How to add events to your Google Calendar

Several websites I developed utilize Google Calendar to keep the community informed of events and happenings. An events calendar plugin can be installed on the website itself and be displayed on a page but for most cases, using Google Calendar is preferred. The advantages are:

Staff managing the calendar do not have to log-in to the website.
It is separate from the website. In case something happens to the website, the calendar is not affected.
Being separate from the website, it doesn’t use your webhosting space.
It has many useful functions, already set-up, for you and your users or visitors to use, such as subscription, reminders and sharing.

For a website that uses a Google Calendar, the person or people in charge of managing it would have already been appointed. A Google Gmail account would also have been created for the person to access emails forwarded to that account. Google calendar and other Google Apps functionalities reside within that account.

Where to find your calendar/s?

Upon successful login, you will immediately see the calendar page showing the present day and week.

There is a default calendar set to the name of your Gmail account. On top of that, there may be other calendars which have been shared with you. Look for your website calendar. It is located on the left, under My Calendars.

The calendar that is used for your website will most probably be named ‘Website Calendar’ or ‘Community Calendar’ to denote its purpose and the fact that it is not a personal calendar.

Hover your mouse over the calendar you want to work with and click on the down-arrowhead. Click ‘Display this calendar only‘. This will make sure that the entries or changes you are going to make will be for this calendar only.

Look for the day you want to add an event. If the day is not shown on this page, use the small calendar page on the left under ‘Create’ to navigate to the day you want. Scroll to a different month if you need to.

Click on the time slot of the day you want to make an event entry. The event entry box will pop up.

Enter the event name.
Click ‘Edit Event‘ and you can enter more details regarding the event,

The ‘repeat’ function is useful, saving you from having to make another entry or entries for events that happen regulary, eg weekly or monthly.
Enter the location for the event.
Enter the description or any instructions for bookings or enquiries.
Colour code your event if you wish, eg, all ‘workshop’ events can be coloured green and all ‘support group meetings ‘blue’, etc.
Under ‘Notifications‘ click on ‘Add a notification’ if you wish, and select how you want to be notified or reminded of the event.
Click the red SAVE button on the top and your event is added.

All events added will either be displayed on a calendar page or as an Events List, or both, fed onto your website.