DayChaser Is What iCal Would Be With Vitamins.

My calendar is full and iCal is full. I need something more. Don’t get me wrong. I love iCal. It works. It’s free.

If you’re like the rest of us in a digital world, the day has become more complicated than ever, so I started looking for calendar alternatives to fill in where iCal didn’t fill.

If there’s one thing Windows users notice these days, it’s that the myth of “not much software is available on the Mac” is just that. A myth. We have superb tools for every problem.

One such tool is EconTech’s DayChaser. If you find yourself being a little shortchanged by iCal, it’s time to step it up.

DayChaser has been around a few years and runs fine on older PowerPC Macs and the new Intel-based Macs. It’s from the same company that does the highly touted ChronoSync, which we love for backups.

The DayChaser look is similar to iCal; after all, it’s tough to mess with a basic calendar layout, right? Familiarity gets you running quickly, but there are differences.

DayChaser is a calendar and scheduling application that lets you organize your day, your month, your time, and some work habits; polishing the good ones, smoothing out the rough ones.

The onscreen calendar looks similar to the calendar in iCal, so getting started is easy. After that, the curve is a gentle upward slope of more features, more capability, more organizational solutions, with less complexity.

The most significant feature is that DayChaser lets you build multiple calendars, so multiple users can be involved in the day’s activities. Each calendar can be unique, by user, by organization, by whatever. iCal’s multiple calendar function gets cluttered quickly.

For example, a calendar is treated as a separate document in DayChaser. That immediately adds more flexibility than iCal.

DayChaser takes the To-Do list and makes it truly customizable for each calendar, with repeating entries, user definable categories, and customizable filters.

You’re not confined to the same view, either, as views can be customized for each individual calendar, along with contextual menus, automatic email generation, and more.

One feature that’s priceless is ”executable tasks.” You can set DayChaser to perform ceretain functions on your Mac (try that in iCal), using built-in functions or AppleScript, yet attach each to a different calendar.

In fact, customization may be the key differentiator between iCal and DayChaser. What iCal doesn’t do, DayChaser does. Each view of each calendar can be customized by day, date, color, fonts, toolbar, start day of the week, and time zone.

Entries can be posted in five ways. Appointments, Events, Memos, General Tasks (no need for a separate application for managing tasks), and Executable Tasks.

This segregation of work entries in DayChaser gives you more flexibility to organize the organize the way you want. Memos are just notes attached to a date and time. General Tasks have no duration (ultimate flexibility). Appointments cover minutes, hours, days; whatever you want.

Email contacts can be associated with any one of the entry formats, so contacts get an email with specific messages or instructions. Automatically.

In fact, in DayChaser, you can drag and drop URLs or files to a timed entry, and have them sent to a contact. Automatically.

Most of us do daily lists to track tasks, milestones, and projects. DayChaser’s solution is to attach the To-Do list to calendar entries, which can be viewed through a filter; daily, monthly, weekly, day, and so on.

What you end up with is what looks like iCal on the surface, but has all the little add-ons that iCal doesn’t add on. Is DayChaser a replacement for iCal?

It can be. It can also peacefully co-exist, too, as DayChaser can import/export any iCal calendar into a DayChaser calendar.

If you’ve used any of the hundreds of iCal calendars available online, you’ll like the fact that they can be imported directly into DayChaser, too.

My favorite specific function in iCal was the calendar view and the alerts and I used them plenty; to the point of annoyance. For $30, DayChaser provides even more flexibility on alerts, runs in the background, and gives you more options.

For organizing your life on a Mac, you want an application from a developer that understands Macs. Econ does. Their ChronoSync application is one of our highest rated Mac apps. Portraits and Prints is one of the best iPhoto add ons.

DayChaser is what you want iCal to be. Flexible and able to grow as your requirements grow. Try it out for free. Click Here to view features and downloads.

What else does DayChaser need? If you’re heavy into projects and their tasks and milestones, you may want to move to a different Mac tool. If iCal is too little, DayChaser may be just right, but it’s not a power tool.

Any issues with your calendar needs? How does iCal work for you? Share your solution and experience in the Comments section below.

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