Click anywhere in the calendar to add an event quickly; a bubble pops up to let you enter what your event is about. You can provide just a title, or make full use of the Quick Add syntax .
You can also add events by clicking
the Create Event or Quick Add links shown just below the Google Calendar logo.
You can search for public calendars by entering keywords, like the name of your
city. If you are subscribed to or have created more than one calendar, you can
control how they are displayed: check the box next to the calendar name to show
it, and click the down-pointing arrow to the right of the calendar name to
choose which color it uses. That's not all you can do on Google Calendar: you
can also invite others to your events, import and export calendar data, view the
calendar on your cell phone, and much more.
If you never want to miss another
appointment, consider subscribing to SMS alerts for appointments, or using
Google Calendar's mobile version.
If you've never missed a meeting
before, consider yourself lucky—or very gifted. Maybe it's enough to just check
your calendar every few days. For the rest of us, these alerts are one way—in
addition to email alerts—to be reminded of an upcoming event. And if you want to
peek at your calendar on the go, you can access a light version of Google
Calendar on your cell phone.
To set up your SMS alerts, log in to your
calendar and click the Settings link on top. Switch to the Mobile Setup tab, input your country and phone number, and check whether
your carrier is supported. For example, at the time of this writing, over 30
different carriers in the U.S. are supported; from Alaska Communications Systems
to Western Wireless.
Click the Send Verification Code button, and seconds or minutes later, you
will have a new message on your phone .
Enter the number you received back into
the verification field at the end of the online form and click "Finish setup."
You will now be able to configure how you would like to be reminded of alerts on
a calendar-by-calendar basis. By default, each calendar is configured to notify
you using a pop-up notice, but these pop-ups appear only when you have the
Google Calendar web site open. Choose the "SMS" option from this drop-down and
specify how many minutes before an event you would like to be reminded. You can
configure additional reminders such as email by clicking the "Add another
reminder" link. Click the Save button, and you're all set.
To change your settings later, click
the down-pointing arrow next to your calendar name in the list of calendars that
appears on the left side of the screen, and select the Notifications option.