Put the App in its Own Space

Don’t overlook the Spaces feature. You can use it with any app, but it’s well suited to Calendar in particular because it puts Calendar full screen on its own virtual desktop where fewer event titles are cut off due to you squishing the window to make room for something else (Figure 93). This method makes the most sense when you want to be able to edit events directly in Day view, or see Month or Week view.

Click the green button in the top-left corner of the Calendar window to expand it to full screen. Move back and forth between your regular desktop and the full-screen Calendar using one of these shortcuts:

• Press Control-← or Control-→.

• Swipe from one side of your trackpad to the other using three or four fingers, or with two fingers on a Magic Mouse.

See Calendar Events in a List

If you like to scan a list of the day’s events, you may be disappointed that unlike Calendar on an iPhone, the Mac version of Calendar doesn’t offer a list option. Luckily, you can use a workaround to get much the same effect.

Make sure the calendars you’re interested are selected in the sidebar and then type two quotation marks—""—in the search field. All your events appear in the search results list. Scroll down to the date you’re interested in.

Another option is to print your calendar—either to paper or PDF—in Day, List, or Selected Events layout. (See Print Your Calendar for details).

Check Notification Center on a Mac

When you want to take a quick look at your calendar and any scheduled reminders, Notification Center may do the trick. Its sidebar slides in from the right of your screen to give you an overview of all your notifications. It’s easy to set it up so that you can check the day’s schedule without disturbing your desktop.

Activate Notification Center by clicking the date or time at the far right end of the menu bar. The slide-in sidebar shows recent notifications based on what you’ve chosen (see Set Up Notifications), as well as a variety of widgets (Figure 94).

You can add or modify a Calendar or Reminders widget to display a little or a lot of information that you can view at a glance. Control-click or right-click any widget and choose Edit Widgets, or scroll to the bottom of the list and click Edit Widgets. You can then select Calendar or Reminders from a list of apps on the left-hand side of the screen.

Pick a widget, like List for Calendars or Reminders, which provides a compact view of upcoming events or tasks. Click the widget or drag it and you can rearrange it. Click Done when you’re satisfied. You can Control-click or right-click a widget and choose Edit Widget to tweak settings. For instance, in the Calendar List widget, you can show the same calendars selected in the Calendar app or disable Mirror Calendar App and select calendars from which to draw events.

Print Your Calendar

Whether you like to hang up a hard copy of the month’s calendar for the family or want to share a list of events with a colleague, it’s easy to print a calendar. Here’s how:

1. Open Calendar on your Mac and choose File > Print.

2. Choose a layout from the View pop-up menu. Options include Day, Week, Month, List (Figure 95), and Selected Events.

   

3. Set a time range for your printed calendar using the Starts and Ends pop-up menus (Figure 96).

4. Select which calendars to print using the checkboxes next to your calendars’ names. (Print a blank calendar by deselecting all of these.)

   

5. Under the Options header, select from choices including “Calendar keys” to add a color-coded key showing which events belong to which calendar; or “Mini calendar” to add a miniature representation of the entire month.

6. Choose the size of event titles by selecting Big, Medium, or Small in the “Text size” pop-up menu (Figure 97). The bigger the text, the easier it is to read, but the fewer events fit on a page.

   

7. Click Continue, choose a printer, and finally click Print.

If you print to PDF instead of paper, it’s easy to send a calendar or list of events to a colleague, too. Instead of clicking the Print button in the Print dialog, choose Save to PDF from the PDF pop-up menu.

Use the App

Opening an app on these devices is a straightforward affair. Try one of these techniques:

• Tap the app’s icon on the Home screen.

• Swipe down on the Home screen to reveal the Search field and Siri Suggestions, including recently used apps. If the app’s icon appears here, tap to launch it. Or type enough of, for example, Calendar in the Search field to make the icon to appear.

Once you’re in the Calendar app, here are some helpful tricks:

• To see Day view, tap Today at the bottom of the screen.

• To see Week view, rotate your device to landscape orientation and tap Week.

• To see Month view when you’re in Day view, tap the month name in the upper-left corner.

• To view a list of a day’s events in Month view, tap the Details icon at the top of the screen and then tap the date in the calendar.

• To scroll through time, in Month or Day view, swipe up or down to go forward or backward in time. In Week view, swipe horizontally.

• Tap any month in Year view to jump to it in Month view.

Once you’re in the Reminders app, try this tip:

• If you can’t remember which list holds a reminder, use the Search field to hunt for it. This field is easy to find in the upper-left corner on an iPad. On an iPhone it’s at the top of the screen.

Notification Center in iOS and iPadOS

For a quick look at your most recent alerts, check Notification Center on your iPhone or iPad. Put your finger at the top of the screen and then swipe down. By default, notifications from the same app are grouped together. You may see a stack of notifications marked Calendar, for example. Tap it to see its individual notifications (Figure 99). Tap Show Less to gather the notifications back into a single group.

Today View

It’s easy to miss, but the iOS/iPadOS version of Notification Center includes two views. With Notification Center open, swipe right to see the Today view and its collection of widgets that show everything from the weather forecast to the top stories from Apple News. You can also add widgets to the Home screen.

First enable editing: On the Home screen, touch and hold in any empty area until items begin to jiggle. Swipe right to access the Today view or left to access Home screens beyond the main one.

Tap the Remove icon next to a widget’s name to remove it or the Add icon at the top of the screen to see ones you can add (Figure 100). Swipe left to choose which size you want. Then, tap Add Widget.

Here are the widgets you likely want to add:

• Smart Stack: The Smart Stack brings together multiple widgets, automatically displaying relevant ones based on the time and your location. You can also swipe through them.

• Calendar: This shows the next few hours of your calendar.

• Reminders: Add this to see reminders in your default list.

Set Up Personal Requests on a HomePod

To access Calendar, Reminders, Messages, and Notes, as well as make calls and listen to voicemails, you must first set up the Personal Requests feature for a HomePod. (If you have more than one, you have to make the change on each.)

In the Home app on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, click or tap the Home icon and choose or tap Home Settings. Click or tap your name, and then turn on Personal Requests (Figure 104).

Personal Requests work only when your HomePod and the iPhone or iPad associated with it (typically, your iPhone) are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. You can set up a HomePod to recognize multiple family members’ voices and customize settings and access for each one. (See Apple’s Use multiuser on HomePod for instructions.)

You can also add another layer of protection, by requiring HomePod to ask for verification on your iPhone before allowing the HomePod to read notes, reminders or calendar events. Puzzlingly, that doesn’t apply to sending Messages. (Sharpen your pens, rom-com writers.)

Use Siri to Get the Details

To talk to your HomePod, press and hold the top of the device until you see the swirling, multi-colored lights or preface your commands with the key phrase “Hey Siri” and say something like “Hey Siri, what does my day look like?” or “Hey Siri, do I have any overdue reminders?” (To learn more about how to use Siri to check Calendar and Reminders, see Ask Siri.) The HomePod responds verbally to all your requests.