You can drag-and-drop an e-mail message from Mail into iCal, but only in iCal’s Month view! I wish I would have tried this sooner, but I never use month view.
Drag-and-dropping into Month view creates an event with the Mail message link/alias that, with one click, opens my e-mail message in Mail. Perfect for setting a reminder to read an e-mail at a specific day/time.
Without Applescript, the only other way I know to link Mail messages into iCal is by using the URL field, but I dislike “editing” iCal events (Apple+E or double-clicking an event) – which is why I use week view (so I can just press “return” to edit without the “edit” menu).
I think this may be more of a bug than a hint (or both), because strange (though insignificant) things can happen when you start experimenting. For example:
– Set iCal to Week View
– Click and drag a Mail message into iCal. Notice there is no easy* way to drag-and-drop
– Press Apple+3 to change to month view. Notice you can now see what day the message will be dropped into.
That’s the hint part, here’s the weird part:
– With the cursor/message still over the Calendar part of iCal press Apple+2.
– Nothing happens.
– But if you move the cursor out of the calendar (i.e. above “March 2008”) you can now press Apple+2 to get to Week view. Weird.
*There is also a buggy way to drag messages from Mail into Week view, but you have to have very crucial timing. The instant the cursor/message moves from Mail to iCal you have to let go of the mouse button (you will see a green plus icon for a split-second). It’s quite difficult to nail reliably. The Month view solution is probably quicker and more accurate for the majority of people.
