How to Integrate Calendar in Thunderbird and Sync with Google Calendar

Thunderbird is undoubtedly the best email client around, but the only thing missing out of it is a simple calendar. As a fulltime blogger, Calendar means productivity for me. I was really disappointed when Thunderbird 2 was released without the calendar functionality. I won’t blame Mozilla for that, they’ve already built a calendar app called Sunbird, but having a separate app for calendar isn’t a great deal for me, I wanted a calendar inside Thunderbird.

Then I was introduced to Lightning, a shiny little Thunderbird extension which integrates a nifty calendar inside Thunderbird. Lightning fills the gap separating Outlook from Thunderbird. I’ve used both, but I feel much more comfortable and productive with Lighting than with Outlook. One of the greatest features of Lightning is multiple calendars. You can create different calendars for different kinds of needs. For instance, you can create a calendar to post all your work related dates and a separate calendar to maintain your family related dates. Cool isn’t it?

Even better, you can sync your local Lightning Calendar with Google Calendar with a handsome extension called Provider for Google Calendar and access your calendar from any computer with a net connection. Once you’ve installed the extension, log into your Google Calendar and copy the XML link location of your Private Address (Settings > Calendar > Your Calendar > Private Address and copy the location of the XML logo).

Now go to your Calendar tab in Lightning and add new Calendar. You’ll notice a new window asking you to locate your calendar. Click on ‘My Network’ and proceed. Now choose the format as Google Calendar and paste the private address in the location field. For those who couldn’t figure out the trick, I’ve created a screencast, check it out:

Try adding something to your calendar and check if the same appears on Google Calendar. Lightning would have been even better, if we could somehow sync the calendar with an iPod or Phone. (Update: Device Syncing is on their roadmap for new features, which means you could sync your calendar with iPod, phone, PocketPC or Palm in the near future)

Thanks for the tip, Jeethu

If you like this article, please Stumble it