Google Calendar

Another in an occasional series about online applications that I use regularly.

Google Calendar has become one of my mainstay applications. I use it to manage all my appointments and also to keep track of my wife and son (no easy task). Google Calendar excels at working with multiple calendars, even those that aren't part of the same Google account. Since my wife has allowed me to view (but not change) appointments on her calendar, they show up on mine too. Any entry from someone else's calendar is highlighted in a different color. At right is the display for managing calendars. Each one can be shown or hidden, as you choose.

Google makes extensive use of AJAX technology throughout the Calendar, making it more like a desktop app. For example, clicking on any date displays a popup in which an appointment can be entered without having to reload the page. Using artificial intelligence techniques, a meaningful calendar entry can be created by typing "7pm Dinner at Pancho's" into the popup's textbox (provided of course that you actually are going to dinner at Pancho's).

If you're planning on meeting up with a group, you can send multiple invitations to an event. The recipients can then confirm and even leave comments about the event ("if I'm late, order me the won ton soup"). After you've entered an appointment, Google Calendar can help to get there on time by sending you a reminder via email or SMS.

If you've entered a street address in your appointment, clicking the Map link will bring up the appropriate Google Map. The Calendar also integrates with Gmail, by offering to create a calendar entry for any date that appears in your email messages.

Google took an innovative approach to printing, outputting calendars in PDF format on-the-fly. This allows for precise layout control without the need to download, save and print a PDF file. Ironically, we print out a calendar around the first of each month, stick it on the refrigerator and then scribble on it for the rest of the month.

Lastly, you can export your calendar(s) in ICAL, XML or HTML formats. Using Google's configuration tool, you can embed your calendar in a web page and any changes you make to it will be reflected in real time.