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Interactive Calendar Tutorial

If you are new to Google Calendar, this tutorial will give you information on how it works. We think you will find this tool very useful!

When you first navigate to the calendar page, you will see a calendar similar to the one on the right, but with lots of events on it.

In this short tutorial, we will show you around and help you understand how to make the calendar work for you.

On the top left, you will notice a button that says TODAY. This button will take you directly to today's events.

Next you will see a backward and forward arrow. In the example we are using, we are viewing the monthly calendar. In this case, the arrows would take you backward to February and forward to April.

Then you will see the current view, in this case March 2010. If you select the arrow to the right, it will give you options to jump to another month. In other views it would allow you to select a week or day.

This calendar is unique in that you can select the events that apply to you and your family. Use the drop down arrow to the right of AGENDA.

By default, all of the calendars are selected. While you should be interested in all that is going on in our church, sometimes the calendar may seem overwhelming and perhaps you have overlooked an event. You may be a younger family that would be interested in the Children's ministry events but not necessarily what Senior Adult Ministries are doing or vice versa. In this case you can de-select the group that does not involve you. This will make your calendar less cluttered looking.

From here you might be ready to print the calendar so you can hang it on your fridge.

Use the print tab on the top right near the view selection.

This will bring up the following window and show you what the calendar would look like printed on paper.

You can select options such as font size, orientation, declined events, and black & white.

From here you can hit print or even click SAVE AS, which will save the calendar as a PDF file for you.

Perhaps you only want to view the calendar and are not interested in printing or saving it. Once you have selected the groups in the church that apply to you, it will show only those events.

We are a busy church! Unfortunately Google Calendar only provides room for 5 events per day. In this case, such as the example, it will show the first 4 events and then indicate there are additional events not shown. In this example, there are three more events that day.

Click on the +3 more link and it will bring up the full listing of events for the day,

From here you can click on each event to get further details such as ending time, location it will take place, and a description (if available).

If you have your own personal google calendar, it will give you the option here to copy the specified event to your own calendar.

If you are an advanced user, you may also wish to subscribe to the church calendar. Google can assist you with doing so if you wish.