Create and share a group calendar

When using Google Calendar at work or school, you can create a shared calendar that's accessible to everyone in your organization (or a subset of people you choose). For example, you might want a shared group calendar for the holidays your company observes and another one for your organization's "All Hands" meetings.

Create a group calendar
  1. Sign in to your account and display your Google Calendar.
  2. In the drop-down menu for My calendars, click Create new calendar.
  3. Fill in the name of the calendar (for example, "All Hands Meetings"), and the calendar description, location, and time zone.
  4. Check the box to Share this calendar with others and then check the option to share with everyone in your organization.
    The settings under Share this calendar with others override the Share with specific people settings.

    For example, when you share your group calendar with everyone in the organization, if you give them permission to See all event details, every user within the organization will see all event details, even if you also set See only free/busy under Share with specific people.
  5. Click Create calendar.

    The calendar will now appear under My calendars. Next time when you create an event and want to invite the group, you'll see the calendar in your autocomplete list when adding guests. In this example, you'd see All Hands Meetings (calendar). Choosing this has the same effect as inviting the group.

    Note that only calendars in your My calendars list appear in the autocomplete list when adding guests. The group calendar will therefore appear in the autocomplete list for calendar owners and Google Apps administrators, but not for other users who add the calendar to their Other calendars list.

You can now distribute the shared calendar in a couple of ways, as described below.

Share a group calendar
For all existing users: distribute the calendar via invitation
  1. If it doesn't already exist, create a group that contains everyone in your organization.
  2. Find the shared calendar under My calendars, click the drop-down arrow, and select Share this Calendar.
  3. Under Share with specific people, type the name of the group in the Enter email address box.

    You can also add a smaller group or individual email addresses.

  4. If desired, change the permissions. The default is to allow everyone in the group to See all event details for the calendar, but not make changes.
  5. Click Save.

    Your users will receive an email message about the calendar. They can simply click a link in the email to add the calendar to their Other calendars list. If users don't click the link, the calendar will not be automatically added.

For new users: advertise the calendar address

  1. Copy and paste the shared calendar address into a training document for new users.

    To find the calendar address:

    • On an administrator's calendar, find the shared calendar under My calendars.
    • Click the drop-down arrow for the shared calendar and select Calendar settings.
    • Scroll down to the Calendar address section and copy the Calendar ID (it will be long). Paste this into a training document or website that you distribute to new users.

  2. Instruct the new user to copy the Calendar ID into the Add a coworker’s calendar box (under Other calendars) and press Enter.

    The calendar will then show up in the user's Other calendars list.

 

Was this article helpful?