A friend asked me to help her set up a calendar to use with her office

colleagues. I think Google calendar is super, and it's free, so I just sent

her the instructions for setting it up. I'll share those with you (below).

 

These instructions include a couple steps that involve the Firefox browser.

Firefox is an open source, cross-platform browser that's fast and secure.

Please note that you don't have to use Firefox to use Google calendar, but

the following instructions involve Firefox.

Click the button below to download the fast, free Firefox browser.

 

 

 

Now, for those instructions about setting up a Google calendar for your

office. You might want to print out this page to make the setup easier:

 

1. Go to http://www.google.com/calendar

 

2. If you have not yet set up your own Google calendar, do that first.

Click the "settings" link in the top right hand corner to set up the details

of your own calendar. You will probably want to keep that calendar private,

although you might want to give close friends or relatives access to it.

 

3. On the left margin of your own calendar page you will see a link that

says "manage calendars". Click on that link.

 

4. Click on the link that says "Create a new calendar".

 

5. Enter the settings that you wish for this new calendar. If you want to

use it for the office staff, add their names and email addresses in the

window at the bottom of the page to the left. At the bottom right you will

see a window for all those persons who you want to have editing priviledges

for this calendar, i.e., they will be able to enter new data and modify old

data as well as see entries.

 

6. When you have entered all the details for this new calendar, click on

"create calendar" at the bottom of the page.

 

7. When you have done this, the name of your new calendar will appear on

your own calendar page in the left margin. You will notice little check

boxes next to each calendar name. When you want to see a particular

calendar, click in the box next to the name of that calendar.

 

8. Finally, for ready access to your own calendar, if you use Gmail, a link

to it will automaticaly appear at the very top of your Gmail page when you

have the Gmail page open. And even when you are not in Gmail, with Firefox

open you can put a link to your calendar page in the bookmarks panel which

appears just below the major panel (where you type in Internet addresses and

go backward or forward in page sequence). To enter a new button on your

bookmarks panel in Firefox, follow the instructions in #9 below.

 

9. To add a bookmark button to the Firefox browser, right click on the

bookmark panel, left click on "New Bookmark", then enter the name you wish

to give to that bookmark and its web address. Keyword and description are

optional. Finally, click "OK". This will place the name of that new

bookmark on the bookmarks panel, which will always be accessible whenever

Firefox is open. Incidentally, you can move those bookmark names around,

left or right on the panel, by left clicking, dragging, and dropping them

where you want them.

 

So now you're prepared to share a free Google calendar with the your office

staff (or any other group you might wish). You have a link to that browser

handy at the top of your browser, and you can always give people a steer to

the calendar by including the link in an email note or web page.

 

Please share these instructions with others. Interfaith Tech Associates is

devoted to improving Web literacy.

 

This article written by TCDavis

 

---

 

Return to Be Web wise to free and cheap digital solutions