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by Kate Eby on Jun 17, 2016
Success relies on organization, and a calendar is one way that helps many people stay on track, meet deadlines, and organize their events. Apple’s built-in calendar app, iCal, is a go-to for scheduling - you can invite other attendees to events, link to maps, set notifications, and add events using natural language (if you type, “meeting with Joe at 2 pm Friday” and iCal will auto-create the calendarized entry).
However, greater functionality is required for scheduling many projects and events. Perhaps you need to access calendar information on multiple devices that aren’t all Apple products. Maybe you want to keep an editable to-do list inside your calendar app. There’s also the possibility that you just want an alternative to what comes standard on a Mac. Below you’ll find a roundup of the top calendar apps for Mac, as well as iCal add-ons so you can manage your schedule your way.
However, greater functionality is required for scheduling many projects and events. Perhaps you need to access calendar information on multiple devices that aren’t all Apple products. Maybe you want to keep an editable to-do list inside your calendar app. There’s also the possibility that you just want an alternative to what comes standard on a Mac. Below you’ll find a roundup of the top calendar apps for Mac, as well as iCal add-ons so you can manage your schedule your way.
After testing nearly two dozen, these are the top journaling apps to record your memories this year and in years to come. Click on any app to learn more about why we chose it, or keep reading for more context on journal apps. The best journaling apps. Day One for Mac and iOS users; Diarium for Windows users; Journey for cross-platform journaling. Features on planner pro enable it to combine jobs and events in one app in a way that doesn’t force you to spend money on other apps, making it a good pick for day planner apps. Planner pro has daily, weekly, and monthly schedules for managing notes, with a user interface and can be used by everyone.
Top 5 Calendar Apps for Mac That Will Keep You Organized
Looking for a Mac calendar app that goes beyond the features offered by iCal? These five apps, that work with Mac OS X or later, have all the essential calendar features plus added functionality including the ability to add tasks, to-do lists, weather updates, and customization options that will give you just the experience you want.
1. Fantastical 2
1. Fantastical 2
This full-featured app will help you keep track of all the things you need to accomplish in a day. You can easily import calendars from Google, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo, and other CalDAV accounts to make Fantastical 2 your one-stop view for all events in your life. Once calendars are loaded, you can create sets of calendars to see the information you want, and add reminders using natural language. You can even program calendar sets to appear by location, so that when you’re home, you only see the calendars related to your personal life.
Other helpful features of Fantastical 2 include the widget and Mini Window. The widget supports extensions so you can add other important daily information, like weather, to your daily calendar. The Mini Window lives in your menu bar and is easily editable for quick updates - a helpful tool for those viewing their calendar on desktop.
Other helpful features of Fantastical 2 include the widget and Mini Window. The widget supports extensions so you can add other important daily information, like weather, to your daily calendar. The Mini Window lives in your menu bar and is easily editable for quick updates - a helpful tool for those viewing their calendar on desktop.
The latest version of Fantastical 2.2 is available for $49.99. You may also purchase the Fantastical 2 calendar app for iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch separately, and your calendars will sync across devices.
Features:
Features:
- Works with iCloud, Exchange, and Google
- Multiple calendar views, with light or dark themes
- Add events and reminders using natural language
- Included widget shows everything happening in a day
- Ability to add other extensions to the widget such as weather
- Links to Google Hangouts
- Maps displayed for locations
- Add event notes and URLs
- Search for events
- Available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese
2. BusyCal2
BusyCal2 looks a lot like iCal, but is more powerful. Like the other calendar software for Mac in this roundup, BusyCal2 syncs with Google, iCloud, iOS, and other CalDAV accounts. It includes all the typical calendar views (day, week, month, and year), and also adds a List view. You can decide the number of weeks you want to show in a month view, or number of days in a week view. BusyCal2 includes several other calendar capabilities, such as adding weather and moon phases, to-dos (with or without a date), and sticky notes.
BusyCal2 is also highly customizable. You can change colors and fonts for specific calendars and types of to-dos and even add Emojis to specific days. Additionally, you can create calendar groups and turn groups on or off to show or hide calendar activity. If you don’t want to keep the app open on your screen, there’s a menu bar app so you can see your day at a glance. The app costs $49.99, but you can try it free for 30 days.
