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BusyCal User Guide

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BusyCal Alarms

BusyCal can display alarms informing you of upcoming events.

Alarm Preferences

You can specify the default alarm settings in BusyCal > Preferences > Alarms:

Alarms

In Alarm Preferences you can specify a default alarm interval for new events, as well as all-day events & to-dos. You may also specify a default snooze interval and action for the alarm window, and whether to display alarms in the menu bar. Lastly, you have the option to Turn off all alarms, which is useful if you are running BusyCal on a server where you do not wish to receive alarms.

Custom Alarms

When creating a new alarm, you can choose one of the default intervals from the popup menu, or select Custom... to set a custom interval or specific date and time for the alarm.

Alarm Popup Alarm Popup Custom Alarm Custom Message Date

Alarm Types

In addition to Message alarms, the Custom dialog also allows you to create Email alarms, Open File alarms, and Location Alarms.

Alarm Types

Location Alarms

Location alarms are displayed on an iPhone running iOS 5 and the Reminders app or BusyToDo, when arriving or leaving the specified location. Location alarms can only be assigned to To Dos that are stored an an iCloud calendar.

To create a location alarm, create a To Do on an iCloud calendar, select a custom alarm type of Location, select either "arrive" or "leave" from the popup, click the Location button and select a contact from your Address Book or type an address and press return to search for that address in Google Maps, then click OK.

By default, Location alarms will trigger each time you arrive or leave a location. In addition, you can set a specific date and time when you want to be reminded, regardless of whether or not you reach the location. Location alarms will continue triggering each time you reach a location until you complete the task or delete it.

Tip: Create an Undated To Do called Groceries with a list of needed items in the Notes field, and attach a Location alarm to it that will trigger when you arrive at your local grocery store.

Alarm Location Arriving Alarm Location Alarm Location Map

My Alarms

If you show the My alarms field in the Info Panel Preferences, it will enable you to add alarms to events that are triggered only on your computer and not synced with other apps or services.

In addition, if you are subscribed to a read-only calendar, BusyCal will automatically display the "my alarm" field for events on that calendar so you can set personal alarms for those read-only events. This is a useful option for adding alarms to read-only WebDAV calendars like a sports schedule.

My Alarm

Alarm menu

If you enable the preference to "Show alarms in menu bar" an alarm menu will appear on the menu bar that displays today's events, including all-day events, appointments, Dated To Dos, and Journals. An icon is displayed next to events that have pending alarms set. Selecting an item on the menu will launch BusyCal and select that event.

Alarm Menubar

Alarm window

Message alarms appear in a floating window. You can snooze an alarm for any number of minutes, hours or days; or dismiss it. If multiple alarms are pending, you can snooze/dismiss them individually or select the "Apply to all" checkbox to snooze or dismiss all of them. Double-clicking an event in the alarm window will launch BusyCal and select that event.

Alarm Window

Removing alarms on subscribed calendars

When subscribing to a calendar, all alarms on that calendar will be synced with your computer. If you wish to remove the alarms from your computer without affecting the alarms on the host, double-click the calendar to open the Calendar Info sheet and check the Remove Alarms checkbox.