New user: Does Thunderbird have a Calendar?

[FrankSMS]

I looked and looked but didn't see anything in any of the menu items.
There was an extension called Lightening which seems to work fine.
Did I miss something? From the title of this forum group it looks like there is a calendar somewhere in Thunderbird.

I made a list of features that would be great to see in a Calendar.

BACKUP automatically to hard drive/cloud/email.
DISPLAY expandability on items so many more fit on one screen, important to fit as many events on one day / week / month screen as possible.
EXPORT: Ability to send a to-do list to a mobile device.
FIND/SEARCH FUNCTION by keyword(s)
NOTIFICATION alarm/email/text, different set time periods.
PRINTING abilty to print to-do lists

Once I start using one I'm sure I'll think of other useful features.

[DanRaisch]

Without the Lightning extension Thunderbird does not have any calendar functionality. Starting a short time ago Lightning is installed as part of the Thunderbird installation.

[FrankSMS]

When I searched for Calendars in Extensions many came up. Is Lightning acknowledged as the best or are the others working more with Firefox? Guess it really doesn't matter as long as they integrate though it would seem the function of a Calencar is closer to email program than a browser program.

[DanRaisch]

it would seem the function of a Calencar is closer to email program than a browser program.

Well, that sort of depends on how one uses their email and calendar. Some folks don't use an email client at all but only access messages via their provider's webmail interface. In such cases they would want a calendar that link with/works with a browser like Firefox.

Lightning is the "official" calendar extension for Thunderbird.

[FrankSMS]

Kind of thought it was the designated one. Thanks.

[mgagnonlv]

To the original poster, the answer is both "yes" and "no".

Lightning is the official Thunderbird extension to use calendars, but it is now included in new Thunderbird installs (I think they started to do so in late 2015). If you install a brand new Thunderbird on a virgin computer (i.e. no profile, etc.), then at the first start it will ask you to configure an email account and then will ask you if you want to use the integrated calendar. If you dismiss it, then I'm afraid you can't get back to it.

On the other hand, if you haven't checked "yes" when installing a new Thunderbird, or if you have an older profile or you are upgrading Thunderbird, then it won't use the integrated Lightning. You then have to install the Lightning extension.

Basically, the Lightning extension and integrated Lightning are identical.

[FrankSMS]

Great answer. Thank you!