Your Calendar in your Menu Bar
I don’t know about you, but my life is complicated. I have three different jobs, four kids and 11 different calendars in iCal to keep track of it all. That’s a lot of information to track and, while iCal is great at managing my schedule, its memory footprint is simply too large for me to run it all the time.
I use a third-party add-on application to give me just the calendar data I need, when I need it, in a small calendar that drops down from my menu bar whenever I want and remains hidden the rest of the time. The app is called MenuCalendarClock, is available to work with either iCal or Entourage and is, according to the developer, “the ultimate calendaring utility for the Mac.” (I agree!)
The concept is simple; the application runs invisibly, always updating itself with my newest schedule updates in iCal. It places itself behind a small icon in the Menu Bar and, when you click on it, drops down a mini-calendar and appointment list that stays visible for as long as you need it then vanishes. The drop down can contain appointments from all of your calendars or just the ones you specify, and shows as many days at a time as you want. You can even set it to show your appointments in pop-up tool-tips as you mouse over each day in the mini-month view.
You integrate the app into your Menu Bar by simply turning off the system’s clock and adding MenuCalendarClock’s. Or, if you would rather, you can just access the app via its own icon, leaving the system clock untouched. Either way, one click drops down a current month view along with a day-by-day listing of your appointments. You access the application’s preferences from the drop-down and nothing ever shows up in your Dock.
If all you want is the calendar itself, then the application is free. However, by purchasing a license for $19.95, you get many more features, including the ability to show events from iCal or Entourage which is, in my opinion, the killer feature. You can read more about MenuCalendarClock or download it at Object Park’s website.
Excellent little hack for the menu bar. Been looking for something like this in a long time. Wonder if it’s a memory hog, though.
This is an interesting app; I’ve always used the calendar in Dashboard, but this looks more useful.
I’ve been using this app for a few years now and it’s been fantastic. I don’t notice any “issues” with RAM – in fact I tried switching to other apps but always come back because it’s simple, runs fast and requires little of my time and effort to configure. It just runs.
@ Arjun: Like Jim, I notice no RAM issues at all.
As a matter of fact, I *do* notice my system turn sluggish when iCal is open, which is why MCC is such a godsend for me. It gives me what I need without the performance hit on my system.
Don’t forget about MagiCal, an excellent freeware app that’s about the same
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23672/magical
I’ve been using this since 10.2 or .3 (back in the day!). It’s very cool. Surprising that this is the first time I’ve seen it reviewed.
Bot
While MagiCal is a nice app that gives you a drop-down calendar, it lacks what I consider to be the best part of MCC, the iCal integration.
The program does not “highlight” dates that have only one event where an event starts after 6:00 p.m. And, when there is more than one event on a particular date, the event that starts after 6:00 p.m. will not appear when I “mouse over” that date.
I have sent an e-mail about this problem to the developer many times without a response and I’m not about to pay $20 unless this problem is addressed and especially if the developer does not respond to comments/feedback/issues.
James
So I like the fact that this version (and probably several others since my last update was 1.1e) is Intel based, but…what the heck is up with the memory usage? At this moment it is using 226.75 MB of real memory, and 453.71 MB of virtual memory. Can you say memory leak?
I’d really like to keep using this nifty calendar, but at a cost of over 10% of my RAM after only being up for a few days is a killer.
The app sounds perfect for my needs, but after paying $20 and downloading the 3.0.2 version for Leopard, I can’t get the program to even open. It won’t give me the option to register my key, but only sends me back to the Buy Online page. Apparently I’m not the only person with this problem, but replies to the publisher go unanswered…
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I personally use a combination of MagiCal as recommended by Jay above and Dejumble. It gives me a lot better control over my iCal Tasks and Events. I can sort, manually rearrange, add notes, create projects and do a LOT more than the standard list of iCal or MenuCalendarClock. I can choose which iCal calendars to sync with it. It is the same price as this software, but much better bang for the buck.
I like this little hack, it is really more useful than a normal calendar.. Thanks
I have been looking for something to make ical as good as the mighty free app pandocalendar ( which only lacks syncing abilities hence my reluctant use of clunky memory hogging and un-maclike ical). If only this could be a floating panel with the correct date highlight colours imported, I would be very pleased. Otherwise, a very good effort at implementing what the morons at apple have omitted. Ical is like a wall calendar kept in a drawer .
Purchased this awhile back for using with Entourage. Great app but doesn’t support Mac Outlook!
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