How to Make a Schedule on a Mac

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Include travel times and create alerts in the Calendar app.
Image Credit: Milenko Bokan/iStock/Getty Images

The calendar app that comes with every Apple computer has everything you need to create and manage even the most hectic schedule. Add events for home, work or anything in between and include travel times, notes or maps. Attach important documents to an event so you won't misplace them for important meetings. Calendar also has options for inviting others to your events and adding events or appointments to your schedule from services such as Microsoft Exchange, CalDAV and Facebook Events.

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Calendar Setup

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Step 1

Launch Calendar by double-clicking it in the Applications folder in Finder. To open the app without a mouse, press "Command-Space" on the keyboard, type "Calendar" and press "Return." Spotlight launches the app automatically.

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Step 2

Click the "Calendars" button and select the check box beside each calendar you want to display on your schedule. For example, select "Holidays" to have holidays appear in your schedule. If holidays and birthdays aren't listed as options, you can include them by selecting "Preferences" from the Calendar menu and clicking the check boxes at the bottom of the General tab.

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Step 3

Change the view of your Calendar at any time by clicking "Day," "Week," "Month" or "Year" at the top of the Calendar window.

Adding Events

Step 1

Click the "+" button beside the Calendars button to add an event to your schedule. Type a name for the event, a date and time in the text field that opens. Formatting isn't important here since Calendar will divine what you mean based on what you type. For example, to add a department meeting to your schedule, just type "Department Meeting Sep 12 9am-11am." If you type an address, it will be added to the event as well.

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Step 2

Type the start time of a meeting without an end time for hour-long events. Calendar automatically makes these events one hour long. If you don't enter any time, Calendar assumes it's a daylong event.

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Step 3

Type "breakfast" or "morning" for events that start at 9 a.m. "Lunch" or "noon" events start as 12 p.m. "Dinner" or "night" events automatically begin at 8 p.m.

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Step 4

Press the "Return" key when you are finished typing the details about an event to add the event to your calendar.

Editing Events

Step 1

Double-click any event in your calendar to open an editing menu. Here, you can change the name of the event, its day or time or its color. You can also add invitees by email. Add important notes, file attachments or website URLs for the event by clicking the "Add Notes" field.

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Step 2

Click the event date in the editing menu to change the date or time, to add an alert or to make it a repeating event. You can make events repeat every day, week, month and year or set a custom repeating schedule if needed.

Step 3

Click the "Travel Time" option to include travel time on your schedule. The amount of time you select is added before the event and marked as Travel Time.

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Step 4

Click the blue "Done" or "Send" button when you're done editing. The Send button only appears if you invite attendees by email.

Step 5

Delete any event by right-clicking it in your Calendar and selecting "Delete." Anyone who received invitations using the app will receive a cancellation notification.

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