How to use Google Calendar and get it on your iPhone: a casual guide for technology beginners

When you own a Google account (the most common example is your Gmail account), your account automatically comes with many web applications you can use for free. Google Calendar is one of them.

Table of Contents

1. Login and open Google Calendar on desktop
2. Create a Google Calendar event
3. Edit or Delete a Google Calendar event
4. See Google Calendar on your iPhone (Download and Set up)

1) First, login and access Google Calendar.

You can access your Google Calendar through your web browser (e.g. Chrome). Below are several ways you can access your Google Calendar. Pick whichever works for you, and move onto the next section.

• Option 1: Go to your URL bar and type in “calendar.google.com”. It will prompt you to login if you haven’t already. “google.com/calendar” also works, and will take you to the same place.
• Option 2: See picture below. Go to “google.com”, and click the square icon in the top right hand corner. A shortcut menu will appear (of some of the most popular Google web apps you can use for free). Then, click the Calendar icon.

2) Next, create an event.

Great, you logged in, and opened Google Calendar. Now, let’s create an event. Again, there are a few ways to do this, but these methods all have the same outcome. Pick whichever way you’d like.

• Option 1: Click on the round, red button in the bottom right hand corner. Next, enter the event title, choose a date and time. When you’re satisfied, click the rectangle, blue “Save” button. It should show up on your calendar now. See GIF below.

• Option 2: Left-click the calendar, then hold and drag to create a new event. The length of the rectangle you drag determines the starting and ending times of your event. When you release your click, type in your event title. You can edit the date and time if you changed your mind or made a mistake in how you dragged to create your event. When you’re satisfied, click the rectangle, blue “Save” button.

• Option 3: Click the calendar once (no dragging) on the day you want to create an event. A default event slot will pop up, and you can manually enter the event title, date, and time. When you’re satisfied, click the rectangle, blue “Save” button.

To summarize up to this point, we covered 3 methods to create a Google Calendar event.

• click the red button, and then enter event title and times
• click + hold + drag, and then enter event title and times
• click once, and then enter event title and times

3) Whoops, how do I edit or delete an event?

Edit an Event

• Option 1: Drag the event itself to a different time or day. Drag the bottom of the event’s rectangle to make it shorter or longer.
• Option 2: Click on the event. Click the icon with the pencil to edit the date and time.

Delete an Event

• Option 1: Click on the event. Click the icon with the trash can.
• Option 2: Click on the event. On your keyboard, hit the “backspace” or “delete” key.

4) Now, let’s sync the Google Calendar to our mobile device.

Intro

“Sync” is short for “Synchronize”, which means to make two things happen at the same time. If you want to be able to access your Google Calendar on your phone, read on. After you sync your Google Calendar to your mobile device, any changes you make to your Google Calendar through your web browser will reflect on your phone, and the same vice versa!

Download a calendar app.

There are many calendar apps. I like to use Calendars by Readdle. On your iPhone, open the “App Store” app. The logo looks like a white letter A on a blue background.

1. Once you opened the App Store app, at the bottom, click the “Search” tab with a magnifying glass.
2. Click the search bar at the top and start typing “Calendar”. You can click the Auto-Fill suggestion that comes up.
3. Scroll down until you see “Calendars by Readdle”, and then download that app by clicking “Get”. Once it’s done downloading, open it.

Set up app settings.

1. Tap “Google Calendar”, and then tap “Next”.
2. Sign in with the same email address and password you used to access your Google Calendar on your web browser.
3. Click “Allow” when the app says it wants to access your Google Account. This is what makes it possible to sync your Google Calendar to your iPhone through this app.
4. (Not pictured) You should see a message that says, “Full Sync: Syncing calendars and events for the first time. Please wait.” Once the app is fully synced, the message will disappear automatically, and your events should appear in the app.

Use the app!

Like in Google Calendars, you can drag existing events around, or create a new event by tapping the plus ( + ) icon in the upper right hand corner.

Edit and delete

Tap an event. Tap “Edit” on the bottom right, or tap the trash icon on the bottom left.

View calendar in different ways.

Tap the hamburger (☰) icon in the top right, next to the plus icon. This gives you options to view your calendar as List, by Day, by Week, or by Month. (Google Calendar also has this functionality! See if you can figure it out on web browser.)

Hurray! You did it.

Recap of this guide:

1. Login and open Google Calendar on desktop
2. Create a Google Calendar event
3. Edit or Delete a Google Calendar event
4. See Google Calendar on your iPhone (Download and set up)

Now, you should be able to create/edit/delete events through the web browser on your desktop computer or through the app on your mobile phone, and the events shall be synchronized.

There’s more cool calendar tricks this casual beginners’ guide does not cover, like setting alarm reminders for events, and setting reoccurring events. Don’t be afraid to explore the calendars on both the web app and mobile app on your own. [:

We are all beginners at something. Keep going. Stay curious. ♡

What’d you think?

Was this tutorial helpful? Happy to hear your feedback as a reader or editor. This is my first time writing a guide for an audience that may have beginner experience using web apps or mobile apps!

Feel free to say hi to me on Twitter. :]

Credits

GIFs created with LiceCap. iPhone screen recorded with QuickTime Player per instructions here. Screenshots (Command+Shift+4 on Mac) annotated with Preview.