Introducing Google Calendar Sync
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you've probably heard of Google Calendar. Maybe you've even started using it, and enjoy the ability to view your calendars from anywhere with web access. But, perhaps you've found yourself wishing for things like faster event entry using default settings, enhanced reminder options, an expanded number of calendar colors to pick from, and better offline operation.
Enter VueMinder Pro 6.0. With this latest version, you can have the best of both worlds: an extremely powerful calendar program for your Windows desktop, and web access to your calendar data while away from your desktop. Even better, configuring VueMinder Pro to sync with Google Calendar doesn't require a Computer Science degree or a geeky nephew. In fact, it couldn't be easier!
Adding Google Calendars to VueMinder
If you already have Google Calendars that you'd like to add to VueMinder, you can add them by going to the File menu and selecting the "Add Google Calendar" command.
A login window may appear asking for your Google Calendar login information. Enter the same user name and password you use when logging into Google Calendar via the web, and then click OK.
After VueMinder connects to Google, a window will list all your Google Calendars. It will look similar to below, except the calendar names will be different. Calendars listed under "My Google Calendars" are ones that you are an owner or contributor, and any other calendars (such as subscribed or public calendars) will be listed under "Other Google Calendars".
To select a calendar, click its name. The information on the right side of the window, such as the calendar color and any current sync settings, will update. To add the calendar to VueMinder, click the "Add Calendar" button. You can also adjust the sync settings, such as frequency of updates, whether old events should be included, the sync direction, and calendar color. The first time a calendar is added, it may take a few seconds for all its events to appear. Subsequent syncs will be much faster.
Adding VueMinder Calendars to Google Calendar
If you have defined calendars locally in VueMinder Pro that you'd like to add to Google Calendar, open the Calendar Properties window and then go to the "Google Calendar" tab. Note, if you don't see a "Google Calendar" tab, it's either because the calendar is published/subscribed (which is incompatible with Google Calendar syncing) or you're using the Lite version (which doesn't provide this capability).
Click the "Synchronize with Google Calendar" checkbox to add your local calendar to Google Calendar. The calendar will be synced and you'll see your events in Google Calendar within a few seconds. Note, you may need to refresh the Google Calendar web page, if it was already open prior to the sync. You can also monitor the status bar to see when the sync occurs, since it's processed in the background.
New Possibilities...
There are numerous ways you could use VueMinder's ability to sync with Google Calendar. The list below provides just a few of the many new possibilities. These are things that you can easily do with VueMinder Pro, and that are difficult or impossible to do with other calendar programs...
- You could define a bunch of events in Excel and then import them into VueMinder. Your imported events will then be automatically synced to Google Calendar. Think how long it could take you to define all the events by hand, and then how much more efficient you could be using this feature alone!
- You could keep Google Calendar and Outlook in sync, without the 10-minute sync frequency limitation of the Google Calendar Sync tool. The same calendar can be synced through VueMinder with both Outlook and Google Calendar, and it will automatically sync whenever a change is detected. This could be several times a minute, so you'd always be seeing the latest data.
- You could view AND modify your Google Calendar events while offline. They'll automatically sync as soon as a network connection is detected. Cloud computing is great and all that, but in the real world, we're not always online 100% of the time and work must continue.
These are just a few of the new possibilities made possible by the addition of Google Calendar sync to VueMinder. If you think of others, please post a comment!
If you'd like to give VueMinder a try, you can download it here.