iCal is the calendar application that comes on all new Mac computers. When it was first released in June of 2002, it was made available as a free download for Mac OS X v10.2. Subsequent updates came bundled on all Macs starting with Mac OS X v10.3.

Here’s a video tutorial:

Interesting trivia fact: iCal was originally developed on the sly by Jean-Marie Hullot, personal friend of Steve Jobs. It is now developed in Cupertino like all other Apple software.

As a calendar app, iCal has everything you need. You can create different calendars for different needs: work, sport schedule, school, home stuff – and you can view all of those calendars separately, or see them all in one window. You can make invitations (using the contacts from your Address Book). iCal syncs with your handheld Apple devices, and works with Google and Yahoo! calendars. What’s not to like?

Open iCal and see your calendar list on the left hand side. To add a calendar, go to File and select “New Calendar.” For the ease of explanation, we’ll use the example used in the tutorial. Call your new calendar “Birthday.”

When you learn about someone’s birthday, you can input it into the Birthday calendar and mark it to repeat every year. If there is a birthday party associated, you may want to set an alarm so you don’t forget – or you can set an alarm so you’ll never again forget your significant other’s birthday. (You’re welcome.) To set an alarm, you can either do so as you create the event, or you can open the event and edit the details. Click on “Alarm,” and then select “hours before” or “days before” option. Change the number to reflect when you want the alarm to sound. In the video, he sets his to 3 hours before the birthday party, to give him time to get ready and go out to buy a gift before he heads to the party. Good idea.

To create an event in an already-made calendar, choose the calendar on the left hand side and then double click on the date on which you want to add the event. Fill out the information and click “Done” to save the data. Or you can click on the date in your combined calendars view to begin a new event, and in the pop-up window, select the proper calendar to which you want to save the event.

To use the “Attachments” function, you can create an attachment within an event to make your life easier. In the tutorial, he shows how to add a file attachment to his school assignment event. When iCal wakes him up at 10 a.m., he can go to his Mac and click on the attached file name, and iCal will open it for him instead of him having to go looking for it.

The pin image in the bottom right corner allows you to create quick “To Do” items and to track when they’re due, if you have completed them, and rate their priority. You can add notes, URLs as needed for that particular item, and select the calendar to which it should be assigned.  The To Do list rates your to do items by priority and date.