You may be aware of most features of Google Calendar, but many of them have changed now. In fact, there are a couple of Google Calendar features that you may not know about at all. Let us find out how these features can make your life easier…
Different Calendars for Different Parts of Your Life
You want to keep your professional and personal lives separate. But then you also want to make sure both of them are organized with perfect schedules. This is where this feature can help.
- Click on the “+” sign that you see next to “My Calendars.”
- Now select the option “New Calendar”
- Give it a name, a description, and a time zone
You can create any number of calendars like this, as per your requirement. You can colour-code each one of them if you want to simplify things.
Schedule meetings with groups as per their convenience
Arranging meetings with several people can be very challenging especially if they are working on busy schedules. Trying to figure out a time that can be convenient for everyone can make it very annoying for you. Google Calendar has come up with a solution for this through its two features – “Find a time” and Suggested times.”
To ask Google to suggest a time, follow these steps:
- Select the link “Suggested times.” You should find this right below the names of your guests.
- You will see a dropdown window with a list of time slots where your meeting guests are available without any conflicts.
- It is up to you to select any of these time slots as suggested by Google Calendar
To find a time that works for all guests, follow these steps:
- Select “Find a time” option. You will find this next to the tab called “Event details.”
- This option will show you everyone’s schedules for the day side-by-side
- If you see an available time slot where none of your guests may have conflicts, you can click that line and highlight the time.
- Click on “Save” once you have found a time.
Hide event details
You don’t have to always hold a closed door meeting to not let people know what’s going on inside. You can always set the event on your Google Calendar to “Private” and hold your sensitive meetings online. Others will only see the event as “Busy,” with no access to any of the details such as meeting name, names of attendees, or the attachments.
- Go to calendar view
- Click on the event that you want to privatize
- Click on the pencil icon to edit details
- Click on the briefcase icon in the window that appears. You will see this above event description.
- Set the first field to “Busy”
- Set the second field to “Private” by selecting it from the drop down.
- Save the privatized event
Adding a Google Hangout to Your Event
Setting up face-to-face remote meetings can become very easy with these features. Once you set it up, Google will automatically place a video call to all the attendees of your event.
- Create an event
- Select “more options” to see the full event page
- Click on “Add conferencing”
- From the drop down menu select “Hangouts” as your conferencing option
- Fill out your event and click on “Save”
Adding attachments
You will often have to reference relevant documents while attending meetings. If you don’t want your attendees to run around hunting for these documents in their inboxes, you can attach those documents to your event. This way your guests will be able to open and review those documents without any hassles.
- Select the event from your calendar
- Click on the pencil icon to edit the details
- Click on the paper clip icon that you see above the event description
- Upload the files that you need, right from your Google drive
If the files are not on your Google Drive, you can also attach them from your computer.
You can find many more such features if you check out the new Google Calendar. Make sure you determine your requirements to make your life easy.
