Tutorial4 - WWW Gadgets: Google Calendar

This class has been a real experience, opening my eyes to many new technological concepts – far more rewarding than I anticipated.  I’ve become a fan of Google and utilized many of the various gadgets when I didn’t even have an account before this class started.  Certainly Google is not the only web experience worthy of deeper discussion, but it is certainly a good starting point. 

This tutorial will discuss the Google calendar, and teach a user how to set it up and synchronize to the mobile device.



Google web page



First, the user must have a Google account. 

1)      Go to www.google.com

2) Select the “More” drop down option, then select “Calendar”

3) Existing users, sign in to your Google Account.  New users, use the “Create an account” wizard.

4) In the left pane under “My Calendars”, click “Add”. 

5) Configure the calendar specifics, such as name, description, location, time zone and sharing settings.  You can add specific people and their individual permissions.  Be sure you review the “learn more” information to discover the options.

6) Once the calendar is created, go back into “settings” to finish configuration settings, such as how the calendar handles invitations, the html embed code, and calendar ID address.

7) From the left pane of the calendar page, you can customize your calendar from the “My Calendars” list by clicking on the drop down box.

a)       Color coding the calendar in the calendar list.  This provides a visual distinction between multiple calendars in the calendar list.



b)      Event details, attendees and reminders.  Select "Create event ont his calendar".  Review all of the options to configure the event details and setting behavior.





Once you have successfully set up an event, a link to the event will be available at the top of the calendar:



From the calendar, you can click on the event to see the event details and access other options:

Note that the calendar event font is the same color as the calendar.  This allows you to overlay  multiple calendars and visually identify which calendar the event is associated with.

c)      Setting up notifications and synching up to your smart phone.  Select "Notifications" and select the option settings for all events added to the calendar.



The Google calendar is extremely easy to use yet quite robust.  It enables the user to keep track of events both from the web and synchronized to a smart device.  I hope this tutorial has been helpful and proves to be useful. 

All material is original work created by the author.