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While iCal in OS X 10.5 has some nice changes--default event alarms, for instance--there are other changes that weren't so nice (the loss of the sidebar with its easy-to-use event info still bothers me a lot). Another not-so-welcome change lies in the ability to view all of your events (and/or to dos) in a nice list view. In the 10.4 version of iCal, clicking a list-view-like button on the lower right of the iCal window would bring up a pane showing all your events. That button--and seemingly, the ability to see all your events--is gone in the 10.5 version of iCal.

However, there's a strange workaround that will create a similar view--why it works, however, isn't clear to me. To see a list of all your events and to dos, simply type a period (.) in the Search box at the top right of the iCal window. For whatever reason, this will run a search that finds all of your events and to dos, and displays them in a pane at the bottom of the iCal window. You can reorder the entries in this list by clicking on a column header; click twice to reverse the sort order.

You can also select events (or multiple events, via Shift- or Command-click) and then copy them--for pasting in another calendar, or for pasting into another program. You can also delete events in this manner--useful if you'd like to clear out your calendar (and you're not using iCal's ability to delete events older than some number of days; this option can be enabled on the Advanced tab of iCal's preferences).

If you'd rather see events only in the results, or any other such customization, click on the arrow next to the magnifying glass in the search box; a drop-down menu will appear that controls what shows up in the search results.

While this is more trouble than it should be (given how easy it was in 10.4), at least it is still possible.