The iPhone calendar is a mini version of iCal, the calendar application that comes with Mac OS X.
There are three main views for the calendar: List, Day and Month. The list view simply takes all the events in your calendar and displays them one after the other. It usually start by showing you today’s events, but you can scroll up or down with your finger to see earlier or later events.
The next view mode is the Day View. This shows you only events scheduled for today. You can use the arrow keys on the top left and top right corners to move from day to day. You can also scroll up and down with your finger to see events earlier or later in the day.
If you are viewing the current day, the screen will automatically start with the top of the screen close to the current time. Otherwise, the screen will adjust to show the first event. Any all-day events will be shown at the top of the screen, before the timeline of events.
The monthly view shows the entire month in standard calendar format. The current day will always be shown darker than the rest. Under the calendar will be a shortened list view of events for the selected day. The selected day can be the current day, or another day of the month.
At the top of the screen, you can use the arrows to move from month to month.
Always present at the top of the screen in all three views is the Today button. This will take you back to the current day in any view. There is also the + button, which allows you to add an event.
When adding an event, there are a variety of screens that you must use, starting with the main Add Event screen. From there, you can go to the Title & Location screen, the Start & End screen, the Repeat Event screen, the Event Alert screen and the Notes screen.
Both the Title & Location screen and the Notes screen use a keyboard to allow you to enter information.
The Start & End screen uses a scrolling clock interface to allow you to choose each time. You can also turn All-day to On. If you do, the scrolling clock interface only lets you set the start and end day, not a time.
The Repeat Event screen lets you select None, Every Day, Every Week, Every 2 Weeks, Every Month or Every Year. For instance, if you select Every Day, the event will appear on every day from the current day forward.
Also, if you select to have an event repeat, a new option of End Repeat is added to your main Add Event page. This allows you to choose a date on which the repeating ends.
The Event Alert screen allows you to choose a variety of times to show you an alert: 5 minutes before, 15 minutes before, etc. If you choose an alert, the main Add Event screen will now allow you to also add a Second Alert.
The Notes screen allows you to add additional information about the event.
All of the screens include a Save and a Cancel button. The Save button on all screens will take you back to the main Add Event screen. So adding an event consists of a sequence of going to each of the screens and pressing Save to return to the Add Event screen. Pressing Cancel instead, will return you to the Add Event screen, but not save the information you entered.
On the Add Event screen, you can compete the event by pressing the Done button.
To view any event in the calendar, navigate to the event using one of the three views. Press the event to go to a screen with all the event information. Then you can press on an Edit button to go to the Edit screen, which is identical to the Add Event screen except for the red Delete Event button at the bottom of the event, instead of the Cancel button at the upper left.
The main way many people use the Calendar application is to enter their events using iCal in Mac OS, and then sync with their iPhone using iTunes. The sync works both ways, taking changes made on the iPhone and uploading them to the Mac.
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When you have a calendarentry with a telefon Nr. Is there a possibility to make a telfoncall directly from the calendar like you can do with a Palm Handheld.
Too bad it doesn’t tace over the colors from Outlook and you can not specify the Time Alert by minutes..
One of the crummy things that the new version 2.0 lacks is a way to customize the ALERT sound that the iPhone uses to remind you of an event. I currently haven’t found an OS-X based solution for this.. There is however a PC based 3rd party application to assist in this.
Sadly, the alerts are very quiet and hard to get your attention. I wish Apple would consider updating this portion of the iPhone software quickly.
The lack of a user friendly was to enter and manage appts on the iphone is a huge weakness. I’ve got a Palm OS PDA with Datebk6 on it that has been around for years and makes data entry a snap through templates and icons. It would be great if someone could write an app to allow for a more robust calendar.
Is it possible to add options to the Event Alert?
The most warning I see is “2 days before”
I want weeks of warning for my families birthdays so I can have time to send them a card etc.
Overseas mail takes a little longer than 2 days!
Thanks
Doghair: You have many more options in iCal on your Mac. So I would just set up these birthday reminders there. You can set it for as many days before as you like. Then it should sync with your iPhone. You can also choose an option to get an email sent to you as a reminder, which may come in handy in these cases.
I agree with Stephen. How could any company, much less Apple, market a gadget with so many shortcomings. I bought one this past weekend, never imagining that it didn’t have a way to search old records in the calendar. What a joke! This thing is a toy, not a tool. Palm’s products have had these features for years. Unfortunately, their new gadgets keep breaking. Another Palm is not an option. I’m debating returning my iPhone before my two-week return period is up. But I’m not sure what to replace it with.
Maybe there is a way to do this that I am overlooking- but I wish there was more control over repeated events. For example, what if you have a task that happens 3 times a week (like entering a class schedule). Right now you have to add new event for each of the days- as you only have to option to repeat every week, and no option so select other days in the week.
kwame: You may want to consider setting the event in iCal on your Mac (or equivalent on a PC) and then just syncing. You only have limited options in the iPhone interface, but a ton of options in iCal.
