DIY Daily Planner With iCal

Many of you probably know by now that you can print to-do lists, events, schedules, and full calendars from iCal. But you may not have thought of using iCal to roll your own planner. I am an electronic junkie, but when it comes to schedules, events, to-do lists, and all that jazz, I prefer to write it down.

This is because I love working with pen and paper. If someone gave me a ton of paper and pens for Christmas, I would be happier than a hog in slop. Yes, I know, I am a dork, but you can only do so much with your schedule and to-do lists with an electronic device.

In order to make a home made daily, weekly, or monthly planner, you will need a small three ring binder, preferably a 1”, 1/2” or A4. You can make just a daily, weekly or monthly planner, or divide your notebook into sections. One section could be your daily planner and another section could be your to-do lists and any other divisions you would like to add.

For the sake of making this a very long quick tip, I am only going to explain making a daily planner, so that you may have a foretaste of that which is to come. First, you will need to launch your iCal application. Under “File” on your toolbar, choose “Print.” Then, a dialog box will appear with a few options for you to choose:

Under the “View” option, you should choose day.
Under the “Paper” option, you should choose A4 or what ever paper size you need.
Under “Time range,” you should choose the “Start” and “End” days you would like to print.
Under “Calendars,” you may want to uncheck them as well as uncheck “Calendar Keys” unless you will be using it for color coding. Most planners have “Mini Months” on them, so you can choose to let them appear or not. If you are not using Calendar Keys, then you can choose the “Black and White” option.

After setting up your options, click continue. Once you click continue, a print dialogue box will popup. If you only see two options, “Printer and Preset,” click on the arrow to the right of the Printer and then the rest of the options should appear. Under the “Pages” option, you should see the first drop down box. On that box, choose “Paper Handling.” Then under “Pages to Print,” you can choose which pages you would like to print. The next option you should see is “Scale to fit paper size.” Once you choose this option, then the grayed out box above should allow you to choose the paper size you want or need. Once all that has been completed, click print and you are good to go.

I hope that you have enjoyed this quick tip. You will be able to read the fuller version of this when I am finished with the writing project. Comments are welcomed.

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