![Mozilla calendar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Mozilla_calendar.PNG)
A digital calendar is a
collaborative
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
or personal
time management
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves of various demands upon a person relating to Employme ...
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
with a
calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
that can be used to keep track of planned events. The calendar can also contain an
appointment book
In stationery, a diary (UK and Commonwealth English), datebook, daybook, appointment book, planner or agenda (American English) is a small book containing a main diary section with a space for each day of the year with room for notes, a calendar, ...
,
address book or
contact list. Common features of digital calendars are that users can:
* Enter their own events
* Change the visibility (whether events, groups of events or entire calendars are private, shared with selected users/user groups, or are public)
* Subscribe to other calendars
* Set up meetings that can be shared or where others can be invited
* Different options for setting up reminders
There are several varieties of digital calendars. Some have the ability to be connected or synchronized with other calendars across different vendors. The
iCalendar
The Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) is a media type which allows users to store and exchange calendaring and scheduling information such as events, to-dos, journal entries, and free/busy information, an ...
1.0 and 2.0 specifications and its associated standards have been a cornerstone of the standardization and interoperability of calendar software across different vendors. A digital calendar can be viewed as an extension of many of the features provided by
time management
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves of various demands upon a person relating to Employme ...
software such as
desk accessory A desk accessory (DA) in computing is a small transient or auxiliary application that can be run concurrently in a desktop environment with any other application on the system. Early examples, such as Sidekick and Macintosh desk accessories, used s ...
packages and computer
office automation systems.
History
Today, digital calendars are common on many
office suites for personal computers (desktop and laptop) as well as
smartphones
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which ...
and tablets.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, digital calendars was a standard feature of many
personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in partic ...
s (PDAs) and
enterprise digital assistant
A portable data terminal, or shortly PDT, is an electronic device that is used to enter or retrieve data via wireless transmission (WLAN or WWAN). They have also been called enterprise digital assistants (EDA), data capture mobile devices, batch ...
s (EDAs). Since the early 2000s, PDAs and EDAs have been replaced by smartphones and tablets with similar functionality.
Features
Calendar software can include several features. Some examples are:
Appointment calendar
An appointment calendar is a list of appointments and the attendees for the appointments. This software may include the capability of detecting scheduling conflicts, notifying the participants of the
conflict, and suggesting alternate meeting times.
Some appointment software has the ability to automatically suggest shortened events by default or in cases when there are back-to-back meetings in a calendar. For example, instead of a 30 minute meeting at 13:00, a calendar software may suggest that an event is shortened to 25 minutes and either ''starts late'' (for example 5 minutes late at 13:05) or ''ends early'' (for example 13:25). Some software may have the options of combining both start late and end early. Benefits of this includes minimising the risk of needing to wait for participants who otherwise might be late for the meeting startup due to being hung up in wrapping up a previous meeting, as well as alleviating further propagation of this issue to the meetings following after. Such time buffers between meetings also gives attendees a short break between meetings.
Period views
Different period views is a feature which allow users to select how their calendar is displayed: one day, a work week, one week, one month, one year, etc.
Exporting calendar
Many digital calendars have the option of exporting the calendar to various file formats, including the
iCalendar
The Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) is a media type which allows users to store and exchange calendaring and scheduling information such as events, to-dos, journal entries, and free/busy information, an ...
standard. In this way, the user can, for example, take the calendar with them from one computer to another, or from an old e-mail account to a new one. It also makes it possible to share a calendar with others at a given point in time.
Calendar publishing
Some calendar tools allow the user to publish select calendar information on a public link. It may also be possible for other users to subscribe. This can be useful, for example, for a sports team with announcing matches.
Timeblocking
Timeblocking Timeblocking or ''time blocking'' (also known as ''time chunking'') is a productivity technique for personal time management where a period of time—typically a day or week—is divided into smaller segments or blocks for specific tasks or to-dos. ...
is a technique where users can organize their days into segments where they set aside specified periods of time for various tasks. With digital calendars, it is possible to do this interactively and with the option of sharing your availability and reserved time with others.
