Custom text and rules: decide what each copy says

Most settings give you a fixed choice: copy the title, or show "Busy". Custom lets you decide exactly what a copy says. You write the text yourself, drop in pieces of the original event, and, on Plus and above, add "if this, then that" rules.

Custom is a tile on each of five rows in the What copies look like section of the sync screen: Title, Description, Location, Privacy and Free or busy. Every setting here describes the copy. None of them change the original event.

A 30-second exampleCopy Anchor Link

A sports club's feed puts the address in the description and leaves Location empty, so nothing opens in Maps. You want the address in the copy's location.

1. Open the sync and go to What copies look like.
2. On the Location row, pick Custom.
3. In the box under Always, use Insert variable and pick Description.

If the original has the description "Lincoln Park Field 3, 12 Main St" and no location, the copy's location is "Lincoln Park Field 3, 12 Main St". Line breaks in the description come along. The original is untouched. This works on every plan.

Two things to know before you rely on it. A location holds at most 255 characters, so this suits a short address and not a long description. And an empty description gives an empty location.

How Custom startsCopy Anchor Link

Picking Custom changes nothing by itself. It starts from what the row was already doing: a Title that was Original starts as the Title variable, Busy starts as the word "Busy", Text first starts as your text followed by the Title variable. Description and Location start as their own variable. Privacy and Free or busy start as their current choice. You edit from there.

FieldsCopy Anchor Link

There is no "Free" result. A rule can force a copy to Busy or leave it as the original, but it can't mark a copy Free.

A text result is made of typed text and variable chips, up to 50 pieces. Rules use the same building blocks, so everything below applies to each of the five rows.

Custom text and variablesCopy Anchor Link

In a Title, Description or Location result, type what you want and use Insert variable to drop in a piece of the original event. A variable is replaced with that event's value on every copy.

Guests, Organizer and Meeting notes can only go in a Description. They aren't offered in a Title or Location.

A variable with no value is simply blank. A Title with only blank pieces is the one case that fails, because a copy can't have an empty title (see "When a copy can't be built" below).

On Free the Plus variables show a Plus badge in the list. Pressing one opens the upgrade prompt.

Where the values come fromCopy Anchor Link

• Meeting link comes from Google's video-meeting data (the Meet link, or the first video link in the event's conference data) and from the join link of an Outlook meeting. It is always blank for CalDAV and iCloud events and for iCal feed events. A link someone pasted into the description or location is not the meeting link.
• Meeting service, Dial-in, Meeting codes and Meeting notes come from the conference details the source gives for the event. Each one is blank when the source gives nothing for it.
• Organizer is blank when the source doesn't say. On Outlook it is filled only when you are the organizer. On Google it is filled when the guest list marks an organizer.
• Guest count counts each address once and includes the organizer when they're listed as a guest.
• Calendar name is the name of the calendar the original lives in, not the one the copy lands in.

There are no variables for time, duration, repeat rule, reminders or the destination calendar. A rule can check an event's length, start time and weekday (see "What a check can look at"), but it can't write them into the copy. Custom changes the words and the two choices, not when an event happens.

RulesCopy Anchor Link

Rules are available on Plus and above. A rule says: if these checks hold, use this result.

1. On a field's Custom panel, press If (shown with a plus sign) to add a rule.
2. Add one or more checks. For each check you pick what to look at, how to compare, and what to compare it to.
3. Set the rule's result, the same way you would set plain Custom text.
4. Set the last row, Otherwise. It is what the copy gets when no rule holds. With no rules at all the row reads Always.

Rules are read from the top down and the first one that holds wins. Drag the grip, or use the arrow keys, to reorder them. The trash button removes one. A field can have up to 10 rules plus the Otherwise row, and each rule up to 10 checks.

When a rule has more than one check, a menu left of the second check, Combine checks, joins them with and (every check must hold) or or (any one is enough). There is one joiner per rule.

What a check can look atCopy Anchor Link

Text comparisons ignore upper and lower case, and contains matches anywhere in the text. Comparison text can be up to 8192 characters.

