Save the date: Google Calendar pros and cons

Google Calendar was released many weeks ago, and now that we’ve had the opportunity to use it on a daily basis, we are ready to make note of some of our early observations.

This article will cover some “Pros” and “Cons” of using Google Calendar, noticed by Pain in the Tech writers.

This article will not be a complete “how to,” or “feature overview” of GCal. Many articles have been springing up on the web, already detailing these topics. If you’re looking for a “starter,” try StopDesign, and then come back here and read more.

Here at Pain in the Tech, we’re gonna stick to the “nitty gritty,”–what we liked and disliked. By no means are these our “final feelings” about GCal - heck, we’re just starting to use it.

Pros

Keyboard shortcut “C”

The keyboard shortcut “C” is used to Create an event in GCal, and Compose a new message in Gmail. This is very intuitive, as it doesn’t force users to remember yet another keyboard shortcut for a Google application. I like how “C” is used in both situations.

Similar to iCal

If you’re already used to Apple’s iCal software, you’ll be right at home with GCal.

• You can create separate calendars that act as “categories” for each area of your life. You can also import “shared” calendars that have already been created by someone else, and they immediately get applied to your calendar, with the option to “hide” or “show.”

• Events in both GCal and iCal appear similar. The “rounded corner,” color-filled box is used in both applications for “specific timed events”:

Also, “full day events” appear in a similar box at the top of each day, much like iCal:

“Drag and Drop”

“Drag and drop”-ing of events works as expected. Schedule something for the wrong day? Just drag it to the right day. Works like a charm.

Intuitive scheduling

When quickly creating an event, you can immediately schedule it for a specific time, by simply including the time in the event name:

This will automatically add this event to your schedule at that time, saving a step.

GCal could even take this feature a step further, and if the word “birthday” appears in the event name, GCal should automatically repeat it every year. 30Boxes does this, and it’s a very nice feature:

However, it’s not a huge deal. In GCal, you just have to remember to make sure birthday’s repeat every year:

Cons

Here are some things we believe could be better.

No “Go To Date”

There is no “Go To Date.” This is crucial if you need to schedule something three years in advance. Hey - it happens. For example, I wanted to pinpoint when one of my domain names was going to expire, and that wasn’t going to happen for three years. So, I had to manually cycle through each month in the “quick calendar:”

This was tedious, at best.

One alternative is to Create the event, and then manually type in the date, in the box:

This is better, because it still shows the month “quick calendar,” so you can see other surrounding dates in that month.

However, since this is not as “obvious” as some might expect, a simple “Go To Date” link on the main calendar page would be nice.

Outlook users have to adjust

Outlook users will find themselves right-clicking to create new appointments or events - but they must re-train themselves to use left-click. Why not include a custom right-click menu? This doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult.

The “Reminder” bug

There seems to be a bug with adding Reminders to events.

For example, if you create an event from scratch (by choosing Create Event), you should always see the Reminder option available:

However, sometimes the Reminder option disappears, depending on which calendar you use to schedule the event.

GCal comes with a “Default” calendar, when you first use the application. If you try to schedule an event on a calendar other than the Default one, you will not be presented with the Reminder option. Strange, but true.

Try it yourself.

Here’s an example of my calendar. I’ve renamed my “Default” calendar to “General.” I also have new calendars I’ve created, called “Billing,” “Music,” “Sports,” “Work,” etc.

If I try to schedule an event directly onto any calendar, other than “General,” I am not presented with the Reminder option.

For example, try scheduling an event through your “Calendar panel,” on the left side of the screen:

If you choose a calendar that is not the default, you won’t get the Reminder option:

The only way to have the Reminder option show, no matter what, is to use the Create Event link (or just hit “C”).

This way, you can choose your calendar from within the Create Event window, and you’ll still have access to the Reminder option:

However, we’re still not safe. Once you set a reminder for any calendar besides the “default,” you can’t go back in and change that reminder.

Once again, the Reminder option disappears, even if we previously set a reminder for this event:

This seems to be a rather large bug, and I’m surprised it’s not fixed. It’s aggravating, to say the least.

Overall

Overall, we’re quite pleased with the release of Google Calendar. Staying “on top” of our daily lives has never been easier. We’re looking forward to enhancements to GCal.