Availability and capacity checking
Availability and capacity checking is an advanced function which can check the availability of all other employee and resource calendars in a group, and which may be useful assigning work decide on projects as part of
resource planning.
Availability sharing
Availability sharing enables users to share when they are available. It is often possible to choose how much detail should be visible to others (for example, whether one is only "busy", the title of the event, or title and details). This can facilitate meeting scheduling amongst several individuals.
Collaborative scheduling
Collaborative scheduling means that the software suggests meeting times when all participants are free. In some cases, it is also possible for the invitees to suggest times that suit them best, so that the organizer can choose a meeting time that works well for all the participants.
In order for the software to be able to propose meeting times for participants across different organisations, the invitees' calendars must be set up to share outside their organisation when they are free.
Group calendar
A group calendar is a calendar which displays events for groups in addition to individual calendars. These can often be switched on and off, and can be used as a tool to coordinate time available for meetings.
Several calendars
A user can have multiple calendars that can be toggled on and off. This function makes it possible to categorize different events into separate calendars (such as work calendar, sports calendar, children school calendar).
Reminders
Calendars themselves can basically be seen as a passive reminder that the user has to check themselves, and can be seen as a form of reminder software. It is often also possible to set up ''active'' reminders. Various reminder techniques can be used, such as
pop-up notification
The pop-up notification (or toast, passive pop-up, snackbar, desktop notification, notification bubble, or simply notification) is a graphical control element that communicates certain events to the user without forcing them to react to this noti ...
s,
dialog boxes
The dialog box (also called dialogue box (non-U.S. English), message box or simply dialog) is a graphical control element in the form of a small window that communicates information to the user and prompts them for a response.
Dialog boxes are ...
or auditory
alarms 15 minutes or 1 hour before an event.
Events for which reminders are wanted may include
birthdays,
holiday
A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
s,
anniversaries, or various one-off events. Calendars are often supplied with a number of pre-installed events (such as
national holidays) and allow the user to create their own events.
Context-aware
Context awareness refers, in information and communication technologies, to a capability to take into account the ''situation'' of ''entities'', which may be users or devices, but are not limited to those. ''Location'' is only the most obvious el ...
reminder systems can set reminders based on the user's current location.
International and regional settings
![Week numbering systems](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Week_numbering_systems.gif)
Calendars can be set up with international or regional settings. Which settings become active may depend on settings in the computer/smartphone, settings in the browser, settings in the user profile on the calendar application, settings in the profile of the user principal name, or (typically on a work accounts) that certain settings are controlled by the organisation. These settings can in many cases be overridden manually. Sometimes the settings are tied to the language selected.
Some examples of international or regional settings might be:
* Selecting a date format, such as the international
ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) or other formats such as the American (MM/DD/YYYY) or European (DD.MM.YYYY)
* Selecting a week count method and week format, such as the international
ISO weeks (Monday is the first day of the week, week 1 starts in the first four-day week of the year). In addition to the international standard, at least five other systems are in use.
One example is the American format (Sunday is the first day of the week, week 1 starts on the first day of the year). It is also possible to start the counting on the first ''full'' week of the year (
DOT calendar and the U.S.
broadcast calendar
The broadcast calendar is a standardized calendar used primarily for the planning and purchase of radio and television programs and advertising. Every week in the broadcast calendar starts on a Monday and ends on a Sunday, and every month has ei ...
), or traditional western counting (before ISO), or a separate variant for the Middle East.
* Selecting a clock format, such as the
24-hour clock
The modern 24-hour clock, popularly referred to in the United States as military time, is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) pas ...
(00:00–23:59, most common internationally) or the 12-hour clock (12:00 a.m.–11:59 p.m., most common in the US and parts of Africa).
* Select a time zone, such as
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about one second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently used ...
(UTC), or one of the other time zones such as for example the
Central European Time
Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00.
