Google Calendar and Outlook - making BFFs out of frenemies...
October 23, 2014 8:08 AM Subscribe
Our team is virtual and uses Google Calendar to see free/busy time between co-workers. One of our VPs loathes Google Calendar and instead uses Outlook (2010 on her laptop/2013 on her desktop). How can I get her Google Calendar to show up with two-way sync in Outlook so she doesn't have to use Chrome-native Google Calendar but we can still see her meetings? Complication below...
Difficulty level: windows | i can't test any of this; i just need to be ready to port her over tomorrow | needs to be free
I'm so frustrated because in my happy mac world this is easy.
There are loads of sync softwares out there post-Google Sync End of Life, but they appear to sync the Google Calendar of choice to the main Outlook Calendar. I am looking for a way to add an editable instance of her Google Calendar to Outlook.
Is there an easy solution I've missed?
Difficulty level: windows | i can't test any of this; i just need to be ready to port her over tomorrow | needs to be free
I'm so frustrated because in my happy mac world this is easy.
There are loads of sync softwares out there post-Google Sync End of Life, but they appear to sync the Google Calendar of choice to the main Outlook Calendar. I am looking for a way to add an editable instance of her Google Calendar to Outlook.
Is there an easy solution I've missed?
Best answer: To be honest, there is no good solution for Google Calendar / Outlook integration, let alone a good FREE version. There are severla third-party non-free options, but I can't vouch for them.
We ran in to the same issue, and the best we could do was have a read-only view of the calendar in Outlook. Google has specifically ended support for Outlook, and there's no good replacement.
You may want to do something crazy, like make an outlook.com calendar, then have everyone else subscribe to it in their Google Calendar. At least that would work.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:52 AM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
We ran in to the same issue, and the best we could do was have a read-only view of the calendar in Outlook. Google has specifically ended support for Outlook, and there's no good replacement.
You may want to do something crazy, like make an outlook.com calendar, then have everyone else subscribe to it in their Google Calendar. At least that would work.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:52 AM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: gSyncit claims to work between the two, but my results have been so-so. It's cheap. Make sure you use v4, as v3 is about to be "broken" by a change in Google's interface come November.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:01 AM on October 23, 2014
posted by IAmBroom at 9:01 AM on October 23, 2014
Best answer: We ran into this exact issue at my job. The short version of the story is this: It's a big pain to have some people use Outlook's calendar while others use the web-based Google Calendar. Problems occurred in both syncing and, especially, meeting requests / cancellations that were generated on one platform but accepted on the other platform.
Through persistent, gentle pressure, I was able to convert everyone to using Google Calendar. A few people were unhappy at first, but they eventually saw the light. If you go this route, make sure you are ready to do one-on-one training with some hand-holding.
posted by alex1965 at 9:24 AM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Through persistent, gentle pressure, I was able to convert everyone to using Google Calendar. A few people were unhappy at first, but they eventually saw the light. If you go this route, make sure you are ready to do one-on-one training with some hand-holding.
posted by alex1965 at 9:24 AM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: There used to be an ok, but reliable, free app called Google Sync. But currently, it is just available for people who use Google Apps work solutions.
(Personally, I don't blame your VP - I much prefer managing my calendar through Outlook. Google Calendar just drives me insane on a regular basis)
posted by troytroy at 7:51 AM on October 24, 2014
(Personally, I don't blame your VP - I much prefer managing my calendar through Outlook. Google Calendar just drives me insane on a regular basis)
posted by troytroy at 7:51 AM on October 24, 2014
VERY sorry to piggyback, but the OP did mention the Mac universe.
If I use Google Calendar, can I easily access and use it from both my PC devices and my Mac devices?
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:06 PM on October 24, 2014
If I use Google Calendar, can I easily access and use it from both my PC devices and my Mac devices?
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:06 PM on October 24, 2014
If I use Google Calendar, can I easily access and use it from both my PC devices and my Mac devices?
Yes. You just go to http://calendar.google.com/.
posted by anaelith at 6:11 AM on October 25, 2014
Yes. You just go to http://calendar.google.com/.
posted by anaelith at 6:11 AM on October 25, 2014
Response by poster: yar and frowl and muh and all the other words.
posted by ovenmitt at 4:02 PM on October 28, 2014
posted by ovenmitt at 4:02 PM on October 28, 2014
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Outlook only works well with an MS Exchange server.
Adding an other patch to make it work with Gmail will make it even more unstable than it is...
For just $4 per month you have something that works.
Otherwise stick to the Gmail calendar online.
posted by Mac-Expert at 8:36 AM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]