Helvetical Turns Google Calendar Into A Thing Of Beauty

It's not all that great if you like your tasks, other times and have a bunch of other calendars. Actually it makes it look "hacky" unless you have bare minimum stuff on your calendar in the first place.

My official review - Meh.

@JoeLikesRamen!: Helvetica = man's best friend... in... typography.

I love me some Helvetica.

This is pretty dang snazzy.

One tiny flaw I found is that imported/shared calendars appear the same whether they're disabled. For example, I import Facebook events. I can click on the calendar name to disable them in the calendar view, however, the label on the side appears the same whether it is activated or not. The only way to know for certain if it's enabled is if an event exists. Not a major problem, though.

Also, it seems the links for "Search my Calendars" and "Show Search Options" are only visible on mouseover.

Again, tiny problems in an otherwise fantastic tweak. Good job!

Hm. Where should I put these local files? [github.com]

kjepp

wouldn't be an issue if they'd user greasespot.net to host their user script like everyone else.

The site is still available via [tr.im]

kjepp

site is down, is there a mirror?

unruled

Too bad their database crashed and I can't access their site.

Richard E. Martin

I want to go to there.

wait for it.... and she's down.

Hesadanza

Looks great with Chrome, but the weekly dates above the calendar are just too huge. Takes up valuable screen space that should otherwise be devoted to seeing the actual calendar.

sharp as a tack...
but better in black.

Sweet, looks awesome! I think I like it better than Helvetireader, but it does need a few tweaks here and there.

★ graffiksguru

@JRod37: Yeah I totally agree. At first I was impressed when I saw the screenshot, but with a semi full calendar, it looks horrid.

unruled

@jetRink: Mac Firefox

kjepp

I wonder how this would affect computers that don't have Helvetica....

(Some PCs have it, coming from some custom CS installs, and all Macintoshes have it.)

(Starman) AnalysisDialysis

@kjepp: Which browser?

Wow this is great. Direct Link to the user script [userstyles.org]

I think it's worth mentioning that there's also a Helvetimail [helvetimail.airkrft.com]

Thanks for this, it's awesome!

Laith Juwaidah

I installed it on FF3.5 and while it works fine, it actually decreases the size of the calendar. It's pretty stylish, but I'd far rather have more real estate devoted to the actual boxes. Uninstalled.

Hmm, looks terrible in my Linux Swiftfox 3.5.2. The headings are printed twice, slightly offset. I don't see anyone else here or at the Helvetical site reporting this.

It really does look nice. Makes you really see just how something like Google Calendar could be made to be som much more aesthetically pleasing.

BUT, one thing it does not seem to do is display different calendars in different colors--a very nice Google Calendar feature that makes identifying entries very easy.

@anecdotal: Yeah already done that via the editor in Firefox but was wondering if anyone had an elegant solution that would allow you to use the script regardless of whether you're using HTTP or HTTPS?

mayflyripper

The link is currently down. Also is there a Helvetica theme for GMail because that would be amazing

dekushrub

@mayflyripper: add the https url to the script (via greasemonkey) - something I had to do. works fine.

anecdotal

Installed the script for Stylish from userstyles.org and noticed in the script that it specifically looks for "http://www.google.com/calendar" which may not be a problem unless you've enabled the HTTPS option in Gmail.

mayflyripper

Works great in Opera on Fedora 11.

goodrat

Meh. I'll stick with Google Redesigned, thanks.

[addons.mozilla.org]

bodar

Hmmm, it just made my Google Calendar look like a database error.

Yeah, I went there, don't judge me.

jimforcy

Also works in Safari with GreaseKit.

I'm using it with the Fluid SSB.

/dev/nall

I like the simplicity of it, but there is way too much screen real estate dedicated to nothing at the top.

I'll stick with Google Redesigned for now. It used to be buggy but it is becoming a nicely polished product.

gpzbc

and this is the reason I use iCal.

looks great. although the search buttons or the top only shows when i mouse over it.

JadeEmperor

Someone needs to ping Gina and have her add these themes to Better GCal and Better GReader. It would make them even better add-ons.

Thanks

I think I still prefer Google Redesigned for the calendar especially since it still looks good with Gmail, et al.

drdiesel

The script doesn't work in Opera 10.00, at least not on my antiquated work machine. What I'd love to see is a Gmail template in this style.

@Joe Alien: Everything on the site is working now.

Also, anyone with some CSS skills no how to brighten the yellow shade used to emphasize the current date? Its a little too light for me personally. Help is much appreciated.

Author's web site is having some problems.

Joe Alien

Wow, I installed that the moment I saw it. Very nice!

@PlatoFunFactory: I had the same issue with it. That and it had one other major flaw. All calendars entries were in black text. A big no for me. I need to differentiate which calendar each entry is for. Oh well.

mnerd

It's absolutely gorgeous, but you lose the color-coding for non-all day events, which is sad. I don't know if that's a deal-breaker for me yet.

Still, I hope Google works with this guy to pretty up the UI for the rest of their apps.

It 1) takes too much space at the top of the page 2) Hilites today in a much dimmer yellow color, and 3) Doesn't color code other calendars I'm referencing.

Tom Best

@OCEntertainment: Side note: The search buttons act the same way in Helvetireader.
I think it godd like this, because you don't need the buttons until you search for something.

Philippe Mongeau

@GaryJ73167: Forget it. I figured it out :)

GaryJ73167

I feel really stupid, but, I just installed this, decided I don't like it, Now I can't figure out how to uninstall. I went to add-ons, themes, extensions,..etc..etc Cant find it anywhere. Can someone help please? :)

GaryJ73167

is there any way to shorten my RTM gadget on the right side?

twins8791

This is fantastic. Gorgeous and Black / Gray / White / Red is a classic color combo.

I installed this at work and it was working great - I came home and tried it on a win7 machine (with all possible versions of Helvetica installed) and the font is looking pretty aliased and crappy. Ideas?

Wow, that looks great. It's very reminiscent of the Zune software look.

Antonio García III

@CanyonR: Fully agree!!

amuelder

Now, wouldn't it be nice if someone would convert this into a normal add-on? Same for the Helvetireader! Plsssss! ;-)

[www.ghacks.net]

amuelder

@Tyrun101: I am having the same problem, but the rest of the interface is so much better than the default that I'm happy to live with an aliased date!

@amuelder: I just compiled it into a normal Firefox addon using an online compiler. I uploaded it to mediafire here:

[download753.mediafire.com]

Will work with Firefox 2.0 - 3.*. Please, it'd be great if Lifehacker or a reader could help mirror this :)

Compiler used: [www.speakeasy.org]

itsjareds