The Most User-Friendly Computer Calendars

By Michelle Hainer for The Online Family

When Nikki Goth Itoi of San Francisco, Calif., became a freelance writer a few years ago, she started spending a lot more time in front of her computer. So it was only natural that she needed a calendar she could access digitally. "I had been using Google's Gmail for email and I liked the interface, so it was easy to make the leap to using their calendar," says Itoi, mom to an 18-month-old son. "My husband uses Google Calendar too, so we're able to send each other invites to doctor's appointments or meetings. It's a great organizational tool."

A whole crop of e-calendars are now available -- whether you just want to keep track of your own schedule, or have an entire family to synchronize. Here's a breakdown of some of the most popular options out there. However, getting to your appointments on time is up to you.

1. Google Calendar

Who it's for: People who schedule a lot of group activities. With Google Calendar, your entire family (or company) can see the calendar and send each other updates or invites. The calendar also has a mobile alerts feature, and will send a text message to your cell phone to remind you of an upcoming event. It also cuts down on a lot of back and forth. "If you know you have to pick your daughter up on Wednesday afternoons, but need to schedule a meeting, you can just look at your husband's calendar without having to call him and see if he's free," says Valentina Sgro, a professional organizer and author of Organize Your Family's Schedule In No Time (Pearson Education). "That's the real advantage to online calendars."

Cost: Free. You don't even need to have a Gmail account to use the calendar.

Best feature: In addition to an easy-to-read, color-coded interface, Google Calendar has several public calendars that you can automatically download to your personal calendar (things like U.S. Holidays or your favorite musician's touring schedule). If your town or city uses Google, you can also download local events.

2. Famundo

Who it's for: Busy moms who need their calendar software to serve as a digital daily planner. Famundo includes a list-making feature, address book, family homepage and a "vault," an encrypted storage space where you can store important documents such as medical records. "Famundo has great customer support and is perfect for families," says Sgro.

Cost: The basic version is free. The Plus version, which includes extra storage space, no advertisements and the ability to customize your homepage, is $99 a year or $9.95 per month.

Best feature: Famundo allows members to create a web page and for each family member to start their own blog, too. "It's a great way to get a web presence for your family," says Richard Kuhlenschmidt, CEO and co-founder of Famundo. "And you control the level of security, what you want to make public and private."

3. Daily Home Planner

Who it's for: If you like the look of traditional paper planners, and don't need to access your calendar from multiple locations, this is the choice for you. Daily Home Planner is a software program that lives on your home computer. "The software allows you to look at everyone's schedule side by side in a column which prevents it from looking like a big jumble," says Sgro. "It's great if you have kids whose schedules you just need to be aware of rather than manage."

Cost: $34.95 to download the software.

Best feature: Daily Home Planner allows you to store your favorite recipes and plan out your weekly meals. When you drag a recipe into a weekday, it automatically downloads the ingredients to your shopping list.

Michelle Hainer is a freelance writer and editor in New York.