Those are both good qualities indeed!
Thank you for sharing the help article.
How do you get the Gantt view?
Thanks.
An .ics file (calendar entry) can be dragged out of Fantastical, or just about any other calendaring app, and dropped into a DEVONthink group. In DEVONthink the ICS file will appear just as it would in calendaring app. It can then be linked to documents, annotations or meta data added to the record in DEVONthink, etc.
1 Like
As I said, This view is emulated using an applescript to export the task list to a spreadsheet (Apple Numbers)
I start with the task list in Devonthink
This is a Smart Group, listing my Active (label) and Due-Dated (metadata) tasks
Using an applescript, the data is selected and processed into a spreadsheet
. tasks are sorted by due date, and listed in columns on the left side
. The gantt portion is on the right side, with a column for each day
. The script converts the due date to a day column, and an indicator is inserted
1 Like
Thanks. I didnāt think of a spreadsheet. I very fondly remember the Gantt view that Lotus Organizer provided 30 or so years ago and wish I could get that view again in a calendar app.
cheers, Mitchell
Hands down, Fantastical is, by far, the most powerful and efficient calendar for MacOS, iOS and WatchOS. It is free or available via subscription, which unlocks a lot of functionality. I do not use this specifically in conjunction with DT3 although 1) the app modifies Apple Calendar events directly, or 2) I can send (using the Share service) events into DT3 for processing.
Here is an example of using Fantastical. Say I want to set a meeting at Disneyland for Jan 12, from 10-12 noon, on my Business calendar, and with a colleague. In Fantastical click on the + symbol and type:
Meeting Subject 1/12 10-12 with ScottS at Disneyland alarm 30 /bu
But lets add that itās a repeating meeting, type:
Meeting Subject 1/12 10-12 with ScottS at Disneyland alarm 30 every second Tues of the month
/bu
The syntax is easy. Subject is āMeeting Subjectā in this example.
Date is 1/12 or Jan 12
Time is 10-12 (10 am - 12 pm) orā¦ 10 am to 12 pm
At is a location - Fantastical will pop up a list of potential locations for Disneyland in this example and you cursor down to the one you want, unless itās already in your contacts database.
Alarm followed by minutes or hours/minutes to receive a reminder (if a location has been picked or is already in your contacts database then you can also select āTravel timeā - the app will determine your drive time from your location plus traffic conditions, to the destination and alert you when it is time to leave)
Repeat is simply second Tues of each month or similar
/bu specifies the calendar to place this entry on; /bu is for my ābusiness calendarā; if I have only one calendar with a name that begins with the letter ābā, then the shortcut is merely /b
For WatchOS simply dictate using the same syntax as described above (makes you sound smart at parties, being Dick Tracy and all).
The quick entry with automatic parsing is what sold me to Fantastical.
1 Like
Owning both Fantastical and several other apps, I also think that Fantastical has great natural language input for adding events/reminders.
But so does FirstSeed calendar (mostly the same syntax). Fantastical just did it first.
The travel time stuff (time to leave alerts) is something other apps have as well and works more reliably in Appleās own app (in my experience).
The only feature I can think of that I canāt replicate in other apps so far is Fantasticalās shortcuts integration for choosing and changing calendar sets and to open specific views.
I have no issue with subscriptions, but donāt think their pricing is competitive.
The biggest issue I have with Fantastical are its limited view options and lack of customization.
FirstSeed gives Fantastical a run for its money with their innovative week and month views. It also has like 20+ widgets, including next 2, 3 and 4 weeks, next 3, 5, 7 days, etc. It also has better customization options for colors, fonts, views and icons (like for recurring events/reminders, alerts, notes, ā¦).
Fantastical is really great for adding events, but worse than other apps for viewing them.
Are you able to share calendars such as Family, Work, etc with people they pertain to and allows them to use their preferred calendar app, whether Google, Outlook or other Exchange clients, just about anything, to interact with your Fantastical events and invitations?
I never have issues w/Fantasticalās integration into Appleās own app and the view options suit me fine. Other points youāve brought up are interesting. However, I can set Fantastical to Week view and show 14 (or whatever) days rather simply.
I tried Fantastical various times and never could like it. Indeed, I could never understand why others thought it was so great. Maybe the ānatural language inputā works if you use it a lot and get used to it, but I could never get it to work reliably. There seemed to be a mismatch between what I considered natural language and what the app expected. I found it much easier and quicker to enter things using other methods. Iāve tried all sorts of calendars, and the only one that has stuck with me is BusyCal. In my view, there is no such thing as āthe most powerful and efficient calendarā. There are calendars that work for some people, but donāt work for others. It depends to some extent on the user, what they want, and how they like to work. Just my personal view, of course.
I use shared calendars with Appleās calendar sharing, but I guess thatās limited to iCloud. Maybe thatās just a premium feature I didnāt need yet. Good point.
1 Like
Thatās fair.
BusyCal. I think the interface is similar to Calendar rather than dated. Also, in combination with Busy Contacts, one can easily find connections using either app. I donāt currently have any reason to mix DevonThink into the workflow.
Good topic.
I use BusyCal in conjunction with BusyContacts, but the changes that Apple made (I think it was in Big Sur, or maybe before) restricting non-Apple apps that are allowed to interface with Mail hobbled BusyContactās history tracing functionality, and Iāve not found a workaround yet. (There probably is one; I just havenāt discovered it.)
Also, one aspect of all calendar apps is a lack of journaling functionality (without having to bloat an existing calander entry.) It would be great to be able to riff more on what happened after the fact in a place other than ānotes.ā I tend to use DayOne for that purpose, but it would be great to merge DayOne with BusyCal.
Also very frustrated with lack of ability to send emails to a calendar to create to-dos. I have seen this someplace, but donāt recall where, and it was a very clunky interface anyhow.
If I knew how to write code, Iād invent what I need but cāest la vie.
I happened on this thread and thought Iād add a recent view. I love Busycal for Mac. I started with it because it was one of the first to make it possible to share calendars with my family. Now I like it because it gives many different ways to tweak the views: control over the calendar colours lets me give more prominence to the most important events and make the less important less evident. I donāt care if itās dated or not, just how easy it is to get a sense of things at a glance. Recently the developer has made some tiny tweaks that make this even better. For instance, todayās date appears in the same form in three places in month view, making it easy to pick them out in an āeyefulā, rather than searching the screen to find them. Another tweak is the possibility to outdent the first line of each event, making it easier to pick out each separate event. I also found the support to be very responsive when I had a problem after an Apple update. But, as one respondent wrote, it depends on what you like and what functions are essential to you. (Iām an information designer!)
1 Like