[nebben123]

on the old version of iCal when creating an event if you wanted to add an alarm there was a button on the info pallete called "use defaults" or something.

i'd use this when creating events to set it to "email me 2 days in advance" with an alarm reminder. that way i didn't have to go through every time and manually check off the alarm, select the time in the drop-down, etc. saved me a lot of headache to just be able to click "use defaults".

however in 1.5.1 that button seems to be missing on the new slide-out info drawer.

is it hidden somewhere else?

or is it totally gone? if so that really sucks!

[christor]

I haven't found a similar button.. But there are many things that have greatly improved alarms in my opinion:
1) You can now add as many alarms as you'd like, and they may be of different types (screen, email, file).
2) iCal need not be running for the alarm to work at an appointed time. (But I think you do need to be logged in - haven't tried it w/o being so.)
3) In the popup menu next to each alarm, you can select from previously used alarms... so this goes some ways toward making up for the lack of a default alarm option - but it does require an extra selection.
4) iCal now has the built-in, default ability to open applications and files upon the occurrence of an alarm. Used to be you could enable iCal to run an applsecript, but you couldn't rely on other people's having this functionality in their install.
5) The setting of alarms is now scriptable. The upshot of this is that other programs can set events in iCal with alarms. So, for example, programs like iCal calling itunes need not be running all the time - iCal can start them. There are, obviously, many other possibilities with this new feature.

None of this is to say that a default alarm wouldn't be nice, but I do think that 1.5.1 is, overall, a *big* step forward with respect to alarms.

[WJMoore]

Originally posted by christor:
2) iCal need not be running for the alarm to work at an appointed time. (But I think you do need to be logged in - haven't tried it w/o being so.)

This one isn't new in 1.5.1.

[iDriveX]

After setting an alarm for the first time, say to e-mail you 2 hours prior to the event. The next time you create an event, click on the drop menu next to Alarm (where you would go to set what kind of alarm), you will see there a few alarms that you have set in the past. You can choose one of those. That's about as easy as the Default button, I think.

[fetopher]

Yeah but what I really want is to be able to set up in the prefs what alarms I like, then every time I create a new event, by default the alarm(s) I've defined in the prefs will apply. I dont see why this isnt implemented. I can't use iCal until it is.