Adaptive panes
InstaCal uses the width available rather than stretching the iPhone layout. A wide iPad can show the agenda, active calendar view and selected event inspector together. In narrower Split View sizes, panes collapse into navigation that keeps the same content reachable.
Work across the panes
Select a day or event in the agenda to update the calendar and inspector. Select an event in the calendar to inspect it without losing the surrounding schedule. Edit supported fields in the inspector or open the full editor for every option.
The sidebar and inspector can be shown or hidden when you want more space for Day, Week or Month.
The toolbars
The iPad has the whole of the iPhone’s toolkit, split between the two columns.
The calendar pane’s toolbar holds Filters on the left — the calendar picker, which fills in when calendars are hidden or a Smart Filter is running — and Search beside it, which opens search on its own sheet with your recent searches. On the right sit Settings and Add: a menu offering Add Event and Add Reminder.
The sidebar’s toolbar holds its own Search, a Reminders toggle that flips the column to the reminders list, and Countdowns while one is running. Above the mini calendar is the shared quick-add field — Search or add — “Lunch Friday 1pm” — which both finds existing events and creates new ones from a typed phrase.
In the Day and Week grids, a long press on an empty hour offers New Event, which opens the full editor at that time.
Sheets and details
Settings → Calendar Views → Event Details chooses how a selected event appears: Side panel, the default, keeps it beside the calendar, and Popup opens it as a sheet instead. In Popup, tapping a Week tile or an all-day bar opens the full details as a full-height sheet.
Settings → Gestures & Navigation → Tapping a Year Day can be set to Show list, which opens that day’s events as a half-height sheet with the day named at the top; picking a row opens that event’s details. A reminder chip in the Month grid opens its editor as a sheet too.
Multitasking and orientation
InstaCal responds to Stage Manager, Split View and rotation. Week expands from a rolling portrait layout toward a full week when space permits. The calendar retains the selected date and view while the window size changes.
Week and Day page under a swipe rather than scrolling continuously, and Quarter draws its months as cards that survive a rotation.
Split Layout on iPad
In a wide iPad window the mini month and agenda sit beside the calendar. Settings → Split Layout sets that up separately for portrait and landscape, with a card for each: what the second pane shows, how the two are arranged, and which side each goes. The layout button in the bar opens the same choices in place — Second Pane, Arrangement, Swap Sides and Reset Width — along with Split Layout Settings…. Drag the divider to resize the panes.
Go to Date shows two columns of months on iPad.
On iPhone Duo
Open an iPhone Duo and InstaCal puts the mini month and agenda on the left and the calendar on the right, with a divider you drag to resize; double-tap it to reset. Open in portrait, the calendar stacks over the agenda. Fold or unfold it and whatever you were in the middle of stays put, and the agenda lands on today rather than scrolling to it.
The layout button in the bar opens a menu with Second Pane, Arrangement — Automatic, Side by Side, Top and Bottom or Sidebar — Swap Sides, Reset Width, Buttons for where the bar's buttons sit, and Duo Layout Settings…. Settings → iPhone Duo has a card for each way you hold it — Closed Landscape, Open Portrait, Open Landscape, Book and Desk — and each keeps its own layout, saved on that iPhone only.
Styles for the Duo held upright
Stand the open Duo up like a laptop and the layout menu gains a Style list, each style laid out around the hinge, and remembered separately for flat and partly folded:
| Style | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Month + Agenda | One month on top, today and tomorrow as two agenda columns below |
| Two Weeks | Two tall weeks with event titles on top, today and tomorrow below |
| Month + Two Days | The month and an hour view of the selected day and the next; flat the month is on top, partly folded the days are |
| Quadrants | The month on top; below, the agenda beside your reminders, or tasks |
| Planner Week | A paper weekly planner, one row per day with its events, and a To Do row of reminders due that week; tap a reminder's circle to check it off |
| Tall Week | The whole week as an hour grid the full height of the screen |
| Wall Calendar | The selected week as seven columns of events above the month |
| Pick Each Half | Any of Month, Two Weeks, Week Columns, Week Hours, Two Days of Hours, Agenda, Today + Tomorrow or Reminders in each half, with Swap Top and Bottom |
| Custom | The second pane and divider chosen in the menu |
In every style but Custom the buttons move to a bar along the bottom and the month title sits in the clock's row at the top. On the outer screen held upright, the buttons run down the right side with Settings at the top. Go to Date shows two columns of months on an open Duo.
Keyboard and pointer
Hardware keyboards and trackpads use standard iPad interactions. Arrow and command-key behaviors appear where the current focus and view support them, while drag and resize remain available with touch or pointer.
The menu bar’s View menu switches views from the keyboard: Command-1 Day, Command-2 Week, Command-3 Month, Command-4 Quarter, Command-5 Year and Command-6 Agenda, with Command-7 for Week on Week once it is turned on. The same menu holds Smart Filters, one row per saved filter, Clear Smart Filter, and Refresh at Command-R.
Tip: If the interface feels crowded in a narrow window, hide the inspector first. The selected event remains available when you open details again.
