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BattleOfTheCalendars

2007 Battle of the Calendars

review from ClifNotes, Jan 2007, permalink _ Notes and Reminders

 

I can't decide which Calendar is best for you ...

 

However, I did try out these four calendar programs. Each of them do some basic things for you. They allow you to see the current month and add future events or appointments to keep you on your own schedule.

 

RainLender

This one is an old favorite of mine. The feature I like best is that it sits on your desktop at all times, floating transparently over it. There are also skins available. It comes in three flavors now. The liteware version may have some features disabled that are available in the Pro (pay) version.

 

Liteware - http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php

Freeware - http://vapaa.dc.inet.fi/~rainy/legacy.html

 

Quote from the website

Rainlendar is a feature rich calendar application that is easy to use and doesn't take much space on your desktop. The application is platform independent so you can run it both on Windows and on Linux. The appearance can be customized with skins and you can even mix different skins together.

 

Standards Compatible

Rainlendar uses standard iCalendar format for it events and tasks to maximize the compatibility with other calendar applications. You can easily transfer the events from the calendar you are currently using to Rainlendar.

 

Look'n'feel

The appearance of the calendar can be changed with skins. The skins can be of any shape and size and they can also contain buttons for additional functionality. It's also possible to combine different skins by using e.g. the calendar from one skin and event and to do list from another. The events can have different appearance depending on their category.

 

Highly Customizable

It is possible to have multiple months visible at the same time. The months can be laid out the way you want and they can even have different sizes.

 

Multiple Calendars

You can have any number of calendars show at the same time. Different calendars can show e.g. holidays, tv programs, your personal events or what ever you like.

 

Import & Export

Events and tasks can be transferred to and from other calendar applications. You can also import the data from the old version of Rainlendar.

 

To do list

In addition to normal events Rainlendar includes a separate to do list where you can store your ongoing tasks.

 

Alarms

Get notified in advance before the event is due so that you don't forget any important events. The alarm works with tasks too.

 

Recurrence

The events and tasks can be made to repeat automatically so you don't have to enter them multiple times. It's also possible to have exceptions in case the event doesn't happen on one particular day.

Sunbird

Sunbird is my pick for the most feature rich calendar. It's an open source project from Mozilla.org, which is also the place that made Firefox and Thunderbird. This calendar program will continue to be supported and improved as time goes on. It's already being recommended as an alternative to the scheduling built into MS Outlook email when you add the Sunbird Lightning extension to it's sister email program ThunderBird.

 

USB (stand-alone) version - http://portableapps.com/apps/office/sunbird_portable

Home of Sunbird - http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/

 

Quote from the website

Mozilla Sunbird™ is a cross-platform calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit. Our goal is to bring Mozilla-style ease-of-use to your calendar, without tying you to a particular storage solution.

 

How can I make a recurring event on, say, the first Monday every August?

Set the event to repeat every 12 months: In the new event dialog, set the start date to the first Monday of August of the first year, say 2000-08-07. Click the recurrence tab, check "Repeat every", set interval to 12, set unit to "Months", then click "First Monday of the month".

 

How can I publish my events on a remote server?

You can publish events from the calendar to an FTP server (Sunbird only) or a webDAV enabled web server. You can also use the calendar to subscribe to these events as well.

 

How can I serve my shared calendars?

To share your calendars, you need access to a webDAV server. If you run your own web server, you can install mod_dav, a free Apache module that will turn your web server into a webDAV server. Instructions on how to set it up are on their website. Once you set up your webDAV server, you can publish your calendar to the site, then subscribe to it from any other Calendar. Automatically updating the calendar will give you a poor man's calendar server.

 

Can Sunbird/Lightning remind me when closed? Can Sunbird start minimized?

No, Sunbird and Lightning can't give pop-up messages or send e-mails when they are not running. There is a 'trick' for this problem. You can hide Sunbird in the tray. This can be done with Suntray or Minimize to Tray for Windows and Kdocker for Linux.

