From iCal to 30boxes.com

My iCal calendar may not be teaming with daily appointments, todos, and reminders, but with even with the on average two or three weekly items contained in it, I often find it a drag to use. First off, it’s one more application that I have open up to access information. The alarm messages are cumbersome, and if I didn’t have a .mac account I wouldn’t be able to view my calendar beyond my desktop computer.

30boxes.com addresses many the issues I’ve been having with iCal. It’s one of many online applications that actually works efficiently. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and because of its simplicity I’ve made it my Safari home page. Since Safari is the one application that constantly remains opened on my computer and used throughout the day, being able to access my calendar from there is so much easier than opening up and using iCal.

What makes 30boxes.com so useful is that imputing dates and reminders is so much easier than with iCal. While 30boxes.com has little data boxes to input dates, times, and reminders like in iCal, it has a quicker and more detailed way of inputting dates.  

Get this: I can open up my 30Boxes.com calendar and type something like “Dinner w/ John Nemo Jan. 10, 2008 7pm tag meeting,” and boom, it inputs that date in my calendar instantly.  

I can do the same thing using the slightly longer detailed version, and add a email or phone reminder and other notes for the calendar date.

If you already have a calendar set up, you may import that data into 30boxes.com. I imported two of my iCal calendars into 30boxes fairly easily. 

Being able to tag and color code all my entries is equally useful, for I can easily pull up a list of my bills, engagement shoots, or birthdays I have marked on my calendar. 

30boxes comes with with a list of about 20 other shortcuts for inputting data in your calendar. One particularly useful feature is that ability to get Google street directions to locations you type into the data entry box. It does take little getting used to in terms of typing the short a certain way (a few times I’ve tired it didn’t seem to work), but if it works, it saves you time from to retyped that same information into MapQuest or some other similar website.

As with many other Web 2.0 sites, 30boxes.com also has social networking features, so that you can share your calendar with others on buddy list. You can can also view your other member sites like your Flickr, Blogger, or Netvibes account within your 30boxes.com page. 

Switching to weekly views of your calendar is also easy and swift, and you of course get a print option for your weekly calendars.

There are quite a few other features you might find useful with 30boxes.com. The site was recently nominated to the top 5 service category for the prestigious Webby Awards. It’s a well deserved honor for a site that will surely expand and become widely used by people who are finding that websites can do what many traditional software programs can do with but with a lot more accessibility. 

Now if 30boxes would just create and integrate a similar address book and notebook type application I think I’d be set for while.

Thanks 30boxes.com for making a calendar more accessible and easier to manage. It may be about time to put iCal to rest.