Accessing Google Calendar data offline

In order to use Google calendar you must be online, i.e., connected to the internet. The only required software is a web browser. However, if you install some extra software you can work with your calendar when you are offline.

To view and edit your calendars when you are not connected to the internet, you must have two additional pieces of software. First, you need a calendar application that can read and write iCalendar files. Second, you need software that can synchronize your calendar data files with the Google server. Setting up all of this requires that you edit configuration files and engage in similar Unix-istic behavior. (I hope this will change before long.) Once you have it set up, it is trivial and transparent to use. It is magical to make a change on your laptop calendar and have it show up on Google calendar.

I have been using Mozilla Sunbird as the calendaring application, and GCALDaemon as the connector between Sunbird and Google. I am not going to provide instructions here because the documentation that comes with GCALDaemon is exceptionally clear. (What an admirable piece of software!) I will only suggest that you wait until Mozilla Sunbird 0.5 is released. This should occur very soon. GCALDaemon works with any calendar software that can use iCalendar files. (There are numerous alternatives for Windows, OS X and Linux, but I don't believe you can use Outlook. I could be wrong.)

You should be aware that all of this is beta software. Lots of things can go wrong. Make backups!

If you're not sure what to back up or how to back it up, or how to figure out what and how, you should either wait a while before you try to make this work or else you should be prepared to roll up your sleeves.

If you're asking whether this really works, the answer is yes. My wife and I are both using Sunbird and sharing a set of Google calendars. It's very cool. And my wife has no idea (and more importantly, no need to know) what's happening under the hood.