newbie rage with Quick entry to iCal

[Jason Davies]

I've got Lion with iCal and Quickcal. I've just wasted half an hour
discovering that 'natural' entry is anything but if it's not 'movie at
7pm tonight'

Does anyone have a crib sheet for ideal syntax? What I keep finding is
that when an event is more than one word (eg the name of an academic
paper, which is *never* one word, barely one sentence usually) and the
location is complex (eg 'room G22/26 senate house', it doesn't stand a
chance. googling just gets me lots of 'wow this does natural diary
entry' without any specifics and FAQs just send me round in a circle or
inform me that if I register at yet another forum...

cribsheet anyone? template for adding these things?

[mac98aop]

I'm afraid it's a case of keep playing to get familiar. I've done a search in vain before too!

Top tip is that it relies on US English I think, so I seem to get better results when I say Meet Jed for coffee on March 22nd as opposed to 22 March.

It's limited, and I can't get it to update location, or reminders, or repeats. It's really just a quick add for a simple thing.

I suggest downloading Quick Cal (App Store) which really makes for a natural experience and are both brilliant. A hot key calls up a window and you can enter things REALLY naturally and it updates your preferred iCal calendar eg meet Jed for a coffee 10am next Friday at Starbucks.... voila! You can even enter Reminders from it too!

Good luck 

[Jason Davies]

I did mention quickCal was also confusing me:( 

Neither cope with long diary entries. I'll keep trying...

Sent from my iPad

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[mac98aop]

Sorry, missed that.

QuickCal is worth a read of their site and forums. 

It really is pretty competent at long entries as far as I've found.

Keep trying.

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[Jason Davies]

mac98aop wrote:
>
> QuickCal is worth a read of their site and forums.
>
> It really is pretty competent at long entries as far as I've found.
>

do you have any tips? I've worked out it prefers "18 March" to "March
18" (for instance).... I was hoping for a 'template' to work from (but
didn'tsee one on the forums)

[mac98aop]

yes, things like dates are set in the UK format, so that's easier.

I found this really helpful:

http://quickcalapp.com/support-forum/

albeit I had to trawl through.

perhaps give me an example of a phrase you're trying to enter, with no luck, and I'll see what I can do to tweak it to make it work for you?

I just find it works really well, most the time!

For instance, I can type in "meet Dan for a run at 10 tomorrow at the park" and voila. It can't yet do recurring events (so I couldn't ask it to do that every week, but that's on its way I hear!

Let me have any phrase that's not working for you.... post it in a reply here.

[Jason Davies]

mac98aop wrote:
>
> perhaps give me an example of a phrase you're trying to enter, with no
> luck, and I'll see what I can do to tweak it to make it work for you?

slighly mean one would be

26 April
Bob Fowler (Bristol), �Mythography and the Intellectual Landscape of
Fifth-Century Greece�
[Room change: Room 349, Senate House (Painted Ceiling room)]

but more standard is
31 May
Polly Low (Manchester), �Commemoration, Destruction, and the Reshaping
of Memory in Athenian Inscriptions�

copying and pasting that into QC actually seems to paralyze it... (does
here, anyway). use at your peril!;) I am about to force-quit QC as it is
not doing anything now...

this is from a list and I wanted to add the location to them all by grep
search and replace (and started messing with that, with annoying effects)

[mac98aop]

What are all the symbols for?

[mac98aop]

Typing This:

meet Bob Fowler (Bristol) on 26 April in Senate House Rm349 re Mythography and the Intellectual Landscape of Fifth-Century Greece

Gave me the picture attached.

No good?

Seems that the word Room threw it, but should be okay with what I suggest?

Is that helpful for your needs?

On Thursday, March 8, 2012 4:01:58 PM UTC, Jason Davies wrote:

On Thursday, March 8, 2012 4:01:58 PM UTC, Jason Davies wrote:

On Thursday, March 8, 2012 4:01:58 PM UTC, Jason Davies wrote:

[Jason Davies]

mac98aop wrote:
> meet Bob Fowler (Bristol) on 26 April in Senate House Rm349 re
> Mythography and the Intellectual Landscape of Fifth-Century Greece
>
> Gave me the picture attached.
>
> No good?
>
> Seems that the word Room threw it, but should be okay with what I suggest?

this is the kind of thing I was trying to correct -- how would you put
the room into location? The time was also the same for all (4.30-6). it
was adding those to all (via grep) that made the whole thing come up
with... a garbled entry;)

[mac98aop]

The room is in the location? Senate House Rm349.

To add the time try Meet Bob Fowler (Bristol) on 26 April at 4.30 for 90m in Senate House Rm349 re 

Mythography and the Intellectual Landscape of Fifth-Century Greece

I got this.

Not perfect but on right lines, no?

[Jason Davies]

mac98aop wrote:
> Bob Fowler (Bristol) on 26 April at 4.30 for 90m in Senate House Rm349 re
> Mythography and the Intellectual Landscape of Fifth-Century Greece

getting there...

putting @ for the room *and* putting it right at the end seems to be
getting closer (thanks for the 90m suggestion)...