How to Synchronize iCal on Multiple Apple Macintosh Computers

Keeping all your appointments and events synced on all your Apple Macintosh computers is easily accomplished by paying Apple for their .Mac service. If you don't want to plunk down $99+ a year ($79/year for students), here's a free way to sync iCal on more than one Macintosh computer.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• More than one Apple Macintosh Computer running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5+)
• Account with iCal Exchange
• Events & appointments in iCal

How to Publish a Calendar

1. Sign up for an account with iCal Exchange (icalexchange.com).
2. Log in to iCal Exchange with the user name and password you used above.
3. Find the Private Calendar URL on the "Your Account" page on iCal Exchange and copy it. The Private Calendar URL should look like this: http://icalx.com/private/[username]/ where [username] is the login name you selected for iCal Exchange.
4. Launch Apple's calendar program, iCal.
5. Select the Calendar you want to publish from iCal's Calendars list.
6. Go to "Calendar" > "Publish" on iCal's top menu.
7. Select "a Private Server" from the "Publish" drop-down box.
8. Type or paste in the Private Calendar URL you copied from iCal Exchange in the "Base URL" text box. It should look like: http://icalx.com/private/[username]/ where [username] is the login name you selected for iCal Exchange.
9. Type in the login name and password for iCal Exchange beneath the "Base URL" text box.
10. Select what you want to publish with your calendar by clicking the check boxes next to each item. You can publish the titles and notes for each event on your calendar, the To Do items, your alarms and attachments.
11. Select the checkbox next to "Publish changes automatically" if you want Apple's iCal to publish your calendar to iCal Exchange whenever you modify your calendar.
12. Click the "Publish" button.
13. Click "OK" on the confirmation box that pops up. Now, if you log back into iCal Exchange, you can see the calendar listed on the "Your Account" screen.

How to Synch the Calendar

14. Launch Apple's iCal on a different Mac, one on which you want to synch calendars.
15. Select "Calendar" > "Subscribe" from iCal's top menu.
16. Type in the URL of the calendar you just published to iCal Exchange. It should look something like: http://icalexchange.com/private/[username]/CalendarName.ics where [username] is the login name you selected for iCal Exchange .
17. Click the "Subscribe" button.
18. Type in your login name and password--the one you use to log into iCal Exchange.
19. Click "OK."
20. Uncheck the checkboxes in the "Remove" section of the Information Window that pops up if you wish to remove any of the items (alarms, attachments, To Do lists) that you attached to your calendar in the previous section.
21. Select "Yes" from the drop-down box next to "Auto-Refresh" if you want Apple's iCal to automatically synch the calendar.
22. Click "OK" when you're done. The calendar should appear underneath the "SUBSCRIPTIONS" heading on the left side of the iCal window.

Tips & Warnings

• You can only synch one iCal calendar at a time
• Make sure that you use the Private Calendar URL for your personal calendar. You can publish calendars that anyone can see using the Public Calendar URL.