Sunday
Jul202008
A Small Firm's Transition, Part II: Calendaring
July 20, 2008 at 7:11 PM by EsquireMac
This is the second post in a short series of indeterminate number about our small firm's transition to a Mac-centric law office. Being a good 20 years younger than the next youngest person in our firm, I am, by default, the IT guy, or, "guy who does the computer thingies."
As I stated in Part I: Sharing Files, when I started my job at my present small firm, the technology in place was decidedly low, substantially old and disturbingly Windows. In Part I, I chronicled our transition from all PC's to mostly Macs in light of the particular problem of sharing files between multiple computers and platforms. This time, I am focusing on the transition in light of calendars.
Until I started my job with this firm, I never really used a calendar very well to organize my tasks, deadlines, etc. Organization wasn't really my schtick. For my first 1.5 to 2 years out of law school, when I wasn't temping with Special Counsel (I highly recommend them, btw), I was in business for myself. When I was temping, I generally just used whatever calendaring system was in place wherever I was - usually Outlook. When I was working for myself, I was much less busy. I only had a couple of clients at a time, and the events and deadlines were not unmanageable solely from within my head (shiny as it may be).
When I started at my present firm, I was stepping into a fairly busy office, and taking on a significant caseload. The office did not have any type of computerized calendar system. The boss had a spiral-bound yearly calendar he carried around with him everywhere (and still does to this day). His paralegal had a similar calendar in which she calendared events. Hers served as a sort of backup for his.
It was obvious I needed a calendaring system, but there was no way I would carry around a physical calendar with me. I began using iCal. I created a calendar for my personal life, and a calendar for my work life. Out of sheer necessity, I began calendaring everything, personal, work, whatever. Almost overnight, I had become a calendar person. I never thought I would be one of those people! A great friend of mine once told me in reply to a compliment I gave to him: "I didn't get this way because I saw the light, but because I felt the heat!" I often experience personal growth in the same way...Anywho...
Two or three days each week, the boss would call me down from my office and say, "Bring your calendar." Well, crap. I either have to unplug and lug my Powerbook downstairs (which had a poor, aging battery that would only last 15 minutes or so by that point - my awesome wife eventually swapped batteries with me so I could have an hour and a half), or, I had to print out my calendar. I usually just printed out my calendar. iCal, if you have never had the occasion to do so, prints out some really beautiful calendars. They are clean and easy to read.
At the time, I was also dabbling a bit with Google Calendars. Google's calendar seemed to have about the same functionality as iCal, but it didn't print out as nicely as iCal's, so I more or less stuck with iCal. Plus, iCal was not web-based, so I could access my events without an internet connection.
Anyway, the boss would call me down, and I would have to decide how many months ahead I should print out. I usually printed out 4 or 5 months worth. I'd sit in his office and he'd give me new things to put on my calendar. I'd write them in, then go upstairs and add them to iCal. I hated printing off a 4 or 5 page calendar every couple of days, though, as it was a significant waste of paper. And, when I reused old print-outs, I'd get confused about which events I'd already added to iCal and feared I'd forget to add something.
Using iCal, I could also sync calendar events through iTunes to my iPod Photo (the short-lived color display version of the 4th generation iPod with clickwheel that preceded the iPod Video). This was great for me to be able to see my events on the go, but I could not add events until I got to my computer.
Nonetheless, this arrangement worked fairly well.
Google Calendar became more appealing to me, however, because it resided in my browser and I didn't have to open a separate application to slow down my aging Powerbook. Also, I liked the idea of being able to access my calendar from anywhere there's an internet connection. I still couldn't let go of having my calendar accessible offline, though.
For a while, I put all of my calendars on Google Calendars and then subscribed to them in iCal. This was not a bad setup. I would just open iCal once or twice per day, refresh my calendars, and close it. Of course, this meant I could only add events through Google, as the calendars were subscribed only - not writeable.
The manual sync eventually became a pain in the butt, and I thought of ways to make it more automated. For a bit, I used neat little applications like MarcoPolo and Home Zone to detect when I got to work or when I got home and had it automatically open iCal which would automatically refresh upon opening. This solution eventually bugged me too much, though, because I didn't always want to be bothered by iCal as soon as I got home or to work.
I decided that I needed both iCal and Google Calendar, and I needed to be able to add calendar events if I was offline. My only choice was to get a 2-way syncing program, that is, one that would allow me to add events to Google and have them sync to my iCal and allow me to add events to iCal and have them sync to Google. I scoured the interwebs for a free solution and found GCALDaemon. I swear to you I tried to get this thing to work, but I couldn't. I do not doubt that it can be done, but, at the time I was trying to use it, it was very clearly a hacked solution that was beyond my comfort zone. I'm no leet hax0r, but I'm less squeamish than most folks.
