Microsoft’s email and PIM software, Outlook, is without a doubt the most popular software of it’s kind. Thousands of companies and individuals swear by it and use it day in and day out to streamline their otherwise chaotic online (and offline) lives.
Even in this day and age when cloud based solutions rule supreme, Outlook has, so far, managed to stay ahead of the rat race. And for good reason too. Microsoft Outlook along with Microsoft Exchange server provides a level of integration that the others can only dream of. And unlike Windows, this is one Microsoft software that even the users seem to love.
But, Microsoft Outlook also has it’s limits, right ? For one, it is a desktop application. Sure, Exchange does provide a pretty nice web application (If you’re using IE, that is) if your administrator allows it but for the most part Outlook is a desktop application and to make use of all the cool features it has, you need access to your desktop.
While there are ways to get access to emails while on the road (set up mail forwards, for example), getting access to your calendar on Exchange has been a little difficult until now. Today we’re going to show you how you can sync your Outlook calendar with Google’s cloud based calendar offering and have the best of both worlds. Outlook when you’re on your desk and Google Calendar when on the road.
To get started, download the Google Calendar Sync application and install it on your desktop. The first thing that you need to do after installation is to give your Google Calendar username and password to the application. This is usually the same as your Google Account credentials.
Now, you need to select the type of sync that you want and select the sync interval. I chose the option where only changes from Google Calendar will be sync’ed to my Outlook Calendar and not the other way round. If you want true 2-way sync, you can select that option.
That’s all there is to it. GCal Sync sits in the system tray and syncs all changes automatically in the background. If you can’t wait for the time limit that you’ve given between syncs, you can even tell the application to sync manually. Just right click the system tray icon and select Sync.
If, for some reason, Outlook is not running at the time the sync takes place, the application will fire it up, sync up and close Outlook. It really is that simple.
Now it really doesn’t matter whether you’re a road warrior or a worker in the world’s largest cubicle farm. Google Calendar has got you covered at all times.
What other applications do you use to sync up your digital lives ? Let me know in the comments.
Programmer, blogger and a geek making a living shifting bits around the Internet. Sharninder is the owner of Geeky Ninja
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wow..thanx :-)