mice nice nice nice Simplify, Organize, Relax

Google Calendar solves many problems at once. Recognizing that calendars are more than just private scheduling devices for work or home, Google has created a flexible, sharable online calendar with scads of options to keep you and your crew (family, co-workers, teammates, etc.) all on the same page.

Integrated with Gmail, the calendar functionality will recognize events in your email and prompt you to add them to your schedule. You can import events from other applications like Yahoo! Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple’s iCal, and then share those events with the people you invite to see your agenda.

You can also send invitations, get RSVPs, and have visitors post comments to upcoming events. Google will even remind you when your next game, next meeting, or next birthday is around the corner.

Some Google Calendar Tips:

Keyboard shortcuts

If you want to feel like a pro on any application, the first step is nailing the keyboard shortcuts—so you don’t just feel like a pro, you look like one, too. Here are a few shortcuts for Google Calendar:

P Previous date range
N Next date range
T Move to Today
M Month View
Q Quick Add
X Customized View

Multiple Calendars

You can make multiple calendars (for example you might want separate calendars for "work", "personal", "birthdays", and "Evil Plans for Global Domination") which you can then use check boxes to show or hide them on your calendar display. Two important things to note, however, are that the first calendar you create will be your "Primary" calendar. At this time, there is no way to change which calendar is your "Primary" calendar, and you can only set reminders on the "Primary" calendar.

If you create an item on your "Primary" calendar, the reminder options will be there. "So", you might think to yourself, "I'll just set the reminder, and then switch which calendar it's on!" I'm afraid your wily ways will not fool Google. When you save the event, the reminder will go away. If you re-open that event you will now see that "Reminder" does not show under the event options.

Customized view

Google, like any calendar program, offers day, week, and month views of your schedule. But since Google always must have the next best thing, they’ve introduced Customized View, which you can set as Next 4 Days to Next 4 Weeks to anything else – and the X shortcut will get you there immediately.

Reminders as text messages

One of Google Calendar’s greatest features is its interface with your mobile phone. Go into Settings > Notifications to verify your cell number, and Google will send you a text message alerting you to your next appointment.

Mobile agenda

Once Google has validated your phone number and linked it to your Google account, you can text message DAY to 48368, and Google Calendar will text you back your full day’s agenda with name, time, and location information.

Mac users

Google Calendar is about 50% compliant with Mac. For instance, Calendar will work fine on IE or Firefox on a Mac, but forget about it with Safari. Also, exchanging information between Google Calendar and Mac’s iCal works okay—you can broadcast and receive calendars from both apps to both apps. However, these transferred calendars are read-only, so they don’t perfectly sync. You can pull information from one to the other, but they don’t talk back and forth freely.


See also:

• Froogle
• Fun With Google
• Gmail
• Google Book Search
• Google Groups

• Google Maps
• Google News
• Google Search Tips
• Google Zeitgeist
• Image Search
• Your Website and Google