I am very disapointed with the iPhone calendar,. I have yet to find one that I can use on the iPhone that allows a moth per view with a differeing details/icon of each days events. Every one of my days has a dot on it… but as a shift worker I need to know which shift it is that I am working on that day at a moth per view. Please fix.
I add my class schedule from the desktop…I choose custom from the repeat menu and then choose weekly, it then allows you to pick the days you want to repeat on. I then put the end date on the last day of the semster.
Is there any possibility to view the calendar in a week (7 days) view? Or can it be added to the current available view types?
Filip: Only List, Day and Month are options. But what about the List view? That should fill any need that a Week view would.
Let me echo many of these comments: I bought the iPhone in part because I wanted to combine phone and PDA, but the Calendar app is UNUSABLE if you actually need to run your business around it. I absolutely hate those little odometer wheels for time (cute, but awkward and slow.) With my old Palm, I can enter an appointment by picking a name out of my contacts, set colors and icons and a reminder in 10-12 seconds. I can’t break a minute to do the same operation with the iPhone (important if you have someone standing there or waiting on the phone). Worst part is that it appears that Apple isn’t allowing 3rd party developers into the calendar functions. Come on Apple, either fix it or get out of the way.
DSF – I agree, being a long term user of Windows based mobiles and prior to that palms – I love my Iphone but hugely dissappointed in the Calendar and Task functionality for the same reasons as you specifically the amount of silly screens that you need to use to enter one meeting is hopeless. Have tried addtional apps to see if I can fix but no luck yet…. As a result I have gone back to a paper calendar YUCK.
What I find that sucks is that I have meetings monthly that occur on the 3rd Tues, or the 2nd Mon. and I cannot set up repeating events with reminders, which screws up my ability to transition from longtime Palm Treo usage to the iPhone. I see there is an app called SaiSuke which might be helpful but haven’t been able to try it yet.
Betsy: Do you have a Mac as well? If so, you can set those up in iCal and then sync with your iPhone to bring them in.
I personally use Google’s calendar through the browser (classic view?). The repeat options and different views are nice, it has color coding, you can see personal and work calendars simultaneously as well as hide them to view one at a time. My favorite thing about Google’s reminders is the text message reminder.
Is there any way to get something to repeat EVERY 4 WEEKS? Monthly is NOT the same. I don’t understand why the calendar function arbitrarily chooses 1 week or 2 weeks only, and doesn’t let the user choose?
“Monthly” does not help, for example, with birth-control reminders, since those are done by weekly cycles, not random 30 or 31 or 28 day cycles – and that is a big deal for everyone involved.
If anyone’s found a way around this “monthly” vs. 4-week dilemma, please let me know. Thanks.
hp: You can definitely do that, just use iCal on your Mac and you can create something that repeats every X weeks. Then sync with your iPhone.
thanks hp, I was casting around for an app, taking everyone’s complaints about iphone calendar at face-value
regarding DSFs odometer wheels: going back or forwards by 10min increments is faster than spinning to get there.
with measured taps I find it’s quick enough..
I love my iPhone but it is definitely not a replacement for my PDA or even my clamshell cell. The calendar is useless to me bec of the time it takes to enter an event and because it doesn’t give you the option to select times that are not in even 5 minute increments. Many of my family’s appointments and classes start or end at odd times like 9:52 or 2:48. I don’t want to round these times up or down! This is a mini-computer, I should be able to enter whatever time of day I want. And I don’t have a Mac or use iCal…why should I have to, just to get my iPhone to do what every PDA out there already does on its own?
I see that it is mentioned that alert option will now allow you to also add a Second Alert, for example I want to be reminded 2 days before , than 1 day before and than 30 mintues before. I want all three alerts. can I do that?
You can only add up to 2 alerts via the iPhone interface. Using iCal on your Mac you can add more.
I have an event that repeats monthly, but not the same day of the month. It repeats the 2nd Thursday of the month. I also have an event that repeats the 3rd Saturday of the month. iCal doesn’t allow for that type of repeat.
These issues are driving me crazy. Also driving me crazy are the comments from the Mac people. “Just use a Mac” isn’t feasible for most. If anyone is complaining its because they are using a PC and Mac’s teams don’t care nor bother to make their products PC friendly. Personal usage is mostly PC which is most of the people who have or use Iphone. I think it’s sad that without the advantages of other people doing apps this phone is pretty useless.
If anybody finds a good iphone calendar and/or task app. Please let us know! Thanks.
Using a Mac doesn’t fix the problem of a snooze ability on the phone. Even if I had a Mac and corporate email and calendars were coming from Outlook, I still can’t use snooze because the mulitple alerts only exist for items created on hte phone or in iCal.
This is not a useful device for business.
I got my Iphone stolen. Imported my Outlook calendar on Iphone and added new events. Now I desperately need to find the calendar on my PC. Is the calendar on the PC or just on the Iphone?
If you imported it on to your iPhone then you should still have the original on your PC, right? Did you sync the iPhone back to the PC periodically? If so, I believe the calendars should have stayed in sync. But I don’t use a PC or Outlook calendar, so I’m not sure.