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TMO Quick Tip - Merging iCal Calendars

by , 7:30 AM EDT, September 28th, 2007

It's easy to set up multiple calendars in iCal so you can group all of the important events in your life in a logical manner. If you later find that you want to merge two of those calendars together, that's not quite as easy to figure out.

Even though it isn't obvious how to merge two calendars, it isn't difficult once you know how. Here's what to do:

  • Select the iCal calendar you want to merge with a different calendar.

    • Select a calendar to merge from the Calendar column.
  • Choose File > Export, and save the exported calendar file to your Desktop.
  • Now drag the exported calendar file from your Desktop back into the iCal Calendars column.
  • The Add events dialog should appear. Choose which calendar you want to add the events to from the pop-up menu in the dialog.

    • Select a calendar to merge from the Calendar column.
  • After the two calendars finish merging, go ahead and select the exported calendar in the Calendars column and delete it.

    • Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

    if you have tips or tricks to share, or Mac-related questions you want answered.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:gopher Posts: 291 Joined: 28 Mar 2002
Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:11 am Subject: Merging two calendars with duplicate entries?

My problem is that somehow my two calendars have managed to get duplicate entries, and now when I go to import, it won't look for the duplicate entries, and instead just adds them as a duplicate entry. Is there a duplicate cleaner upper for iCal?


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Close Name:catinhawaii Posts: 2 Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:46 pm Subject: merge ical calanders...

yeah, what is irritating is that on my iphone i have recurring events, such as "canned" times, when i USUALLY work, and sometimes i have to amend these times, or what is happening at work, so i change it, and then of course, it asks me if this applies to all the FUTURE calenders as well, so i put NO, and then when i get home and sync my iphone, now i have both on every day that i changed , so then i have to manually go back and delete all the canned ones that should have not been there... does not make sense... oh well, hope it gets fixed in the next update...


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Close Name:Guest
Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:48 am Subject: easier

you also can group calendar in a calendergroup and publish this group ...

(Menu>new calendargroup)


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Close Name:Guest
Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:14 am Subject:

I am having the *exact* same problem as catinhawaii. It is mildly irritating because the simplicity of altering an event is replaced with multiple clean-up steps.

Between that and the now-missing 'drawer' component of iCal (which means that iCal's one-step editing is now three-steps by my count, my love of the previously intuitive structure is waning.


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