Calendar App - very picky

[WillyNilly]

I have been a Palm user for well over a decade and after the fiasco that was the Pre (and Pixi) realized no new good Palms would ever be made and finally bit the bullet and got a Droid (Epic).

So far I like it a lot but I hate all the calendars which is my most necessary app... so its really a problem. I am very specific about what I want - can any one recommend one that works within these parameters:

Monthly view that will show me at quick glance which dates have something going on
Within that - it needs to be differentiable - as in an identical grey corner tag for everything is not enough - having plans vs that's someone's birthday vs a reoccurring event should be color or shape coded or something

The ability to quickly and easily add new events (I can't believe several apps I've tried have NOT allowed this?!?!?)

The ability to label/color code/sort events by type


I feel like these are pretty basic, simple calendar requests - its not unlike the big paper calendar many people have where they jot various things on each date and then highlight them so even from far away they can see "ok 4 days have pink, that means 4 birthdays this month, every Friday has purple, which means I have [social[ plans every Friday, a yellow is coming up, that's some sort of appointment..."

I'm willing to pay for a calendar, but I'd like to know it will meet my needs before doing so.

 

[Clementine_3]

CalenGoo | AppBrain Android Market
I use CalenGoo and really like it. I have it synced to Google calendar and it pulls the color coding, very nice for the month view/quick glance. It also shows 'event flair' if you use it and has it's own icons too.
It does search events, brings up a color coded list in the search.
Adding new events is not horrible either.

 

[WillyNilly]

Maybe I don't use Google calendar right? I have never been able to get Google calendar to be able to show:

A) More then one thing happening on a date from monthly view (there can be 4 different things: date is someone's birthday, date is my CSA pick-up, I have a dentist appointment in the morning and dinner plans that night - monthly view will only show one icon on the date instead)

B) Monthly view to have anything other then a generic grey corner tab for dates with something on them (so for example in February I have 16 friends/family with birthdays, but to look at my monthly view its impossible tell "am I really busy this month?" or "ok no biggie I have some calls to make this month but plenty of free time to make plans")

 

[Clementine_3]

I find that the online Google calendar is decent, I have created individual calendars and color coded them. It's very easy to see what's going on at a glance. The stock Google calendar app on the phone sucks though.
CalenGoo (and a bunch of others, IE: Jorte) are much more user-friendly. CalenGoo pulls all of my individual calendars from Google and keeps the color coding. It doesn't just put a blob on a day, you can actually read what the event is, even in month view (some get scrunched but it's certainly readable).
I don't use the widget for it as I use Weather Forecast Widget instead but when I go into CalenGoo all of my info is there and easy to see/read.
It will also pull ALL of your events, not just a few months worth.

 

[WillyNilly]

I find that the online Google calendar is decent, I have created individual calendars and color coded them. It's very easy to see what's going on at a glance. The stock Google calendar app on the phone sucks though.
CalenGoo (and a bunch of others, IE: Jorte) are much more user-friendly. CalenGoo pulls all of my individual calendars from Google and keeps the color coding. It doesn't just put a blob on a day, you can actually read what the event is, even in month view (some get scrunched but it's certainly readable).
I don't use the widget for it as I use Weather Forecast Widget instead but when I go into CalenGoo all of my info is there and easy to see/read.
It will also pull ALL of your events, not just a few months worth.

See I don't want numerous calendars. I want one calendar. So I can open calendar and put in an event and choose what "group" or whatever I want to classify it as. I don't want a "personal events calendar" and an "appointment calendar" and a calendar to note the dates my beau's band is playing and a calendar to mark birthdays on, etc.

I only have one email address and and I want one calendar that if I'm chatting with a friend and they say "oh hey are you free for dinner Tuesday?" I can open my one calendar and say yes or now and put it in the calendar. And then a few minutes later we're still chatting and they mention an upcoming concert so i want to jot that in my calendar (so a different type of event) and I want to just open my one calendar and jot that down.

Am I really the only person who doesn't want 10 different calendars?
Does anyone know of a singular, sortable calendar, I guess is my request.

