iCal

I apologize in advance to any and all non-Apple users. But I have to say how much Chuck and I are continuing to love iCal (more info here). iCal is Apple’s paperless calendar. After decades of being tied to two different styles of DayTimer calendars, iCal has been a revelation. We have iCal loaded on each of our computers as well as our iPod Touch. Within iCal we have color coded calendar categories. Birthdays and anniversaries are in one color, appointments in another and so on. My Mom has a color coded category all her own. We type in when we’ll be going down to visit with her. When we click on that item we can edit it to add a note. So if Mom wants Chuck to bring along some tools to fix something, it gets jotted down. Likewise, all of Mom’s appointments are written in. She keeps her own paper calendar of course, but there have been times when I’ve been able to clarify or confirm a time or how she’s getting to an appointment. Plus, if I call her and get no answer, it’s nice to open iCal to double check her schedule!

All of that may seem ho-hum, but the really nifty part is that when either Chuck or I add or delete something from the calendar, iCal syncs with the other calendars! Yes! And as I mentioned back in May, that same sync-ability is continuing to be a wonderful feature of Apple’s Address Book. Chuck recently added a slew of contacts and phone numbers for his 87 year old aunt. As soon as he finished typing, I had the cards in my Address Book. Lastly, we no longer have to lug our DayTimers around with us. As long as we have our light and low profile iPod Touch, we have our calendar and address book tucked in a pocket or purse - well, Chuck’s pocket, my purse! Not to mention, it holds our music and access to the internet - sweet!

I’m sure there are lots of other paperless calendar applications out there. But if you are an Apple user, take it from me, iCal and Address Book are both big time savers.