Open Settings
Choose InstaCal → Settings or press Command-,. The sidebar groups related options; changes save immediately.
Settings areas
| Area | What it controls |
|---|---|
| General | Launch at login, app mode, refresh interval, new-event defaults, week start, reminders, second time zone, Apple Intelligence and Schedule Warnings |
| Menu Bar | Icon, date style, click action, next item, reminder priority and countdown |
| Notifications | System Notifications or Alarms window, fallback alerts, travel time, reminders, invitations, Schedule Risk Alerts and Quiet Hours |
| Appearance | Theme, panel height and background, accent, indicators, week numbers, heat map, agenda layout and day headers |
| Weather | Provider, location, units, icon set and moon phases |
| Shortcuts | Global shortcuts, menu commands, views and panel arrow keys |
| Calendars | Visibility, default, order, local colors, import/export and planning tools |
| Reminders | Visible lists and defaults |
| Calendar Sets | Named calendar groups and Focus behavior |
| Smart Filters | Saved workspace rules and view settings |
| Templates | Reusable event and reminder field sets |
| Accounts | Apple permissions and direct Google or Microsoft connections |
Quiet Hours
Under Settings → Notifications → Quiet Hours, switch on Silence alerts overnight to stop InstaCal interrupting you during a window you choose. Quiet starts and Quiet ends set that window; out of the box it runs from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM. A window that crosses midnight is understood — you do not need to split it into two.
Quiet Hours covers every kind of interruption InstaCal raises: event alerts, reminder alerts, departure alerts for travel time, Schedule Risk Alerts, invitations, and the Alarms window.
Alerts inside the window are skipped, not saved up. InstaCal does not queue them and deliver them when the window closes, because an alert that arrives after the meeting it was about is worse than no alert. If you need to be told about something overnight, leave Quiet Hours off for that period.
Setting Quiet starts and Quiet ends to the same time makes the whole day quiet.
Customize the interface
Under Settings → Appearance, choose System, Light or Dark. Adjust the panel height, background and accent color. Calendar options cover event indicators, week numbers, Quarter and Year heat maps and what happens when you select a day. Agenda options control row density, treatment of past events and day separators.
Day headers can show the full or abbreviated day name, different date formats, relative-day labels, custom colors, weather and moon details.
Tip: Keep the menu bar panel open while changing Appearance. It updates as a live preview.
VoiceOver and Reduce Motion
VoiceOver reads the calendar rather than its pieces: every agenda row, month chip, time-grid block and list row is one spoken sentence, with its actions on the actions rotor, and icon-only buttons carry real names. InstaCal honours the system Reduce Motion setting throughout.
