Open the window
Choose Window → Calendar Window or press Command-0. The window is designed for planning that needs more room than the menu bar panel.
Switch views
Use the toolbar or the view commands:
| View | Shortcut | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Day | Command-1 | One detailed timeline |
| Week | Command-2 | Time across several days |
| Month | Command-3 | The month’s shape and multi-day bars |
| Quarter | Command-4 | A quarter as one continuous grid |
| Year | Command-5 | Long-range density and dates |
| List | Command-6 | A searchable chronological schedule |
| Week on Week | Command-7 | The same weekday across seven weeks |
Press Command-T to return to today.
Week on Week
Week on Week is off until you switch it on, in Settings → Calendar Views → Week on Week → Week on Week view. It is opt-in so the view switcher stays six wide for everyone who does not plan by weekday.
It lines up one weekday across seven weeks, a week per column — seven Mondays side by side — so a recurring commitment, a gap, or a steadily filling afternoon stands out in a way the ordinary Week view cannot show. Slide the row a week at a time with a swipe or the arrow buttons.
The same row of cards both turns it on and decides where the week you are looking at sits in the row: Off, First column, Middle column or Last column. Middle gives you weeks either side of the one you care about; Last turns the view into a run-up.
Switched on, it joins the toolbar switcher and the View menu like any other view, and its Command-7 shortcut is re-recordable with the rest of them.
Every view is one continuous run
Month is a single run of week rows rather than a stack of separate month grids, so a week that straddles two months is drawn once and scrolling never stops at a boundary. Quarter is the same run at thirteen rows, with a heavier rule where one month meets the next and a small dated chip — Sep 1 — on each month’s first day. Year is a run of month cards, up to four across, and the mouse wheel moves it a row of months at a time the way Month moves a row of weeks.
The ‹ › buttons still page by a sensible unit: three months in Quarter, and in Year a whole year that lands on January rather than the same month a year on.
Week and Day scroll sideways without end in either direction. The hours stretch to fill a tall window, so a full day fits when there is room and simply scrolls when there is not, and the all-day strip above the grid shows every all-day event rather than stopping at four.
See the year as a wall planner
Year draws twelve mini month cards by default. Wall Planner is the other shape: every month gets a row, and the columns are weekdays repeating across it, so every Monday of the year sits in one vertical line — the chart people pin up to plan terms, sprints and holidays by weekday.
Switch from the year's own header, from the View menu, or in Settings → Calendar Views → Year → View the year as, which offers Month Grid or Wall Planner.
Put the current month first, middle or last in Quarter
Settings → Calendar Views → Quarter → Current month position chooses where the selected month lands when you open Quarter, jump to a date or press Today: First (the two months ahead), Middle (one either side) or Last (the two months behind, for looking back over a term that has just finished).
The same section holds Week numbers in Quarter.
Draw each day as a 24-hour strip
Settings → Calendar Views → Quarter → Quarter cells chooses between Events, which lists each day's events, and Timeline, which makes every day a 24-hour strip: each timed event is a pill from its start to its end, morning at the left and evening at the right, so a quarter's busy afternoons and free mornings show at a glance. With Timeline chosen, Titles in Timeline bars writes the title along a wide bar and turns it on its side in a narrow, tall one; bars too small to read stay bare.
Heat maps, chosen per view
A heat map shades each day by how busy it is instead of drawing individual event dots. Quarter and Year have separate heat maps, so you can colour the quarter and keep the year as dots, or the other way round. Toggle each from the View menu, or in Settings → Calendar Views as Heat map in Quarter (under Quarter) and Heat map in Year (under Year).
Choose how many days Week shows
Open Settings → Calendar Views and find Day & Week → Days Shown: anything from 2 days to 7 days. A Mac starts on 7 days, and since InstaCal 4.0 it keeps its own count, apart from the one your iPhone uses. Fewer days give each column more room; seven turns Week back into whole-week paging. Day and Week on Week keep their own column meanings and are not affected.
Overlapping events and the current time
In Day and Week, overlapping events stack instead of squeezing into narrow columns. An event that starts well after a longer one sits on top of it, stepped in, while the longer one keeps the full width underneath; events that start together still share the width evenly. Titles in a narrow tile break only between words, and on tiles that are side by side the bell and repeat icons move to the end of the time line so the title gets the whole width. To go back to equal columns, turn off Settings → Calendar Views → Day & Week → Stack overlapping events.
The current time sits in the hour column as a red clock, with a red line across today and a fainter one across the rest of the week.
On the days the clocks change for daylight saving, events sit on the hour line their own time names.
Show work days only in Month
Settings → Calendar Views → Month → Month shows chooses All days (the default) or Work days. Work days steps the weekend columns aside so the working week gets the whole width.
You can also switch it right on the grid: the weekday header row — Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and so on — is itself a menu. Click anywhere along it and choose All days or Work days. It works in Quarter as well as Month.
Choose what the sidebar holds
The left column is a mode, not just a toggle. Open Settings → Calendar Views → Calendar Window → Sidebar, or choose View ▸ Sidebar, and pick one:
| Sidebar | What the column shows |
|---|---|
| Agenda | Upcoming events and reminders beside the current view — the default |
| Months | A scrolling run of month cards |
| Calendars | The calendar list under the mini calendar |
| Months and Calendars | The run and the list sharing the column |
| Hidden | No column at all |
Hidden also removes the toolbar’s sidebar button, so View ▸ Sidebar is the way back. With no column, the footer’s buttons move up beside the month title in the order you arranged them, and Reminders opens its list in a popover because there is no column to flip.
Show Sidebar and Hide Sidebar in the View menu collapse and reveal whichever mode you chose; they are unavailable while the mode is Hidden.
Use the inspector
Select an event to open its details in the inspector, where supported fields can be edited in place. Toggle the sidebar with Control-Command-S and details with Control-Command-I.
Navigate and edit
Select a time or day to create an item. Drag timed events to move them and resize their edges in 15-minute steps. Month, Quarter and Year preserve spanning multi-day events as bars rather than unrelated dots.
Search the calendar window
Press Command-F, or click the magnifying glass in the toolbar, in any view and with any sidebar. A Spotlight-style search opens over the window: type, and matching events and reminders — by title, location or notes — are listed on the left, with the selected one's card previewed on the right. Before you type, Recent Searches are ready to pick from.
Use the Up and Down arrow keys to walk the results with the preview following. Press Return, or double-click, to show that event in the calendar. Escape clears the field, and pressing it again closes the search.
Search only finds things; adding belongs to + and New Event. Smart Filters can save a query, selected calendars, rules and view as a reusable workspace.
