Dmitri Popov has written a useful little tutorial on “using Thunderbird like a Pro” at NewsForge.

If you are into that sort of thing, you will find there a quick explanation of how to make smarter use of smart folders, an introduction to some useful extensions and details on setting up turning Thunderbird into a “collaboration tool” with the Calendar and SynKolab extensions.thunderbird, smart folders, extensions, calendar, synkolab, collaboration, email

Publishing iCal calendars is most easily done via .Mac or on server using WebDAV.

What if you don’t have a .Mac account or access to WebDAV at your service provider or web host?

You can do it manually, using FTP, but it’s a pain. You have to hunt through iCal’s arcane naming system to find the calendar you want and them mess around with it a bit before uploading it.

Derek Jones has written a walk-through for publishing calendars which takes the pain out of the process by using Automator.

He goes through each step in creating an Automator action for this and includes some useful tips along the way. The post also includes links to two extra Automator actions that are handy in themselves.

This tip also appeared on macOSXHints.ical, sharing, publishing, calendar, automator, transmit, tips, webdav

Zimbra is “a rich, full-featured, AJAX-based Web client that brings e-mail and calendar items to life through Web mash-ups on the front end”.

Today the developers announced the release of support for Intel Macs. According to the company’s press release,

ZCS for Mac OS X is an open-source, enterprise-grade email and collaboration server and application that includes support for iCal, Apple Mail clients and Apple Xsan storage. In testing ZCS for Mac OS X, Zimbra has achieved speeds up to five times faster on the Intel-based Mac clients.

The latest version also introduces support for calendar resources (conferences rooms, etc) and reminders.

[Via PRNewsWire ]zimbra, ajax, web 2.0, email, universal, calendar, ical, mail.app

The world of email clients for Mac is seeing some significant change.

Not long ago Entourage got more Mail-like, gaining iSync and Spotlight support. Now Thunderbird gets more Entourage-like, gaining an extension that provides integrated calendaring and to dos.

Lightning adds a calendar to the Thunderbird interface, not unlike Boris Anthony’s mock-up for a possible Mail.app plugin.

The extension is already well-featured, offering to dos, scheduling, daily, weekly and monthly views, an auto-generated “Agenda” of upcoming events and more.

You read more about Lightning and see a screenshot in Eric Bangeman’s review on ars technica.thunderbird, lightning, calendar, to dos, extensions, Entourage

iCal-alarmist is an app that sets additional alarms in iCal.

iCalFix allows you to set a pop-up alarm for every event by default, but iCal-alarmist offers greater flexibility.

The free version sets a pop-up alarm for every event in a chosen calendar fixed at 12 hours before the event. These alarms are created in addition to your existing alarms, not in place of them.

The app’s interface shows the freeware behaviour with the additional options in the shareware version greyed out:

A small payment (€ 3,47 = USD 4.11) unlocks the ability to set alarms for all events in a calendar with one click, to set sounds, email or popup alarms or any combination for a given calendar, and to delete alarms.

It even allows you to set alarms to match a particular keyword.

iCal-alarmist is available from the developer’s web site.ical, alarms, calendar, pop-up, additional alarms, customize ical, plugins, helpful apps

This week Address Book and iCal get the lion’s share of the additions to the Hawk Wings Plugin and Addon List.

The following items were added to the Address Book section:

• AddressBookQuickEntry (an alternate entry interface for contact information)
• AusAB (maps, travel directions and Sydney public transport times for Australian addresses)
• iAddressX (Address Book menubar utility)

The following were added to the iCal section:

• DoBeDo (a Dashboard widget for iCal ToDos)
• iCalViewer (“Streaming” desktop iCal events and ToDos)
• MenuCalendarClock (menubar utility for you iCal calendar, clock and ToDo and event information)

Mail.app itself scored two extra entries:

• anentry (AppleScript to email a NetNewsWire headline) in the Integration with other Apps section
• NetShred X (history and cache shredder for Mail.app and browsers) in the Added Functionality section

These additions bring the number of entries on the list to a round 120, all making Mail.app, Address Book and iCal easier, more efficient, more productive and (possibly) more fun to use.

It turns out that High Priority is not the only iCal menubar utility on the block.

MenuCalendarClock is another menubar app for iCal that gives you access to your iCal events and ToDos from the menubar.

Clicking its menubar icon drops down a display containing a calendar view of the current month, the events for the day and a list of your ToDos.

The display of events and ToDos can be toggled on and off.

Its preferences allow you to control a configurable menubar clock replacement and to set the colour of the window.

Further options determine how the events and ToDos are displayed.

It will also display the Calendar week numbers and offers an autohide option.

There is also a “Tool tip” option that presents a text-only version of the display when you hover your mouse over the icon.

Unlike High Priority, it offers no interaction with your ToDos, which cannot be marked completed or edited from the app’s window.

All these features can be enjoyed for free.

A registered version (USD 18.95) offers further features like the ability to sync birthdays from AddressBook into iCal and to configure a hotkey.

The fully registered version also displays iCal events.

MenuCalendarClock is available from the developer’s web site .ical, events, to do, menubar, plugin, addon, clock replacement, calendar, menucalendarclock