Ask Dr. Google Calendar

[penk]

So I adore Google Calendar. The problem is now I have an over-love. Too many calendars!

Let me 'splain...

I have my personal calendar. I add things to it that are specific to me (say, a volleyball practice).

I also have a second calendar that catya and Zach and I share that holds things that are specific to Zach - for example a party or game he wants to go to, etc. Many of these events involve me, and therefore, I'm going to be busy - but many do not, so I don't need to see them on 'my' calendar.

I would like to share 'my' calendar to others, and let them know if I'm free or busy - based on items on these other calendars.

Something like "Show this on my calendar as 'busy'".

So far, I've found no way to do this. The shortest version is to 'copy to my calendar', but then my calendar view looks very cluttered (as I'll see multiple entries for the same thing). Also, changes to the initial item won't reflect in the 'copy' on my calendar.

I see some postings on the net about this, particularly here, with many "ohh me too!" responses, but no answers.

Any ideas?

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

This is a bit of a pain in the ass but it might work.

You could make a third calendar, and invite it to these events. Then, share that calendar with other people at the "see my free/busy" level?

[penk.livejournal.com]

That's... an interesting approach. And might be workable - do invites have to be acknowledged?

Also, you can't invite a 'calendar', can you? You can invite a 'person'. I don't want to make another user in google. :(

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I think events stay tentative until you confirm, and I don't know how "tentative" looks to free/busy observers.

And yeah, it's a pain re: inviting calendars. (I run into this all the time, because my default calendar is my "Tentative" calendar--I have a separate calendar for "Confirmed" events so they show up in a different color.) But a synthetic user for just this purpose might make things apparent.

You could call it "shayde's secretary". "Let me check with my secretary to see if I'm free..." ;)