Waffle Bytes

(Reposting) There are many time I get an email that I want to make into an event on my calendar - both to make sure I block out the time, and to move the information out of an email in my inbox into the event. There is a feature called "Create event" that let's you do this - it is available in the More options when you are viewing the message. Once you select create event, Google opens up a new window, loads your calendar, and creates an event with the message subject as the name of the event, and the body of the message as the description within the event: You are then able to edit the date/time and other information as needed to finish creating the event. One caveat...it adds everyone that was part of the message to the Guest list (see above in red box), so unless you want it to be a group event you will need to click the x next to everyone's name but yours.

The Google Classroom calendar has the flexibility of being stand-alone within Classroom, or view-able with your other calendars within Google Calendar.  Which you (and your students) want to use depends on how you want to use it.  One of the big differences is that the only way you can add items to the calendar built into Google Classroom is by adding them as an assignment, etc within the classroom; whereas the calendar as viewed within Google Calendar is editable - just like your other Google Calendars.  To view your calendar within Classroom, click on the 3 horizontal bars on the upper left side Select Calendar - This will bring up a calendar that is built into the Classroom, which will display the assignments for the course (or all classes) - To view the Classroom calendar within Google Calendar, look for the classroom name right within your calendars list - 

(This is m odified from Davepar’s project and examples at GitHub https://github.com/Davepar/gcalendarsync which can do a sync either direction.) I had a colleague ask if she could easily copy calendar events into a spreadsheet for a log. We discussed using the Agenda view in calendar, but she needed to do some calculations and data analysis with the information so a spreadsheet was the obvious landing place for the information. After finding (and previously using) Davepar's script to create Calendar events from a Sheet, it made sense to revisit it and break it down the other way. After doing that, it made sense to let the user input the desired date range on the spreadsheet. Here's the result: (Feel free to grab the Script if you want to make your own modifications- this one is an easy one with only 1 line of code to update.) Directions : Part 1 - Set Up the Calendar: Create a new Google Calendar (in the dropdown next to "My calendars" in the le...

Here is our rundown of videos and blog posts on Google Calendar!  We hope there are some tidbits that are useful to you.  We have tried to provide 2 minute (or less) videos and blog posts on features that we feel are either basic to knowing how best to use G Calendar, or are very underutilized and could help people be more efficient with G Calendar.  Feel free to pass any of them on to other people that may find them useful. (Up next - Google Forms...) Dec 10: How to change the calendar views (Week, Day, Month, etc.) ( blog post ) Dec 11: How to change the color of a calendar ( blog post ) Dec 12: How to create a delegate (secondary) calendar ( blog post ) Dec 13: How to turn viewing a specific calendar off and on ( blog post ) Dec 14: How to quick create events (click & fill) ( blog post ) Dec 17: How to move events ( blog post ) Dec 18: How to set Out of Office events ( blog post ) Dec 19: How to create detailed events ( blog post ) ...

Google Calendar provides a couple ways you can share your calendar.  The first way you will see below provides a link that lets another person subscribe to your calendar.  They will need to be logged into their Google account, and it will display YOUR calendar along with their own. (Personally, I find this method the best for adding my kids' and husband's events so I see our families events all in one calendar.)  The second method displays your calendar in a browser window.  This is probably the preferred Teacher method for sharing with parents. (Here is a video on How to Share Your Calendar Via a Link .) When in your Google Calendar: Click on the Options menu (stacked dots) for the calendar you want to share - Select Settings and sharing - Click on Access permissions on the left side - Click on the Get shareable link - Note that who can see the calendar with this link depends on the access permissions you have set right above.  For example...

There are times you want to email those you have invited to an event.  Or even times you want to email SOME of those you have invited.  Instead of doing this in mail, you have the ability to do it right within the event on your calendar.  It's quick, flexible, and can save you a lot of time, so is worth checking out if you haven't used it before! (Here is a video on How to Email Guests that are Invited to an Event. ) When in your Google Calendar: Click on the event you wish to email out from -  Click on the Mail icon in the upper right of the event -  A window pops up for you to craft your email in. You have the following options: Select a subgroup to send the message to (leaving all checked sends to all & cc's you) You can take off specific people, OR add people not invited to the event Copy the email addresses to the clipboard to use elsewhere Compose your message Note that the "event information will be included in the message...

Scheduling an event can be difficult. However, Google Calendar does have several features to try to make this a little less painful...and a little less than 30 emails to create.  One of these is the Suggested Times feature.  This will suggest open time slots of the duration you want for all those invited to your event.  A couple items of note with this features: it works best if everyone has established their working hours.  (Check out this previous post in how to do that if you need to.) it works best if you have viewing rights to the calendars of everyone you are inviting.  For example, for me - it makes scheduling within my own organization easier as we have the ability to at least see free/busy time for everyone's calendar.   (Here is a video on How to Use the Suggested Times Feature .) To use this features, first open or create the event on your calendar.  Make sure to go into More options so you see the full event details - ...

Do you have an event that happens on a regular basis?  Say a birthday, or weekly meeting?  You can set up recurring events on your Google Calendar, and it is actually pretty flexible as long as the events have consistency to when they occur.  (If they don't have consistency you will instead want to use the duplicate feature.  That is tomorrow's post.) (Here is a video on  How to Set Up A Recurring Event .) To set up a recurring event: First create your event, and go to the event details - Look for the drop-down, by default it says Does not repeat -  Click on it to reveal the "smart" options it offers you.  If one of these is correct, select it.  If not, then click on Custom... at the bottom - Once in the Custom recurrence, set the information as needed for your event - Here is an example of my reminder to post the G Suite Tidbits.  It is set to be every week on Monday-Friday, and expires on Feb 15, 2019 when we wrap ...

Sometimes you get invited to an event, but the time just doesn't work for you.  Either you already have something scheduled, or another event comes up that takes precedence.  Instead of canceling or declining the event, you do have the ability to propose a new time to the event organizer.  It is easy to do (and modify), and also will let you send a note explaining why you would like a change in date and/or time.  (Here is a video on How to Propose a New Event Time )  The blog post also includes how to cancel a proposed new time at the end. To propose a new event time to the organizer: Click on the event you wish to propose a new time for.  Look for an arrow in the bottom right corner of the event details - A couple new options will appear; select Propose a new time - A window appears on the left side of the screen where you can: Propose a new time (or even day) Add an optional message for the organizer Once done, click on Send proposal...