interface design I've seen in ages! It means that the iCal window has to permanently be at about half its max size, which is just great on a 12 inch screen...

BrunoBruin · Oct 8, 2003, 01:33 PM

Originally posted by CatOne:
Faster shouldn't really refer to LAUNCH time... that's not really related to the app performance at all.

True, but launch times contribute to the user's perception of the overall responsiveness of the system. Utility apps like iCal really need to launch quickly or the perception is that the whole system is slow.

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 8, 2003, 01:39 PM

It's clear the future is wide-screen...suck it up, dudes!

nobitacu · Oct 8, 2003, 01:55 PM

Nice, I'll getting all the new updates now.

Ming

clebin · Oct 8, 2003, 02:10 PM

Yep, the drawer really sucks. It's worse than the old window and is particularly bad when you have the To Do pane open.

Next version, give us the choice of drawer or window in preferences, and the choice to auto-size the main window. I'd like the choice for "same window size in day/week/month view" too.

I think the repeat event is improved (I can't remember when the custom.. bit was there before) but I really want to add exceptions to a repeated event - ie. this occurs every week, except on these weeks/these dates. Next version too I hope.

You can now choose custom colours for calendars which is nice when you have lots of them. Don't meant to be overly negative - I'm still a big fan of iCal, but it would be great to have these things.

Chris

Thinine · Oct 8, 2003, 04:08 PM

Why would anyone need to have their iCal window full screen? Do you really have that many things to do?

clebin · Oct 8, 2003, 04:14 PM

Yes - busy busy busy!

And I have the Rugby World Cup and Celtic League fixtures in it.... Bit annoying when they concatinate to "<team> v"

Chris

ikarion · Oct 8, 2003, 04:16 PM

One nifty trick:

defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu YES

like in Safari... maybe you will find some interesting feature:

"Inspector -> Test Inspector in Window" !!!!!!

Apfhex · Oct 8, 2003, 04:28 PM

Originally posted by lngtones:
My iCal already did that...

How do you get iCal to do that?!

Michel Fortin · Oct 8, 2003, 04:40 PM

iCal was already difficult to fit on a 800x600 screen, now it's unusable!...

Minimum iCal window width + minimum drawer width > 800px

kcmac · Oct 8, 2003, 04:41 PM

"Next version, give us the choice of drawer or window in preferences, and the choice to auto-size the main window. I'd like the choice for "same window size in day/week/month view" too."

That would be nice. iCal does let you size each window independently from each other however.

If you open to day, then open the info drawer, make the window the size you like. Next time you open the day window, it will be that size again.

If you do this for week and month, you can make them virtually all the same size which is what I did. Now the windows don't jump around when switching from day to week to month.

Don't know if this is new to this version or not.

I did notice that on my iMac DVSE with 800x600 screen, iCal doesn't quite fit with the info windo open. No problem on my 12" PB.

DigitalEl · Oct 8, 2003, 05:03 PM

That is the worst bit of interface design I've seen in ages! It means that the iCal window has to permanently be at about half its max size, which is just great on a 12 inch screen...

What he said. I'd have found it hard to believe they could make iCal even more unusable.

iCal was already difficult to fit on a 800x600 screen, now it's unusable!...

Same on a 1024 x 768 screen. Glad it's viable for some of you, but not for me.

I would love to switch from Entourage to Mail and iCal, but not yet. I was hoping things would be better in Panther, but it's unlikely the apps will change much before the 24th.

cpac · Oct 8, 2003, 06:38 PM

Originally posted by clebin:
I really want to add exceptions to a repeated event - ie. this occurs every week, except on these weeks/these dates. Next version too I hope.

You can do this now.

Just create a repeating event and delete the instances of the event you don't want. iCal's done that since 1.0

sanity assassin · Oct 8, 2003, 06:50 PM

Originally posted by keston:
Is it just me, or is iCal now not being dematelized (by metalifizer.. i'm not positive it did before). Also the borders in between the panes in transparent (i can see my desktop pic thru it).. this looks like a new bug.

Yup, matallifizer no longer works with it. If you turn it on, iCal goes a bit strange and certain elements become transparent.

Hop Pocket · Oct 8, 2003, 07:01 PM

I don't see what the big surprise is regarding the info drawer not resizing in full screen. In Mail.app, it has never resized the window down from full screen if I toggle the mailbox drawers. Maybe this is part of their usability guidelines?

Regardless, it is to me about as lame as having the green button never do what I want it to (maximize the window).

That was probably the hardest thing to get used to switching from a PC to a Mac, besides of course feeling like things were... TOO simple.

lngtones · Oct 8, 2003, 08:23 PM

Originally posted by Apfhex:
How do you get iCal to do that?!

Hmm, maybe it didn't do it automatically. I've always had a birthday calendar though. I must have used a program like iCal Birthday Shifter. Sorry to get your hopes up.

WJMoore · Oct 8, 2003, 10:23 PM

Originally posted by lngtones:
Hmm, maybe it didn't do it automatically. I've always had a birthday calendar though. I must have used a program like iCal Birthday Shifter. Sorry to get your hopes up.

So can anyone confirm if Birthdays have been added in the new version?

cpac · Oct 9, 2003, 12:11 AM

Originally posted by WJMoore:
So can anyone confirm if Birthdays have been added in the new version?

It doesn't appear so.

At least there's no option in iCal to "import birthdays from Address Book" or anything like that.

Maybe there'll be a button in Panther's Address Book that'll say "publish birthdays to iCal" - in the meantime, the utilities with this purpose work great.

kovacs · Oct 9, 2003, 01:18 AM

I can't even fit the stupid drawer on my 800X600 pixels iBook screen, I have to drag the window to the left to see the complete drawer..aaarrrhhh.

At least I can publish and subscribe to iCals now with my proxy connection...

ph0ust · Oct 10, 2003, 02:57 PM

Originally posted by cpac:
It doesn't appear so.

At least there's no option in iCal to "import birthdays from Address Book" or anything like that.

Maybe there'll be a button in Panther's Address Book that'll say "publish birthdays to iCal" - in the meantime, the utilities with this purpose work great.

[rant]so what's up with apple introducing some arguably usefull features while igoring the

OBVIOUSLY usefull ones? what the hell is the point of even having a birthday field in your contacts if the other apps are too ignorant to do anything with it?!?!?! [/rant]

sorry... but this kind of stuff drives me nuts!

lngtones · Oct 10, 2003, 08:30 PM

Originally posted by ph0ust:
[rant]so what's up with apple introducing some arguably usefull features while igoring the OBVIOUSLY usefull ones? what the hell is the point of even having a birthday field in your contacts if the other apps are too ignorant to do anything with it?!?!?! [/rant]

sorry... but this kind of stuff drives me nuts!

I agree. Apple should remove the ability to have anything related storing a birthday in Panther.

:XI: · Oct 11, 2003, 09:10 AM

Originally posted by ph0ust:
[rant]so what's up with apple introducing some arguably usefull features while igoring the OBVIOUSLY usefull ones? what the hell is the point of even having a birthday field in your contacts if the other apps are too ignorant to do anything with it?!?!?! [/rant]

sorry... but this kind of stuff drives me nuts!

Yeah, I thought a built in spell checker would be 'usefull' but some people don't seem to use it. Why bother spending the time to even think about these features when people don't want to use them?