Features:
BusyCal2 is also highly customizable. You can change colors and fonts for specific calendars and types of to-dos and even add Emojis to specific days. Additionally, you can create calendar groups and turn groups on or off to show or hide calendar activity. If you don’t want to keep the app open on your screen, there’s a menu bar app so you can see your day at a glance. The app costs $49.99, but you can try it free for 30 days.
Features:
- Syncs with iCloud, Google, Yahoo, and other CalDAV services
- See events and to-dos in the calendar view
- Create calendar groups
- Change number of weeks shown in a month or days in a week
- Change fonts and colors and add Emojis
- Create Sticky Notes
- Add to-dos with or without a date
- Menu bar app option
3. Microsoft Outlook
The calendar feature is an element of the email app in Microsoft Outlook and is geared toward business users. Many of the features in the app are designed to help you schedule meetings based on the availability of other team members. With this app you can view group schedules and side-by-side calendars, send out meeting invites, and create all-day events. The calendar overlay feature allows you to view your personal schedule and work appointments in one view. The app is part of Microsoft Outlook for Mac and costs $109.99.
Features:
Features:
- View availability of other team members
- Organize meetings
- Send calendars through email
- Publish calendars to Microsoft Office.com
- Link to calendars on Microsoft SharePoint sites
- Change calendar settings and colors
4. SmartDay
This calendar app doubles as a task manager. You can change due dates by dragging and dropping tasks onto specific days; uncompleted tasks will automatically be moved to the next day. The auto-schedule feature allows you to place tasks into a timeline so you can easily view deadlines and identify how many tasks you can complete in a day or week. Use SmartDay as an organizational tool by attaching notes and documents to events, and even include checklists within your notes. For example, you can add a grocery list to a scheduled shopping event.
The calendar app runs on a Mac, but iOS and other device versions are available, as well as a web-based option. Try the SmartDay Mac OS X app for $29.99, iPhone and iPad app for $9.99 each, or the web version for free.
Features:
The calendar app runs on a Mac, but iOS and other device versions are available, as well as a web-based option. Try the SmartDay Mac OS X app for $29.99, iPhone and iPad app for $9.99 each, or the web version for free.
Features:
- Synchronize events and tasks with iCal
- Search events
- Drag and drop events
- Create tasks and to-dos
- Apply tags
- Add detailed notes to any item
- Create checklists on any Note
- Automatically schedule tasks
- Connects with Google Calendars
5. Rainlendar
Rainlendar is a highly customizable calendar app that lives on your desktop and includes a variety of ‘skins’. Create an event, task list, or alarm and then choose a single skin or mix skin template to create the exact view to fit your needs. Rainlendar is the most customizable of the calendar apps listed here, and that is the product’s strength. Rainlendar offers many of the basic calendar features along with the ability to create a to-do list and pop-up reminders and view multiple calendars in a single view. There is a Lite version, which is free, and a more robust app that costs €9.95 (about $11) available on the Rainlendar site.
Features:
- Customize the view with skins
- Subscribe to online calendars
- Keep events and tasks in separate lists
- Integrates with Outlook or Google
Use iCal the Way You Want with Calendar Software for Mac
Enhance the familiar iCal functions with software add-ons that allow you to display appointments on the desktop, customize the look of the calendar, incorporate weather updates, and provide a way to enter events quickly. We’ve rounded up calendar add-ons for iCal that will change the way you view appointments.
Blotter
Blotter
Blotter integrates with iCal and copies your schedule to your desktop, so you don’t need to open iCal to view it. You choose which events from iCal to display on Blotter, and you can also quickly add events or create reminders from the desktop view. However, you can’t edit existing appointments from the app. You can download the Blotter app from the Mac App store for $9.99.
Features:
- See iCal appointments on your desktop
- Add new events or reminders
- View the next seven days (regardless of the day of the week)
- Customize display
Calendar 2
This customizable menu bar app displays information beyond calendar events on your desktop. With this calendar app add-on, you can also see the weather for the next 15 days, as well as Facebook events and birthdays. Customize the look of the app with one of 20 available themes, or set a background using your favorite picture. The Calendar 2 app is free, but more advanced features are available as in-app purchases.
