How should I enter in Calendar an event that will occur when I am in another time zone?

I just tried entering an event that will occur while I am on vacation in San Francisco, which is in a different time zone from my home. It didn't even occur to me to think about this when I first entered the appointment—I just used local (San Francisco) time. However, when I looked at the event in editing view, it had grayed out below the time my home time zone, which reflects the current "device" time zone. However, I believe the device time zone will change automatically to PDT when I am in San Francisco.

I am wondering: in order for the events to show up in Calendar in local time while I am on the trip, when my device will be on Pacific Daylight Time, do I need to convert the time to my home time zone when entering them?

Originally Posted by chileverde

I am wondering: in order for the events to show up in Calendar in local time while I am on the trip, when my device will be on Pacific Daylight Time, do I need to convert the time to my home time zone when entering them?

They'll auto change if you're in the timezone. As soon as your device detects it, it will alert you the timezone has been changed and the updates will occur.

So the answer is yes? I think that's what you mean. So if I make a dinner reservation for a dinner at 6:00 in San Francisco, but I am in the mountain time zone when I enter it in Calendar, I should enter it as 7:00. Then when I am in S.F., the listing in Calendar will appear as 6:00. Is that correct?

Correct. Your calendar will adjust all events for the local time zone you are in.

Originally Posted by rthonpm

Correct. Your calendar will adjust all events for the local time zone you are in.

Thanks for confirming that for me. Amazing that it's not covered in the documentation for Calendar!

After more experimenting, I found a better way to enter the event which does not require "doing the math" to convert the time to my home time zone.

1. In the screen for adding an event to the Calendar, do not tap on a time to enter the time. Instead, tap on more options—which is available, even though it is grayed out.
2. Tap on Add timezone preview, which also works, even though it is grayed out. If the desired time zone is shown, tap on it. If not, type the country name in the space provided. One or more time zones will be displayed. Tap on the time zone where the event will occur.
3. Tap on the time shown above the time zone where the event will occur, set the time, and tap OK.
4. Now, in the middle of the page, the correct time for the event is shown above the name of the local time zone (where it will occur), and the time converted to the device time zone (i.e., the time zone where the device is located when you are creating the event) is shown above, just below the event name.

After I entered events as described above in the PDT and EDT zones, when I then started to add another event, I no longer had to tap more options, which had been replaced with Add timezone preview. When I tapped on Add timezone preview, I was offered the two recent time zones, EDT and PDT, as well as the space to Type country name. So Calendar "remembers" recent time zone choices, which saves having to enter the country name each time if you are entering a series of events which will take place while traveling in another time zone.