Calendar

Overview

Eligibility

All members of the University have access to Google Apps for Education.

Departmental Computing Officers can request new resource calendars - contact the IT Support.

Key features

• View your calendar by day, week, month or agenda
• View colleagues' calendars
• Easily create events, and:
  
  • set them to repeat
  • change the privacy settings
  • create Appointment Slots for other people to book during a time window specified by you
• Invite guests to your event, and use Find a Time to see your guests' calendars at a glace
• Accept invitations directly from Gmail
• Create additional calendars for your own use
• Request shared resource calendars:
  
  • A calendar resource is anything you schedule that isn't an event. Examples including meeting rooms (that aren't in Planon), projectors, recreation equipment, or any other resource that the people in your organization might schedule a time to use. Resource calendar requests need to be submitted to IT Services by your Departmental Computing Officer.
• Create a to-do list

Calendar on your phone & tablet

Our mobile devices page shows you the York facilities you can access from your phone, laptop and tablet, including a Google Calendar app:

• Mobile devices

Help from Google

Google's help pages provide a basic introduction to Calendar's features.

Getting started

Change your Calendar settings

You can personalise your Calendar, change the language and time zone and opt to receive notifications on your mobile phone.

Clicking on the gears icon at the top right-hand corner, and select Calendar Settings.

• Language
• Date format: by default, this will have the US format (12/31/2011) but can be changed to UK format (31/12/2011)
• Week start: by default, the week starts on Sunday but it can be changed to Monday
• Time format (eg 24 hour clock)
• Event reminders: the default is to remind you of events 10 minutes before it starts
• Privacy settings: by default, your availability in calendar will be shown as Free/Busy - for more information see the Sharing section below
• Notifications: choose how you'd like to be notified about new or edited events

View your academic timetable

You can add University of York timetables, including your personalised academic timetable, to your Google Calendar or mobile device through MyTimetable. Detailed instructions are provided on the MyTimetable Help page:

• MyTimetable - Help

Share your calendar

By default, all members of the University using Google Calendar will be able to see basic Free/Busy information in your calendar.

You can set up your Calendar so that named individuals or groups can see more detailed information about the events. You can also give Edit permission for your Calendar to named individuals.

You can do this as follows:

1. Access the Calendar settings (by clicking on the gears icon, or from the settings link under My calendars in the left column)
2. Click on the Shared: Edit Settings link beside your Calendar name
3. Scroll down to the section Share with specific people.  In the Enter email address box, type the email address of the individual or group. 
4. Choose the appropriate setting (eg See all event details) in the drop down list.
5. Click on Add Person
6. Click on Save

Google provide information on how to share and manage access to your Calendar and how to set appropriate privacy for your own calendar:

Share your Calendar

Using Google Calendar with Outlook

We strongly recommend that you use the Google web interface to view and manage your Calendar.

However, instructions for users wishing to sync with their Outlook calendar are provided by Google:

• Synchronise with Outlook

When you receive an invitation from Google Calendar in Outlook, you will see two buttons that allow you to accept the meeting - this is because Outlook recognises that the email is a Calendar event.

Clicking on the Accept button at the top of the email will only add the event to your Outlook calendar. To accept the event in Google Calendar, you should click on the Going: Yes button in the email body.

Help & troubleshooting

Help from Google

Google's help pages provide a basic introduction to Calendar's features.

Help from IT Services

Bespoke training and coaching can be organised for staff groups who require it.

Troubleshooting

If you're having problems with Google Apps, it may be because your web browser isn't up to date.

In general the Google Calendar web interface is supported by the current and prior major releases of the Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox desktop web browsers.

Mobile web browsers must meet certain minimum requirements of functionality.

Using Google's Chrome web browser gives the most complete and feature rich experience.

Further information can be found in Google's help pages on Supported Browsers.

Library & IT Help Desk

If you're having problems using Google Calendar, get in touch with the IT Support.

Our commitments

Bulk create events

The Digital Inclusion, Skills and Creativity (DISC) team in Library and Archives have developed a tool for bulk creating Google Calendar events with optional Google Meet or Zoom video conferencing. These events can be created in your own calendar or another calendar for which you have sufficient permissions to manage.

This means you can create multiple events in one go - by adding the event details to each row in the Google Sheet. At the end of the process you will be provided with a link to the new Google Calendar event and it will also display in the calendar just like any other.

For further information and access to the tool click here.