Thunderbird and Lightning

How would like an e-mail program that has nearly the same functionality as Microsoft's Outlook for free? Well, you can now, thanks to Mozilla. The good folks there have created a calendaring add-on called "Lightning" that comes complete with to-do lists and works inside of their excellent "Thunderbird" e-mail program.

I have written about Thunderbird here a few times in past blogs. It is the e-mail program I use on my office computer. If you are a long-time reader, you know I use Outlook on my laptop, but I couldn't make it work on my office computer when I first purchased it...and Microsoft was no help at all in solving the problem. So I downloaded Thunderbird and have been very satisfied with it.

I like Thunderbird for its built-in functionality. I like it so much that I had a hard time deciding whether to use it or Outlook on my new home computer. I started out with Outlook (Outlook 2000), but after a week, I missed the functionality of Thunderbird and changed over to it and haven't looked back. I admit that some of my decision were based on the fact that I now use Lotus Organizer as my default organizational program...so I didn't need all the goodies that comes with Outlook. But I digress.

Mozilla has been promising for some time that they would deliver a calendar add-on program that works inside of Thunderbird...and now they have. It is a good first attempt at adding calendaring and I am sure they will improve it as time goes on. Right now, Lightning adds a "Calendar" menu item at the top of the Thunderbird screen for changing the way you work with it. It also adds calendaring and to-do lists on the left side of the program , right below the e-mail folders menu. When you click on calendar, it fills the spot normally reserved for your e-mails with a calendar set for daily, weekly, or monthly events.

You can create more than one calendar and even import a holiday list that will appear in your main calendar. To-do lists can be kept separate or integrated with the calendar. It is easy to switch from the calendar back to e-mail. In short, Outlook may have more features, but Lightning adds the functionality that most of us use. I have experimented with several calendaring and organizational programs in the last few years, and while I am still happily wed to Lotus Organizer, I find Thunderbird and Lightning to be a very credible and useful set of programs. You might want to give them a look. After all, the price is sure right.

You can download the Lightning add-on by heading over to the Mozilla Web site. If you don't have Thunderbird, you can also get it on the same Website You can also read more about the two programs at the CNet Website.