Calendar > Chapter 3: Add people to calendar events

Invitations in Google Calendar let you circulate information about a particular event without requiring you to share your entire calendar with others. It also allows you to track the responses of the people you have invited.

Guests added by invitation to your calendar entries will also have the latest information about your event – whenever you make a change, they will also be notified of that change in their calendar, email, or their selected mode of notification.

With invitations, Google Calendar makes it easy to coordinate meetings with others at your school – you can quickly view free/busy information for many people at once to find a time that works for everyone.

Here's an example of how you might use invitations with your calendar: you need to schedule a staff meeting that involves several individuals. To do this, you create a calendar entry and add the individuals as 'guests.' You can check the guest availability to make sure everyone is free at the same time. Then, those individuals will receive a calendar invitations for the event, have the ability to RSVP and view the full event details. If these individuals also have Google Apps accounts within your school, they will automatically have the event added to their own calendar. If at any point you make changes to the staff meeting, your guests will see those changes reflected in each of their individual calendars.

Add guests to a calendar entry

To invite guests to a new event, follow these steps:

Click on the event (or create a new event) and select edit event details.
In the Add: Guests section enter the email addresses of the guests, separated by commas.
Click on the Add button to add the guests.
Beneath the box for entering guests, you can select the permission level for your guests and the calendar entry. Options include:

Modify event: make changes to any of the event details.
Invite others: add new guests to the calendar entry.
See guest list: view who has been invited and their attendance response.

Click Save.
Your guests will automatically receive an email invitation to your event. If you click Email guests, you can craft a custom message to your guests. Please note: if guests have turned off notifications for new events they will not receive an email invitation.
When adding invitees to an event, you also have the ability to communicate the importance of a meeting for each attendee by making the guest optional.

Click on the Make some attendees optional link.

Click on the icon next to the guest to mark as optional.

To invite guests to an existing event, follow these steps:

Click on the event to which you'd like to invite guests (or, create a new event).
Click the edit event details link.
In the Guests box on the right, enter the email addresses of the people you're inviting
Click on the Add button to add the guests.
Select the level of control you'd like your guests to have (e.g. whether they can invite more people to your event, view who else has been invited).
Click Save. (Your guests will be able to respond to the event and have the option to leave comments in the event details.)

Check guest availability

When you are scheduling a calendar entry for multiple people, it can be useful to check the schedules of each party to make sure you choose a time that works for everybody. If you are adding guests who also have Google Apps accounts with your school, you can check their availability to find a time that works, or use a Google Calendar tool to find the next available time everyone invited is free.

You can check your guest availability when you create a new calendar entry or edit the entry afterwards.

To check guest availability when you create a new calendar entry, follow these steps:

Click Edit event details if you are not already viewing that page.
Click Find a time below the date and time boxes.
Add the guest to you event (see Add guests to a calendar entry)
Events will show up when each individual is busy. The Shaded area is the event. You can use this visual timeline to find an empty block when everyone can meet.

From your calendar window, you can view a calendar of someone who also has a Google Apps account at your school alongside your own calendar, just follow these steps:

These steps assume your guest is someone with a Google Apps account at your school.
If you have done so already, add the guest's calendar to your calendar list by typing in their email address in the left side column in the Other Calendars box.
The added calendar will automatically be highlighted and visible in your calendar window.
If you already added the guest, you can turn their calendar 'on' or 'off' by clicking on their name within the Other Calendars box.
If your event requires more guests, continue to add their calendars in the Other Calendars box.
With all the calendars viewable, you can now find free time on everyone's calendar.

Review the previous step to learn how to add guests to an event.

Allow guests to modify a calendar entry

It can be easier to negotiate a meeting time or collaborate on the event description when your guests also have access to edit your event's details. For example, if you're planning an event with multiple people it could be helpful to have one person add in the agenda in the description, while another invites the guests and confirms the event location.

While this is possible by sharing your entire calendar, some situations call for granting access to specific events or you may not be interested in giving sharing access to all of your calendar entries.

