FlexCal for Mac Adds Events to iCal Easily

Love it or hate it, iCal comes with the Mac OS X operating system, so I’m always on the lookout for how to use it better. Once Google added synchronization support for iCal back in July, I did integrate the basic scheduler into my web work, but I always found it cumbersome to add events quickly. For a while, I actually found it easier to just create events in my Google Calendar since I already had my browser open. Then I stumbled onto FlexCal, a freeware utility that’s not glitzy, but does the trick.

Essentially, FlexCal appears on your Mac in the System Preferences as a preference pane. From here you configure a few items in the utility and then you forget it’s running; Until you need to add an event to your iCal, that is. To use it, you simply press a pre-configured hotkey of your choice and up pops a window to create a new event or task to your calendar. It’s that easy.I use “cmd e” for my hotkey: “e” being for event. Tapping that allows me to enter the event name, choose the calendar I want the event assigned to, start / end time, location and an alarm if I so choose. After the information is entered, a quick hit of the Return key on the keyboard sends the info to iCal, and in my case, to my Google Calendar as well. You can also use FlexCal to add tasks to iCal, however I’m still a Remember The Milk fan. I’d never say that iCal is an end-all, be-all calendar solution, but with free add-ons like FlexCal, it’s getting better.