subject: Zoho Calendar Steps Out of Beta [print this page] Zoho Calendar Steps Out of Beta Zoho Calendar Steps Out of Beta
At Zoho, we have several applications that need calendaring functionality. Some of these apps include Zoho Mail, CRM, Projects, Planner, Meeting, etc. To consolidate all calendars, we launched Zoho Calendar in beta last year. The goal for this separate application was two fold. One, it has to be one of the best calendar applications in the market; and two, it has to integrate/replace other calendars apps within the Zoho suite.
Today, Zoho Calendar is stepping out of beta, and we believe it is mature enough to be considered one of the best calendaring apps in the market. Zoho Calendar's latest update comes with an extensive set of features for business use. Let's look at some of these new features: http://bit.ly/aWRj9l.
Calendar Sharing
You can now privately share your calendars with other users with a Zoho account. There are several options for sharing your calendar. There are two options for sharing your calendar in read-only mode and two options for read-write mode. In read-only mode, you can share your calendar with other users so that they can view only Free/Busy times, while the second option will also display all of your event details.
We also offer two options in read-write mode. One option lets other users edit your existing events, while the second option lets other users create/edit events on your calendar. This option basically gives complete control of your calendar to another user. This will be useful when you have an assistant managing the calendar for you.
To share your calendar, go to Settings > My Calendars and choose the Share' option. You just need to provide the email address of the person with whom you want to share your calendar.
Subscribing to Calendars
There are a couple of options to import events to Zoho Calendar. One option is to import all of your events in a single shot using the import by file or import by URL. The second option is to subscribe to an external calendar. Importing is a one-time event while subscription updates your calendar regularly. In this version, we have now added both options.
We also have options to subscribe to external and internal calendars. By internal calendar, we mean calendars from other Zoho applications. You can now subscribe to Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM calendars. To do this, go to Settings > Subscribe To and select the calendars you want to subscribe to. You can also subscribe to any other calendar in ICAL format by providing the URL. This updates your events a couple of times a day.
You can also subscribe to your friends' public calendars using their email addresses. We also have built-in calendars for holidays which you can subscribe to. We plan to expand this built-in calendar list as we move forward.
Subscriptions are not just one way coming into Zoho Calendar. You can also take your calendar events outside Zoho by enabling a private address for your calendars (under My Calendars > Share) and subscribing to your Zoho Calendar in other external calendar clients, like iPhone.
Embedding Zoho Calendar
Want to embed your calendar on your blog? No problem. The option to embed your calendar in external sites is a new feature in this update. Obviously, your calendar has to be public to do this. We have ten different templates to choose from, and you can also customize the options for the embed.
To choose the templates for embedding your calendar, go to the Settings > My Calendars > Details option.
Agenda View
If you want to look at all of your events in a grid view instead of a calendar view, we now have that option. You'll notice a new Agenda' tab on the top where we list all of your events.
Additional Features
These were just a few features. This major update includes several other goodies like the option to sort your calendars in the settings page, the option to clear your calendar, etc.
Note that Zoho Calendar works well on your iPhone/Android @ http://mobile.zoho.com. We also have an Open Social gadget that lets you embed it in external apps like Gmail.
