Label copies with the calendar they came from

Working with several clients? Open What copies look like, set the Title row to Custom, and build the title from the Calendar name variable and the Title variable. A "Standup" from a calendar called "Acme" arrives in your own calendar as "[Acme] Standup". The label works on every plan.

The label is the calendar's name in Google, Outlook or iCloud, so rename each client calendar there to the client's name. Outlook's default calendar is always called "Calendar" and cannot be renamed; for that one, use a Source calendar rule on Plus to write your own label (below), or plain text on any plan. With three clients feeding one personal calendar, your week reads "[Acme] Standup", "[Northwind] Review", "[Initech] Planning", and you see at a glance whose time is whose. A label in the title shows up wherever the title does. It also helps with a family calendar and a work calendar in one view. A label only tells you where an event came from. It does not hide anything: what each copy shows is set by the privacy default (new syncs copy events as Busy, and a two-way Mirror between calendars you own keeps the real titles), so if a client calendar receives copies, see Show Busy to clients, full details to you. More setups are on the use cases page.

How to set it upCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the sync and go to What copies look like.
2. On the Title row, pick Custom. A panel titled Title opens.
3. In the result box, type an opening bracket, then choose Insert variable and pick Calendar name from the Calendar group.
4. Type a closing bracket and a space, then choose Insert variable again and pick Title from the Event group.
5. Use Example event at the top to pick an event, and read Result. Check the spacing there before you save.
6. Save the sync, or start it if it's new.

Any text you type works as the label. A plain "Work: " before the title, or the calendar name alone, are both fine. Plain text applies to every copy in the sync, and in a two-way Mirror to both directions. Using only Calendar name shows the calendar and nothing of the event's own title, which is a light way to keep details off a shared calendar.

Calendar name is the name of the calendar the event comes from, as it's stored for that calendar. In a sync with several sources, each copy gets its own source's name.

Different text for each source calendarCopy Anchor Link

If the calendar's own name isn't the label you want, for example "W" for work and "P" for personal, that's an if-this-then-that rule, and those need Plus. Under the Title panel, press If, choose the check Source calendar and is, pick the source calendar from the menu, and build the result as your label, a space, then the Title variable, for example "W " and Title. Add one rule per calendar and finish with Otherwise, usually the Title variable on its own. The first rule that holds wins.

On Free, the If button carries a Plus badge and opens the upgrade message instead.

A Plus rule can branch on the source calendar, but every destination in the sync gets the same result; Pro gives each destination calendar its own rule. See Show Busy one way, full detail the other.

Known limitationsCopy Anchor Link

• Titles are limited to 255 characters. A long title plus a label can go over. SYNCDATE doesn't cut it: that one event isn't copied, and the sync's detail page shows Title could not be applied under Issues, with an Edit Custom settings button. Other events keep syncing, and it clears once the event is written.
• A title can't be empty. If your result can come out empty, add text to it.
• An event with no title of its own gets just the label.

Related

Custom text and rules: decide what each copy says

Write a copy's title, description or location yourself with pieces of the original dropped in, and use if-this-then-that rules for text, privacy and free or busy.

Hide details only for some events

Use a rule to show Busy or Private for the events you pick, such as big meetings or one source calendar, and leave every other copy as it is, on Plus.

Put the venue in the location field

When a sports, school or club feed puts the address in the description, copy the description into the copy's location, on any plan.

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.

Family calendar → your own

Family events show up on the calendar you actually open, in full detail. One-way, so nothing of yours goes back to the family calendar. Works on Free.

Several client calendars → one hub

Bring two to eight client calendars into one hub you check. One-way, so no time is blocked back on the client calendars.

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.