[Biotic Blue]

Hi,
New here and hoping to be a new convert to WP8, coming from 2 years on Android, now there are a few things I need to clear up in my head that I am unsure about, have done some research but being a simple guy need simple answers and what I have gathered does not fully compute with me.
Brief outline, I make good use of Google calendar on the PC to keep details up to date to have all appointments on my phone especially recurring appointments that can't be done on the phone, occasionally add single appointments on my phone then can see them on my desktop if I need to later. I use Google Drive for personal items, fairly minimal just for some brief sheets and save stuff I don’t currently need on my phone, music and the such. So the general point is I need PC to phone and back calendar sync.

Now the issues, I use my GCalendar at work on my PC and Drive to keep things up to date, I would be more than happy to swap to outlook and Skydrive for this purpose and a full interaction between phone and PC, but my work IT does not allow access to outlook.com or Skydrive, Windows Live sign of any kind, and they use Lotus Notes *sigh* for email and calendar so I do not even have Outlook office on my PC, I am also using Windows XP SP3. Then to top it all I do not have a PC at home to access online calendars other than the occasional borrow of the kids netbook which is not ideal (and is on Win XP as well), I use my phone for the minimal browsing I do.
Simple questions for simple answers then.
1 – I hear all sorts about the CalDav or something in GDR2, but am not entirely confident about its workings, can I successfully sync my G calendar with the WP8 inbuilt calendar and back again, without having to regularly mess with some settings?
2 – I can switch to Box for online storage (have seen the app), but are simple sheets and docs easy to manage on the phone in office for Skydrive storage thus avoiding using a PC full stop on this?
3 – As I understand a WP8 will happily interact with Win XP SP3, is this correct?
I am more than happy with the WP8 set up and am set on a Lumia 620, loved my Nokia 5800 in years gone, there are more than enough Apps to give me functions in the store, and I can add in my Xbox Live, so I am good to go but would really appreciate a simple yes/no as to the calendar operation in particular as I have little choice in the matter when needing to see my home calendar on PC.
Many thanks

[Chris_Kez]

So just to clarify, your work allows access to Google Calendar and Google Drive (and Box), but restricts access to Outlook.com and SkyDrive? Well, you can spend some time researching the whole Lotus Notes<>Google Calendar<>Outlook.com situation. I'm pretty sure people have gotten it to work, at least to some extent. As an alternative you might look at a third party client that should definitely work well:

Sync Windows Phone 8 with Lotus Notes - Sync contacts, calendar and to dos -- CompanionLink Software

[Biotic Blue]

Yes, I can access google drive and calendar, but not gmail, no yahoo or various other sites, and certainly no outlook or skydrive, it's a bit odd, but there you go, so just looking for an understanding of syncing my calendar without too much fuss, so will take a look the whole work around, but its a bit frustrating. Cheers