Turn off iCal shared calendar messages in Notification Center

You can disable the shared calendar notifications in Notification Center on OS X. Although, the setting to turn it off isn't where you'd expect it to be.

I share a lot of calendars with friends and family members using Apple's iCloud service. Every time someone adds an event to a shared calendar, I am bombarded with alerts across multiple iOS and OS X devices. It can get annoying. I don't so much mind the alerts on my iOS device, but I do mind them on OS X. Then recently, I stumbled upon the seemingly hidden preference to turn off shared calendar alerts in iCal. Here's where you can find it:

• Launch iCal and open the preferences pane.

• Select the Alerts tab along the top. At the bottom of the Alerts section, you'll find two checkboxes, one of which will turn off shared calendar messages in Notification Center.

• Going forward, you'll find new shared calendar notifications in iCal's invitation box.

This is not where I had expected to find the setting. Since it's a notification in Notification Center, I had expected to find the setting in System Preferences > Notifications. If this setting has eluded you as well, you can now find some peace and quiet when sharing a calendar.