Calendar

Among the many free services and applications that Google provides to its users is the Google Calendar. You can use this free online calendar very easily to keep track of all the important events in one place. The application can be accessed from the top navigation bar of the Google home page. If you already have a Google account, then you can sign in with your Google username and password and use the applicatio.

The calendar application is very much similar to your desktop calendar except that this feature is online and so all your important dates, events and meetings or appointments are on the cloud and therefore can be accessed from anywhere. Not many people are aware of the availability and the wide scope of usage of this particular application offered by Google.

 

Using the Google Calendar

It is very easy to organise your life and schedules with the help of the Google Calendar in the following ways:

 

1. Share your schedule with your co-workers, friends or family by letting them see your calendar and in the same way, you can also view the schedules that others have shared with you. In this manner, you can easily co-ordinate dates and events with each other.
2. Get mobile with your calendar with the two-way syncing to your mobile phone’s built-in calendar or a mobile version of Google Calendar that’s made for the small In this manner you can easily access your calendar while you are away from your desk.

 

 

3. Remember all the important events, dates or appointments with the customizable reminders that help you to stay on schedu Google Calendar offers you the option of getting notifications by email or via text messages on your phone.
4. You can send invitations and track RSVPs using the Google Calendar. Invite people to events on your calendar and your guests can send RSVPs to your events via email or Google Calendar its
5. You can also sync the Google Calendar with your desktop applications and access your calendar however and wherever you want by syncing events with Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCal and Mozilla Sunbird.
6. The best part is that you can also work online. You can view a read-only version of your calendar no matter where you are even when you don’t have an Internet connectio

 

Once you sign in to the Google Calendar using your Google username and password, the calendar page opens as seen in the snapshot below:

When you sign in, by default, the current month calendar is opened. You can choose the view mode to display the calendar for a day, week, 4 days, and month or as per agenda. The Day, Week and 4 days view modes display the time slots also and can be used to create events or appointment slots. The month view mode allows you to create tasks in addition to the events.

 

You can easily “Create” a new event by either using the red Create button provided on the top let hand side bar or simply by clicking on the date/time box in the view. The events will be seen on the calendar as per the date or time and you can also set reminders in the form of email/pop-ups.

 

he tasks are listed on the right hand side bar and in addition to creating tasks in the month view mode, you can also add new tasks to your day or month by clicking on the > besides the task. The Tasks display also allows you to edit/add notes to existing tasks.

 

Google Calendar also allows you to add your friend’s calendars or other calendars, birthdays, and holidays.

 

One can easily control the various features available in the Google Calendar by going to the “Settings” and using “Labs” to enable or disable any of the features by selecting the appropriate radio button and saving your choices.

 

Gentle Reminders, Automatically declining events, Event attachments, Event Flair, Smart rescheduler, Who’s my one-on-one with, Year view, Add any gadget by URL, Background Image, Free or busy, Next meeting, Jump to date and World Clock are the features that are available at present that you can enable or disable as per your choice.