The built in Calendar App has a ton of great features to help keep you organized and manage your schedule. Here are a few tips and tricks that will help you get more out of the Calendar App on your iOS device.
1. Rotate iPhone and iPod Touch to Landscape to reveal 3-day View
Whenever you rotate your device to landscape when looking at your calendar, the view will automatically switch to a 3 day view. You can scroll left or right to view other days of the week. Week View on the iPad (Mini) always reveals the entire 7 day week.
2. Tap and hold to add a new calendar appointment
When in landscape or portrait mode on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can tap and hold to add a new calendar appointment. This only works in Day View or Month View unless you are in landscape mode (3-day View). In Day View, simply tap and hold on whatever hour you would like to add an appointment. When you let go, the Add Event fields will pop up allowing you to enter the details of your event. If you tap, hold and then continue to hold, you can drag the event up or down on the calendar to place it at the exact time you want. When in month view, simply tap and hold on whatever day you want to add an event. The Add Event fields will appear so you can enter the details. When in month view, the new events will always default to an all day event. Just tap on the Starts/Ends field and flip the All-day toggle to off if you want to set the appointment for a specific time of day. On the iPad and iPad Mini you can tap and hold to add a new event whenever you are in Day, Week, Month, or List View.
3. Tap and hold on any event to move it or lengthen/shorten the appointment time
When in Day view, you can tap and hold on any existing appointments. Then, let go. You will see two small dots that appear at the top and bottom of the appointment. These are handles that allow you to drag down or up to add or shorten the length of the appointment. You can drag the event up or down to change the time when you have activated these handles. You can also drag the event towards the right or the left to move it forward a day or backwards a day. Continue to hold it right or left to scroll through to the day you want. This works in landscape mode and on the iPad (Mini) as well.
4. Link directly to the Maps App when you include an address in the Location field of an event
If you know the address of the event or appointment, you can enter it in the Location field. This will become a tappable link that will take you directly to the Maps App when you need to get directions to your appointment. Just be sure to include the Street, City, State, and Zip Code.
5. Automatically Send invitations to appointments by adding Invitees
Whenever you add an event or appointment, simply tap on the Invitees field to add more people to the appointment. Enter an email address and then tap done. Tap Done again when you have completed editing the appointment. This will automatically send the Invitee an invitation to the appointment via email. When the Invitee responds, the status will change in the appointment reflecting the response of the person as either Accepted or Declined. To add more invitees to an existing event, simply tap on the event and then tap Edit. Tap on the Invitees field to additional people.
6. Share a calendar
If you have another person or multiple people that all want to share one calendar, you can easily set this up on your iOS device. To make this work, your calendar must be an iCloud calendar. When you have the Calendar App open, tap on Calendars in the upper left corner. This will give you the option to show or hide calendars. To share a calendar, tap on the blue arrow to the right of the calendar name you want to share. Tap on Add Person and enter the person’s email address. Then tap Done. To allow or deny the person the ability to Edit the calendar, just tap on the person’s name and flip the Allow Editing toggle to On or Off. Once you add a person’s email to the calendar, they will automatically get an invitation to join the calendar. When they join, it will appear in their list of calendars with “Shared by [Your Name]” written under the calendar name.
These tips will help you get the most out of the built in Calendar App. For a review of an alternative calendar app that seamlessly integrates with the built in Calendar App, click here: Easy Calendar – my favorite iOS Calendar App (includes 6 month calendar view at a glance)
