How to Share a Calendar in Google Apps

Whether you are a ‘newbie’ or a ‘veteran’ to Google Apps, sharing your primary calendar or sharing a calendar you created is an essential function in Google Apps. Let’s take a look at the options you have when sharing your calendar in Google Apps below.

If you decide to create a calendar in Google Apps or share your primary calendar, you first need to locate the calendar you want to share. After locating the correct calendar under ‘My Calendars’, click on the drop down arrow next to the calendar title and select ‘Share this Calendar’.

The next screen you will see is the ‘Sharing Options’ page. You have two options here … you have the ability to ‘Share this calendar with others’ or ‘Share with specific people’.

If you choose ‘Share this calendar with others’, you will have two options. The first option is to share this calendar with the public. This means that any users on the web will be able to search for this calendar and view the details of the calendar. These viewers will only see the details of the actual events according to the permission setting of the calendar. The other option you have is to share the calendar with everyone in your domain. If you have chosen this option, users within your domain will be able to type your email address (or the address of the newly created calendar) in their ‘Other Calendar’ section of the their calendar to add and begin viewing the shared calendar.

A more direct way to share your calendar is to share it with specific people. Following the instructions above to share your calendar, click the option to ‘Share with specific people’. Here, you can enter a colleagues email address or group email address and enable the correct permission setting so they can begin viewing the calendar. Below are the explanations of the available permission settings:

See only free/busy (hide details)

The user will only be able to see whether you are free or busy (no details shown)

See all event details

The user will be able to see the events and the details of the event when viewing the calendar. *NOTE* As the creator of the event, you always have the option to make a specific event ‘private’ so you can hide specific events details.

Make Changes to Events

The user will be able to create events on this shared calendar as well as make any changes to an existing calendar event on the calendar.

Make Changes and Manage Sharing

The user will have the same rights the owner of the calendar has except the ability to delete the calendar.

Creating, Editing, and Sharing

After making any adjustments to the sharing options allowed, be sure to hit ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page to confirm your changes.

It is also important to note that the administrator of your account has the ability to set restrictions on calendar viewing for the overall domain. If you have any questions regarding the sharing capabilities of your Google Calendar, please contact your administrator.