Andrew’s Mac Tips Weblog

Go to Today in iCal and create a new event. Give it a name like “iCal Quick Alarm.” Bring up the Info window and set the alarm for that event to “Alarm with Sound 0 Minutes Before.”

Now de-select the event and then drag it to your task list (this will make a copy of the event that is now a task). Here’s the trick: You now have a template for any number of alarms that will sound at the exact time on which they are dropped, rather than having to fuss with the configuration each time.

Now, if you need an alarm to sound at precisely 8:23 just drag the iCal Quick Alarm task onto Today at 8:15 or 8:30 (this turns a copy of the task into an event), click on the minutes in the info window and roll your mouse wheel to fine-tune — and you’re done.

When the alarm sounds you can drag it to snooze it, or simply throw it away! Next time you need one it’s right there in your task list as a template.