My only choice was to pay for a solution. By the way, if I buy software, you can be assured of four things:
I ended up buying Spanning Sync for, I think, $25 per year. It works great. It is actually a preference pane, so you access it through System Preferences. SpanningSync is really lightweight. I never even notice it's running. I have it set to sync every 10 minutes, though you can change the frequency to suit your needs.
There's not much else to say about SpanningSync, for now, except that its impending v2.0 (currently in beta) is going to support Address Book sync with Google Contacts, which promises to be a great feature. I will be writing about Address Book syncing in the near future.
My life got even better when I got my iPod Touch. I can sync my iPod Touch through iTunes with iCal, just as before with my oldPod, but the iPod Touch eventually allowed me to add events right through it (this functionality did not ship with original iPhones and iPod Touches, it was later added with a firmware update). This means I did not have to print out my calendars anymore!
I mean, the solution was pretty good before the iPod Touch, but still, to quote Mitch Hedberg (R.I.P.) in regards to buying a donut: "We do not need to bring ink and paper into this."
There was one remaining problem with the situation. Unless I manually entered in my boss's calendar events, I had no idea what his schedule looked like. In a firm with two lawyers, I've found it's a good idea to know what the other lawyer is up to and what his availability is! I sure didn't feel like scouring his calendar and entering all of his appointments. About a year ago, though, we hired on a very ambitions administrative assistant. She's great. She's the kind of employee that runs out of work and goes looking for stuff to do (instead of surfing the interhighway, like me!). She was bored one day and asked for stuff to do. I told her it would really help me out a lot if she could take the boss's calendar at least once per week and add any new events to a calendar on Google that I created for him. She also adds new events I create for him online to his physical calendar.
So, there ya go. We have gone from two paper calendars with all their limitations to having all of our calendars on any computer with instantaneous updates throughout the Google Calendars and syncing every 10 minutes through iCal. Within seconds, I can tell you what our office is or isn't doing on any particular day, or, I can add an event and know everybody else will be up to speed without any further effort. Good times, indeed.
As I stated in Part I: Sharing Files, when I started my job at my present small firm, the technology in place was decidedly low, substantially old and disturbingly Windows. In Part I, I chronicled our transition from all PC's to mostly Macs in light of the particular problem of sharing files between multiple computers and platforms. This time, I am focusing on the transition in light of calendars.
Until I started my job with this firm, I never really used a calendar very well to organize my tasks, deadlines, etc. Organization wasn't really my schtick. For my first 1.5 to 2 years out of law school, when I wasn't temping with Special Counsel (I highly recommend them, btw), I was in business for myself. When I was temping, I generally just used whatever calendaring system was in place wherever I was - usually Outlook. When I was working for myself, I was much less busy. I only had a couple of clients at a time, and the events and deadlines were not unmanageable solely from within my head (shiny as it may be).
When I started at my present firm, I was stepping into a fairly busy office, and taking on a significant caseload. The office did not have any type of computerized calendar system. The boss had a spiral-bound yearly calendar he carried around with him everywhere (and still does to this day). His paralegal had a similar calendar in which she calendared events. Hers served as a sort of backup for his.
It was obvious I needed a calendaring system, but there was no way I would carry around a physical calendar with me. I began using iCal. I created a calendar for my personal life, and a calendar for my work life. Out of sheer necessity, I began calendaring everything, personal, work, whatever. Almost overnight, I had become a calendar person. I never thought I would be one of those people! A great friend of mine once told me in reply to a compliment I gave to him: "I didn't get this way because I saw the light, but because I felt the heat!" I often experience personal growth in the same way...Anywho...
Two or three days each week, the boss would call me down from my office and say, "Bring your calendar." Well, crap. I either have to unplug and lug my Powerbook downstairs (which had a poor, aging battery that would only last 15 minutes or so by that point - my awesome wife eventually swapped batteries with me so I could have an hour and a half), or, I had to print out my calendar. I usually just printed out my calendar. iCal, if you have never had the occasion to do so, prints out some really beautiful calendars. They are clean and easy to read.
At the time, I was also dabbling a bit with Google Calendars. Google's calendar seemed to have about the same functionality as iCal, but it didn't print out as nicely as iCal's, so I more or less stuck with iCal. Plus, iCal was not web-based, so I could access my events without an internet connection.
Anyway, the boss would call me down, and I would have to decide how many months ahead I should print out. I usually printed out 4 or 5 months worth. I'd sit in his office and he'd give me new things to put on my calendar. I'd write them in, then go upstairs and add them to iCal. I hated printing off a 4 or 5 page calendar every couple of days, though, as it was a significant waste of paper. And, when I reused old print-outs, I'd get confused about which events I'd already added to iCal and feared I'd forget to add something.
Using iCal, I could also sync calendar events through iTunes to my iPod Photo (the short-lived color display version of the 4th generation iPod with clickwheel that preceded the iPod Video). This was great for me to be able to see my events on the go, but I could not add events until I got to my computer.
Nonetheless, this arrangement worked fairly well.
