Fantastical: the setup order that holds up

A Fantastical setup that feels worse than the calendar it replaced is often not configured wrong so much as configured out of order. Accounts get connected before any defaults exist, so the first dozen events land in whichever calendar happened to be selected. Every shared calendar sends alerts, so real reminders get dismissed along with the noise. Mirroring gets switched on before the view is under control, and the week fills with copies. ("Tsukaikata" in the search term is Japanese for "how to use.") The steps below follow the order in which each setting depends on the one before it. The names match the Settings tabs in Fantastical for Mac, as documented in the official help.

Why order matters here

Fantastical keeps two kinds of data in two places. Events live in the calendar services (Google, iCloud, Exchange, Microsoft 365, CalDAV). Configuration, meaning calendar sets, templates, mirroring rules, and similar settings, syncs through a Flexibits account.

That split creates dependencies. A mistake in the Flexibits account affects every setting stacked on top of it. A missing default calendar affects every event created afterward. A mirroring rule built on a calendar that later gets hidden or removed keeps producing blocks nobody looks at.

Settings can be opened from the Fantastical menu in the full window, or from the gear icon at the lower right of the Mini Window that drops down from the menu bar. Both lead to the same tabs. The Mac app requires macOS 12.4 or later.

Step	Settings tab	Decide before moving on
1	Flexibits Account	One sign in method for every device
2	Accounts	Only the accounts that are actually needed
3	General	Default calendar, event length, working hours
4	Calendars & Lists, Alerts	Which calendars may interrupt
5	Calendar sets	Which combinations get looked at
6	(Entry field)	Five pieces of syntax
7	Contacts app	Home and work address on the owner's card
8	Mirroring	One source and destination pair at a time

Step 1: Pick one sign in method and keep the key

The Flexibits account can be created with an email and password, Sign in with Apple, or Sign in with Google. The choice itself matters less than consistency. Whatever is chosen on the first device has to be used on every later one, including an iPhone, an iPad, or a Windows PC.

After sign up, Fantastical shows the Account Encryption Key. It encrypts synced data, and a device that does not share the same iCloud account asks for it. It is not a license code and should not be shared. On the Mac it can be viewed again under the Flexibits Account tab, which is also where subscription status shows. Storing the key in a password manager on day one avoids a search later.

Step 2: Add each calendar account through the right door

In the Accounts tab, the "+" button below the sidebar opens a list of account types. Picking the right type is the entire step.

• iCloud. Generate an app specific password at account.apple.com under Sign-In and Security, name it something recognizable, and paste it in. The normal Apple Account password is not used here.
• Google. Sign in and accept the permissions. Afterward, "Manage Delegates..." adds calendars other people have shared.
• Work Microsoft 365. Choose Microsoft 365 rather than Exchange so the organization's single sign-on and multi factor prompts work.
• Everything else. Exchange, Fastmail, and generic CalDAV each have their own entry.

Add only the accounts that will be read regularly. An old Google account from a previous job adds calendars that every later step then has to hide, silence, or exclude.

Step 3: Set the defaults before creating a single event

The General tab holds the settings that shape every new event. Setting them before the first entry saves moving events one by one later.

Default calendar decides where new events go when no calendar is specified. For someone whose week is mostly meetings, that is the work calendar. For someone who mostly logs family commitments, it is the personal one. Default task list does the same for tasks.

Default event duration removes a correction that otherwise happens on almost every entry.

Default event duration: When new events are added, they will default to this length and their end time will be specified automatically. Source: flexibits.com

If most meetings run 30 minutes, set 30 minutes. If most are 50, set 50.

Day starts at and ends at control which hours are highlighted in day view. They also matter later, because travel time treats events inside these hours as starting from the work address.

Run in background keeps syncing and the Mini Window available after the main window is closed.

A crowded week also benefits from three layout settings on the same tab. Days in week view sets how many days a week view shows, so a five day work week can fill the screen instead of seven narrow columns. Show (hours) at a time sets how many hours fit on one page of the day and week views, which decides whether a full working day is visible without scrolling. Start week on and Start week view on decide whether the week view begins on a fixed weekday or on today, and the second option keeps the next several days in view at all times.

One more item on the same tab is worth doing now: the Mini Window keyboard shortcut. Click Record Shortcut and press a combination that no other app uses. From then on, the entry field opens from inside any app, without a trip to the menu bar for every event.

