An unofficial blog that watches Google's attempts to move your operating system online since 2005. Not affiliated with Google.

Send your tips to gostips@gmail.com.

February 16, 2008

Custom Views in Google Calendar

Google Calendar has an option to define custom views: you can replace the "next 7 days" with other intervals like the "next 3 days" or "next 2 weeks". In the settings you'll also find an option to make your custom view the default.


Another way to change the current view is to use the small calendar from the left sidebar. Click on the small arrows to change the month and select a date to see the corresponding events. To see the events from a date range, click on the start date and drag it to the end date. Note that this only works for short periods of time.


Google Calendar has two useful shortcuts that let you easily move between periods of time: p (previous date range) and n (next date range). To see the events from a certain month in the past, click on "Today", go to the month view and repeatedly press p. Alternatively, type a date in the search box and click on "Search my calendars".

{ via Google Calendar Group }

34 comments:

  1. You're welcome, Michael. Thanks for your very useful and insightful feedback. (By the way, it was just a tip, not a new feature.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish they would provide the option of TRULY customized notifications (e.g., 2 weeks, 25 days, etc).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Think I figured that out the day I started using google calendar.

    Maybe next time a useful tip?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't think you were aware that you can create a custom view by selecting a date and dragging the mouse to another date. This is a clever feature and I'm not sure if it's documented at Google's help center.

    The rest is pretty obvious, but I didn't want to post a single paragraph, so I added other features that let you define a date range.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The feature is documented, but I still think it's pretty obscure.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really wish Google calendar engineers could come up with a solid plugin to sync outlook , Apple ical and others. I think lot of people don't use the calendar because of lack of integration. I found Plaxo sync as one alternative but thats very unreliable and buggy sometimes. Sorry for off-topic comment.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I didn't know about dragging the mouse on the little calendar; I found the tip useful. Pascal needs a girlfriend, and perhaps a more advanced blog where he can chat with others who, like himself, rarely have contact with sunlight and manners.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This was new, relevant, and interesting...thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Feature request: Week numbers. My timesheet software uses week numbers and I can't find those in Google Calender.

    ReplyDelete
  10. If you happen to use Firefox, there's a Greasemonkey script that adds week numbers. If you don't have the Greasemonkey extension, install it and restart the browser before adding the script.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Every feature is known to someone, but not everyone knows about that feature. I didn't and if that makes me stupid, well then there you go, but I'm pretty happy to have something like this pointed out to me so that I can start using it.

    By the way, I'm using an EeePC and switching to a two-week view makes the calendar infinitely more useful to me. I had switched to weekly view on this machine, as opposed to monthly view which I prefer, but it wasn't as good as this. So, it's a good tip.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. SECRET TIP TO SHOW ANY DATE RANGE, NO UPPER LIMIT!!!

    Note: you will need firebug.

    Ok then how about this for a genuinely useful tip:

    Got a busy period coming up over the next couple of months or half year? What if you want to show more than just 4 weeks on your new big monitor? Well here is the secret tip:

    Go to Settings, General, Custom view, click the drop down menu, right click on, for example, the last option 4 weeks, and choose Inspect Element from the context menu. Firebug will now popup and show the html source of that option of the html select tag. You will see the line:
    <option value="custom,28">4 Weeks</option>

    Now double click on the 28 (28 days is 4 weeks), and change it to... say 70 (i.e. 10 weeks). (You should also change the 4 weeks to say 10 weeks, just for your own benefit in the next step).

    Now close the firebug window and choose the new last option from the custom view drop down menu: 10 weeks!

    Lastly just click save and you'll see your new custom view of up to... well actually THERE SEEMS TO BE NO LIMIT!!! Certainly, you can keep going til each week is just a pixel or two high. I got the range today up to the year 2027 on one screen, admittedly it was unreadable, but it shows that you can get whatever range you want.

    Just change “custom,##” to the number of days you want, doesn’t even have to be a multiple of 7.

    Let me know, does that work for you? Anyone got anymore tips like that?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Why does my calender keep saying "redirecting when loading?????

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks so much for your help! I thought I'd have to install a Firefox add-on or something to be able to view in two-week intervals, but when I found your page and the advice, I was so glad that you've posted the helpful tips.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm was using a Palm OS PDA with Datebook Plus. The two week view option is great. I had not used Google calendar before. This "old news" has helped me decide to go ahead and use Google Calendar. Now I hope there is (or will be) a mobile version of Google Calendar with a two week view. Then I'm set.

    Thanks Alex.

    And to hell with the negative comments. Why are they even wasting their time commenting about something they already know?

    ReplyDelete
  16. @Tom: Great tip. Works nicely!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Tom - that's exactly what I wanted to do - have a 6 week long calendar. Thank you!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. doesn't work for me. when i change it, and Save, nothing gets displayed i.e. view is broken. Firefox 3.0.14 on Debian/Unstable.

    ReplyDelete
  19. @Tom - Just what I was looking for, thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for the comment Tom, it's great to be able to do more than four weeks!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I have a droid which uses Google calendar. The issue is that I do very little between midnight and 6am but the calendar displays that time. Is the a way to tell the calendar that want the day to start at 6 am?

    Burt

    ReplyDelete
  22. Tom's tip worked great until recently. It's now started to break the JavaScript in my calendar so I get nothing and I can't edit events or settings. I have no idea how to undo. :-(

    ReplyDelete
  23. But how do you get rid of that 'custom view button'?

    ReplyDelete
  24. The custom view bug is effecting me too now. I've reported the problem to google and also on their help forum. Sorry this has caused people problems.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ok, I've managed to fix my calendar. Basically you need to do a http POST to http://www.google.com/calendar/user_prefs with the values: hl=en&eup=customCalMode:custom,3&secid=[secid] where [secid] is stored in a cookie called secid.

    I will post the solution as a bookmarklet soon.

    ReplyDelete
  26. have you found a fix for this yet? My calendar is still messed up after trying this.

    ReplyDelete
  27. OMG I didn't realize this! I was going into custom views and changing it to 3 days, viewing it, then going back to change it back to 3 weeks. stupid stupid stupid

    ReplyDelete
  28. Thanks for that tip Tom. I REALLY wanted a custom view to show the academic calendar, and this Firebug method seems to be the best (only?) way to get that view. Google should take note and add the feature somehow.

    My ideal calendar would show present day through a certain date (in this case exams) and the view would get shorter each week (e.g. show only 5 weeks when there are 5 weeks left in the semester). Maybe this is asking too much, but that would be awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Answering armadillo said... I have a droid which uses Google calendar. The issue is that I do very little between midnight and 6am but the calendar displays that time. Is the a way to tell the calendar that want the day to start at 6 am?

    Burt

    --------
    Burt I had the same problem. Google just added an fix for that. Made a 1 min video about it .
    How to change Google Calendar starting time . Enjoy Kevin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5jB6YkwYvQ

    ReplyDelete
  30. _Dispatch(['u', [
    ['customCalMode', 'custom,70']
    ]]);
    _renderBody();

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.