This feature-rich program places an unobtrusive calendar on your Desktop. You quickly can access your tasks and see details of upcoming events by double-clicking on the day or in the sidebar. Active Desktop Calendar supports multiple users, using layers to store their profiles. You can connect to other people's calendars via LAN to see changes in their schedule, and you also can have the application display your Outlook information. The utility doesn't consume much memory, especially considering all the cool stuff it does.
We noticed a few shortcomings in this overall excellent program. While the window for adding a new note contains a subject line and a body field, only the subject-line text appears on the calendar and the sidebar. You can switch among several desktop images and set the program as the default screensaver, but we weren't impressed by the performance of these features. The images don't stretch or tile, and the screensaver only displays the time and a line of text. Despite this, the functionality and design of Active Desktop Calendar make it useful for home and business users.
This fully customizable calendar features notes/appointments, tasks, alarms, and displays its data on your desktop through blending with existing wallpaper. You can organize your data in layers and share them with other people on a local network. The program can integrate with Outlook and shows its appointments and tasks on the desktop. There are options for changing calendar icons, fonts, colors and type: one, two, or three months displayed on the desktop. A text-only version also is available. Recurrence patterns work for both notes/appointments and alarms. If the interactive desktop option is enabled, the program accepts direct clicks on dates, notes/appointments, and tasks. Printing calendar data is easy, in monthly view or as a list with an option to choose date range for printing notes/appointments. The desktop pictures option allows you to add some of your pictures to an existing desktop background. CSV format is supported for data export and import. Version 5.6 can integrate with Outlook and show its data on the desktop.
