10 Tips for Mastering Apple Calendar

An online calendar is one of my most important tools for staying organized. It is the keeper of appointments, events, birthdays, and reminders to give my dogs their monthly heartworm pills. People use calendars to plan their lives, whether it's figuring out the best dates for a vacation or mapping out the key dates of a pregnancy.

If you use Apple's Calendar app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you probably mastered the basic skills of creating and managing appointments right away. Since the app's debut, however, it has grown into a much more interesting and useful tool. There are now a few additional skills and features worth learning because they can make your calendar usage not only more efficient but also richer.

10 Tips and Tricks for Apple Calendar

Take a look at the 10 tips and tricks for Apple Calendar below. Pick a few you might use, and spend a minute or two trying them out. Hopefully, they'll stick and make your life a smidge easier and more organized. You can learn even more tips for your Apple devices with this list of 21 hidden features of iOS 13.

1. Connect Calendars, Sync Faster

Apple Calendar has two purposes. First, it can be an online calendar that you use to create and manage appointments, as well as sync across your devices. It can also act as a calendar client app, meaning you can use it to view calendars that you have created somewhere else, such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange. You can connect multiple calendars and color code them, too. On a Mac, go to Calendar > Accounts and follow the prompts to connect a calendar. On a mobile device, tap Calendars > Add Calendar and follow the prompts.

When you first connect a new calendar, you won't immediately see all your calendar entries from the other service pop up in Apple Calendar. The reason is the apps sync only every 15 minutes by default. You can speed it up by going to Calendar > Preferences > Refresh Calendars and choosing the frequency you want.

2. Let Someone Else Manage One of Your Calendars

Apple Calendar has a function called Delegate that lets you share a specific calendar with someone else so that they can manage it. The idea is to give a personal assistant (or maybe a business partner) the ability to add and edit events on your calendar, track responses to invitations you send, and so forth. There's one major caveat for this feature, however. It does not work with iCloud calendars. It's really designed to work with Microsoft Exchange calendars.

Lucky for us, there's a workaround. If you want to share an iCloud calendar, you can give someone View & Edit access. To share an iCloud calendar, press the Calendars button next to the green full-screen mode button. Click on the calendar you want to share. You can then type someone's name or email address; they must be listed in your Contacts app for it to work. You know the calendar has been shared when you see a radio signal symbol next to it. Note that only one person can edit a shared calendar at a time.

3. Share a Read-Only View of a Calendar

Another way to share a calendar is to let people see it without giving them the ability to change anything on it. To do that, you need to publish the calendar.

Choose the calendar you want to share, and on a Mac, click to the right of its name (if you click directly on the name, you get an editing field), and then tick the box next to Publish. You don't have to be on a Mac. You can share a calendar from an iPhone or iPad, too.

The app generates a URL that you can share with people. You can copy and paste the URL or use the Share button to send it to someone another way. If you don't see the URL right away, close that little window and reopen it. It should now appear.

4. Get to Your Calendar Without Your Apple Device

What would you do if you were separated from your Apple devices for some reason (lost, stolen, etc.) and needed to see the details of your calendar? Did you know you can log into iCloud.com and see your calendar there?

Using any web browser, go to iCloud.com and log in using your Apple or iCloud ID. For web access to work, your Apple Calendar must be syncing with iCloud. Check on a Mac or mobile device by going to Settings > iCloud and making sure Calendar is enabled to sync.

5. Get Notice of When to Leave and Directions

If you turn on Location Services and you add an address to a calendar event, Apple Calendar can tell you when it's time to leave, based on the directions in Apple Maps and current traffic. It also pulls up those directions for you at the appropriate time.

In the image, you can see the app specifies going by car rather than walking, bicycling, or taking public transit. Those options may vary depending on your location. If you see no options, the app defaults to driving.

6. See Upcoming Events and Get Directions on CarPlay

One of the new features in iOS 13 for CarPlayis that you can now see details about your upcoming calendar events on the dash.

Included in those details can be directions, if you've added an address to the event or appointment and turned on Location Services.

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7. Automatically Open a File Before an Event

Let's say you have a recurring weekly meeting, and you're forgetful when it comes to setting an  agenda and jotting down the goals for the meeting. When you create the calendar appointment for the meeting, you can also set a custom reminder that opens a file (like an agenda template) however many minutes before the meeting you choose.

To set up this trick, choose Custom reminder when setting up the appointment and pick Open file. Then choose the file you want to open. Another option is to send an email. This trick works wonders for preparing in advance for meetings, and it's also handy for updating regularly scheduled reports, scheduling time to create an invoice, and other recurring tasks.

8. Create and Modify Appointments Hands-Free With Siri

I hardly ever use Siri, but I appreciate how useful it can be for people with limited mobility or someone whose hands are always full (new parents). I must admit that I was surprised at how well it works with the Calendar app. When you enable Siri, you can ask for a summary of upcoming appointments, as well as make new appointments.

The most delightful shocker, however, was realizing I can also edit appointments. Being able to edit an existing appointment or reminder is a gaping hole for some other voice assistants. Saying, "I want to change something on my calendar," led Siri to prompt me about which appointment and what I wanted to change about it. If you have a need to use Siri more and, like me, haven't tried it out with the Calendar app recently, you just might be as impressed as I was.

9. Show or Hide All-Day Events

Does your calendar ever look cluttered to the point that it's not very effective? Maybe you already know that you can view and hide individual calendars, such as your Work calendar and your Personal calendar to help you hone your focus. Did you know that you can also temporarily hide or show all-day events, too?

In the Mac app, go the menu bar and select View > Show All-Day Events. If you want to see them, make sure the check mark is visible, and vice versa to hide them.

10. See Scheduled Events From the Year View

Sometimes it really helps to zoom out and look at the yearly view of your calendar, such as when you're trying to pick dates well in advance for an event. When you look at the whole year, however, you can't see the details of what's scheduled for each day. With Apple Calendar, you can, although you can only see one day at a time. Simply click on any date to see a short summary of what's scheduled then.