Best of Google Calendar (Addons + Tips)
Google Calendar is definitely one of the coolest online calendars and task-management applications. It has everything an average user may wish for: speed, non-cluttered design and lots of useful and never failing features, i.e. calendar sharing, quick event entry, follow-up reminders (SMS/email), RSS feeds, etc. [More on Google Calendar...]. In addition to it’s standard feature set, there are hundreds of a user-created browser addons (mainly firefox) and problem-specific tips making it even better and more flexible productivity tool. Below, I have listed some of the better ones, if you’re Google Calendar user (or thinking of becoming one) than check them out.
FIREFOX (Addons and Greasemonkey Scripts)
(1) Better GCal – extremely handy extension that integrates bunch of must-have features into your Google Calendar. These are: (1) ‘To-Do’ box, (2) current time, (3) option to quickly hide Header/Sidebar menus, and (4) auto-connect via ’secure connection’ (see screenshot below nr.2)
(2) Extra Tabs (Greasemonkey) – replaces ’standard’ date range tabs with any number of customized tabs. Leaving it on default setting keeps existing tabs untouched and adds “Next 3 Days”, “Next 2 Weeks”, and “Next 3 Weeks” view tabs. (see screenshot below)
(click to enlarge and launch it in a new window)
(3) Google Calendar Integration (Greasemonkey) – integrates Google Calendar agenda into Gmail. See demo [More Gmail Tools]
(4) Forecast (Greasemonkey) – adds a small, draggable and expandable ‘Forecast’ box to your browser that shows next seven events from your Google calendar. (To get it running, you’ll need to provide it with your calendar’s XML feed, which can be accessed via ‘Settings->Calendars->select desired calendar->Private Address: XML’)
(5) GCalQuickTab – switch between Gmail and Google Calendar using keyboard shortcuts: ‘g’ for Gmail and ‘i’ for Calendar.
(6) Some more…
- Notifier – notifies you of upcoming events for ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’. [Screenshots]
- Colorize Sat/Sun (Greasemonkey/Opera) – colorizes ‘Saturday’ and ‘Sunday’ columns [Screenshots]
- Quick Add – add events to your calendar without going to Google Calendar page. (only Firefox: 1.5.0.*)
- Facebook to GCal (Greasemonkey) – add Facebook events to your Google Calendar.
- Quick Import (Greasemonkey) – provides quick access to otherwise deeply buried import to ICS/iCal page.
- Compact Header (Greasemonkey/Opera) – compacts GCal’s header by removing unnecessary stuff. [Screenshots]
- Optimized (Greasemonkey/Opera) – removes logo, makes font-sizes smaller and adjusts paddings and margins.
GOOGLE CALENDAR HowTo’s
- How To subscribe to a Google Calendar using iCal
- How To sync Google Calendar with Treo using Mac
- How To sync Thunderbird With Google Calendar
- How To add Google calendars to Google Maps
- How To integrate Google Calendar to your website using AJAX
- How To sync Google Calendar with Outlook
- How To set Google Calendar as your Desktop’s wallpaper
- How To do Enterprise Monitoring With Google Calendar
- How To ‘Get Things Done’ with Google Calendar
- Google Calendar SMS Tricks
This is just a terrific resource. I had a few of these add-ons but some of them were new…and very compelling. Thanks for your terrific blog!
you should add calgoo to that list. ive been using calgoo for some time now, ever since they went beta. its been a solid program and made my google calendar experience improve ten fold. the offline access alone is worth the price of admission (that being free haha)
bizz
@bizz
I am aware about Calgoo. I have plans to incorporate one more section to this post: ‘WebServices and Desktop Apps’, so I kept it for that. At the moment, I am only half way through it, and will need a week or two to complete it. I’ll definitely notify all readers about this update.
Thanks.
Hi Kaly,
For syncing Google Calendar with your mobile device take a look at http://www.goosync.com It’s free, It’s web-based, supports Palm, Windows, Blackberry, Outlook and well over 600 types of cell phone.
Happy GooSyncing
Chris (GooSync)
Great page. There is also a multi-platform freeware called Helical that shows Google Calendar events inside a desktop clock.
Thanks for sharing. Highly Appreciated
Thanks for these resources! Has anyone seen anything that allows email notifications to be sent on calendar item *discussions*?
Jacob
I am not sure if I understood what you meant. Can you plz clarify it a bit?
Desktop iCalendar – can be used for editing offline Google calendars and sync them with Google. It is also a desktop calendar .
Desktop iCalendar is not free. I recommend Rainlendar, it offers even more features.
Hello that was really helpful but do you know if its possible to have a better way to show up 15 minutes schedule and what about the 15 minutes increment…
Thanks !
H
[img]http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8948/uuunh0.png[/img]
I use google calendar a lot. I also sometimes use it to sync all my different calendars (or rather to see it all in one place)I would like to use the SMS notification I wrote about in my blog, but for some reason I had to stop using it. Thanks for all these tips.
Some great tips here…
I need to receive notifications when someone makes a comment on an event, but cannot find a way to do this. This seems like a big oversight by Google. Any suggestions?
thank you,
Matthew
If you know of any add on that would let me customize the TIME range of a DAY or WEEK printout that would be great! When I print, the range is from 1:00 am to 1:00 pm in either DAY or WEEK mode.