Views and navigation
Choose a planning horizon, navigate without losing context, and understand what filters and display settings change.
Calendar's views show the same events at different scales. Choose a view for the question you need to answer: available time today, a week's commitments, or dates across a year. Switching views does not create, move, or delete events.
Choose a planning horizon
Use a detailed time view for duration and overlap, and a broader view for distribution across dates.
| View | Useful for | Follow up with |
|---|---|---|
| Day | Reviewing one day's appointments and gaps | Open an event to inspect its details |
| Four days | Comparing a short sequence of days | Check the start date of the displayed period |
| Week | Balancing regular commitments and overlapping meetings | Review recurring events and category filters |
| Month | Comparing busy dates and multi-day plans | Open a date or event for precise times |
| Year | Finding a date across a longer horizon | Switch to a detailed view before adjusting duration |
Set the view you want to return to in Calendar settings. Changing the default view is a display preference, not a change to any event.
Navigate to a date or event
Previous and next move by the current view's period. Today returns to the current date. Use search when you remember an event's content rather than its date; opening a result navigates to its occurrence.
Category filters stay relevant when navigating. An empty month may mean the selected categories have no events there. Broaden the category selection before concluding that an event has disappeared.
Calendar initially loads roughly two years before and after the current month. Traveling farther requires another date range to load. If that request fails, use the retry control; an empty or loading view is not proof that events were deleted.
Set week and time preferences
Choose Sunday, Monday, or Saturday as the first day of the week. This changes how you read the calendar grid; it does not redefine the dates of your events.
Choose 12-hour or 24-hour time based on how you read a schedule. Changing that format does not change an event's time zone. Use the separate time zone setting when comparing events in another region.
Navigate with the keyboard
The command palette opens with Cmd+K on macOS or Ctrl+K on other platforms. It remains available even when plain-key shortcuts are disabled or AI is unavailable.
Enable the following shortcuts in Calendar settings. They apply when you are not typing in an input or interacting with a focused dialog.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
N | Start a new event |
/ | Open event search |
T | Return to today |
1 | Day view |
2 | Week view |
3 | Month view |
4 | Year view |
5 | Four-day view |
| Left or right arrow | Previous or next period |
If a shortcut types a character instead of navigating, check where focus is. Calendar leaves ordinary typing alone. Within search, Enter has its own query and selection behavior.
Distinguish visibility from availability
Hiding a category only changes which events you see. It does not cancel those commitments or make their participants available. Likewise, a gap in a filtered view is not a guarantee that no event exists in a hidden category.
Before choosing a time with other people, inspect the relevant categories and invitations. Calendar search finds records you can access; it is not a separate availability poll for every participant.