Feature available since Lotus Notes version 8.5

The Notes calendar was hugely improved in version 8, but here’s a nice addition available since version 8.5… the ability to overlay other calendars onto your own. The ‘other calendars’ can come from a variety of sources:

• Other users’ Notes calendars
• Notes TeamRoom calendars
• Notes application calendars (e.g. an application for managing events or a workflow application with milestones and deadlines)
• Google calendars
• Open standard iCalendar feeds
• Lotus Connections Activities

How to find this feature – go to your calendar and look for the ‘Add a Calendar’ link on the left-hand navigator. The dialog box shown here (click for larger view) will appear.

Select a type of calendar, and then fill in the details (which will vary depending in the calendar type). It’s advisable to find iCalendar feed URLs in advance.

Click on the image here to see a larger version of calendar overlays in action.

This is showing my own calendar, an iCalendar feed from the Arsenal web site, my wife’s calendar (fictional events of course), a calendar from a real Notes application (entries not displayed in this screenshot), and the Notes calendars of two colleagues.