iCal 1.5.5 Suggestions
Implementations of events that start in one time zone and end in another
I'm thinking mainly of flights. Let's say I start in Tokyo and fly to New York. This will usually actually result in me going back in time as far as date and time is concerned. For instance, I'm flying from Tokyo to New York on August 13. I leave at 3:55PM and arrive in New York at 3:20PM. The easiest way to handle this is to put the departure time in the time zone of where your departure is and then calculate out how long it will be. If you calculate it correctly, you should end up in New York at 3:20. However, this is something of a pain. It would be easier if you could just set the beginning time for one time zone and the second time for another.
Allow nested to-do items
Let's say you've got to "Write report on this year's sales." There are several distinct steps, such as "Write first quarter summary," "Write second quarter summary," etc. Instead of having each one separate and disparate throughout the calendar, having the organized hierarchically in terms of the entire project is just a much neater way of going about things.
When sortings by due date, you will sort based on the earliest uncompleted due date within the nested to-do item. When by priority, it will be by the priority of the highest item within. When by summary, it will be just like folders in the Finder, sorted by the highest level item.
More checkbox versions
Currently all you have is unchecked (not done yet) and checked (done). I'd like to see some more options. The thing I would most like to see is an "x" for "not done," as in decided not to do at all. With nested to-do items, if the child to-dos consist of one or more of the following, then the parent to-do will display the following ("_" is unchecked, "√" checked, "x" is x-ed, "-" is dashed):
Currently the priority menu gives you a choice of nothing, "Very Important," "Important," or "Not Important," while the status menu gives you the choices of nothing, "Tentative," "Confirmed," or "Cancelled." At the bottom of each of those lists should be an "Edit menu..." entry which will open a window that will let you add or take away menu items, including assigning icons to them. The one I'm especially eager to have is "Skipped" for classes, as this isn't quite the same as "Cancelled," which has been standing in for it thus far for me.
Allow multiple URLs
If there's some logic for having just one URL, the first URL should be treated specially if necessary. Otherwise, the user should be allowed to input multiple URLs.
Allow color customization
It's hard to see at times with the current color schema.
Allow linking of the location field and addresses in Address Book
If this links to a person's house, it could show their address. If it links to a company (for instance a restaurant), it could show the name of the company and the specific address information.
Allow carriage returns in the location field
The work around now is to copy and paste an address with carriage returns from some other field, such as the notes field. If you don't do this, the address must al be written on one line.
Automatically put b-days, anniversaries, etc., in the calendar
As I've noted in my comments on Address Book, there should be a checkbox in Address Book to decide whether or not to post a date. Birthdays should optionally end on a death date, and wedding anniversaries should optionally end when both people have died.
Sort to-dos manually
In addition to the three to-do sorts, they should also be sortable manually.
Set date to-dos are first visible in the calendar
Currently, the only view option for present and future to-dos which have not been completed is "Hide To Do items with due dates outside the calendar view. Frankly this is a rather blunt too for siphoning out what to see and what not to see. You may have something due in three months that you need to start work on now, or you may have something due in three months that you can't work on until a week before it's due. Thus, above the due date in the to-do item info drawer, there should be a "show after" date selection item, where the user may select the date after which an item is shown. It could have a check box just like due date. If it is not checked it will follow the default rules. If checked, you will only see it when looking at a part of the calendar which is after that date or if the actual date is after that date.
Show completed to-dos between show after date and due date
As is, you can either hide to-dos a certain number of days after completed or show them all, yielding an unwieldy list. Assuming the above suggested is implemented, this would allow you see to-dos only when they were relevant on the calendar, rather than just having a massive list to scroll through.
Make all-day items take us less space in week view
The current priority seems to be keeping all-day items in the same position across weeks, rather than taking up less space. For instance, the week I currently have open displays like this, with each number representing a different all-day entry:
Allow scrolling through week view day-by-day
Currently you can only go week-by-week. If I want to compare the schedules of the last day of the week and the first day of the week, I either have to flip through weeks or else change the start day of the week each time I want to do this.
A second icon, one for forward and one for backward in time, could be added to the bottom of the calendar where you can click on the icon to move the calendar view forward or backwards. So there would be two sets of icons, one for a weekly jump and one for a daily jump. A second key command could also be added to cover the difference between the daily and weekly jump.
Allow changing the number of days displayed in week view
I would say the range permitted should be from 2 to 14, with the default naturally being 7. There should be a button to add or subtract days from the week view in the interface. A simple + and - à la Palm Desktop would do the trick nicely.
Allow calendar publishing of all calendars to one single calendar on .Mac
For instance, I have a calendar for a work and a calendar for family things. When I give my .Mac calendar URL to a friend to schedule an event, he'd want to see all my events in one place and not have to look at two different calendars. This function still isn't available.
