Collaborations using Google Calendar

Introduction

Google Calendar is a schedule management tool provided by Google. It enables you to create and share events, set reminders, and manage tasks online. Google Calendar is especially useful when multiple users share events and calendars. For example, by utilizing event sharing features or making calendars available to the public, you can easily share events with other users and keep track of your entire team’s schedule at a glance. This article introduces effective ways of using Google Calendar when multiple people are involved.

Using Google Calendar through the University Account

The University of Tokyo provides Google’s “Google Workspace” as “ECCS Cloud Email”. This includes Google Calendar, so members of The University of Tokyo can use Google Calendar through their ECCS Cloud Email accounts. Using ECCS Cloud Email allows for university-specific settings, such as making calendars publicly available but only to ECCS Cloud Email users, which is practical from an information management perspective.

How to Share or Make Calendars Public

Usage Overview

With Google Calendar, you can share your calendar with other users to provide real-time access to your scheduled events. Additionally, you can configure the calendar to be available to all users within your organization. For instance, at the University of Tokyo, the entire university is treated as a single organization. By using these features, Google Calendar users can coordinate and manage their schedules seamlessly.

Google Calendar provides a system for managing events in categories called “calendars”. For example, you can create and manage multiple calendars for different purposes, such as “work” and “personal”, making it easier to keep your schedule organized. By configuring the sharing and availability settings for each “calendar”, you can share only the necessary information with the right people.

You can create an unlimited number of calendars. By default, there is only one calendar named ”●● (user’s display name)‘s calendar”. However, you can add or delete calendars as needed. For instructions on creating new calendars, refer to the official Google guide.

What You Can Do by Sharing a Calendar

By sharing a calendar with other users, they will be able to view or edit the events in that calendar. The following types of permission ranges can be set when sharing.

• Permissions to edit events and change sharing settings for other users
• Permissions to add or change events
• Permissions to view event titles, descriptions, locations, etc.
• Permissions to view only the date and time of events

By setting appropriate permissions, you can grant access to a selected level that is necessary only to the people you want to share with.

What You Can Do by Making a Calendar Available to the Public

When a calendar is made public, any user can access its events. However, certain conditions and restrictions apply to making a calendar public.

First, to access a public calendar, users must know its “calendar ID”. Google Calendar has a default calendar named ”●● (user’s display name)‘s calendar” and other calendars that users can create themselves. The default calendar uses your Google account email address as the calendar ID, so if you make this calendar public, anyone who knows your email address will be able to access it. On the other hand, user-created calendars have calendar IDs composed of random alphanumeric characters, so they are less likely to be found by others, even if they are made public.

Second, the scope of information can be limited when making calendars public. Google Calendar allows users to hide detailed event information and share only dates and times. This approach protects privacy even when calendars are publicly available.

Third, you can restrict the audience when making a calendar public. In addition to making it available to all Google account users, you can limit access to users within your organization (in the case of the University of Tokyo, users who use ECCS Cloud Email).

How to Use

Sharing a Calendar

1. Access Google Calendar from your computer.
2. From “My calendars” on the left side of the screen, find the calendar you want to share, click the ︙ (vertical three dots), then select “Settings and sharing”.
3. Go to the “Shared with” section to add users to share with. Add the user’s email address using “Add people and groups”.
4. Choose the permission level you wish to grant.
   • “Make changes and manage sharing”: Can edit events and change sharing settings for other users.
   • “Make changes to events”: Can add or edit events.
   • “See all event details”: Can view event titles, descriptions, locations, etc.
   • “See only free/busy (hide details)”: Can view event dates and times only.
5. After setting the permissions, click “Send” to complete.

Making a Calendar Public

1. Access Google Calendar from your computer.
2. From “My Calendars” on the left side of the screen, find the calendar you want to make public, click on the ︙ (vertical three dots), then select “Settings and sharing”.
3. Go to the “Access permissions for events” section to configure public availability.
   • “Make available to public”: Make it public to all users with a Google account.
   • “Make it available for 東京大学ECCSクラウドメール”: Make it public only to ECCS Cloud Email users.

Viewing a Calendar Made Public

1. Access Google Calendar from your computer.
2. On the left side of the screen, in the “Search for people” field, enter the calendar ID.
3. The calendar will appear, and you can view the public events.

How to Invite Guests to Events

Usage Overview

With Google Calendar, you can easily invite specific people to meetings or events by using the “Adding guests” feature. Invited guests can view details such as the date, time, title, and location of the event, and choose whether or not to accept the invitation. If the guest also uses Google Calendar, the accepted event will be added directly to their calendar, enabling efficient schedule sharing. This feature is useful when holding meetings or events with predetermined participants. For example, you can quickly notify participants of the schedule for a meeting or event and confirm their attendance.

How to Use

1. Access Google Calendar from your computer.
2. Create or edit an event.
   • To create a new event: Press the relevant date and time on the calendar screen to show event edit dialog.
   • To edit an existing event: Click on the event you want to edit and select the pen icon to show the event edit dialog.
3. In the “Add guests” field, enter the email addresses of the people you want to invite. If you want to add multiple guests, enter each address individually.
4. Under “Guest permissions”, select the permissions to grant to guests. The following options are available.
   • “Modify event”: Guests can modify the event.
   • “Invite others”: Guests can invite other guests.
   • “See guest list”: Guests can view list of other guests.
5. When you have finished setting up the event, click “Save”. After saving, you will be asked if you want to send an invitation email. If you want to notify guests of the invitation, select “Send”.

If the guest uses Google Calendar, the event will be displayed with an outline circle or frame on their calendar. They may also receive an invitation email, allowing them to respond to the invitation either on the calendar or in the email. Guests can select from “Yes”, “No”, or “Maybe”, request a different time using “Propose a new time”, or add comments using “Add note”.

Other Useful Features

The following features are also available when inviting guests.

• Automatic Google Meet generation: When you invite guests, a Google Meet video conference link is automatically generated. You can also delete this link or replace it with another conference link.
• Suggested times: When creating an event, Google Calendar checks the participants’ schedules and suggests the best time. However, this feature is only available if the guests use Google Calendar and have made their calendars public.
• Optional participant settings: You can mark participants added to the event as “Optional”. For example, you can apply the “Optional” settings to participants with low priority to indicate how essential their attendance is.