Using Your Google Calendar

The Google Calendar is feature rich and integrates well with many of the other Google programs. You can expect these features:

• Share your calendar with others across the Internet.

• Integrate your calendar with your Gmail account.

• Search the Internet for Web events you can add to your calendar.

• Create events and invite others to join you.

• Publish your events so that others can see them.

• Access your calendar by sending SMS message commands from your mobile phone.

The first step in getting started is to go to the Google Calendar page at http://calendar.google.com and sign up.

Signing up

The first time you access Google Calendar, you are prompted to sign up. Type your first and last names, and select your local time zone from the list shown in Figure 26.1. Then click Continue.

Figure 26.1: Signing up for Google Calendar is simple.

After you type your name and time zone, your first calendar appears, as shown in Figure 26.2. Today’s date is automatically highlighted, and events for the day are displayed. When you first launch Google Calendar, no events appear, of course.

Figure 26.2: At first, Google Calendar has no events.

Scrolling through the day is possible using the toolbar to the right of the calendar.