Features:
- Customize the look with one of 20 themes
- View weather details
- See upcoming iCal appointments at a glance
- View Facebook events and birthdays
QuickCal
Use QuickCal to quickly add events to your iCal. The app uses natural language and auto-complete for fast input, and will send alerts for schedule conflicts. Along with iCal, the app can integrate with Google Calendar and BusyCal. You can try the app free for 14 days or purchase it for $2.99.
Features:
Features:
- Quickly enter appointments and reminders
- Uses natural language and auto-complete
- Detects appointment conflicts
TimeWorks
TimeWorks displays all of your iCal appointments simultaneously on your desktop in an easy-to-read visual. iCal events appear on your desktop in chronological order (moving left to right), and a vertical yellow line on the screen tracks progress as events pass. You can choose to display events from a single day or a longer period. TimeWorks’ Exposé setting brings all the events displayed on the desktop in front of all currently open windows. Instead of having to minimize windows to see what’s happening next, hit F9 and you’ll see them immediately. It’s a helpful feature for those who often have multiple windows open while they work. https://yellowwp908.weebly.com/how-to-password-protect-email-app-on-mac.html. TimeWorks is available for $9.99.
Features:
Features:
- View upcoming events in chronological order on your desktop
- Use the Exposé feature to bring all events to the front of your screen
DateLine
DateLine copies your calendar events and tasks from iCal to your desktop, and offers additional customization features such as color, font, size, themes, and transparency. You can view up to 69 days at once in a calendar dateline. The DateLine app costs $4.99.
Features:
Features:
- Customizable by color, font, size, and transparency
- Lock the DateLine placement on the desktop
- View events and tasks on your desktop
Want a Calendar for Mac that Does So Much More?
Smartsheet, a spreadsheet-inspired work management tool, features a powerful calendar designed to help you track tasks, reminders, and events. You can overlay key dates from Smartsheet on iCal or Google Calendar, and also import Google Calendar events straight to Smartsheet.
Easily switch between calendar views (like week or month) and keep your calendar organized by customizing events with colors and fonts. Add, edit, or delete events directly within the calendar, or switch to grid or Gantt views to see additional event details. Share your Smartsheet calendar with anyone to edit or simply view the calendar. And, with Smartsheet’s mobile app for Android and iOS, you can access your calendar from anywhere, on any device.
See how easy it can be to manage your events and schedules with a calendar in Smartsheet. Try Smartsheet for free for 30 days.
If you found this post helpful, visit our Resources page to learn more about managing your work on a Mac. Install apps on mac os x.
The 5 Best Calendar Apps for Mac to Manage Your Work
It might often feel like many of your best life experiences are lost to the sands of time. Sure, you remember that you took an amazing vacation in Mexico, but how much of it do you really remember? Do you know what day you met your spouse, and how you were feeling that day? Unless you keep some kind of personal journal, all that personal history will vanish like tears in rain. But keeping a consistent journal is tedious work, requiring pens and paper. You can use a journaling app to make it easier. Many apps will remind you to keep entries and support photos and videos to make your memories all the richer. Pick the best journal app for Mac from the list below.
1. Day One
Many long-time users of the Day One journaling app were surprised by the company’s move to subscription pricing. The app, which helps users keep a daily record of their lives, previously subsisted on one-time fees that thousands of users gladly paid. Many users felt slightly betrayed as well. Considering the entire purpose of the application is to maintain a long-term archive of your daily life, such a subscription fee could rack up major charges over a lifetime of use.
Despite this recent kerfuffle, Day One still remains one of the best daily journaling apps on the Mac. It’s feature-rich, with tracking and writing features that other apps simply don’t offer. Reading and searching through entries is easy and pleasant, so reliving your experiences is a little easier. You’ll also get a beautiful interface and exceptional companion iOS and watchOS apps. But if you’re put off by their $35 per-year pricing, you might find the apps below better suited to your needs.
2. Evernote
While Evernote is far from a dedicated journaling application, it turns out the king of notetakers makes an excellent journaling application. You’ll find support for videos, photos, audio, and rich text alongside the standard plaintext input. The excellent iOS app is a must-have, and you can easily create an unlimited number of journals to keep your thoughts organized. Plus, Evernote is hands-down the best note-taking application for the Mac.
Unfortunately, your notes aren’t stored as plain text. This means you can’t read or access the notes without using the Evernote application, making your records worthless to a third-party app. That’s a major strike against longevity, but if you can stomach that, you get a full suite of benefits.
