ics, you can import it into your calendar and it will appear on your schedule. If you copy and paste that text into a file ending in.

Here's an example of a basic event: BEGIN:VCALENDAR The calendaring server generates events, accepts invites, and sends reminders to you when something you have scheduled is about to happen.Īn event in the iCalendar format (no relation to Apple's iCal application) is a simple text file. If you are using a tool like Google Calendar, you're actually using two separate tools: a user interface (the website or mobile app) and a calendaring server. But before we dive in, let's take a look at what a calendar actually is. There might just be an open source project that works for you. For many people, it just works, making it easy to keep track of their schedule across multiple computer and mobile devices, and to share appropriate information with others with whom they need to coordinate.Īs with countless other tools, though, you don't have to use a proprietary hosted solution for your calendar needs. Among them, Google Calendar is perhaps the most prevalent.

Most of the major vendor ecosystems provide some sort of calendaring solution which can sync across devices. While some people can get away with a wall calendar or a paper day planner to organize their schedule, a whole lot of us have turned the process of managing time allotments over to a digital calendar. For many of us, our calendar is our lifeblood.