An online calendar gives you global access to any events and appointments you add to it. You can also share your calendar with others, so they can review and respond to events you're hosting or part of.

Signing Up

There are a number of free online calendars, including Yahoo! Calendar and Google Calendar. This lesson will show you how Google Calendar works; they're all pretty similar.

First, go to www.google.com/calendar. If you're not logged in to Google, you'll see a login prompt:

Signing in to Google Calendar

If you already have a Google account, type your email address and password in the fields and click the "Sign in" button. If you don't have a Google account, click the "Create an account" button to create a free one.

Once you're signed in, you'll see the main calendar page:

The main Google Calendar interface

On the left-hand side of the page is a month calendar; use that to navigate to a particular day. Note the tiny left and right arrows at the top of the month calendar; those will go forward one month and back one month.

To create a new event or appointment, click on that day and time in the main calendar view:

Creating a new event

Type in the name of the event or appointment and click the "Create Event" button. It will then appear on the main calendar interface.

Click on the event's name to go to the Details page:

Event details

From here, you can:

• Add a description of the event
• Specify the event's physical location
• Add guests, and specify whether they can invite others and/or see other guests
• Schedule a reminder

Sharing Your Calendar

By default, your calendar is private, viewable only to you. To make your calendar public so that others can see it, click the "Settings" link in the upper-right corner of the page, then click on the "Calendars" tab.

Calendar Settings

Click the "Share this calendar" link in the center of the settings window.

To make your calendar viewable to anyone, check the "Make this calendar public" checkbox. To make your calendar viewable only to a specific person, type that person's email address in the text box and click the "Add Person" button. You can add as many viewers as you like.