Access Your Google Calendar Offline!

It seems only a natural next step after getting offline access to Gmail using Google Gears to offer the same for Google Calendar. We wrote about the offline access to Gmail a little while ago, and now Google has officially announced offline access to Google Calendar.

Major advantages to this are obvious:

1. If you are traveling or on a plane, you can still check your calendar.
2. Sometimes internet connections give out, or are not very strong, and it always happens at the same time you would need to see your appointments.
3. If you do not have a Blackberry to sync Google Calendar to, then this new development will give you access to your calendar at all times as well.

One small (but also obvious) disadvantage:

1. While you can see your current schedule, you cannot add or edit any events when offline. This makes sense, but perhaps Google should (or will) consider making an application that does allow us to make edits that are saved on our computer and later synced with the online version of Google Cal.

Google has been test-driving this new development using Google Apps and allowing access to it to businesses and schools. We’re guessing the test-drive went well, because as of yesterday it is turned on for everyone to try.

Just like the offline version of Gmail, Google Calendar also uses Google Gears.

How to enable offline access to Google Calendar

1. Sign into your Google Calendar.
2. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen you will see a link called “Offline Beta”.
3. If you do not already have Google Gears, you will now be prompted to download it before offline access is enabled.
4. Once you restart your browser, click on “Offline Beta” again, and now you will be prompted to allow Google to download events to your computer.
5. Once installed, you will also be asked if you want to create a shortcut to your Calendar on your desktop. Very handy!

Who is using Google Cal offline? Where do you use it most? Share with us in the comments!