It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries.
CET i ...
(CET) used in most of Europe.
* Additionally, users may have to select units for other functionalities, such as a
temperature scale and
wind speed for
weather forecasts
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th centu ...
, and a distance measurement for walking (and driving) distances. With
metric units the corresponding units will be
Celsius
The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...
,
meters per second (or
kilometers per hour
The kilometre per hour ( SI symbol: km/h; non-standard abbreviations: kph, km/hr) is a unit of speed, expressing the number of kilometres travelled in one hour.
History
Although the metre was formally defined in 1799, the term "kilometres per h ...
), and
meters
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
/
kilometers. In the U.S., respectively, the units would be
Fahrenheit,
miles per hour, and
statute miles
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...
/
yards/
feet
The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
.
Locally or in the cloud
It is a common functionality to have a calendar on computers and smartphones, often via locally installed email programs or webmail that can be accessed with a standard browser.
Some examples of locally installed applications for individual use are the
Lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
extension for
Mozilla Thunderbird,
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily an email client, Outlook also includes such functions as Calen ...
without Exchange Server, or
Windows Calendar
Calendar is a personal calendar application made by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows. It offers synchronization of calendars using Microsoft Exchange Server, Outlook.com Apple's iCloud calendar service, and Google Calendar. It supports the popul ...
.
Examples of calendars which allow the sharing of information between users are, for example,
Mozilla Sunbird
Mozilla Sunbird is a discontinued free and open-source, cross-platform calendar application that was developed by the Mozilla Foundation, Sun Microsystems and many volunteers. ,
Windows Live Calendar,
Google Calendar, or
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily an email client, Outlook also includes such functions as Calen ...
with Exchange Server.
Web-based interface
Web-based
A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection.
History
In earlier computing models like client-serve ...
interfaces allow users to access their calendars from any computer, tablet or mobile phone with a
web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...
. This can be implemented for most calendars which can be accessed over the internet.
Online calendar
An online calendar is a
web application
A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection.
History
In earlier computing models like client-serve ...
that allow one or more users to edit, and optionally share with other users,
online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...
access to a digital
calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
.
Features may include:
*
Drag and drop functions for creating events
* Support for recurring daily, weekly, monthly and yearly events
* Viewing by day, week or month
* Multiple calendar support
* Multiple language support
* Ability to work with different browsers, such as
Firefox,
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...
,
Safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
and
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...
* Email notification
* Mobile version
Online calendars that are free to use include
Google Calendar,
Yahoo Calendar
Yahoo Calendar is a Web-based calendar service from Yahoo!. It can read calendar feeds and events syndicated from sites that make use of the published Yahoo calendar programming interfaces. While users are not required to have a Yahoo Mail account ...
,
Windows Calendar
Calendar is a personal calendar application made by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows. It offers synchronization of calendars using Microsoft Exchange Server, Outlook.com Apple's iCloud calendar service, and Google Calendar. It supports the popul ...
and Dayhaps Calendar.
Online calendars that provide an email reminder service: Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, DayView
and Calendar.onli
See also
*
Cortana (virtual assistant), Cortana Reminders
*
Notification system
*
Personal information manager
*
Personal organizer
*
Project management software
*
Reminder software Reminder software is a type of time management computer software that is designed to alert the user of important events that they have input to the program. Most programs provide a calendar or list view of events, as well as a reminding technique. ...
and
notification system
*
Reminders (Apple)
Reminders is a task management program developed by Apple Inc. for their iOS, macOS and watchOS platforms that allows users to create lists and set notifications for themselves. The app was first introduced in iOS 5 and OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion ...
*
Task management software
Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledg ...
*
Time-tracking software
Time-tracking software is a category of computer software that allows its employees to record time spent on tasks or projects. The software is used in many industries, including those who employ freelancers and hourly workers. It is also used by p ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calendaring Software
Data synchronization
Groupware
Administrative software