Anagram is one of those great little utilities that you just don’t know how you lived without it. It takes what can be quite unstructured text and converts it into either a contact record or calendar entry as appropriate. I had been using the Outlook version of Anagram for a couple of years but when I moved over to Gmail a year ago I lost the ability to use Anagram as it wasn’t supported. So I was delighted to find out recently that Anagram now works with Gmail and Google Calendar.
Anagram works as a Gmail Gadget which means it will work pretty much in any desktop browser. It appears in the left hand bar as a text box (see left). You then cut and paste the contact or event text into the box and click the Go! button. The first time you use the service you will be asked which Google Account you want to link with Anagram and to give permission. On subsequent requests you will see a page confirming the details in the fields Anagram thinks they should appear in. You then get a chance to correct any (rare) mistakes before committing it.
Best of all the service is (currently) free!
There are some screenshots of Anagram in action below.
Select the text, paste into the box and hit Go!
Confirm the details and click Send to Gmail Contacts
Same for calendar/event text
Confirm the details and click Save to Google Calendar
First time selection of Google Account to associate
One time grant of access to Anagram
Another good post Neil, I really appreciate seeing these kind of posts. More please 😀