Create a Google Calendar for the whole family

Hi, I�m Molly Wood from CNET, and I�m here to show you how a shared Google calendar can keep the whole family happy. A shared calendar is a great way to keep track of your various family schedules, the birthday parties, the soccer games, camping trips, dinner parties. It gets busy. So, here�s how to create a shared Google calendar that you can all view on your mobile phones. No excuses for forgetting your mother in law�s visit. First, let�s create our calendar. You�ll need a Google account, and then just go to google.com/calendar. Under My Calendars here on the left, click Create. Give your calendar a name and start entering all the events you want. When you�re ready to share the calendar with family members, click the arrow next to the calendar and choose Share this Calendar. Now you can just email the calendar to someone, and you can set various permissions so that maybe only some members of the family can edit events, and so on. Now, you need to make sure you can see your calendar on the go, and get alerts when you�ve got an upcoming appointment! That�s where Google Sync comes in. Go to m.google.com/sync on your computer and choose your phone type. You�ll see instructions for how to set up Sync on that phone. Once it�s set up, as long as you have Push data enabled on the phone, you should start seeing calendar updates right away � as well as Google Mail and Contacts, if you have those enabled. Now, be aware that Google Sync uses the Microsoft Exchange protocol. So, if you use for phone for business and you already have an Exchange account set up, your phone may not support more than one Exchange account. This is true on the iPhone, for example. And it�s a bummer. If that�s the case, you�ll need to check your calendar using the Google mobile app, which is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, and most other smart phones. It just opens the calendar in a browser, and unfortunately, you won�t get the push calendar reminders like you will with the full-fledged Google Sync. Still, it�s better than nothing, and hopefully it�ll keep you from showing up to a kids birthday party with no present. For CNET how-to, I�m Molly Wood, and you�re welcome.