How to display events from iCal calendar directly on the desktop?

Tips Makradar / by admin / December 19, 2019

iCal A few days ago in the community Rumak one of the participants asked interest Ask: How to display events from iCal calendars directly on the desktop? The comments suggested two solutions to this problem. The first option was the GeekTool program with which not all were able to understand, and the second - paid app. I myself support the desire of developers to capitalize on the results of their work, but to give money for such a pushover it was a pity. So I decided to deal with GeekTool and share their experiences. Looking ahead to say that it was quite a simple affair.

What we want

But first, a little about what we want to achieve. Here is the desktop, which was discussed in Rumak:

In the left corner displays the current date and a list of events from iCal. Stylish, simple and very convenient. And here is the desktop of one of MacRumors readers:

This section shows the day of the week, date, weather, calendar at the bottom of the screen and the name of the currently playing song in iTunes.

My desktop looks like this (you can click on the picture to enlarge):

instagram viewer

The screen displays the date, the list of events and affairs of the iCal.

How to do it

We need to install two programs. First - it GeekTool. It can be downloaded here. If you are using Mac OS X Leopard, it is better, perhaps, to put the stable version GeekTool 2.1.2. If you have already upgraded to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, install the release candidate GeekTool 3.0 RC5. She, judging by the comments on blogs and forums under the SL to work steadily. Once downloaded the software, install it. In the system settings should be a new item:

I note that the interfaces GeekTool 2.1.2 and GeekTool 3.0 RC5 are very different, I will further talk about the set up is 3.0, which works for me under SL.

We also need a second program. it iCalBuddy. It is also free. Download the latest version advise iCalBuddy 1.6.12. Unpack the archive and move the folder contents in any directory. In older versions of the program it was necessary to use Terminal to install (sudo FolderPath ./install.sh), in the new - just double-click on the file install.command. Terminal window will appear where you will be asked to enter your administrator password:

adjustment

Now comes the fun part - setting. Open GeekTool (found in System preferences). This window will appear:

In the right column, create a new group (I called her Events). It will contain Giklety (Geeklet) - O instructions of the text. Then click the Shell icon and drag it to the desktop. This window will appear:

Here we determine what will be displayed on the desktop and in what form the information will be displayed. The most important point - this is Command. To display the date, enter the following command:

date '+% A% e% B'.

Date - is the actual date of the team, and '+% A% e% B' - date format (in this case: full name of the day of the week, date, name of the month). The date format can be set up, a list of descriptors and their meanings can be found here.

To format the text in the Properties window, click the Style button. In the window that appears, you can select the desired font, size, color, style.

Now add the output of calendar events. Back to GeekTool shell window, click on the icon, drag it to the desktop. In the Command field, type this command:

/ Usr / local / bin / icalBuddy -nc eventsToday | sed -e "s / * / - /" | sed -e "s /! /!! /"

It displays a list of events to date from all iCal calendars. Again, we go to the Style section, which set up a visual representation.

To display the to-do list (ToDo) from iCal on the desktop need to create another Geeklet with this command:

/ Usr / local / bin / icalBuddy -nc uncompletedTasks | sed -e "s / * / - /" | sed -e "s /! /!! /"

finishing touches

It remains to add a section (in my case - "do today"). Create a new Geeklet, but specify a different command:

echo done today

For each of GeekLet'ov necessary to specify the date of information update (refresh every). If the block is rarely updated (for example, the name "do today"), specify the period of great. Update interval calendar of events can be put in 10 seconds.

What's next

And then - to play, to experiment, to try. Take a look at the various ways of formatting text that is displayed on the desktop. The most interesting schemes involve the creation of several Gikletov. Then, for the date, you can use one style for the day of the week - the other, for the month - the third. Can not be limited to the withdrawal of iCal events and tasks, and adjust the display on your desktop weather, playing song data statistics of site visits, etc. Fantasy limitless possibilities GeekTool - nearly.

In the comments, you can ask questions - I and other readers will try to answer them. We will also be glad if you boast wallpaper (throw links to pictures). Easy oftopik, but still... :-)