I’ve owned a Macbook for almost 2 years but have never really bothered with iCal. I tried it out a while back and had set it up to send me reminders (they call them alarms) via email. Then my trial .Mac email address expired (that’s the email address it used to send me reminders) and I stopped using Mail, too. Here’s how to set up email reminders without needing a .Mac (or MobileMe email address).

Step 1

The first thing you should do is get Mail set up with whatever email address you’d like to use to send the reminders, assuming you’re not using a .Mac or MobileMe address.

Mail –> File –> Add Account:

Step 2

Next you want to change the email address from which Mail will be sending your iCal reminders. Choose the one you just added.

Mail –> Preferences –> Composing –> Send New Messages From:

Step 3

Add a new email address to which Mail will send the iCal reminders (if you haven’t already done so). The default is the Mac email address. You may want to make it an address that goes to a smartphone, so you get them directly.

Address Book –> Card –> Go to My Card –> Edit –> Add New Email Address (green plus symbol)

Step 4

Now it’s time to create an event and add the alarm, which will be an email. Or, you can edit an existing event to include an email alarm.

iCal –> Get Info (right-click on event) –> Alarm –> Email –> Choose Where You Want to Send the Reminder

And there you have it. Now you can receive iCal reminders directly to your smartphone and you don’t need a .Mac or MobileMe account to do it!