UKs Kalendar

This calendar program is my pick for the lightest load on your system. It's perfect for older PCs, yet it's very feature rich. It will place an icon in your system tray when minimized. A few months ago, Darrel in Canada dropped by for awhile to chat here at FreewareWiki Chat. He told me lots of nice things about the area he lives in and he also mentioned a reminder program he likes.

 

Darrel: Have you ever reviewed UK's Kalendar?

Darrel: http://www.8ung.at/ukrebs/

Clif Notes: No, I've never tried that one. Do you like it?

Darrel: Yes, I think it is great for my simple mind

Clif Notes: It gives you audible or visible reminders?

Darrel: Both

Clif Notes: Nice

Darrel: Try using the non-installable version, ok?

Clif Notes: Yes, I see that there is a Greenware version, I like that.

Darrel: I like setting the different colours for the assorted alarms

 

Visit UK's Kalendar website

 

Quote from the website

Automatic saving

Any changes to the database are automatically and immediately saved to disk. On every program start, a backup copy of your data file is created.

Unlimited Undo and Redo

Most changes can be undone and also repeated.

Minimize to the system tray

"UK's Kalender" minimizes into the system tray (the area next to the system clock).

Network support

"UK's Kalender" supports a shared event file, where every user can enter events that'll show up in each other user's calendar. For using the network functions it is neither required to install special server software nor to keep the computer with the shared event file permanently running. "UK's Kalender" will synchronize the local event file as soon as the shared event file is accessible.

Repeating events

There are lots of possibilities for entering repeating events, e.g. hourly, every three days, monthly, every first tuesday of the month or even every friday the 13th.

Forewarn time and snooze function

Each event can be assigned a user defined forwarn time in the range from one minute to several weeks. In the reminder dialog you can enter a time after that you'll be reminded again. Alternatively you can choose to be reminded again a certain time before the event.

Multi day events

Events can have a duration from one minute to several days (or no duration at all, but just a start date).

Event categories and templates

Events can be organized into categories, e.g. "Doctor", "Meeting", "Party" and so on. Each category is assigned a template of settings, including repetition rate and forewarn time.

Acoustic reminders

You can choose to be reminded of an event with a WAV file of your choice.

Event driven program execution and document opening

Documents or programs can be attached to an event. This is very handy for e.g. regular backup purposes.

Marking and hiding events

Special events may be either color marked or hidden.

Four event views

Events can be displayed in week-, fortnight-, month- or year-view.

Tooltips for events and todos

If you stop the mouse over a calendar date or a todo, extended info is shown for the events and todos.

Alarms can be deativated

Alarms may be deactivated all at once, so your game, film etc. won't be interrupted.

Highly configurable display for events and todos

All views can easily be configured to present the information just the way you want.

Search and filter functions

You can search for and filter out your events using keywords, categories, event states or date ranges. The filter function directly affects all output functions, so you can easily create e. g. a calendar only containing birthdays.

Clipboard support

Events and todos can be copied to the clipboard and may be pasted back to any word processor or "UK's Kalender" itself.

Export to HTML- and CSV-format

Events and todos can be exported to HTML-format in different views. With this you can easily print your dates and todos. Export to CSV-format allows the transfer of your data to a spreadsheet program. All activated filter options are applied to the output.

Holidays

Holidays for one or more countries can be displayed right in the calendar. Various holiday modules are available. If your country is missing, you can simply define a holiday module yourself.

Kalendra

I tried this one briefly and it's got some really really great features. I had some trouble getting the pages to display how I wanted them to and I also didn't like the occasional pushes from the author to buy more features. I'd call this program liteware rather than freeware because of this.

 

http://www.kalendra.com/

 

Quote from the website

Cool Features:

* Free multimedia calendar and personal organizer

* Easily import your data from Outlook

* Easily create personal photo theme packs

* Easily create voice notes and diary voice entries

* Easily send photo albums to your friends and relatives

* Surprise your friends and family with photograms/videograms

* Easily switch between different photo theme packs

* Synchronize your data with Google Calendar

* Instant messaging for added convenience

* And much more...!

 

 

Tell me about your own favorite calendar programs below in the comments.