I'm thinking mainly of flights. Let's say I start in Tokyo and fly to New York. This will usually actually result in me going back in time as far as date and time is concerned. For instance, I'm flying from Tokyo to New York on August 13. I leave at 3:55PM and arrive in New York at 3:20PM. The easiest way to handle this is to put the departure time in the time zone of where your departure is and then calculate out how long it will be. If you calculate it correctly, you should end up in New York at 3:20. However, this is something of a pain. It would be easier if you could just set the beginning time for one time zone and the second time for another.
Allow nested to-do items
Let's say you've got to "Write report on this year's sales." There are several distinct steps, such as "Write first quarter summary," "Write second quarter summary," etc. Instead of having each one separate and disparate throughout the calendar, having the organized hierarchically in terms of the entire project is just a much neater way of going about things.
When sortings by due date, you will sort based on the earliest uncompleted due date within the nested to-do item. When by priority, it will be by the priority of the highest item within. When by summary, it will be just like folders in the Finder, sorted by the highest level item.
More checkbox versions
Currently all you have is unchecked (not done yet) and checked (done). I'd like to see some more options. The thing I would most like to see is an "x" for "not done," as in decided not to do at all. With nested to-do items, if the child to-dos consist of one or more of the following, then the parent to-do will display the following ("_" is unchecked, "√" checked, "x" is x-ed, "-" is dashed):
Child Parent
_ _
√ √
x x
_, √ -
_, x -
_, √, x -
√, x √Currently the priority menu gives you a choice of nothing, "Very Important," "Important," or "Not Important," while the status menu gives you the choices of nothing, "Tentative," "Confirmed," or "Cancelled." At the bottom of each of those lists should be an "Edit menu..." entry which will open a window that will let you add or take away menu items, including assigning icons to them. The one I'm especially eager to have is "Skipped" for classes, as this isn't quite the same as "Cancelled," which has been standing in for it thus far for me.
Allow multiple URLs
If there's some logic for having just one URL, the first URL should be treated specially if necessary. Otherwise, the user should be allowed to input multiple URLs.
Allow color customization
It's hard to see at times with the current color schema.
Allow linking of the location field and addresses in Address Book
If this links to a person's house, it could show their address. If it links to a company (for instance a restaurant), it could show the name of the company and the specific address information.
Allow carriage returns in the location field
The work around now is to copy and paste an address with carriage returns from some other field, such as the notes field. If you don't do this, the address must al be written on one line.
Automatically put b-days, anniversaries, etc., in the calendar
As I've noted in my comments on Address Book, there should be a checkbox in Address Book to decide whether or not to post a date. Birthdays should optionally end on a death date, and wedding anniversaries should optionally end when both people have died.
Sort to-dos manually
In addition to the three to-do sorts, they should also be sortable manually.
Set date to-dos are first visible in the calendar
Currently, the only view option for present and future to-dos which have not been completed is "Hide To Do items with due dates outside the calendar view. Frankly this is a rather blunt too for siphoning out what to see and what not to see. You may have something due in three months that you need to start work on now, or you may have something due in three months that you can't work on until a week before it's due. Thus, above the due date in the to-do item info drawer, there should be a "show after" date selection item, where the user may select the date after which an item is shown. It could have a check box just like due date. If it is not checked it will follow the default rules. If checked, you will only see it when looking at a part of the calendar which is after that date or if the actual date is after that date.
Show completed to-dos between show after date and due date
As is, you can either hide to-dos a certain number of days after completed or show them all, yielding an unwieldy list. Assuming the above suggested is implemented, this would allow you see to-dos only when they were relevant on the calendar, rather than just having a massive list to scroll through.
Make all-day items take us less space in week view
The current priority seems to be keeping all-day items in the same position across weeks, rather than taking up less space. For instance, the week I currently have open displays like this, with each number representing a different all-day entry:
However, this could take up only three lines if displayed like this:
M T W T F S S Row 1 1 2 Row 2 3 3 3 3 3 Row 3 4 Row 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Row 5 6
I think saving screen space is more important than maintaining all-day calendar item row consistency over the weeks.
M T W T F S S Row 1 1 2 4 Row 2 6 3 3 3 3 3 Row 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Allow scrolling through week view day-by-day
Currently you can only go week-by-week. If I want to compare the schedules of the last day of the week and the first day of the week, I either have to flip through weeks or else change the start day of the week each time I want to do this.
A second icon, one for forward and one for backward in time, could be added to the bottom of the calendar where you can click on the icon to move the calendar view forward or backwards. So there would be two sets of icons, one for a weekly jump and one for a daily jump. A second key command could also be added to cover the difference between the daily and weekly jump.
Allow changing the number of days displayed in week view
I would say the range permitted should be from 2 to 14, with the default naturally being 7. There should be a button to add or subtract days from the week view in the interface. A simple + and - à la Palm Desktop would do the trick nicely.
Allow calendar publishing of all calendars to one single calendar on .Mac
For instance, I have a calendar for a work and a calendar for family things. When I give my .Mac calendar URL to a friend to schedule an event, he'd want to see all my events in one place and not have to look at two different calendars. This function still isn't available.
posted by Vincent at 8:16 PM
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