Guide to the iPhone Calendar Application

The iPhone calendar is a mini version of iCal, the calendar application that comes with Mac OS X.

There are three main views for the calendar: List, Day and Month. The list view simply takes all the events in your calendar and displays them one after the other. It usually start by showing you today’s events, but you can scroll up or down with your finger to see earlier or later events.

The next view mode is the Day View. This shows you only events scheduled for today. You can use the arrow keys on the top left and top right corners to move from day to day. You can also scroll up and down with your finger to see events earlier or later in the day.

If you are viewing the current day, the screen will automatically start with the top of the screen close to the current time. Otherwise, the screen will adjust to show the first event. Any all-day events will be shown at the top of the screen, before the timeline of events.

The monthly view shows the entire month in standard calendar format. The current day will always be shown darker than the rest. Under the calendar will be a shortened list view of events for the selected day. The selected day can be the current day, or another day of the month.

At the top of the screen, you can use the arrows to move from month to month.

Always present at the top of the screen in all three views is the Today button. This will take you back to the current day in any view. There is also the + button, which allows you to add an event.

When adding an event, there are a variety of screens that you must use, starting with the main Add Event screen. From there, you can go to the Title & Location screen, the Start & End screen, the Repeat Event screen, the Event Alert screen and the Notes screen.

Both the Title & Location screen and the Notes screen use a keyboard to allow you to enter information.

The Start & End screen uses a scrolling clock interface to allow you to choose each time. You can also turn All-day to On. If you do, the scrolling clock interface only lets you set the start and end day, not a time.

The Repeat Event screen lets you select None, Every Day, Every Week, Every 2 Weeks, Every Month or Every Year. For instance, if you select Every Day, the event will appear on every day from the current day forward.

If you want to schedule a daily event, but exclude some specific days, you can return to one of the three main calendar views, and then select the specific copy of the event on the specific day you want to remove. Click on the event to view it. Then click on the Edit button at the upper right. Next, click on the Delete button at the bottom of the event. You can then choose to Delete This Event Only or Delete All Future Events. If you choose to Delete This Event Only, all other copies of the event will remain. So, for instance, you could schedule a weekly meeting on every Monday, but then exclude a holiday several months in the future.

Also, if you select to have an event repeat, a new option of End Repeat is added to your main Add Event page. This allows you to choose a date on which the repeating ends.

The Event Alert screen allows you to choose a variety of times to show you an alert: 5 minutes before, 15 minutes before, etc. If you choose an alert, the main Add Event screen will now allow you to also add a Second Alert.

The Notes screen allows you to add additional information about the event.

All of the screens include a Save and a Cancel button. The Save button on all screens will take you back to the main Add Event screen. So adding an event consists of a sequence of going to each of the screens and pressing Save to return to the Add Event screen. Pressing Cancel instead, will return you to the Add Event screen, but not save the information you entered.

On the Add Event screen, you can compete the event by pressing the Done button.

To view any event in the calendar, navigate to the event using one of the three views. Press the event to go to a screen with all the event information. Then you can press on an Edit button to go to the Edit screen, which is identical to the Add Event screen except for the red Delete Event button at the bottom of the event, instead of the Cancel button at the upper left.

The main way many people use the Calendar application is to enter their events using iCal in Mac OS, and then sync with their iPhone using iTunes. The sync works both ways, taking changes made on the iPhone and uploading them to the Mac.