Set Up Your Calendar: Event reminders, invitation replies, calendar sharing, additional calendars
Set up event reminders
By default, your calendar event reminders are turned off. Turn on event reminders to receive either a pop-up message or an email notification before a meeting.
1. Open Google Calendar.
2. In the upper-right corner of the page, click Settings > Calendars.
3. Under My Calendars, click the Notifications link for your calendar. For example:
4. In the Event reminders section, click Add a Reminder:
5. Set reminder options.
6. Click Save at the bottom of the page.
Set up invitation replies
Turn on invitation replies to receive an email message when someone you invite to a meeting accepts or declines your invitation.
1. Open Google Calendar.
2. In the upper-right corner of the page, click Settings > Calendars.
3. Under My Calendars, click the Notifications link for your calendar. For example:
4. In the Choose how you would like to be notified section, select the Email check box for Invitation replies.
5. Click Save at the bottom of the page.
Tip: Get your list of meetings for the day automatically emailed to you each morning! Just click the Email check box for Daily agenda.
Share your calendar
By default, your "free/busy" calendar information is shared with everyone in the [your domain] domain. You can share additional information with everyone or just specific employees, or stop sharing all calendar information.
1. Open Google Calendar.
2. In the My calendars list on the left, click the down-arrow next to your calendar, and then select Share this calendar.
3. Select the sharing options you want to use for your calendar.
View another user's calendar
If other users have shared their calendars with you, you can view those calendars. If a user hasn't yet shared his or her calendar with you, can can send a request to that person.
1. Open Google Calendar.
2. In the Other calendars list on the left, start typing a user's name or address in the Add a coworker's calendar field. In the list that appears, click the user whose calendar you want to add.
If the user has shared his or her calendar, it appears in your list under Other calendars, and the user's events appear on your calender.
If the user has not shared his or her calendar, you'll see a page on which you can send a request to the user.
4. Edit the default message if you like, and then click Send Invite.
Tip: To hide or show the user's events on your calendar, simply click the calender in your list.
Create another calendar
You can create any number of secondary calendars. For example, you can set up a calendar for your workgroup or team to share. Each calendar you create appears in your list under My Calendars.1. Open Google Calendar.
2. In the My calendars box on the left, click Add.
3. In the Create New Calendar window, enter a name for the calendar. You can also select a time zone and sharing options for the calendar.
4. When you're finished setting up the calendar, click Create Calendar.
What's Not Available in Google Calendar
Google Calendar provides most of the features you're used to in. However, here are some features that aren't yet available:
- Offline access -- You must connect your computer to the Internet to use Google Calendar.
- Invitation alerts -- You'll no longer see a message "snippet" in the lower-right corner of your desktop or hear an alert when a new invitation arrives. However, you'll see an alert in the lower-right corner of your Gmail window. Also, you can set up a pop-up or email reminder in your Calendar Settings.
- Drag and drop for attachments -- To add an attachment to an event, you must provide a link to it on the intranet or in Google Docs.
- Custom view options -- There's no separate reading pane or custom views, and you can't move any components in the Google Calendar window.
Last modified: Thursday, 12 January 2012, 8:54 PM