Google Calendar
I was pondering about whether to use outlook calendar as my planner. I decide against it, factoring that i almost never checks the calendar on my Dopod C500.
So i began to see if Sunbird and Google Calendar is a more viable option since most of the time i do my checking of calendar on any desktop computer.
I explored Google Calendar and found that it is very good. You can use it to address your GTD needs. The best part is that there are many resources on the web that discuss on productivity with google calendar.
Other positives about it:
Mobile Version for WIFI checking
I can check it on my Dopod C500 as well. They have a mobile version of the online reader that has an Agenda layout.
Sharing of Calendars with others
You can share your own calendar, thereby enabling you to sync with what your friends, colleague and family members are doing. But i find value-addedness in sharing Singapore Holiday and Weather Calendars. This means that i do not need to look up all these dates myself! Others will be doing this for me!
SMS and Pop-up notification
I am in the midst of trying out the SMS notification. The local telcos that work with this is Singtel and MobileOne. Is receiving the notification free? Google Calendar is a free service and Google doesn’t charge you to receive notifications. However, i believe that it is stil within the number of SMS you receive charges your Singtel and M1 charges, so use it only for your important events.
Integration with Google Map to find your place
An integration with Google Maps. This will be especially useful to Singapore Drivers. If you set the location of where you planned to go for the Appointment or Event, you can look it up in the map option.
Clicking on the map hyperlink will bring you to a search of the location of the place. In this case, it is our dear Funan IT Mall.
You can see i would need to specify singapore, if not it will throw up other Funan malls around the world. by leveraging on Google Maps, you are able to find the driving route from your place.
Here you will see how to get from Seng Kang to Funan. I can even manipulate the route that i drive away from TPE for flexibility.
Offline Google Calendar
I have yet to explore GCal in offline mode. One option you can do is print out and pin it in your office.
Setting up Event Calendar on your site
Google Calendar allows you to set up an events calendar on your site as well. You can check out how it turns out on my site [here].
Linking Google Calendar to Thunderbird
At times you would want to be able to access to your calendar through a consolidated desktop client. Many would go for the free solution in Mozilla Thunderbird. Kudos to chantc for highlighting this hack.
One of Thunderbird’s strengths however, is, like its cousin Firefox, it works on a plugin system. That is, people have written third party modules, which can be used to enhance the functionality of Thunderbird. And I use 2 of these plugins:
Quite simply, Lightning provides a calendar interface for Thunderbird, its part of the Mozilla Sunbird project, and helps provide the Schedule interface which standalone Thunderbird is missing.
The magic here, however is the Provider for Google Calendar plugin, which, unlike just adding the necessary links to Thunderbird, to access Google Calendard, not only provides read access, it provides write access as well..
Install both plugins, and restart Thunderbird, you will then be shown, a Calendar in the left pane, this calendar has 3 tabs Agenda, Todo and Calendars.
To setup Google Calendar,
- Click on the Calendar tab.
- Click on the New Button, in the Calendar Tab, and you will be given a choice, you need to select, On the Network.
- Click on Next, there is an option for Google Calendar, select this.
- In the Text bar under the Google Calendar you will need to enter the Link URL which allows you to write to your Account, you can find this, by logging into the Google Calendar account you created earlier.
- In your Google Calendar, create a new Calendar, or if you already have a calendar created, click on the down arrow next to the calendar. And click on Share this Calendar.
You will be taken to a new page, where you will need to click on Calendar Details on the top of this page.
- Then Select the XML button, next to the Private Address, this will allow you the read/write access to the calendar, if you need read only access, or wish to share calendars with read only access, use the XML button next to the Public Tab.
- When you click on the XML button a URL will be displayed (i’ve edited the whole strin below for security reasons) Copy this URL , and paste it into the Thunderbird Text box, then click on Next.
- Give the Calendar a name which you will use in Thunderbird to identify this calendar, and choose a colour, this is the colour which will identify your Google Calendar, if you are using multiple calendars.
- Then click on Next and then Finish.
- You will then see your calendar listed as available. you should now be able to add an event in either Thunderbird, or the wEb Interface, and both will update to show the events. You can set reminders, repeat events, and all the usual type of Schedule details.
The end result? You should be able to see this in your thunderbird.
Sync the PDA
The next step is to sync the Calendar with the PDA, this is done using the GMobileSync app for Windows Mobile or Smartphones. it requires .NET CF 2.0 which is available for download from the site, and provides not only read access to they Google Calendar, it also provides write access. This means as well as having PDA based access to your existing schedule, you can provide updates from your PDA to your calendar too. The application requires your login ID and password for the Google Calendar site. The Sync is a manual operation, and not automatic (yet)
Resources for Google Calendar
I don’t have much resources here now, but i will add on to it once i discovered more stuff.
- Calgoo Seem to have a service that enable you to sync GCal with Outlook.
- Google Gears does not seem to work with Google Calendar for now.
- MakeUseOf has a really good aricle on Google Calendar Tricks titled Best of google Calendar (Addons + Tips)
- This is the bomb of the resources. At the Ubuntu forums, we uncover this topic that enables you to setup Mozilla Thunderbird with Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar to be able to read and write to Google Calendar. The title of the article is [Using Google Calendar, Thunderbird and Lighting to full effect]
- Geek to Live has an article on Black Belth GCal Scheduling/
Related posts:
- GTD with Google Chrome and AutoHotKey
- Google Chrome: Download Google’s web browser today!
- Watch Google IO 2011 Keynote Day 1
- A good explanation of the Google vs China issue
- Fwah Moment:Google Voice launched officially to all US users
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Hi, Possible to share the singapore weather ical?