Mac Automation: Quickly add to-dos/events to iCal- The Unofficial Apple Weblog TUAW

How many times have you been watching TV and wanted to quickly add a to-do or event maybe both to iCal? In this Mac Automation post, Im going to show you how to create both a to-do and an iCal event from within Automator. You will be able to add new items to iCal without ever having to open it. Lets begin.

Creating the Automator Workflow New iCal Event

First we need to create an Automator workflow that will add the to-do and event to iCal. To create the workflow, just add the "New iCal Events" action to the workflow area. Before you continue, be sure to click the "Options" button at the bottom of the action and select the "Show this action when the workflow runs" checkbox.

Saving the Automator Workflow

To give you quick and easy access to the creation of iCal events, you can choose the Save As method of your choice.

Running the Workflow

To run the workflow, click the "Run" button in the top-right corner of Automator or launch it as an application. When you run the workflow, you will be presented with a dialog that will ask you to specify a Name, Date, Time, and other information. When you press "Continue," the workflow will create the event in iCal.