Step 4: Decide which calendars may interrupt

Once several accounts are connected, alerts arrive from calendars that have nothing to do with the person reading them: a shared team calendar, a subscribed sports schedule, a colleague's out of office entries. When most alerts are irrelevant, the relevant ones get dismissed too.

In Calendars & Lists, double click a calendar and check Ignore alerts to stop both its event alerts and its invitation notices. Messages about changes to shared calendars can be turned off separately in the Alerts tab by unchecking the option that sends them to Notification Center.

A simple test for each calendar: does an event on it ever require standing up, leaving the room, or joining a call? If not, silence it.

For the alerts that remain, the Option button on a notification offers a snooze duration and, for invitations, a direct reply. The ellipsis at the top right of Fantastical's notification list clears several at once.

Letting the menu bar carry the next event

Alerts are not the only way to stay on schedule. The Appearance tab has options that put the schedule in the menu bar itself. Show upcoming item in menu bar lists the next event beside the Fantastical icon. Show remaining time for current item adds a countdown for the event in progress. Show upcoming conference call icon in menu bar marks when the next event has a call attached. With these on, a glance at the top of the screen answers "what is next and when does this end" without opening a window or waiting for a notification, which in turn makes it easier to silence more calendars in the step above.

Step 5: Save the views that get used

A calendar set is a named combination of visible calendars. Fantastical starts with one called "My Calendar Set," and the free tier stops there. Premium allows unlimited sets, automatic switching by time or location, and syncing of sets across devices.

Three controls make even a single set workable:

• Control-1 switches to all calendars, and additional sets take Control-2, Control-3, and so on.
• Option-click a checkbox to show or hide every calendar on that account at once.
• Option-Shift-click a checkbox to show that calendar and hide all the others.

With more than one set, each set can override the default calendar. A "Work" set can send new events to the work calendar while a "Family" set sends them to a shared family calendar, which removes a whole category of misfiled events.

Step 6: Learn five pieces of entry syntax

The entry field reads sentences, and a short list covers most daily use.

Syntax	Effect	Example from the help pages
Slash and calendar initial	Picks the calendar	"/w" for a calendar named Work
"with" and a name	Adds an invitee from Contacts	"with John"
"at" and a place	Sets the location, with suggestions	"at Quick Cuts"
"alert" and a time	Sets the alert	"alert 30 minutes"
"todo", "task", or "reminder" first	Creates a task	"todo Finish important task by Thursday!!!"

Recurring events follow the same pattern. The help pages list sentences such as "Soccer practice every Tuesday with John at 6pm" and "Piano lessons Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5-6pm from 1/21 to 2/23," which set the repeat rule, the invitee, and an end date in one line. Exclamation points at the end of a task raise its priority. Quotation marks around part of the title stop the parser from reading those words as a date or time.

Not everything needs typing. Double clicking a day in the Mini Window starts an entry on that day. In the full window, dragging across a time range creates an event with that start and end. While typing, the preview of the new event can be dragged to another slot and the details update to match. Right clicking an existing event and choosing Create Template turns it into a reusable template, a premium feature.

Step 7: Fix the Contacts card before relying on travel time

Travel time, a premium feature, reserves the trip before an event and shades it in day and week views. It is set from the travel time menu after expanding the event details, and it can also be entered by hand.

The home and work addresses it calculates from come from the owner's card in the Contacts app. Without addresses there, the calculation has no starting point. Choosing a location from the suggestion list, rather than leaving typed text, is also what makes time to leave notifications possible.

Step 8: Add mirroring last, one pair at a time

Calendar mirroring copies events from one calendar into another as busy blocks. It changes what other people see, so it belongs at the end.

In the Mirroring tab, the "+" at the lower left creates a rule. The fields to decide:

• Source and destination. Neither can be changed after the rule is created.
• Mirrored range. Two weeks ahead on the free tier, six months on premium.
• All day events and events marked free. Include or skip each.
• Title. "Blocked Time" by default, or the original title.
• Location. Include or leave empty.

When personal events are mirrored into a work calendar, leaving the original title and location off means colleagues see a block labeled Blocked Time rather than the name of a medical appointment. Starting with a single rule and watching it for a week makes it easy to spot duplicates before a second rule doubles them.

What to change first

After a week, count three things: events moved because they landed in the wrong calendar, irrelevant alerts dismissed per day, and near misses caused by travel between meetings. The first two point back to Steps 3 and 4. If the third stays high, settings will not fix it, and the Travel time section of the guide, or how Caltimate handles spoken entry alongside travel, is the more useful place to look.