Ive used Google Calendar since it was released and now have several calendars which are fully populated. I have a work calendar which has all my school lessons, meetings etc and a separate calendar for non work items. I add calendars for theme of the week and others as they occur.
Setting up a calendar with many similar repeating items is quite easy when you apply a little thinking to the process.
In the past, I have used Excel to create the events for one week. Given five lessons a day with a mentor period and also morning meetings there can be thirty or so events.
This page has further details on how to set up your spreadsheet and which column headings you can use:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=45656
Basically, the minimum headings that make sense are:
- Subject
- Start Date
- Start Time
- End Date
- End Time
The trick with a work schedule for a school is to the use copy and paste to repeat the events over the whole school year. Adjust the dates either manually or using a formula such as "=a2+7" to add seven days onto the previous one.
Select the dates with a formula and copy them to the clipboard, then use "paste special" and paste values only. This gets rid of any formula which is essential before the next step.
Typically each half term lasts for between four and eight weeks. I manually edit the list to remove the dates when we are off.
Save the file and then we are ready for the next step.
Export the file as a Comma Separated Value file which will have a .csv file extension.
The wonderful thing about Google spreadsheets and the Chromebook is that all of this is possible and can be done just as easily as using a desktop Windoze machine running Excel!
Now we have to get the CSV file into Google Calendar. It couldn't really be easier, on Google Calendar, goto "settings", and scroll to the bottom of the page. Select Import calendar and browse for your CSV file. Select which calendar you want it imported to, then click import. Be very careful because you are about to import a lot of events and they will have to be manually deleted one by one if you get the wrong calendar - ouch!
My wife and I both have a work and home calendar and have shared the calendars with each other so we can edit events. I have the calendar widget on my Galaxy S2 screen and also on my Nexus 7 homescreen.
If we are at a meeting and its overrunning then we just adjust the times and then we each know what is happening. Weve even been known to add a "Pub" event to each others calendar when we have some spare time and fancy a pint.
Absolutely delighted that the whole process is even easier on Google spreadsheets and the Chromebook than it was on "old gen" hardware. Spot on Google!
