How to share Google Apps Calendar
Being able to share your calendar with colleagues inside your organisation and with others in public is one of the strongest advantage of using cloud based Google Apps. As you may have expected, you are able to grant others various levels of access permission to your calendar, or to add your colleague’s calendar into your profile. This document provides detailed instructions for 3 calendar sharing scenarios.
Add your colleague’s calendar to your profile without permission request
This is the default share setting for Google Apps Calendar, if the calendar sharing is enabled at domain level by administrator. What this means is that you are able to add any of your colleague’s calendar to your profile instantly, without them knowing that you are viewing/editing their calendars. To achieve this, simply follow the following steps:
- Enable calendar sharing inside organisation at domain level. This can only be done by the Google Apps account administrator. The administrator needs to log in, and click on “manage this domain”, then click on “Service settings”, choose “Calendar”. Set default setting as anything other than “No sharing”.
- If your colleagues haven’t changed the default setting at all, you should be able to add their calendar to your calendar profile by simply typing their email address into the “Add a colleague’s calendar” field in other calendars box on the left panel.
- Your colleague’s calendar will be displayed. Clicking on that calendar will display your colleague’s events and appointments on your calendar; clicking it again will hide the information. The combined view means that it is very easy to see the time when you are both busy or available.
Add your colleague’s calendar to your profile with permission request
If your colleague has deliberately disabled calendar sharing by going to “calendar setting”, and under the “Calendars” tab, unchecking the “Share this calendar with others” box, you will not be able to add their calendar without permission. When you type their email address into the “Add a colleague’s calendar” field, and click on add, what you will get is a request form. If you click on send request, your colleague will receive an email with a request link. You will have access to their calendar if he/she clicks on the link.
Add calendar request: this is what will be sent to the person whose calendar you wanted to add to your calendar profile
Share your calendar with colleagues or others outside your oganisation
You can share your calendar by following the steps below:
- Log into your Google Apps Calendar;
- You shall find your calendar on the left panel under My calendars. Click on the down arrow button and choose share this calendar.
- This will bring you to the Calendar share setting screen. In the Share with specific people section, enter the email address of the person you want to share your calendar with, choose an access level and click save. Please note that, if you share with an email address outside your domain, the administrator’s access level setting will apply. For example, if the domain is set to only share busy/free information, and you choose any access level higher than this, the “only share busy/free information” will be applied.
- If the person is using Google Calendar, he/she will receive an email invitation. If he/she is not, you will be asked to send an invitation in order for them to be able to view your calendar.
You can share your calendar quickly by clicking on the down arrow and then select "Share this Calendar"
Check the "Share this calendar with others" box, and then enter the email address of the person you want to share your calendar with, click save.
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