The four checks on time and guests work like this:

• Start time and Weekday use the time zone the event was created in, not yours and not the destination calendar's. A 09:30 meeting in Amsterdam is a 09:30 meeting wherever you look at it, and the weekday is the day it starts on.
• Event length is the real time between start and end, so a day with a clock change counts the hour that really passed.
• All-day events have a weekday, and a length of 24 hours for each day. They have no start time, so a Start time check never holds for them, whichever test you pick.
• Repeating events keep their weekday only when they repeat weekly on one day. A daily, monthly or yearly repeat, or a weekly one on several days, has no single weekday, so a Weekday check on it can't be decided.
• Guest email domain looks at what follows the "@" in each guest's address, ignoring upper and lower case. Each address counts once, and the organizer counts when listed as a guest. A has no guest from check holds for an event with no guests, and has only guests from doesn't. You can paste a whole address into the box: only the domain after the "@" is kept.

A check the event can't answer, for example a Start time on an event that carries no time zone of its own, or a Guest email domain when the guest list can't be read, is treated like any other missing value (see just below).

If a check needs a value that isn't available for an event, the rule can still be decided when the other checks settle it: in an and rule, one check that definitely fails settles it, and in an or rule, one that definitely holds does. When nothing settles it, that event's copy can't be built and shows as an issue; it doesn't quietly fall through to Otherwise.

A rule that isn't finished (empty comparison text, a number out of range, no calendar picked) is flagged where you're typing, and Start sync and Save changes stay greyed out until you fix it.

A rule example: big meetings show as BusyCopy Anchor Link

On Free or busy, pick Custom, press If, check Guest count is at least 10, and set the result to Busy. Leave Otherwise on Same as original. Meetings with 10 or more listed guests land as Busy. Smaller ones keep their original status. This needs Plus, because it uses a rule and the Guest count check.

Another example: evening meetings show as BusyCopy Anchor Link

On Title, pick Custom, press If, check Start time starts at or after 18:00, and set the result to the word "Busy". Put the Title variable under Otherwise. Meetings that start at 18:00 or later land as "Busy"; the rest keep their title. This needs Plus, because it uses a rule.

Another example: label with the source calendarCopy Anchor Link

On Title, pick Custom and build the result as "[", the Calendar name variable, "] ", then the Title variable. A "Standup" from your "Work" calendar becomes "[Work] Standup". This needs no rules, so it works on every plan.

Another example: the meeting link onlyCopy Anchor Link

On Description, pick Custom and put just the Meeting link variable under Always. The copy's description is the link and nothing else. This needs Plus, and it is blank when the source has no meeting link (see "Where the values come from").

The preview: Example event and ResultCopy Anchor Link

The Custom panel tests your work before you save it. At the top, Example event shows one real event and the field's original value; at the bottom, Result shows what the copy will get. The preview is only for testing: it never needs a paid plan.

• Pick any event from the chooser. It lists the next 5 upcoming events from the sync's source calendar (with several sources there's a chip for each calendar).
• With no upcoming events, the panel says so and offers five built-in examples (a team-planning meeting, a dentist visit, a company offsite, a focus block and a weekly 1:1). They carry no meeting link, organizer or guest text, so a rule that depends on those won't show them.
• The rule that produced the result is marked Used for this event.
• A text result shows a counter against the field's limit, such as "N / 255", in red when over.
• A value the preview can't know is shown as "Can't be shown for this event." An empty value shows "Nothing".

The preview cuts an over-long result at the limit so you can read it. Real copies don't work that way: see "When a copy can't be built".

Settings for one calendar, and "Source calendar"Copy Anchor Link

Two different things look alike here.

• Source calendar (and Source account) is a check. It asks where the original came from. It is a rule, so it needs Plus.
• Settings for chips (different settings per destination calendar) set what copies look like where they land. They need Pro (and Team).

Plus can't vary Custom settings per destination calendar, but a Source calendar rule can give copies from different origins different treatment inside one sync. On Pro, a Custom setting set for one destination calendar replaces the shared Custom setting for that field on that calendar. It doesn't merge with it. If that setting uses rules, you need both: Pro for the setting for that calendar, and Plus or above for the rules inside it.

In a sync between two calendars, either route can say the same thing. Use whichever reads more clearly to you.

When a copy can't be builtCopy Anchor Link

Sometimes a Custom result can't be made for one particular event. The most common reasons:

• The result is too long. A title or location is limited to 255 characters and a description to 8192. SYNCDATE does not cut the text to fit. The copy isn't written.
• The result has no title. A copy needs a title. Add text, or pick a variable that has a value.
• A needed value isn't available for this event.
• The destination doesn't accept the value, or rejected it.
• The rules can't be evaluated and need a look.

What happens is narrow. Only that event is affected: other events in the sync keep syncing, and the sync stays active. If the copy didn't exist yet, it isn't created, and its time isn't blocked by this copy. If it already existed, it stays as it was, with its previous settings, and the change (including any new privacy choice) isn't applied.