Google Calendar became more appealing to me, however, because it resided in my browser and I didn't have to open a separate application to slow down my aging Powerbook. Also, I liked the idea of being able to access my calendar from anywhere there's an internet connection. I still couldn't let go of having my calendar accessible offline, though.
For a while, I put all of my calendars on Google Calendars and then subscribed to them in iCal. This was not a bad setup. I would just open iCal once or twice per day, refresh my calendars, and close it. Of course, this meant I could only add events through Google, as the calendars were subscribed only - not writeable.
The manual sync eventually became a pain in the butt, and I thought of ways to make it more automated. For a bit, I used neat little applications like MarcoPolo and Home Zone to detect when I got to work or when I got home and had it automatically open iCal which would automatically refresh upon opening. This solution eventually bugged me too much, though, because I didn't always want to be bothered by iCal as soon as I got home or to work.I decided that I needed both iCal and Google Calendar, and I needed to be able to add calendar events if I was offline. My only choice was to get a 2-way syncing program, that is, one that would allow me to add events to Google and have them sync to my iCal and allow me to add events to iCal and have them sync to Google. I scoured the interwebs for a free solution and found GCALDaemon. I swear to you I tried to get this thing to work, but I couldn't. I do not doubt that it can be done, but, at the time I was trying to use it, it was very clearly a hacked solution that was beyond my comfort zone. I'm no leet hax0r, but I'm less squeamish than most folks.
My only choice was to pay for a solution. By the way, if I buy software, you can be assured of four things:
- it does what I need it to do,
- it does it well,
- there's no other free solution that even comes close to doing what I need it to do, and
- I really need to do what I need to do.
I ended up buying Spanning Sync for, I think, $25 per year. It works great. It is actually a preference pane, so you access it through System Preferences. SpanningSync is really lightweight. I never even notice it's running. I have it set to sync every 10 minutes, though you can change the frequency to suit your needs.
There's not much else to say about SpanningSync, for now, except that its impending v2.0 (currently in beta) is going to support Address Book sync with Google Contacts, which promises to be a great feature. I will be writing about Address Book syncing in the near future.
My life got even better when I got my iPod Touch. I can sync my iPod Touch through iTunes with iCal, just as before with my oldPod, but the iPod Touch eventually allowed me to add events right through it (this functionality did not ship with original iPhones and iPod Touches, it was later added with a firmware update). This means I did not have to print out my calendars anymore!
I mean, the solution was pretty good before the iPod Touch, but still, to quote Mitch Hedberg (R.I.P.) in regards to buying a donut: "We do not need to bring ink and paper into this."
There was one remaining problem with the situation. Unless I manually entered in my boss's calendar events, I had no idea what his schedule looked like. In a firm with two lawyers, I've found it's a good idea to know what the other lawyer is up to and what his availability is! I sure didn't feel like scouring his calendar and entering all of his appointments. About a year ago, though, we hired on a very ambitions administrative assistant. She's great. She's the kind of employee that runs out of work and goes looking for stuff to do (instead of surfing the interhighway, like me!). She was bored one day and asked for stuff to do. I told her it would really help me out a lot if she could take the boss's calendar at least once per week and add any new events to a calendar on Google that I created for him. She also adds new events I create for him online to his physical calendar.
So, there ya go. We have gone from two paper calendars with all their limitations to having all of our calendars on any computer with instantaneous updates throughout the Google Calendars and syncing every 10 minutes through iCal. Within seconds, I can tell you what our office is or isn't doing on any particular day, or, I can add an event and know everybody else will be up to speed without any further effort. Good times, indeed.
Reader Comments (4)
Adam,
I also use Gcal, but don't like iCal. My solutions are to create a nice little stand-along application for Gcal (using either Firefox 3 or Prism) and sync my calendar to my phone using GooSync. It costs me about $40/year to use GooSync, but it works with many phones, backs up my ToDo's from my Treo 700p, and will sync my contacts to Gmail. I usually enter calendar items directly into Gcal, but can do so on the go through my phone at any time, confident that they will be synced with the appropriate Gcal calendar, as my Palm calendar categories sync with the corresponding Gcal calendars. Something worth looking at, and completely platform independent.
Curt
Hey Curt,
Thanks for the tip. I actually use Gcal now pretty much exclusively. I only use iCal for the backend to get my events onto my iPod Touch. If I had an iPhone, I'd be more tempted to switch altogether, since I could access Gcal anywhere. Also, I just read that Google is closing in on integrating Gears with Google Calendar, in order to enable offline access and editing. That will eliminate one of the only remaining reasons I'm still using iCal.
[...] - A Small Firm’s Transition, Part II: Calendaring saved by JSagalovsky2008-08-08 - The Fine Art of Calendaring saved by [...]
I just use MobileMe and I can sync automaticly with any of my computers and my iPhone, I said Automatic? And can be used with iCal or Entourage.