14 DAY TRIAL // Ever got late to an event or to a date? I have. I once was so late for a date (a couple of hours off) that I checked my watch to see if it matched the time zone. And contrary to my expectations, she was there, waiting for me. I smiled at her and a swift slap in the face made me realize that the sweet love an evening before turned bitter, ergo love ages differently than wine. No need to say that she never spoke to me for about half a year, and when she finally did it was just to announce me that love prevailed and she had met Mr. Right (not me).
For those that have gone through similar experiences (or worse) just because being late is in your nature or because computers and other things (watching a game or playing one) tend to become so interestingly "attractive" that by the time you realize the time the important event you had to attend is in the distant past, I have something to give you the wake up call.
Mozilla Organization has developed a series of applications worthy of our appreciation (Firefox and Thunderbird are doming the list). They qualify as highly functional pieces of code (for some of us indispensable) and extremely flexible (a huge community is creating extensions and add ons to fit Mozilla software like a glove).
Mozilla Sunbird is a cross platform calendar application, licensed under a MPL/GPL/LGPL triple license (Mozilla Public License, GNU general Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License). This means that it is a freeware that can be used on multiple platforms without the slightest restriction of use.
The interface is not much and there are no skins or themes available to change its looks, but its flexibility is not in the software per se, but in the multitude of extensions and add-ons supported. Well, not so many as most of them are not compatible with version 0.5 of Sunbird.
Being a calendar, Sunbird greatest area of the interface is covered by days/weeks/months, events and tasks. The different views available let you choose between the elements to be displayed. If you want a pervasive hawk-eye view you can press Ctrl+3 for a multi-week view. The great thing is that all the elements composing the interface are dilating once you maximize the window. This way a clearer look at the tasks and events of the day can be obtained.
Similar results can be obtained if you switch to day view. Just like in desk agenda, the page will be broken in boxes of one hour each. Depending on the length of the event or task programmed for a certain time these will be marked in a visible way so that you cannot miss it.
The fields to be filled in when adding a new task are no different from those when adding a new event. In fact the only deviation is in the attribute of the reminder (either task or event). Other than this everything is the same. You have to name it, provide a location, set a start and end point in time, you can make it repetitive or with an all day duration, choose the category to append it to (the categories are customizable, but Sunbird did a pretty good job with including the most used ones).
Describing the event or task will prove to be a bit more than useful if you are forgetful so I suggest typing in a few details, just in case. Also, if the event is a meeting of some sort and you know some of the attendees, name them in the appropriate field so that you know exactly who you are going to hang with.
The three levels of privacy, setting the priority and setting the status of the activity are just the details you want to be reminded of when the alarm rings. The latter can be set to go off a user-defined time before or after the event (it may be something you do not want to attend and all you need is to be alerted when it is over).
Sunbird supports multiple calendars that can have totally different events included. So if you are a married businessman with a mistress, the application may be very convenient for scheduling your business meetings, noting down when the wife comes home and when the mistress' birthday is.
The Good
Flipping the pages of the calendar and getting to a certain day is piece of cake. The application is simple and has almost everything it needs. It is practical and provides a quick way to schedule your time.
The intuitive environment supplies the user with multiple views of the calendar. Also, you can keep multiple calendars, all with a definite purpose.
The Bad
I wish there was a search option somewhere. And an archive of the past events. And an option to auto delete past events after a certain period of time elapses.
Unfortunately for those that do not think of the software that it is intuitive enough, there is no help file available yet.
The Truth
There are no elaborate features available and the developer kept it as simple as possible. And a good job they did as the user will not lose time wondering what they mean with this or that option.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