For this purpose, Google Calendar provides the option to allow guests to modify events to which they're invited. This means they can change the event time, location, or description, or add additional guests.

To enable this feature in an existing event, follow these steps:

Click on the event, then click Edit event details.
In the event details page, you'll see a list of options in grey boxes on the left side. Look at the Guests can portion of the Guests section.
Select the modify event option in the Guests can section of the event details.
Click Save. Now your guests can make changes to the event details, including the name, description, location,

While creating a new event, follow the instructions above, clicking to the Event details page when creating an event from the calendar view (if you create an event using the Create Event link, you will automatically see the Event details page)

Calendar guest limitations

Currently, you can invite up to 500 guests per event. To accommodate an event with a guest list over 500, create additional events for every 500 invited guests.

Invite groups to events

Overview

Google Groups for Business and Admin managed Groups are an easy way to share information with multiple people at once. Because Groups are addressed via a single email address, you can easily add large numbers of users to a calendar event at once.

There are two primary reasons to invite group email addresses to an event:

It's the easiest and most efficient way to invite large numbers of people at one time.
An event can have a maximum of 500 invitees. If your attendee list is larger than that, you can make some of the invitees be groups. You can therefore invite up to 500 groups, allowing for a virtually unlimited number of total attendees.

If you invite a group to a calendar event, the group's members list expands in the invitation, but only if you have the appropriate access permissions for that group. This limitation protects the privacy settings for a group, and it applies to both users and administrators.

Add Group to a calendar entry

To add a group to a calendar entry, follow the same instructions as creating an event and adding individuals.

The primary difference is that instead of an individual email address, you will enter in the Group email address:

Expanded guest list from Group

When you enter a group in the guest list, and you have permission to see the group's members, the group will expand and the members will then appear in the invitation as if you added each one separately.

The group expansion will happen either immediately, after a short delay, or after the event is saved, depending on the size of the group.

A few things to note:

After a group member list expands, the group address itself no longer appears in the invitation.
If the group has another group as a member, the "nested" group expands in the calendar invitation only if you have appropriate access permissions.
If you don't have permission to see the group's members list, the group does not expand in your invitation. You can still invite the group, but you won't be able to see the list of members, their schedules, or their invitation responses.

For more information about settings for the expanded guest list, please visit the section on Google Groups for Business and Google Calendar in Module 6: Chapter 5.

Invite people who don’t use Google Calendar

Overview

Anyone with an email address can receive invitations from Google Calendar, regardless of whether they use Google Calendar as a part of Google Apps for your school. This can include parents, students (if students do not have Google Apps accounts at your school), friends, or other individuals outside of school.

When the individuals receive an invitation, they will have the opportunity to RSVP and view the event details with a calendar entry link. They can later change their RSVP status or review the event details with that same link.

Google Calendar invitation

When guests receive a Google Calendar invitation, they will receive an email with the event name, date & time, location, and description.

Within the email, there are links to RSVP as a Yes, No, Or maybe. There is also the option to add a comment to their RSVP status.

If you have allowed guests to view the event guest list, the email invitation will also contain a 'Who' section of other event attendees.

They can also click on the more details link within the invitation to see a webpage with all the event information.

If you change the event, you can choose to notify guests – for the guests who don't use Google calendar, they will receive another email notification with all the event details. They can also continue to access the event details via the more details link.

Other calendar applications

If your guest uses a calendar application that supports the iCalendar format, they can use the iCalendar file attached to the invitation to display your event on their own calendar.

View guest lists and responses

If you have created an event or just received an event invitation, you can check to see who else has been invited to an event.

Please note: the owner of the calendar event can choose not to make the guest list visible. If you do not see a guest list, it may be because the owner has enabled this setting.

To check who's invited to an event, just click on the event – the attendees will be listed in the Who section of the event bubble.

For more detailed guest information (and to see the status of each person invited), follow these steps:

Click on the event.
Select more details or edit event details (depending on your level of access to the event).
The 'Guest' information on the right side of the event page lists the attendees and their status.

