CPD23 Thing #8 - Google Calendar

I've been using Google Calendar for three years because I need access to my events while working on as many as five different computers. At the library I work in a Windows environment, but at home I have a Mac. So, my calendar has to be platform neutral. In addition, I want to be able to share my events with my wife at her workplace. Google Calendar allows me to easily manage these requirements.

I have imported/subscribed to several public calendars, such as US and Christian Holidays, and, of course, the schedule of my favorite college football team. I have imported/subscribed to my wife's work calendar, and iCal on my Mac. I also download or share my Google Calendar with my iPhone and iPad.

Of course, since Google Calendar is web-based, I can access it from any of the computers I use at work via the web browser.

One thing not covered in Thing 8's tutorial is setting up alarms. I find important events are much easier to remember if I get a timely reminder. The alarm is flexible to allow for the reminder to occur at a user-selected interval prior to the event. It could be 30 minutes for something that happens at work, to 24 hours for birthdays and anniversaries to that I have time to purchase a gift.

I know that some businesses with small staffs have utilized Google Calendar to schedule employees' work. I tried doing it for a branch library, but our needs were pretty complicated, and I couldn't get it to display in an easy to understand manner.

However, it's really nice to have a universally available, free, and easy to use calendar to keep my schedule.

Thing # 18 - Web-based Productivity Programs

I'm writing this post via Google Docs on my son's computer in Virginia. I became aware of web-based applications via Google Calendar and the browser bar at the top of the screen. Since I regularly use three different computers in the course of my day, and I work on both windows and mac platforms, I need both transportability and platform transparency. The suite of applications that Google now offers meets my need for both.

My use of web-based tools began with Google Calendar (discussed earlier in this blog) and increased when my son-in-law posted Christmas shopping lists on Google Docs. Finally, I broke down and signed-up for a Gmail account because its spam blocker was better than the free one used by my ISP. I suppose my next investigation should be of Google Scholar for journal articles and other documents posted on the web.

Anyway, I find the word processor in Google Docs easy to use, resembling the familiar MS Word interface. I like its spell checker, and now to find out how well it posts to my blog . . .

As a full-feature word processor Google Docs isn't robust enough, but for everyday use it's just fine. I guess if I were creating a document that needed robust features I wouldn't house it online anyway.