It shows up in the sync's Issues section as "{Field} could not be applied", with the reason, the original event, and the calendars it was going from and to. The Edit Custom settings button on the card takes you to the sync's edit page. That card is where to look.

It clears by itself once that event is written successfully with your current settings, or when the event leaves the sync (excluded, outside the window, removed). Changing the sync's settings also stops older issues from showing.

An all-literal result that is already too long is stopped when you save. A result that uses variables can only be checked against a real event, so it can pass at save time and fail on one long description later. Copying a description into a location is the clearest case: it works for short addresses, and an event with a long description will be reported here instead of copied.

Limits and provider gapsCopy Anchor Link

• Rules choose and assemble text. They are not a formula language. You can pick between results and combine variables with your own words. You can't calculate, trim, split or reformat a value.
• 10 rules per field plus Otherwise, 10 checks per rule, 50 pieces per text result.
• A Title or Location result is limited to 255 characters and a Description to 8192. Description and Location accept line breaks; Title is one line.
• Meeting link is blank for CalDAV, iCloud and iCal feed sources. It comes only from Google's video-meeting data or an Outlook meeting's join link.
• Organizer is blank on Outlook unless you are the organizer.
• No Free result for Free or busy, and no "Confidential" result for Privacy. Both can be checked, not chosen.
• Colour, guests and reminders are separate settings, not part of Custom. See Appearance.
• The branding footer on Free is added after your text. A Custom description doesn't remove it.

More provider limits are in What SYNCDATE can't do.

Plans and downgradeCopy Anchor Link

Team has the same limits as Pro. A locked item shows the plan that unlocks it and opens an upgrade prompt, never a price. The check happens when you save as well as in the editor, so a locked option can't be saved around the lock.

If you move to a plan without rules, they pause; they aren't deleted. While paused, each field falls back to its safe default: Title shows "Busy", Description and Location are left out, Privacy is Private and Free or busy is Busy. The panel says "Your rules are paused" and under Result it reads "Not applied while rules are paused". Upgrade again and your rules come back as you left them. Plain custom text without rules or Plus variables keeps working on Free.

You can still re-save a set of rules you already have after a downgrade, as long as you haven't changed it. Adding or changing a rule needs the plan again.

Related

Appearance: how copied events look

Every setting that decides what a copy looks like when it lands: title, availability, privacy, colour, guests and reminders.

Different settings per destination calendar

Set a shared default for a sync, then override it for one destination calendar. What you can vary, what you can't, and which way round it works.

Plans and limits

The five numbers that limit a setup, what each one means, and which one actually stops people.

What SYNCDATE can't do

The limits no plan removes: syncs don't chain, special event types are Google-only, feeds are read-only, and colour is approximate between providers.

Show Busy to clients, full details to you

Work shows Busy, personal keeps every detail. A rule per calendar needs Pro; a rule by source calendar needs Plus.

Big meetings always block your time

Meetings with ten or more guests copy as Busy, even when you marked them Free. The rule is already written. You pick the calendars. Needs Plus.

Show evenings and weekends as Busy at work

Events that start at 18:00 or later, or on a weekend, show as Busy on the calendar your colleagues see. The rule is already written. Needs Plus.

Put the video-meeting link in the location

Online meetings copy with their join link as the location, so you can join in one tap. Events without a link keep their location. Needs Plus.

Keep private events private, copy the rest in full

Events marked Private or Confidential copy as Busy with no details. Every other event copies in full. The rules are already written. Needs Plus.

Use the description as the location when it is empty

When a feed puts the address in the description and leaves Location empty, the copy gets the description as its location. Needs Plus.

Add the organizer and guest list to the description

Meetings with guests copy with Organizer and Guests lines above their description. The rule is already written. You pick the calendars. Needs Plus.

Block long events as Busy and label focus time

Events of two hours or more always block your time, and guest-free Focus events read Focus time. The rules are already written. Needs Plus.

Label client meetings, show everything else as Busy

Meetings with a guest from your client's domain show with a client label. Everything else shows as Busy. You add one rule. Needs Plus.

Show internal-only meetings as Internal

Meetings where every guest uses your company's email domain show as Internal meeting. Everything else keeps its title. You add one rule. Needs Plus.

Hide one calendar's events, show the others' titles

Events from one source calendar show as Busy and Private, and events from the others keep their titles. You add two rules. Needs Plus.