You can expand Evernote’s functionality as well. Pair it with Alternote to get a more minimal UI or with digi.me to pull updates and images from your social media accounts. And IFTTT lets you make workflows that include the app, automatically importing blog posts or linking outside content. The free version should cover your journaling needs, or you can subscribe to the pro version for only a few bucks a month.
3. Journey
If Evernote isn’t really your cup of tea, you might Journey instead. It’s a dedicated journaling app that’s deeply inspired by Day One’s design, and users of that app will find its basic structure familiar. Like Day One, the stand-alone Mac application reminds you to make daily journal entries.
Importantly, the app has an open database structure that saves you from lock-in, syncing with Google Drive and allowing for .docx and .pdf entry export. Free drum machine download. Users on the go can use Journey.cloud for updating via browser. The location of each entry is tracked on a map, and you can upload images and videos to your journal entries If you’re coming to Journey from Day One, you can import from Day One and Day One Classic to keep continuity.
The only real downside is the lack of an iOS app. Journey costs $12.99 for the Mac application, or you can use the free Journey.cloud web application in any browser.
4. Mémoires
Mémoires is billed as “the easiest way to keep a journal or diary on your Mac.” Its user interface is slightly more streamlined than some of our other options, but it still contains many of the same excellent features.
Entries can be saved in multiple journals and include photos, rich text, and hand-drawn doodles. If privacy is a concern, entries can be encrypted with AES-256 encryption. Everything is saved in rich text files in a non-obfuscated SQLite database for longevity. Even if the app shuts down, you’ll still have your entries in a fully-usable format.
There’s a one-time fee of $30 for a single license or $50 for a “family pack” of five licenses. And if you want to add video to your entries, you can also pay a one-time $10 charge.
5. Mini Diary
Day Planning App Mac Ios
Speaking of privacy, a free diary app for your Mac that you can look into is Mini Diary. It allows users to set a password before fully opening the app. While its interface may be a bit basic, Mini Diary still has a number of useful features that can benefit you. For one, this app allows you to type in your key thoughts in number or bullet form. You can also edit your fonts and make them bold or italic.
Mini Diary also lets you peruse, view, and edit your entries in your calendar. In case you’re particular with your themes, this diary app offers a light and a dark theme. You can also set it on auto so it’ll match the theme of your Mac interface. If you’re looking for a simple, no-fuss type of journaling app for Mac, Mini Diary is definitely the one for you.
Day Planning Apps
6. Reflection
Reflection is another diary app that you can check out for your Mac. As the name suggests, this digital journal lets you reflect when you feel like taking a trip down memory lane. Reflection features an interface that is simple and organized. It shows a timeline, tags, and locations for your title and text while you write.
Day Planning App Mac Download
One of its great features is its color-coding along with labels that you can add for each entry that you write. Hence, you can label some of your entries as ideas and some as inspiration. In case you want to follow up on your previous notes, you can also add lists and tasks under them. You can also manage multiple journals within the app so you can separate one for your personal entries and another for work ideas.
Similar to Mini Diary, Reflection also allows you to adjust the theme of the app so you can match it with your Mac interface. If you’re scared that you might lose your entries, this app also allows you to back up your data into a ZIP file. With so many more of its awesome features, Reflection is an amazing diary app for Mac for people who are detail-oriented. Plus, it’s free!
Day Planner App Mac
7. Reminisce
For a more minimalist interface, Reminisce is a great option for your Mac. It has a free version as well as a premium version. Thanks to its simple outlook, you can stay focused on writing while using this journaling app. For a more visual entry, this app allows you to add photos to your entries, which would look great for travel posts.
In addition, you can also key in emojis as well as add tags and labels to your entries. Moreover, Reminisce allows you to rate your entries in stars and input your mood for the day. You can also add your location to your entry. All of your entries can be viewed in three ways: as a list, on a calendar, or on a map. With just a click, you can add, edit, delete, and even print an entry. Navigating through the app is simply a breeze.
Conclusion
There’s definitely a plethora of journaling apps that you can choose from specifically for your Mac. Opt for the ones mentioned above based on their features and you’re sure to have a great time writing in your entries. Add in some of your photos and memories to look back to when you feel like reminiscing the good old days.