Google Calendar (
Gcal) is a free contact- and time-management web application offered by Google. It allows users to synchronize their Gmail contacts with a web-based calendar.The interface of Google Calendar is similar to desktop calendar applications such as Microsoft Outlook or iCal on Mac OS X.
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While you can always open Google Calendar anywhere using a browser, you can now integrate Gcal into
Mozilla Thunderbird, the popular open source e-mail client. This is achieved using
Lightning, an add on for Thunderbird and
Provider for Google Calendar, another third party add on. By using these extensions you can easily check your e-mails and manage your calendar together in Thunderbird.
First download and install
Thunderbird from their website
here. Then download both the
Lightning and
Provider for Google Calendar add-ons.
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To install the downloaded extensions click
Tools >
Add-ons and click
Install. Install both Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar. Restart Thunderbird to complete the installation.
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Next you have to log in into your
Google Calendar account (you need to create a
Google account to access one). Click on Settings and then click on the calendar that you'd like to open in Thunderbird. For example I only have one calendar (Afif) so I just click on that link.
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Then you will arrive at the calendar details page. Click on the
Private Address XML button.
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A dialog box will appear and you'll need to copy the link provided.
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In Thunderbird, click on the
Calendar tab (bottom-left) and create a new calendar (
Calendar >
New Calendar).
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Select
On the Network.
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Select
Google Calendar and paste (Ctrl + V) the Private Address XML link that you have copied earlier.
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If you cannot see Google Calendar that means there's a problem with either your Lightning or Provider for Google Calendar add-ons installation. Try downloading those extensions again or try re-installing them. OR for Ubuntu Linux users like me, you will need to install the
libstdc++5 library first for Provider for Google Calendar to work. If not you will see an error message like '
Requires additional items' at the add-ons tab.
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To install libstdc++5 you can either use
Synaptics or run
apt-get in a terminal.
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If both extensions is installed correctly, a dialog box will pop up asking for your Google account's user name and password.
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Then you need to give a name for your new calendar and choose a color scheme.
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Your Gcal calendar should now be visible on the left pane just below the default (Home) calendar. Any changes you make to this calendar on Thunderbird will also be updated on your web-based Gcal and vice-versa.
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