iCal--Importing from Netscape Calendar

This is very easy and quick. Just choose Export Data in the File menu in Netscape Calendar, select "vCalendar file" as the format in the ensuing Export dialog box, click "OK", select the period and types of events/tasks to save in the next "Export" dialog box, click "OK" and save it to your hard drive. The data are saved as a ".vcs" file. Then choose "Import" under iCal's File menu, choose "vCal format" in the ensuing dialog box, navigate to the saved .vcs file and click "Import." It took about 13 minutes to export all events from Netscape Calendar (a 364 KB file) and 20 seconds to export September 14, 2002, through December 2003 (a 24 KB file). Importing the files into iCal took 35 seconds and 2 seconds respectively. We used an 800 MHz PowerBook G4.

In addition, Apple has provided a library of calendars that may be imported ("subscribe") into iCal. We imported "US Holidays" and the schedules for our favorite college and NFL football teams.

[Update] From a more observant reader, Bob Unger, "I saw on your web site that you had imported (subscribed to) the iCal "US Holidays." I did also and noted an error...iCal shows next spring's Daylight Savings Time switchover date as being 17 Feb 2003 while we all know that it's always the first Sunday in April which makes it 6 Apr 2003.

One error makes me suspicious that there may be more errors throughout the download. For instance, all the spring DST dates are incorrect...an obvious programming error.

I forwarded the info to Apple on Tuesday (9/10) and we'll see how long it'll be before we see a revision."

We think iCal is terrific. It does everything we need and looks great. The only item on our wish list so far is for more calendar colors. A color picker would be nice.