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Working together means finding time to meet. Thankfully, Google automates even that (there are nifty "suggest a time" features in Calendar). But for that to work, you have to properly share your Calendar - and perhaps you want to share it more broadly than the default. Perhaps you need to share your calendar with clients. All that is easy and possible - Calendar sharing is very accessible.
Paper is out. Digital sharing is in. Still, January is a good way to re-think our settings.
Access levels
Access levels
You control what others see. Just open Calendar's settings and scroll down to the Calendar that has your name on it (item 1 in the screenshot to the right):
See only free/busy (hide details): Will show only time blocks - no event names or details. All events are called "busy".
See all event details: Shows all events, except those marked as private.
The following levels go further, and are only available when sharing with specific people:
Make changes to events: The person can add, edit and delete your events. They can see events you have marked as private or trashed. They can even receive alerts for your events. This is perfect for executive assistants and for people you would trust even with your emails.
Make changes and manage sharing: The same as above, but the person can share your calendar with others and delete the whole calendar. Senior executives and assistants often use this (if an EA goes on vacatio
The default sharing configuration: Not available to the public, free/busy to our organization, other Google apps can access.
My configuration is: Available to public (See only free/busy), Available for organization (See all event details), other Google apps can access.
The configuration "Other Google apps can access" is not about other people, but about your other services. It should not be changed, this will stop Gmail and Chat notifications from working properly ("out of office" etc.).
My configuration is: Available to public (See only free/busy), Available for organization (See all event details), other Google apps can access.
The configuration "Other Google apps can access" is not about other people, but about your other services. It should not be changed, this will stop Gmail and Chat notifications from working properly ("out of office" etc.).
Making your calendar accessible to the entire organization, or "the public"
Making your calendar accessible to the entire organization, or "the public"
Both permissions work similarly (item 2 in the screenshot above):
When you enable this, you can send a link to your calendar around. Internal people can find your availability. You can add Google Workspace users to the list of people you share with (see below).
Disabling this permission suspends existing shares and serves as a backstop: Expect furious calls from your grandmother.
If you uncheck Make available for <company>, your calendar will appear empty for your colleagues, and they will schedule all over the place - joke's on you.
Many organizations set "everyone who works here can see all details" as the default, and I support that. It is our work calendar, after all, you should add only work-related matters to your calendar. Work works better if people can see what I'm doing.
Setting individual events private
Setting individual events private
Even if you make your calendar fully transparent to the organization (as many do, including myself), you can mark individual events as private. And you should! If you have confidential events or the occasional doctor's visit, you can "hide" them selectively - see on the right. Other people will see them as "busy" blocks (unless you also mark them as "free", then they disappear).
My weekly GTD review - is not really private. Come take a look.
Making your calendar accessible to an individual Google user
Making your calendar accessible to an individual Google user
You can keep your calendar in "free/busy" mode for the organization, but share more with individual co-workers.
Sharing with an individual (or a group) is very easy. Just type the email address under Share with specific people (item 3 in the screenshot above). If it's an internal address, you can select any access level you like. If it's an external address, your choice will be limited to See only free/busy (hide details) to prevent oversharing.
The person will then receive a very simple email with a link they can click to add your calendar to their Google calendar. This is a link to Google calendar, so people using other services will not be able to do much with it.
If you change your mind about that person, remove them from the list. Easy!
Sharing a link to your calendar with non-Google users
Sharing a link to your calendar with non-Google users
Everything described so far works within your company. But what about the unfortunate few who cannot use Google and are still stuck with "Swoosh"? Collaboration with them is less fluid, but Calendar tries to be helpful:
Scroll down the "Settings" page until find Integrate calendar - there will be a field called Public URL to this calendar. You can copy this code and send it to people. Your calendar will look like something on the right to them - a lot of "busy" blocks. That calendar is not very pretty, but it has a week, month and an agenda view. Plus it can be printed and is aware of time zones - not bad. Of course, others cannot edit it.
Note: In order for this to work, you have to make your calendar available to the public (see above). You can change your mind and revoke public visibility at any time.
Tip: If you would like to try if it works, open a New incognito window from Chrome's menu and paste the link you copied.
Tip: Many people put this link in their email signature.
So many tips today. Ready for one more?
This is what the Calendar will look like for external people with the link. Hey, still looks better than Swoosh!
Pro tip: Sharing a link to your team's calendars with your client
Pro tip: Sharing a link to your team's calendars with your client
Let us say you have a client and want to offer them some times to meet - but it is one of those clients that take forever to decide. The passive-aggressive "can you give me some times that work for you?" must end, it is better to let them pick a date.
Even worse - you have four people on your team and picking out dates is horrible. Would it not be nice to send the client a single link, so they can pick a date they like? That is possible. You just have to tweak the address:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=peter@company.com&src=mary@company.com&src=bob@company.com
The logic will be many "source=email" pairs, written as src=first.last@company.com. Internet rules require the first one to be preceded by a ?, every other by an &. Your client will get the most horrible, overlaid calendar - but any gap they spot will work for all of you. Just what you wanted. Make sure your team is sharing their calendars publicly.
Your calendar is as flexible as you. It is controlled by you, using two sets of intuitive controls, to reflect your way of working and to get things done with people close to you. You can also temporarily elevate others, or create links that enable your clients to see your availability. True collaboration power in your hands. Thank you for reading!
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