Keep in mind that the event organizer can restrict the visibility of the guest list for each event.

Show or hide a guest list

As an event organizer, you have the option to show or hide the guest list (including all responses) from your guests. Keep in mind that people with permission to edit your calendar will always be able to view the guest list for events scheduled on that calendar.

Showing a guest list can be useful so that the other attendees can see who has been invited and who is coming. However, if you are holding a confidential meeting it may be necessary to hide the guest list to maintain privacy.

Please note: the guest list is visible by default – if you do not wish to have the guest list visible, please review the following instructions.

To change the settings for your guest list, follow these steps:

Click on the event, then click edit event details.
In the event details page, you'll see a list of options in the Guests can below the Add guests section.
By default the "see guest list" option will be selected. To hide the guest list, simply deselect this option and click Save.

Please note: Guest lists are automatically hidden for events with more than 100 guests (regardless of organizer's selection).

Edit a guest list

Add or remove guests from a list

Google Calendar allows you to modify your guest list at anytime. You can add new guests or remove existing ones.

To add more guests, follow these steps:

Click on the event, then click edit event details.
In the event details page, click on the the Guests link to open the text box below Add: guests.
Enter in the email addresses of the new guests
Click Add.
Click Save.

Please note: you must save the event for the new guests to be invited

To remove guests, follow these steps:

Click on the event, then click edit event details.
In the event details page, look for the list of guests invited.
To remove a guest, simply click the "X" link next to the guest's name.
You can click the Restore link next to the guest name if you do not wish to remove them from the event.
Click Save.
Please note - you must save the event for the guests to be removed.

Allow invited guests to add new guests

In many occasions you may want to allow guests to invite additional people. These additional people will appear in the guest list, have the opportunity to RSVP, and can view all the event details.

To allow guests to invite other individuals to your calendar entry, follow these steps:

Click on the event, then click edit event details.
In the event details page, you'll see a list of options in grey boxes on the left side. Look at the Guests can portion of the Add guests section.
Select the invite others option in the Guests can section of the event details.
Click Save. Now your guests can invite additional people to see the calendar event.

While creating a new event, follow the instructions above, clicking to the edit event details page when creating an event from the calendar view (if you create an event using the Create Event link, you will automatically see the Event Details page).

Respond to calendar invitations

RSVP to an event using Google Calendar

When people invite you to events using Google Calendar, these events will automatically appear on your calendar with a question mark.

To RSVP directly on your calendar, follow these steps:

Click on the event.
Select the appropriate link (Yes, Maybe, No) in the 'Going?' section.
Alternatively, click on more details, select the appropriate response in the 'Going?' section on the Event Details page, and add a note if you'd like.
Click Save.

To change your RSVP status to a calendar event, follow these steps:

Click on the event.
Change your status by clicking on the appropriate link (Yes, Maybe, No) in the 'Going?' section of the event bubble.
Alternatively, if you would like to add a note, click more details, look for the yellow section and click on Add a note or change your response link.
Select the appropriate new response and/or add a note, then click Save.

RSVP to an event with Apps mail

If you're invited by someone to an event with Google Calendar, you may receive an email with the text of the invitation.

Please note: You don't always receive an email if the organizer chooses not to send the email or if you have turned off email notifications for new events.

If you're an Apps mail user, you can RSVP to the event directly through the email invitation by clicking on one of the links (Yes, No or Maybe).

You can also go to the event's page and leave a comment next to your RSVP status as mentioned previously.

RSVP to an event from other email applications

If your friends are using another email application (such as Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.) to read and reply to your Google Calendar invitation, make sure they use the 'Yes/No/Maybe' links in the body of the invitation itself rather than the response buttons provided by their email application.

Currently, when guests respond using the email application's reply buttons, the event is only updated if it's scheduled on your primary calendar.

This means that someone using Microsoft Outlook should not use the Outlook reply tools, but rather the 'Yes/No/Maybe' links that are included in the email notification.