Here we are, two weeks after Leopard Day, and here’s Part 5 of our Leopard review. Today I get to talk about a calendar application. Isn’t that exciting?

You’re snoring.

Okay, so it’s not the sexiest topic out there. An important, useful one, maybe, but it’s not exciting.

iCal is Apple’s calendaring application bundled with Mac OS X. One of my friends switched from Mac OS X to Windows (yes, seriously), but the one thing he misses from the Mac is iCal. Since its release in 2002, iCal has seen little in the way of major changes. Is this still the case with iCal 3.0? Let’s take a quick look at what’s new with iCal in Leopard.

First, here’s the customary note about the score. The score you see at the bottom of this page only reflects what I cover in this article. When we’re done with the Leopard review, we will give Leopard an all-around score. Anyway, let’s do this.

iCal’s user interface has undergone a major update in Leopard (screenshot). Some of the changes are merely cosmetic, others are usability improvements. First of all, iCal now looks prettier! The new Leopard look really suits iCal well. It’s an attractive, streamlined piece of software.

iCal’s sidebar has been reworked, and it now sorts your calendars by category (Calendars, .Mac account calendars, subscribed calendars). Also, you can create your own calendar groups. For example, if you have one calendar for article deadlines and one for event coverage(ahem), you can stick them into one calendar group. And of course, ant category or calendar group can be collapsed so they are hidden from view in the sidebar.

Aside from the sidebar, the main window has been cleaned up and simplified. The search field and view mode switcher now lives in a toolbar at the top of the window as opposed to the bottom where those controls lived before. The Get Info drawer is now gone from iCal. Instead, you need to double-click each event to get more information about it. To edit details, click the “Edit” button in the get info pop-up. From there you can edit the event’s time or length, specify if it repeats, assign it to another calendar, set an alarm, invite attendees, add notes, and more. This does simplify the main window some, but it does make getting details at a glance a little harder. All in all, though, it is an improvement, especially for those with smaller screens.

A quick note about iCal events: once upon a time it was possible to give individual events a status: “confirmed,” “tentative,” and “canceled.” At some point, this disappeared from iCal. I don’t know if this feature disappeared from Leopard or Tiger, but it is one feature I’d like to see back in iCal.

The To Do items list is pretty similar to what it was before, except you can now sort to-dos by various attributes, such as due date, priority, calendar, and others. To-dos integrate with Mail; if you add a to-do in Mail, it will appear in iCal as well. If you add one to iCal, it appears in Mail. This integration isn’t a huge new feature, but it’s welcome nonetheless. I have two little quibbles about to dos: 1. creating a to-do is not immediately obvious (double-click the To Do list), and 2. Mail does not color-code to dos by calendar like iCal does.

iCal’s biggest new features are support for CalDAV servers and integration with iCal Server, which is a piece of software included on Mac OS X Server for use in offices. The idea is that calendars can be shared between co-workers in an office. This is useful, say, for checking to see when all your co-workers are available for meetings, or for reserving a meeting room. The idea behind iCal Server isn’t new; Microsoft’s Exchange has been doing this sort of thing for years. I didn’t have the chance to use these features, since I don’t have access to a calendar server, but I can still say that it is a welcome addition to iCal, especially for businesses.

iCal 3.0 is a mixed bag. iCal 3.0 isn’t a major update in terms of features, aside from the refined UI and calendar server support. The new iCal is certainly an improvement, but how useful the new features are is hard to say. If you want to use iCal in a business environment, iCal has some nice improvements. If all you’re doing is keeping track of doctor’s appointment and the kids’ soccer games, the new additions won’t mean much to you. Still, iCal remains a solid piece of software.

As for the score, this score only reflects what I was able to cover in this review, and it’s a 4.0 out of 5. If you have had the chance to play with iCal’s CalDAV features, write us about it!

Articles in this series

• Part 1: The Leopard UI
• Leopard screenshots
• Part 2: Spotlight and the Finder
• Part 3: Stacks
• Part 4: Spaces