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FAQ

About This Documentation​

Is the documentation complete and accurate?

We strive for accuracy, but Prisma Calendar is a large, feature-rich project with extensive documentation. It's quite complex for one person to manage everything perfectly, so there may be occasional inaccuracies or outdated information.

If you spot something wrong, please help us!

Community contributions help us continuously improve the documentation and keep it accurate. Every correction, no matter how small, makes the docs better for everyone. Thank you for helping us improve! 🙏

Can I use multiple calendars at once? Yes. Calendars can use separate directories for full isolation, or share the same directory for different visual perspectives of the same events.

What happens if multiple calendars use the same directory?

Multiple calendars can share the same directory! This is great for creating different views and color schemes of the same events.

✅ Perfect Use Case: Different Visual Perspectives

Example - Same events, different views:

Calendar "Work - Timeline"    Directory: work/
  → Month view, priority-based colors, all details

Calendar "Work - Daily Focus" Directory: work/ (same!)
  → Day view, project-based colors, minimal display

What you CAN customize per calendar (even with shared directory):

  • ✅ Calendar name
  • ✅ View settings (hour range, default view, time slot duration)
  • ✅ Color rules (different colors for same events)
  • ✅ Display properties (which frontmatter fields to show)
  • ✅ UI preferences (event preview, past event contrast)

❌ Shared Settings (cannot differ between calendars on same directory):

  • ❌ Frontmatter property mappings (Start, End, Date, Title, etc.) - uses FIRST calendar's settings
  • ❌ Event filtering expressions - uses FIRST calendar's settings
  • ❌ Recurring event settings (RRule properties) - uses FIRST calendar's settings

Why some settings are shared: Calendars pointing to the same directory share infrastructure (indexer, parser, event store) to prevent conflicts and duplicate event creation. This means one set of filters and property mappings per directory.

When to use SEPARATE directories:

  • You need different filter expressions
  • You need different property mappings (e.g., start vs. scheduledDate)
  • You're managing completely different types of events

⚠️ Known Issue: After duplicating a calendar to the same directory, reload the plugin (Settings → Community Plugins → Disable/Enable) to avoid initialization issues.

Additional Note: Never use overlapping directories (e.g., tasks and tasks/homework). Use either the exact same path or completely separate directory trees to avoid conflicts.

Are recurring events real notes? Yes. Prisma Calendar generates real notes up to your configured "Future instances count." Farther-out instances show as read-only virtual events to keep your vault lean.

Why do my event files have timestamps in their names, but the calendar shows clean titles?

This is one of Prisma Calendar's core UX features: hidden ZettelID naming.

📝 What You See vs. What's Stored:

  • In the calendar: Team Meeting (clean, readable)
  • On disk: Team Meeting-20250106143022.md (unique, timestamped)

🎯 Why This Matters:

The ZettelID (timestamp suffix like -20250106143022) acts as a unique identifier, allowing you to:

  1. Create multiple events with the same name - Have ten "Team Meeting" events without conflicts
  2. Maintain uniqueness automatically - The timestamp ensures every file is unique
  3. Work with clean names - You never see the timestamp when editing, viewing, or previewing events
  4. Avoid manual naming - No need to add "Team Meeting 1", "Team Meeting 2", etc.

🔧 How It Works:

  1. When you create an event called "Team Meeting", the file is saved as Team Meeting-20250106143022.md
  2. The calendar automatically strips the -20250106143022 part when displaying events
  3. When editing, enlarging, previewing, or interacting with the event, you only see "Team Meeting"
  4. The ZLID stays hidden in the background, ensuring uniqueness

💡 Example Use Case:

You have a recurring daily standup:

Files in vault:
- Standup-20250103090000.md
- Standup-20250104090000.md
- Standup-20250105090000.md

What you see in calendar:
- Standup (Jan 3)
- Standup (Jan 4)
- Standup (Jan 5)

All have the same clean "Standup" title in the UI, but unique filenames on disk.

⚙️ Configuration:

To enable automatic ZettelID generation:

  1. Go to Properties Settings
  2. Set the ZettelID property field (e.g., ZettelID)
  3. New events created via the calendar will automatically include the ZLID in both filename and frontmatter

📌 Key Benefits:

  • No naming conflicts - Create as many same-named events as you want
  • Better UX - Clean calendar display without timestamp clutter
  • Automatic management - The calendar handles naming complexity behind the scenes
  • Full compatibility - Works with recurring events, batch operations, and cloning

How do I change which frontmatter keys the calendar uses? Go to Properties Settings and set your Start/End/AllDay/Title keys. You can also specify a per-note Timezone property and a ZettelID property if you want automatic IDs.

My event isn't showing up — what should I check?

  • Confirm the note is inside the calendar's Directory (subfolders included)
  • Ensure the Start property exists and is a valid ISO datetime (or your parser defaults)
  • Verify filters aren't excluding it (Rules → Event Filtering)
  • Check color rules or filters for typos (expressions use property names directly)

Why did my weekly recurring event start on a different day than its Start date? The Start date is a calculation starting point, not always the first event's date. For weekly/bi-weekly rules, the system finds the first day on or after the Start date that matches your RRuleSpec (e.g., the first "sunday"). If your start date is a Friday but the rule is for every Sunday, the first event will be created on the following Sunday.

How do color rules work? Color rules are evaluated top-to-bottom. The first expression that evaluates to true sets the color. Example: Priority === 'High' → red.

Can I preview notes on hover? Yes. Enable “Enable event preview” in Calendar Settings (UI).

Is Google Calendar integration supported? Planned for a future Pro tier.

Why are my event times shifted by a few hours? (Timezone Configuration) This usually happens when your event files have UTC timestamps, but the calendar is set to display in your local timezone.

Many Obsidian plugins (like Metadata Menu) save date-time values in UTC format, which ends with a Z. For example: 2025-09-19T15:30:00.000Z.

By default, Prisma Calendar will convert this UTC time to your system's local timezone. If your local timezone is UTC+2, 15:30Z will be displayed on the calendar as 17:30. This is the correct behavior, but it might not be what you want if you prefer to work directly with UTC.

To fix this and see the times exactly as they are written in your files, you need to tell the calendar to operate in UTC as well:

  1. Go to the settings for the specific calendar.
  2. Find the General Settings section.
  3. Set the Timezone option to UTC.

Now, the calendar will interpret and display all times in UTC, matching what's in your notes.