Legacy Software - iCal


Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How do I move my iCal installation to a new server?
  2. What are the system requirements for running iCal?
  3. Where can I find some installation tips?
  4. Why do I get the error message "iCal could not be started"?
  5. How do I login to the global administration menu?
  6. How do I configure iCal to send email?
  7. Why am I not receiving email from iCal?
  8. Doesn't Apple Computer own the iCal name?
  9. Can I exchange calendar data between my Brown Bear Software iCal and Apple iCal?
  10. Why am I not seeing colors when I print the calendar?
  11. Why aren't columns in Block View all the same width?
How do I move my iCal installation to a new server?

You can simply copy all the files over, or run the installation package on the new server. See more details on the Moving iCal page.

What are the system requirements for running iCal?

iCal can run on any Microsoft Windows system, all the way back to Windows 95. iCal requires little in the way of system resources. A 200MHz with 128M of memory is sufficient to run the program.

Where can I find some installation tips?

We have an installation write up for this: Installation Tips

Why do I get the error message "iCal could not be started"?

There are a couple of possible reasons. Details can be found in the install page: Installation Tips

How do I login to the global administration menu?

The login name and password to access the Global Administration Menu is your iCal registration name and registration number. The registration name is used as the login and the registration number as the password. These are case sensitive. You can always locate these values by looking on the iCal property box. This property box appears when you manually start the iCal program.

How do I configure iCal to send email?

Go to the iCal Global Administration Menu. You will see a link for "Email Configuration". Here you can enable the email system and specify the SMTP mail server iCal is to use for sending email. Once you have enabled email for the system, you will find a new "email configuration" link on the Administration Menu of each calendar. This will allow you to customize email features specific to each calendar.

Why am I not receiving email from iCal?

First, when you enable iCal to send email a Microsoft system service is installed and is responsible for sending email. Check that this service is listed in your services dialog box and that it is started. The name of the service is "iCaleMail Service".

When the "iCaleMail Service" is installed and running there is only one other possible reason email is failing to be sent. For some reason iCal is unable to access the SMTP mail server specified on the Global Administration Email Configuration Menu. Possible reasons are:

  • The SMTP server name has been entered incorrectly.
  • The SMTP server denys requests from the system running iCal.
  • The DNS resolving the SMTP server name is not available on the iCal hosting system. You can use an IP address for the SMTP server name.
  • The SMTP server requires a login for access. Login/Password entries can be assigned on the Email Configuration Menu.

Viewing the SMTP server logfiles can be very helpful.

Doesn't Apple Computer own the iCal name?

Brown Bear Software created iCal long before Apple introduced their product. We licensed the use of the name to Apple.

Can I exchange calendar data between my Brown Bear Software iCal and Apple iCal?

Yes, you can read more about this feature here: iCalendar Data Exchange

Why am I not seeing colors when I print the calendar?

You need to enable the printing of background colors for your browser. This setting is different depending on what browser you are running. For Internet Explorer from the menu select Tools/Internet Options... Select the Advanced tab on the dialog box that appears. You will see an option for "Printing background colors and images".

Why aren't columns in Block View all the same width?

In Block view, the width of each column is - at a minimum - as wide as it needs to be for the widest entry.

The problem is that calendar entries will wrap only on whitespace, so if you have an event with a long text string, the column it's in will be wider. E.g. an event with the text "This is an event with spaces" will wrap nicely, but one with "ThisEventDoesNotHaveAnySpacesInIt" will be rather wide, since it doesn't split the text.

You can fix this by adding a space where you want the string to wrap; you might enter the long word above as "ThisEventDoesNot HaveAnySpacesInIt".