The Web According to Google #86: Calendar and Documents

1) Create a calendar in Google Calendar and try adding some events or tasks to it. How do you think you would use Google Calendar in the workplace or at home? Do you think you would find it helpful to share calendars with coworkers, friends, or family?

I created a Google Calendar in my gmail account some time back. I was hoping it could turn out to be my "ideal" calendar -- the one with every event on it that I could access from anywhere (home, work, on the road). It has never worked out for me, though. The calendar I began creating a while ago is still there but I have never made use of it.

Right now my calendar is based at work. It has a huge number of entries in it, and to transfer things by hand would be a burdensome task. I see now that Google has a way to sync with Microsoft Outlook. The problem is, this involves downloading and installing Google Sync. At work, I don't have permission to install anything new. Network Services might assist with this, but that doesn't solve the second problem.

I have my work e-mail open at all times at work, so access to my Outlook calendar is right at hand. Reminders pop-up as I work, and it is very easy to switch back and forth between mail and calendar. I will have to experiment with having the Google calendar open at work, alongside Outlook. It may be that the reminders are just as easy to get.

Right now it seems that Outlook is easier to use to enter data, and more pleasing to look at. That might just be due to familiarity. I will give Google a more extended try, and see if it gets easier. Having a web-accessible calendar could be worth the effort. Right now I have problems making appointments because I can't access my work calendar from home.

Sharing a calendar with my husband could be helpful for him to keep track of my activities. Sharing at work might be handy but if I stick to my goal of one master calendar ("everything from everyhere"), that would give my co-workers access to my private calendar. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet!

2) Try creating a file in Google Docs and uploading one from your computer. Can you see yourself using Google Docs in addition to or instead of a desktop office application? Why or why not?

When HCPL decided to make Sundays a regular part of the work week, this meant that all branch librarians and team leaders in our region would need to have input to the Sunday schedules. We decided that the easiest way to do this was to create a template in Google Docs, give all the pertinent leaders access to edit, and let everyone input their own part of the data. We did this as an experiment for the April and May schedules, and it worked very well. We have also given access to view the schedules to those Barbara Bush librarians in charge on Sundays. They can check these at the start of the work day Sunday, and have an up-to-date list of those they should expect to appear for work.

I think I would use this process again for files on which I need other people's input. Working in Google Docs is much less cumbersome than trying to use a Wiki. Everyone can see the changes right away, as compared to trying to e-mail around a Word file for comment and someone having to type all the suggested changes into a master file.