A New Calendar Look

Because New is Good: Abq Jew, he must tell you (he must! he must!) has been rather unsatisfied with the blah look (and meager functionality) of Google Calendar for some time. Surely, thought he, there must be something better out there.

As it turns out - there are several alternatives out there, all of them with more beautiful displays and more user-friendly features and more designer-friendly functionality than good ol' Google Calendar.

Abq Jew spent a couple of days merrily testing and playing with these alternatives. And of them all, the one he has chosen for his Abq Jewish Event Calendar is

Tockify

Abq Jew can already hear you asking (remember Field of Dreams?)

What's in it for me?
And what do the Chicago Cubs have to do with it?

OK, then. Here is what's in it for you, the (potential) Event Attendee.

As you can see, the new Tockify Calendar offers:

1. A choice of views. Abq Jew has set up the default view to be the Agenda, aka the List. But you can easily switch to the Pinboard or Monthly view.
2. A Full Screen mode, just in case the text is too small to read.
3. A Search capability. Yes, you can search for a specific Event or Events! (Try it now - search for "cubs" and see what happens.)
4. A Sort capability. Yes, if Abq Jew can remember to tag Events usefully, you can search for, say, all Events in Santa Fe, or all Events involving an Author.
5. An easy way to Submit your own Event. It will go into a list for Abq Jew to edit (as necessary), add a graphic (again, as necessary) and post to the public.

But wait! There's more!

Here is an example of what's in it for you. Did you search for "cubs"? Let's look at an Event we've been waiting for since 1908:

Click on the Chicago Cubs World Series Victory Celebration, and

1. You get the full, nicely-formatted, easy-to-read explanation of exactly what the Celebration is and why you should attend.
2. You get the location of the Celebration, and a map to it. (OK, it's a Google Map, which you can also get on Google Calendar. But it looks really spiffy here.)
3. You get to easily share the Celebration with your pals on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google +. 
4. You get to save the Celebration in your favorite calendar.
5. You get to copy a link directly to the Celebration, and put it wherever you usually put such links.
6. You get to email details of the Celebration to all your email contacts.
7. You get to Buy Tickets, get More Info, and/or RSVP for the Celebration.
8. Can also go Full Screen and see the Celebration details in all their glory.

And if you think this new Tockify Calendar is really cool for potential and actual Event Attendees - for Event Planners, it's the best thing since

well, you know!

Abq Jew is certain you will agree! Well, he's certainly hopeful you'll agree.

And just as you'd expect, the New Mexico Jewish eLink's Events page and the Jewish Federation of New Mexico's Community Calendar page (both powered by Abq Jew) have followed suit.

And how about The Abq Jew App? 

Abq Jew hears you exclaim. 

Don't worry!

The Abq Jew App will get an upgrade, too.

As Red Green (see Red Green Teaches Life Lessons) always says -

We're all in this together.