Confused by Microsoft’s long-winded blog posts? Don’t be. Let’s take a closer look at the calendar app for Windows 8
Microsoft is previewing Windows 8 apps, and the latest is Calendar. We’re taking a look
Ever tried to read one of the Building Windows 8 blogs, and found them super confusing? I have, but we’re here to explain what Microsoft doesn’t, and this week it’s the Calendar app in Windows 8.
Microsoft says Calendar, Mail and People apps are connected via the cloud. Users have to install them and can’t choose between them. Calendar functions like, well, a Calendar: its works from wherever you are and supports the usual features of adding event dates and editing them on the fly.
The color of the Calendar app can be changed, allowing limited customization, but it’s a very basic Calendar app outside of that. There’s no obvious way to navigate to a specific date, though there are three views: Month, Week and Day. The latter is a little deceiving, as it’s more like the current day and an extra day or two depending on the device used. The lack of obvious way to change the day is because the options are hidden in the app bar by default – not the best decision by Microsoft’s UI team.
Of course you can move through the dates by swiping or dragging the bar left and right, if you’re using a mouse. Swiping once to the left goes back and month, and to the right goes forward a month in Month view. New events are added by clicking the add buttons. Pretty simple.
Live Information
Reminders can be set for any event and get a pop-up whenever the time arrives. There’s no word on whether the reminder can be temporarily silenced, which seems like an obvious feature. And of course, the app’s live title shows events from the Start screen.
Two types of Calendar tiles can pinned to the Start Screen: a quick status, and detailed status. The latter shows what the event is and not the number of events for day, which seems way more useful and what live tiles should be doing by default in my opinion.
Snap View is also in, which is pretty useful if you’re IMing someone and using your calendar to look through dates. It’s better than the back-and-forth of iOS.