Apple Releases Updated iCal 1.5.1

An anonymous reader writes "iCal 1.5.1 is easier and faster use with its enhanced Info Drawer, To Do alarms and notes, and more keyboard short cuts. iCal 1.5.1 also includes improved time zone support and personalized calendar colors. You can visit the iCal homepage. Also, if you synchronize you'll need the latest iSync 1.2.1 for it to work with the new iCal." You can also update via Software Update, of course, and you need to update iCal before iSync.

Comments

Software update

[Mark Hood]

will automatically present you with them in the correct order - i.e. when you first update it ONLY shows you iCal.

Next time, you'll get the chance to download iSync.

Neither needs a reboot.

Mark

Poor Interface Design Gets Worse

[positive]

Like many other people, I've had problems with iCal's interface from the start. I had hoped for some usability improvements with this upgrade but it seems to have actually gotten worse! Instead of the popup window to show details/information for an event, there is now a drawer that slides out from the side of the main window. The problem with this is that the tray is HUGE. If you keep your iCal window zoomed (like I assume most people do), you don't even realize at first that the drawer has slid out because it is completely off the screen. The solution to this is to make the main iCal window narrower, compressing the already-small calendar view even further. I have no idea why they chose to design the program this way, but I guess I'll keep hoping for the right changes in the NEXT version.

Re:Drop the drawers...

[greenhide]

Yeah, well, they could always have gone ahead and made a pop-up window with the same layout as the info drawer.

I hate slide out drawers. They're not intuitive at all. They're eye candy based. That's my main gripe with Camino -- bookmarks and history have to be accessed from a side drawer.

It breaks the system because you either have to purposefully make your window narrower, or the side bar will be offscreen when it "pops up" (or out, rather). Also, because it's on the side, it doesn't have a featured focus. When I first tried adding an event using 1.5, I doubled clicked to create an event, and wondered why the info window wasn't showing up. Because the drawer was opening to the side, I didn't notice it because I wasn't looking for it. In any case, most of the drawer was offscreen, because I didn't know that I was supposed to provide space on the left for it to show up.

If someone can give me an example of a side drawer that really makes sense and is more useful than a floating pop-up window, please let me know.

Time zone support is a big improvement

[nickovs]

As a frequent traveller the biggest benefit for me from this release is the proper support for time zones.

You need to tick a box in the preferences panel to enable it but once on you get to specify the time zone as well as the time of the meeting (it defaults to the zone set for the clock). The display presents the time of the meeting in the view time zone, which also defaults to the zone for the clock. Dinner next Tuesday in Boston is showing up for me as 1AM on Wednesday because I still have my clock set for here in the UK. It now also seems to properly support timed events that span more than one day.

I sent in a feature request for exactly this six months ago. I'm sure that I was not the only one but it's gratifying to see that they listen to their customers :-)