Guides & articles

Three explainers on the parts of the calendar format that break most often: the file itself, recurrence rules and time zones.

A white square desk clock next to a pen, a spiral notebook and a phone on a white table

Jul2026

The .ics file format explained: VCALENDAR, VEVENT and what each line means

An .ics file is a few dozen lines of plain text. Here is what each of those lines does, why some of them break in the middle of a word, and which ones decide whether your import works.

A laptop showing a spreadsheet with charts next to a tablet held open at a year calendar

Sep2026

Recurring events and RRULE: every-second-Tuesday without losing your mind

One line of a calendar file can describe a thousand meetings. Here is how FREQ, INTERVAL, BYDAY and BYSETPOS fit together, when to reach for COUNT instead of UNTIL, and what daylight saving does to a weekly stand-up.

A sandstone clock tower standing between glass office towers on a city street

Jun2026

Time zones in calendar invites: UTC, floating times and VTIMEZONE

A calendar file can say nine o'clock in three different ways, and they do not mean the same thing. Here is what TZID, the trailing Z and floating times actually promise — and what a VTIMEZONE block is doing in your file.