Overview
Often asked question:
- By default, no one can see the details of your events. They can only see when you are free or busy. If you should want to provide more access to your calendar to groups or individuals, you can do so. You can also allow other people to modify events; such as adding an attachment, updating the description, or even changing the date and time of an event.
- A LOT of details about Google Calendar, with graphics are explained on the Google Calendar Cheat Sheet published by Google: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9290350
F&M uses Google Calendar for a variety of purposes.
For scheduling meetings
Need to schedule a meeting with someone, or with a group of people but you aren’t sure what time will work best? Use Google Calendar to find out. The recommended way to do this is to open the full Google Calendar web application in the CHROME browser (this will not work in the Safari browser). Then create the calendar event in your calendar. You can always edit the event and the time, add all of the people you want to include in the meeting. You will find an option to add members near the right side of the screen. Once you have them added, click the “Find a Time” tab above the meeting description. You will then see the Free/Busy times for everyone. You can then slide your meeting date/time to a time when everyone, or at least most people are available. Click Save. Everyone will get an invitation to Accept or Decline the meeting.
Coordinating Activities for Small Groups
You can easily create additional calendars within the Google Calendar web interface. You may want to create additional calendars for specific tasks or projects you are working on. You can keep that calendar to yourself, or you can share it with other people. In general, to create an additional calendar, you will click the small icon to the right of the Add Calendar option at the left of the screen.
- Specific instructions on this task are currently available at this link offered by Google: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37095?hl=en.
- If you want to share that calendar, see the instructions at https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37082?hl=en&ref_topic=3417969
Publicizing Events to Large Groups
At F&M, we refer to these Google Calendars as “Institutional Calendars”. These have been created to share activities with a large number of people, usually more than 500 people. In most cases, Institutional calendars begin with “F&M”. Events are managed by a designated person(s) and shared with others through one or more Google Groups. The creator is responsible for maintaining appropriate access and is encouraged to closely monitor events that may be published. Creating an Institutional Calendar can be done by following the links in the preceding paragraph. If events need to be published to the entire F&M campus or the public, it is highly suggested that the event be created using the Room Reservation System instead of a Google Calendar.
Examples of Institutional calendars include the F&M Holidays & Important Dates and the F&M Official Academic Notices calendars. These calendars are shared with everyone at F&M. If you feel that a calendar you create should be shared with more than 500 people, please contact the ITS Help Desk to ensure that creating it would not create a duplicate calendar in our environment. If you are responsible for maintaining a calendar with a large number of events, consider importing events using a .CSV file.
Adding Video-Conferencing to an Event
Google Calendar also provides the capability to add video-conferencing to a meeting using Google Meet. For full details, visit https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9290350.
Viewing Additional Calendars
You can also view other calendars besides your own. Depending on your device, instructions will vary. Step-by-step instructions can be found at https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100.