If you are using Microsoft calendar that comes with Windows 7, or have downloaded and installed Windows Live Calendar (and mail), did you know you can import other iCal standard calendars into your Live calendar or you can put your Live Calendar into your Gmail Calendar?
Sometimes, it’s nice to have your Live and Google calendars (and mail), in the same place. This article will focus on calendars.
If you have Windows 7, you will have the already installed mail application which has the calendar in it. You can use this desktop application if you’re off-line, which is nice. I’ve noticed, though, that the on-line ‘Live’ mail and calendar have more robust and useful features. To view your Gcal in Live Calendar, you must use the web interface, which we’ll call Live Calendar.
For calendaring, the web version of Live Calendar gives you the option to import an associate or friends live calendar. If you use Gmail, you can also import both your gmail account as well as your calendar into the web Live Mail. Here are the steps on importing a Live Calendar into your Google calendar and how to import your Google calendar into your Live Calendar.
I wish it were an easier process, but there are quite a few steps to follow, just print them out or use a dual monitor to follow them closely.The author doesn’t say, but I would think that once the steps are followed and you’ve imported your calendar into Windows Live calendar, it will update automatically.
If you bring your google calendar into your Live calendar, it’s a 1-way sync. So you’ll have to add appointments from your google calendar and they will eventually show up on the Live Calendar. I don’t know how often it refreshes, but you can click on the Goog Calendar and it’ll take you to a page where you can see when it was last refreshed. I didn’t see how to change the refresh schedule though.
Below is a look into the windows live calendar screenshot with instructions on how to share complete calendar details or just your free/busy times. There is a link for importing an ICS file and RSS feeds.
It’s important to note the differences between subscribing and importing calendars. Here is a great explanation from Microsoft on how it works.
If you import a calendar, you’ve imported data that will not change or update. This is fine if you want to import a German holiday calendar. They don’t change or get updated throughout the year.
If you subscribe to an on-line published calendar, then your calendar will automatically update when the main on-line calendar changes.
Managing calendars is always a challenge – I hope this will help keep you organized.
Here are screenshots of the differences between the Windows Live (web) calendar and the Windows Calendar (desktop client). As I mentioned earlier, the Live Calendar on the web is where you can either subscribe or import calendars.
- shot of Windows Live (web) calendar – more features