How to Set Recurring Weekday Event Using iCal?
Q: I want to add a repeating calendar event to be the first Thursday of each month. How can I add these types of repeating events? Thanks!
A: Apple’s iCal in iOS is designed to help users set certain days in each month when a business meeting occurs, the rent is due, or you have a music rehearsal or sports event. If you need to meet on the 25th of each month, for example, iOS’s iCal is excellent at helping you set dates and meet them.
As for meeting the first Thursday of each month, however, the iOS version of iCal does not currently have settings for the same weekday in each month. Apple’s Mac OS does, however, so if you own a MacBook, you can set these notifications on iCal – and iCal will alert you on your iPad when an event arrives.
To set a recurring calendar event for a set weekday in each month using iCal, perform the following steps on your MacBook:
Step 1
Select the iCal icon from the bottom tray on your MacBook desktop.
Step 2
Once you’re in iCal, double click on the day you prefer and a “New Event” window will appear. Set the time for the event, whether or not you want a repeat (and, if so, how frequently), as well as the nature of the alarm you desire (email, message, whether or not you want a sound with the message, and so on). Make sure that you have the correct email address provided in your Mail app. To set the right email address, go to “preferences” in mail, then select “accounts.” From there, you will provide your email username and password (whether for Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook, or some other).
Step 3
If you want to create a recurring event, you’ll need to do a bit more work than these first two steps. Select “repeat” from the “New Event” window, then scroll down and select “custom.” From there, you’ll see a window that allows you to select the frequency of the event, whether weekly, daily, monthly, or yearly. Select monthly (since you only want to have a business meeting each month), then go to the bottom of the new window until you see “On the” followed by orderly numbers (“first, second, third, fourth”) and a box to select the day. In this case, you would select “first” for the first box and “Thursday” for the second box. Once you do this, select “ok.” Now, your date on the calendar is set.
In order to make sure you receive the message, you must make sure that you are to be notified at the correct email address, as stated above. However, iCal will also not work properly if you have not selected your iCloud account to sync your iCal events with all your iDevices – in this case, your iPad. To make sure iCal syncs with your iPad, you need to go into settings, then select “iCloud,” and make sure that the “calendars” application button is pushed to the right with the “green” color showing.
Are you having trouble with your iCal dates showing up on your iPad? Feel free to let us know, since we’re here at iPad Help to help.