Subscribing to your calendar with Mac's iCal, Google Calendar, or Vista's Windows Calendar

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Táve Studio Manager lets you subscribe to your calendar, and in the future receive to-dos and reminders, with your favorite calendaring application.

In this tutorial, we'll see how to publish a calendar and subscribe to it with Apple's iCal, Microsoft's Windows Calendar, and Google's Calendar.
Publishing your calendar feed

To publish your calendar, visit the Calendar section and find the "Publish your calendar..." link in the top toolbar:

The "Publish your calendar..." link

You'll be taken to the application settings page, which has this calendar settings module:

Default calendar settings

Here's where you create the URL for your calendar.

Select the "Publish" dropdown and select "Extended Information" and then save your settings.

After you save, the "Calendar Publishing" section should look something like this:

Calendar feed link

Click on the URL text box and select the text and copy it.  It's a long URL, so you should use your computer's Select All function (Apple-A on Mac, Control-A in Windows) so you don't miss any of it and copy that text.

Just like the warning states, this URL is public and doesn't require any sort of authentication to access, so be careful who you hand it to as the "Extended Information" feed includes sensitive contact information such as physical addresses, emails, and phone numbers.   

Clicking on the Reset URL and saving will give you a brand new URL and kill any old subscriptions, forcing you to repeat the steps below.


Subscribing to your calendar with Mac's iCal

If, like most of our users, you're a Mac user, you probably use iCal already.   After completing the first step above and copying the URL for your feed, open up iCal and select Subscribe from the Calendar menu:

Subscribing with iCal 

Paste the URL into the address "Calendar URL" field that pops up and click the Subscribe button.   iCal will add your Táve calendar on the left, just like your other calendars.  

We don't currently export your tasks and reminders in the feed, but plan to in the future.  To receive these when we add them, select the calendar on the left and go to File > Get Info.  You can then un-check the boxes to remove these items as shown below.   You can also change how frequently iCal refreshes the feed: 

Calendar settings in iCal

Now, you'll see all your events, meetings, and scheduled calls in your calendar.  Double click an entry to see more information about it, including a direct link back to Táve Studio Manager so you can update or view the full details:

Event Details in iCal

Your actual events will contain even more information.

Subscribing to your calendar with Vista's Windows Calendar


Windows Calendar is basically Microsoft's version of iCal and likewise included with Vista out of the box.   To add your feed, go to Share > Subscribe as shown here:

Subscribing with Windows Calendar

A window will appear and ask for the URL.  Enter it and subscribe.  Your events will appear in Windows Calendar shortly:

Event Details in Windows Calendar

You can edit the feed settings, such as how frequently it updates or whether or not to include tasks and reminders (which are coming soon), by clicking on the calendar name on the left:

Calendar settings in Windows Calendar

 

Subscribing to your calendar with Google Calendar

If you're a fan of Google Calendar and want to subscribe to your Táve Studio Manager calendar there, it's as easy as clicking on the Add button above your calendars, selecting "Add by URL", and pasting in the URL:

Subscribing with Google Calendar

Everything else just works as you expect.  There aren't any configurable options for the calendar, such as update frequency or including tasks.

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