Google Calendar: Creating and Managing Events

Objectives and Overview

Events are the core of Google Calendar. This lesson introduces how to create, manage, and search calendar events.

Lesson Objectives

• Identify how to create a Google Calendar event
• Identify ways to manage Google Calendar events
• Identify how to search your Google Calendar for specific events

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Google Calendar Events

Now that you’re becoming familiar with the Google Calendar interface, the next step is to dive into events. Remember, an event is any scheduled chunk of time. Events can range in time from 15 minutes to weeks and can occur once or many times. Understanding how to manage Google Calendar events will boost your productivity. The first step is to become familiar with how to create events, so let’s dive in!

Creating Events

Creating events is the backbone of Google Calendar. Without events, there isn’t a schedule to manage! This section covers how to create many types of events. Let’s get started by creating a basic event.

This gif shows the steps for creating an event. The images after this break down each step.

To start, click the Create button in the left sidebar:

Clicking that brings up the event information window. You’re able to enter the title, adjust the event time, and add guests or a location.

Whatever name you provide for your event is what shows up on your calendar. In this example, the title “Work Session” is what shows up on the calendar view:

Here’s the newly created event in the calendar view. The event uses the title you used:

Creating All-Day Events

Another type of event is an all-day event. This is an event that spans an entire day. Here’s a gif showing all of the steps:

To create an all-day event, click in the white space around the date. Here’s an image showing where to click on Tuesday, May 12:

This brings up the event details window with the time automatically set to be the entire day. This image shows that the event’s time is May 12, 2020 – May 12, 2020. Enter the title and click the Save button to create the all-day event:

Creating Recurring Events

The next type of event is a recurring event. This is an event that you create once and schedule to repeat on certain days. This gif shows all of the steps for creating this type of event:

Create an event as you would with a one-time event and give it a name, but then set the frequency by adjusting the drop-down menu that says “Does not repeat”:

Adjust the frequency of the event by selecting one of these options. Let’s make our event repeat every by choosing the “Daily” option:

The event will now recreate itself every day:

If you ever need to update the frequency of an event, you can do this by clicking on the event and changing the frequency again.

Editing and Updating Events

Knowing how to edit and update events is important. Sometimes, especially if you’re in a hurry, you make a mistake scheduling an event. This happens a lot with either the title or the time. This gif shows all of the steps for updating an event’s time:

To update an event, click on the event in your calendar view. This brings up the event information modal. Click on the pencil button to edit your event:

Make your changes and then click the Save button. The changes are immediately used. If you change the time of an event, it’ll move on your calendar.

Deleting Events

Knowing how to delete events is as important as creating and editing them. Let’s take a look at how to delete an event. It’s definitely recommended to work with an actual event, so if you haven’t created one yet do that first.

Here’s a gif showing all of the steps:

To delete an event, click on the event you want to delete. This brings up the event details window. Next, click on the trash can button. This deletes the event.

You won’t get a confirmation asking if you want to delete the event, but you will have a chance to undo the delete if you need.

Searching Events

Once you have a lot of events, it’s useful to know how to search them. Google Calendar’s search bar looks through all events in your calendar – past, and future. This is helpful if you need to find out when a particular event was or if you need to see something scheduled far into the future.

You access the search bar by clicking the eyeglass button in the panel above the main view:

Clicking this button brings up a field where you can type your term. As you type, Google Calendar tries to guess what you’re looking for. Sometimes this is helpful and sometimes it isn’t! You’re always able to ignore these suggestions and continue typing your phrase:

After you enter your term, Google finds all events that match the phrase.

What’s Next?

After you practice working with calendar events, the next lesson introduces sharing and responding to events. Move on when you’re ready!