One of the biggest struggles of working in a team is keeping track of updates and new developments. To be always in the loop, it’s best to monitor any movement in the organization that’s relevant to your team. With those alone (unfortunately there are others), I won’t blame you if you fret and worry. On a lighter note though, I have good news for you! An app suitably called Teamup, has you covered. Teamup makes it easy as frying eggs to schedule events and to share them with your team. That way, you can focus on more important tasks making you more productive.
Right off the bat I’ll point out something you’d be excited to know. If you’ve been using Google Calendar, you’ll feel comfortable with Teamup’s interface immediately. Like Google Calendar, you’ll see a mini calendar at the top left corner; right below it you’ll find a list of calendars; at the top-right you’re given options to check several calendar views. Lastly, on the remaining space you can view the actual calendar. A teammate pointed out something I didn’t notice: Teamup calendar looks more optimized compared to Google Calendar; it utilizes the big space Google throws away in its monstrous header. Moreover, I have observed, the general color scheme and the calender’s visual hierarchy is way clearer than Google Calendar.
Creating an event is a breeze
It’s easy to create a new event on Teamup. Just click on a specific date on the calendar where you want to schedule your event and a pop-up window will appear automatically (like the one shown below). Then you can add any detail you need to include; bits of information such as a topic, attendees, venue, duration, and all the details you need to show your teammates can be filled in easily.
If an event you added recurs you can indicate this and Teamup will offer a number of options. You can also add a description for your event with simple formatting available in the editor and more customization is allowed using the HTML.
A feature I hope the app will develop is the option to add custom fields. While the option can’t be had yet, it will not totally turn you off. It will not give you a reason not to use this App altogether, either. But if the creators of Teamup can make way for it to happen then they can continue to lead the pack of online calendar providers. However, users and would be users can be comforted by the fact that most calendar tools don’t offer this feature, either.
Numerous views and multiple calendars
While you can choose to view all calendars at once, you can also decide not to view the others that are not relevant at a given time. During such times, you can toggle each particular calendar on and off as you need to. Isn’t this a great feature? You can easily pull out the ones you need for a particular time and you can leave out those that are not needed. When the situation requires you to check all calendars, you have the freedom to do so. This applies to each user via cookies, not via URL. This means, each user can view what they exactly want to check at any given time.
Based on the people I have interviewed, one of the app’s most popular qualities is the way it’s designed to make it easy for users to share calendars with teammates or anybody they choose to. No registration is required. All you need is a unique URL. (When you create a calendar and you save it, you’ll be given a unique URL). These links can be altered depending on the permissions you wish to grant to each team member. Example: one link can allow a user to modify the calendar. Another link can designate a read-only permission to another member.
In case you have multiple calendars, you can also alter the permission levels for each calendar. And this can be all done from the same link. With this feature, you can grant someone access to one calendar and opt to hide another. Sharing your calendars with other people is so simple and quick.
A unique feature: Share events as webpages
Another feature everybody is talking about is Teamup’s share any individual event independently (without sharing the whole calendar). Yup, calendars are not the only items you can share; you can also share any entry from the calendar as a stand-alone event with a unique web URL. How to do it? click or right-click any event title, then click Share – as page. Simple, baby! You can check a step by step guide here.
Subscription Plans and pricing
Depending on your team’s requirements, you can pick one from several plans. What’s good about Teamup is that for all plans including the Basic Plan, there’s unlimited number of users. Regarding sub-calendars, though, it’s where Premium and Plus Plans have advantages. You can see the specifics on the screenshot (from Teamup’s website) featured here.
The more expensive plans have longer duration for your calendar’s data history. And if you want an additional layer of privacy protection, you can opt to get the Plus or Premium Plans. The Basic Plan and Special Introductory Plan don’t have this feature. Another added feature for the Premium Plan is the ability to upload files.
The Introductory Special Plan offers up to 10 sub-calendars, a year of historical data and the scheduler view. If you sign up now, you’ll get this for free on a continuous basis. Simply put, it’s forever. So … if you’re considering Teamup, it’s best not to delay registering to secure those handy extras.
Most of the people I have talked to regarding using online calendars say if they are satisfied with the calendar they use, they can concentrate more on personal and team productivity. So far, among all the calendars they have tried, Teamup Calendar stands out from the crowd, most especially regarding its being user friendly and its share-centric qualities.
Featured photo credit: Macbook Computer/VFS Digital Design via imcreator.com
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