Can ical do any of these things?

Question

So here's what I want to do... I've found that with mac os you can pretty much do anything; it's just a matter of learning how. Hoping the same applies in this case.
I'm a grad student and I have periodic exams in numerous classes. Only, I'm horrible at planning ahead and need to be prompted and reminded about upcoming stressors. I have a separate calendar within ical called "tests" that I use only for putting in dates of exams and big project due dates. Ideally, I'd like to be able to have a reminder message pop up 1 week, 2 days, and 1 day before every event on this particular calendar. But, it takes too many clicks & too much time to set multiple alarms for each event, in order to achieve this. I am aware you can elect to run scripts for an alarm, but I don't know any applescript nor would I have any clue what to do with it even if someone wrote the code for me.
In summary, I need a script that triggers popup message reminder 1 week, 2 days, and 1 day before the day I have an event for this particular calendar.
Any advice? Is this possible?

Answer 1

Hi,
First, back up your calendars (from iCal's File menu).
Then copy the script below into a new Script Editor window and press Run.
-- John Maisey -- www.nhoj.co.uk -- 23 Sept 2009 --
set myCalName to "tests"
set minsArray to {-10080, -2880, -1440} -- 1440 minutes in a day
tell application "iCal"
repeat with myEvent in (get events of calendar myCalName)
set myTriggers to (trigger interval of display alarms of myEvent)
repeat with myMins in minsArray
-- Check to see if this event has this sort of alarm for this time
-- to avoid duplication if run more than once.
if myTriggers does not contain myMins then
-- Add the alarm
make new display alarm at the end of display alarms of myEvent with properties {trigger interval:myMins}
end if
end repeat
set myTriggers to {}
end repeat
end tell
If you want to keep it save it as an application and then you'll just need to click it in the Finder to run it when you have new tests…
Best wishes
John M