Lightning 0.7

• Editor's Rating:

  5.0 stars

• Average User Rating:

  3.0 stars (out of 25 votes) Rate it!

• Downloads:

  15,218

• Requirements:

  Windows 2000/XP, Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5

• Limitations:

  No limitations

• Date Added:

  October 29, 2007

• Previous Versions:

  Select a version Lightning 0.8 Lightning 0.7 Lightning 0.5 Lightning 0.3.1

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Publisher's description of Lightning 0.7

Lightning is an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that adds an integrated calendar to the e-mail client. It is based on the standalone Mozilla Sunbird calendar application. Lightning includes the Daylight Savings Time (summer time) changes passed by the U.S. legislature in 2005.

Version 0.5 has much more polished user interface in the calendar views, event invitations can be sent and received via iMIP/iTIP (Lightning only), working hours are back, and other improvements.

Editor's review of Lightning 0.7

• 5.0 stars

• "Lightning strikes Thunderbird"

Lightning makes Thunderbird soar above Outlook for home use, and places it on nearly equal ground in the office. It includes an overhauled interface with easy-to-use buttons for jumping from your mail to your calendar, LDAP directory support for event invites, and Sun Java Calendar Server support.

A menu bar for switching between mail and calendar views can live either above or below the folder tree on the left. On the right side of the main pane is a new panel for quickly viewing and managing events and tasks. Option-heavy, it can show only events, only tasks, both, or hide the pane completely, as well as make changes to and create new events and tasks.

Events are searchable at the calendar top. Just below it is a hideable pane showing upcoming events in a spreadsheet format. There are built-in presets for the next seven, 14, and 31 days, and they can be arranged by start date, end date, title, location, and calendar. Lightning supports multiple calendars, including iCal, and has bidirectional support for Google Calendar with the Provider for Google Calendar plug-in.

There is also some support for Exchange servers. If you receive an invite from somebody using an Exchange server, responding works fine. However, the next time you restart Thunderbird, the calendar will jump the time of the event. Going back and changing it clears up the problem. Despite this hang-up, Lightning is an excellent plug-in for Thunderbird users, both lightweight and robust with features.

User reviews of Lightning 0.7

• Average user rating: 3.2 stars out of 25 votes
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 5 of 7 user reviewsSee all 7 user reviews
  This software version | All versions

• 5 stars

  0 out of 2 people found this review helpful

  Version: Lightning 0.7

  "Beats any other calender"

  by nightshade209 on February 19, 2008

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• 3 stars

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

  Version: Lightning 0.7

  "It's useless for me until I can sync it with my MotoQ"

  by Bill Clinton Fan on November 1, 2007

  Pros: Colorful.. Very nice looking.

  Cons: I will NOT pay BirdieSync $30 for something Mozilla should provide for free via extensions. I'd rather keep using Outlook.

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• 2 stars

  1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

  Version: Lightning 0.7

  "Slow development + weak interface"

  Pros: - it's FREE

  Cons: - weak integration of CalDAV

  - very slow development process

  - no advanced sync functions

  - buggy

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• 3 stars

  Version: Lightning 0.7

  "Not bad. Some missing nice-to-haves. Otherwise very solid."

  by downdown on February 28, 2008

  Pros: Open format. So I'm no longer tied-in to MS Outlook. To use Outlook on Vista I would have had to upgrade Office 2000 (Outlook versions earlier than 2003 don't work on Vista. Then again, plenty other stuff doesn't work on Vista either.) Hence my switch to Lightning/Thunderbird.

  Solid, stable. Never crashed yet in three months.

  Won't be going back to Outlook. Not ever. I don't like having my mail and calendar locked-up in a proprietary format.

  Cons: When a reminder pops up, there's no button to take you to the calendar entry. You have to open the main Lightning window and navigate via the calendar to the entry before you can read the description part of the reminder. I would add two stars extra if it had a button and/or displayed the 'description' field in the pop-up. No doubt the feature is coming.

  There's no easy way to migrate from Outlook calendar to Lightning. So I had to type all my existing future appointments in by hand. (If you use Outlook's ability to 'list' all calendar entries, this is not as bit a pain as it sounds.) There's no easy way to migrate Outlook calendar to almost any other calendar program, so this is not a Lightning-specific problem - it's really an Outlook gripe.

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• 4 stars

  1 out of 2 people found this review helpful

  Version: Lightning 0.7

  "Looks good to me."

  by jlware on November 6, 2007

  Cons: Needs some documentation.

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