(But I do thank you Clementine_3, because now I know CalenGoo is not what I'm looking for and I can save my time and not even try it)

 

[takeshi]

Maybe I don't use Google calendar right?

Be sure to clearly spell out all your requirements in your OP then.

 

[WillyNilly]

Be sure to clearly spell out all your requirements in your OP then.

Well ok, then how does one color code different types of events in Google calendar? Without creating a whole new, separate calendar which has to them be merged?

Because I have only ever even heard of people creating multiple calendars in order to color code Google calendar and so far that seems to be the response I'm getting here as well.

Can you tell me otherwise? I thought I was pretty clear in my OP what I'm looking for: a singular calendar with a monthly view that will show at glance various types of events on multiple days.

 

[Clementine_3]

It is one calendar. I have one Google calendar under one Gmail address.
There is the ability to make as many "groups" as you want and assign a color to each, this makes it very easy to differentiate an appointment from a birthday from a note etc. In the lower left corner of the Google (online) calendar you can create/add sub-calendars or "groups".
Click "add" under "my calendars", name your calendar and select a color for it. When you add an event you can choose which sub-calendar to add it to. If your birthdays calendar is red then they will show red on the "main" calendar view. If your appointments are blue they will show blue...
Google Calendar Help

Here is what it looks like:

 

[noah way]

Here's my setup for calendar functions:

Pure Calendar Widget to display list of events and tasks.

Jorte (opened in weekly view by Pure Calendar) for event management.

Astrid for task management.

Everything is highly configurable and works with Google calendar.

Pure Calendar has a clean configurable list display up to 4x5. Jorte input is streamlined and efficient. There are numerous options and views available, allowing you to tailor the app to work to your taste. Astrid is a top-notch task manager.

I tried all sort of calendars and before I arrived at this solution.

 

[TulsaTime]

I think you need to go in & do it on google calendar to get an understanding. Really the adding calendars thing in google calendar is simply creating groups that all show up on the main calendar. They are just using different terms and so I don't think you're understanding how it works. I have mine set up exactly this way with different groups (calendars) having different colors. I use Jorte which I absolutely love because it integrates google tasks as well. It shows each group or calendar in the color I specified on google calendar.

Well ok, then how does one color code different types of events in Google calendar? Without creating a whole new, separate calendar which has to them be merged?

Because I have only ever even heard of people creating multiple calendars in order to color code Google calendar and so far that seems to be the response I'm getting here as well.

Can you tell me otherwise? I thought I was pretty clear in my OP what I'm looking for: a singular calendar with a monthly view that will show at glance various types of events on multiple days.

 

[PaJean]

I too had the same difficulty when converting to android. The key is to learn how to use the google calendar functions. They are really easy to understand and the help search is great.

I use Jorte because it has numerous widget choices and the tasks list is such a "plus". Most of my entries are done through the google calendar, but the "new event" option on Jorte isn't terrible.

Good Luck.

 

[WillyNilly]

Thank you all.

I guess the verbiage of calling the various groupings or categories as "calendars" is what was confusing me since what I want is a singular calendar so it wasn't/isn't clear that a new calendar isn't actually a new and separate calendar, but just a new and separate calendar category.

I'll experiment with the suggestions here.

And I really appreciate the screen shots.

 

[Clementine_3]

Hot off the press, new color functions: Color code your Google Calendar events - Official Gmail Blog

Also, just to reiterate and get back to your initial question, the stock calendar app still sucks. You will want to look at CalenGoo or Jorte or any number of other calendar apps/widgets once you get all set up and color coded

 

[funpig]

I was a former 10 year Palm Treo user. I also used Datebk5. Palm used "categories"; Google, and the rest of the world it seems, use "calendars". Once you accept that, you will find that you can do the same thing in google as in palm. I converted 10 years of palm categories into the corresponding google calendars.

I use Calengoo. So far it is the only app that I have paid for on my phone. I think that it is as good if not better than Datebk5. I believe Calengoo will meet your requirements.