iCal’s Hidden Setting

When you create a new appointment in iCal the default duration of the event is an hour, but what if you usually have 20 minute meetings? Apple doesn’t let you change this anywhere, however it does get annoying after a while so let’s see how we can change this.

The key here is that Mac OS X is packed with secret settings that can’t be modified through the normal preferences, instead they are edited using the Terminal application. For example, to change the default duration of new events in iCal, open the Terminal (you find it in the Utilities folder in Applications). In the Terminal, type the following and press enter:

defaults write com.apple.iCal 'Default duration in minutes for new event' 20

where 20 is the new duration in minutes. Now restart iCal to have the settings take effect and try it out by creating a new event. To restore the default iCal settings, run the same command but set the time to 60 minutes. Simple!

Comments

[James]

Thanks for the tip! I was thinking.... I use iCal as a simple schedule and usually check off the "All Day" box for each of my entries. Is there another setting that can make iCal default to "All Day"??? Thanks.

[R. Mansfield]

Is there a trick for controlling which of my email accounts iCal uses for invites?

[Bartender]

R. Mansfield: You have to edit the script (by adding sender information) which iCal use to send invitations. You will find this script inside the iCal application package:

/Applications/iCal.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/Mail.scpt

Make sure to backup up the orginal script before editing it. If you don't know how to modify this script, please email me at info(at)maintain(dot)se.

[NotTellinYou]

Download "Secrets" pref pane and change this and tons more easy and for free!

http://secrets.blacktree.com/

Enjoy!