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Manage iCal or Google Calendars with Sunbird/Lightning
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:00 AM on October 27, 2007
All platforms: Add tasks, set appointments and keep on top of your schedule with Mozilla Sunbird and Lightning, the free calendar managers that function as a stand-alone client or extension to the Thunderbird e-mail program. Version 0.7 of Sunbird/Lightning touts a redesign of the user interface and task-adding dialog, along with user-requested functions like adding tasks in different timezones, more customizable recurring events and an improved "Today" glance panel. Sunbird and Lightning store information in a SQLite format, but can also work with iCal data or Google Calendar through an extension. Both are free downloads and work on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Tags: calendar | calendars | downloads | featured | featured download | google calendar | ical | mozilla | task manager | thunderbird | thunderbird extensions
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
fishlips20
Posted 12:12 PM 26/10/07
I actually just did this yesterday - and it's working great.
I've got 2 calendars set up in gcal - a personal one and a work one. The work one sync's with outlook using gsyncit.
After downloading that extension for thunderbird/lightning, i can pull in both calendars from gcal and also my remember the milk calendar. Finally! I can see the due dates and TIMES for my RTM in one place. I no longer have to struggle with those little check marks on gcal.
fishlips20
cjc
Posted 11:53 AM 26/10/07
Lightning 0.7's new "Today Pane" sucks: it's a window-height pane that sits on the right side of the window. The 0.5 version of this pane sat below the mail folders pane, which was perfect.
I run TBird in a vertical layout, to maximize the number of messages I see, as well as to reduce the amount of wasted white space on the right side of the message bodies when I'm reading mail. All the columns have been painstakingly sized for my screen resolution. The new Today Pane basically blows that out of the water, for no good reason.
Grumble, grumble.
Besides that, good job.
cjc
crookedgrin
Posted 1:17 PM 26/10/07
Does anyone know of a way to receive Outlook calendar items in Thunderbird (on Mac OS X) and automatically have them show up in iCal? I have lightning running, so I can accept appointments, but it's a separate calendar, and I like the iCal interface. The article references an iCal Lightning extension, but the link is only for gCal integration.
crookedgrin
4amNow
Posted 12:46 PM 26/10/07
CJC: I agree with you. I would much prefer the "Today's Events" to be on the left side of the panel. I was actually using Lightning on Thunderbird, which had a better layout, until recently switching to Windows Live Mail + Sunbird.
4amNow
ChristDude
Posted 2:22 PM 26/10/07
I'm really confused. Just got the add-on, installed it on Thunderbird w/ Lightning, yet I just used Launchy with the GCal plugin to add a new event, yet I don't see it in TBird. Doesn't it sync with the gcal site? Help here.
ChristDude
monster79
Posted 1:45 PM 26/10/07
I agree with CJC, the new Today pane is bollocks. I like the concept, but I also use the vertical Outlook-style orientation, and now I have four columns instead of three. Now there is a bunch of dead space on the leftmost folders column. Maybe by TB 3.0 / Lightning 1.0 they'll let us move these panes around.
monster79
pschroeter
Posted 3:47 PM 26/10/07
I hope someone soon writes a Thunderbird extension which puts the Today Pane back under the Folder Pane where it belongs. Its taking up too much room.
pschroeter
ignorant
Posted 2:25 PM 26/10/07
As long as the "Provider for Google Calendar" extension doesn't provide offline support I think I'll stay with GCALDaemon for syncing Sunbird and Google Calendar (and Rainlendar to boost).
ignorant
ignorant
Posted 2:18 PM 26/10/07
As long as this "Provider for Google Calendar" extension hasn't got offline support I think I'll stick with GCALDaemon for syncing Sunbird and GCalendar (and Rainlendar to boost).
ignorant
mechugena
Posted 6:14 PM 26/10/07
Seconding the vote for GCALDaemon. I've had too many problems with the Google Provider, namely multi-day scheduling.
mechugena
AlyM
Posted 4:13 PM 29/10/07
Has anyone tried GCALDaemon with the portable version of Thunderbird? if so any hiccups?
AlyM