MB34
MB34

Reputation: 4404

iCalendar and Description formatting

Is it possible to add any formatting to the description of the event in an iCalendar ICS?

When Outlook imports my ICS, it makes some lines 18pt Bold and others not, what defines which lines get formatted in OL?

Is there also a way to add an alt description for links in the description?

I want to build my ICS file using PHP, too.

Upvotes: 8

Views: 7784

Answers (4)

Dmitry Streblechenko
Dmitry Streblechenko

Reputation: 66245

Why not use X-ALT-DESC?

X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: <html><body>I am <b>bold</b></body></html>

Upvotes: 7

Chris O&#39;Neill
Chris O&#39;Neill

Reputation: 11

Within the description wrapping the text in Asterisk *

I am *BOLD text*

but the better way would also to include an X-ALT-DESC

X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: <html><body>I am <b>bold</b></body></html>

Upvotes: 1

jordanlund
jordanlund

Reputation: 11

One thing I have found: If the first line is bolded and blue it's because Outlook thinks it's a header and applies header formatting. Adding a punctuation mark at the end reverts it to plain text.

Thank you for registering\n\n

Comes out bolded and blue.

Thank you for registering!\n\n\

Comes out as plain text.

Upvotes: 1

MM.
MM.

Reputation: 2026

Outlook is very capricious about this, and you might be better off not fighting it.

I find that Outlook formats my first line bold if it's followed 2 newlines (\n), then by at least 3 lines of text, the first of which must have a capital letter. Two minimalist examples: this works:

DESCRIPTION:I am bold\n\nThey\nthey\nthey

this doesn't

DESCRIPTION:I am not bold\n\nthey\nthey\nthey

I admit this isn't an exact answer. Maybe a Microsoft Outlook engineer can jump on the thread and tell us what the business logic is.

Upvotes: 1

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