Itsycal is a tiny menu bar calendar for macOS. It’s an always-available complement to the built-in Calendar app with enough features for everyday use. There’s also good keyboard support, plus the app fully integrates with Calendar so it’s easy to try out.
How Does Itsycal Appear When Running?
Itsycal’s default interface is accessed via a Menu Bar icon which displays the date of the month. When clicked, the app shows a popup with a classic grid view of the current month.
The Menu Bar icon works well alongside the default Date & Time app since you can configure the two individually:
How To Install Itsycal
You can download Itsycal from the project’s website. The download is a zip archive containing a single file, the application itself. Once you extract it, simply move the app file to the Applications folder and it’s ready to use.
You can set Itsycal to run automatically on login via the app’s preferences:
How To Display an Existing Calendar
The General pane of the Preferences dialog displays the calendars installed on your system. Enable the calendars that you want to display events from.
Itsycal displays events in two main forms. First, you’ll see a small colored dot underneath days in the grid with at least one event. If you select a day containing events, they will appear in the Event list at the bottom of the popup. You can configure that list to display different numbers of days, starting from the selected one. You can also turn it off altogether.
If you often work with events well ahead of time, you might find it useful to show more than one month. You can drag the handle located just below the main calendar grid to display extra rows:
How To Add and Delete Events
Since it integrates with the Apple Calendar app, any edits you make to events there will also update in Itsycal. You can also add events directly by clicking the + icon or using the Command+N shortcut. If you live by your calendar, but sure to check out our Apple Calendar tips.
You can delete an event by clicking to open it, then clicking the delete icon or pressing backspace.
How Pinning the App Works
Pinning the app can come in handy if you want to use it alongside other apps. By default, clicking on another app will close Itsycal’s popup window. Clicking the pin icon, below the main grid of dates, causes the popup to remain open when switching apps.
You can still close and reopen the popup explicitly, but it will remain pinned.
Using Itsycal With Keyboard Shortcuts
You can configure a keyboard shortcut to open and close the popup. This is valuable since it enables a very quick check of the current date and other nearby dates.
You can navigate the grid of dates using shift + cursor keys. If you move outside the month, it will switch appropriately. You can also use the cursor keys without shift to move entire months or even years at a time. Pressing space at any time moves to the current day.
There are shortcuts for all the main functions, including the toggling of various views. Itsycal’s succinct help page documents these in full.
Further Configuration With Itsycal’s Preferences
Itsycal has a small set of settings, but they provide a fair amount of customization. You can change font size, highlight specific days, and choose between two themes, amongst other options:
Itsycal Is a Small App With Many Useful Features
For a small, free app, Itsycal is surprisingly useful. It may be small in scope, but it’s also only 1.8 MB, so it won’t break the bank financially or use up much of your disk space. Itsycal has excellent keyboard support, so it’s accessible yet unobtrusive.