How to Sync iCal with Google Calendar

If you keep events on Google Calendar you have to be online to see them. When you travel or your ISP goes down, you're out of luck as far as your calendar is concerned. However, you can sync up Google Calendar to Apple's iCal and always have access to your Google Calendar events. Here is how.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Apple Computer
• Mac OS X Leopard (10.5)
• Google Calendar Account
• iCal

1. Sign on to your Google Calendar account.

2. 

   Click the down arrow next to the calendar you want to share on the left side of the browser window in the "My Calendars" box.

3. 

   Select "Share this calendar."

4. 

   Select the "Calendar Details" tab and scroll all the way down to Google Calendar's "Private Address" section.

5. 

   Click the green "iCal" button next to "Private Address" on the Google Calendar Details page.

6. 

   Copy the URL (web address) on the pop-up window. This is your private calendar address and shouldn't be shared with anyone else since it shows all your events on Google Calendar.

7. Launch iCal in Mac OSX from your Dock.

8. 

   Select "Calendar" from the top menu and click on the "Subscribe" option.

9. 

   Paste (control-V) the URL you copied in Step 6 into the "Subscribe to:" field on the window that pops up.

10. Hit the "Subscribe" button.

11. 

    Type in the name of the calendar in the "Name" field of the information window that pops up after you subscribed to your Google Calendar. You can also type in a description just below the "Name" field.

12. Click the check boxes next to "Alarms," "Attachments," and "To Do items" if you don't want to import those things from Google Calendar.

13. 

    Select a time interval from the "Auto-refresh" drop-down box. This will tell iCal to refresh Google Calendar according to the time interval you selected.

14. 

    Hit the "OK" button. Your Google Calendar is now listed underneath "Subscriptions" in the left pane of iCal's window.

Tips & Warnings

• The "Subscriptions" feature exists in previous versions of OS X, but some of the options are unavailable.