We all have a calendar of things to keep track of. Staff meeting dates, home football games, PLN meetings, and more. Recently, I had a teacher ask me how she could quickly add all of her students birthdays to Google Calendar.™ Obviously, we can one at a time create a calendar event. However, can’t there be a better way? Here is how to add student birthdays to Google Calendar… or any list of events.
Which Google Calendar?
Your Google account has a default calendar. The calendar ID is your regular email. However, you can have multiple calendars! I apparently have 30. Use my free Add-on DelCal to create a list of all of your calendars and delete the ones you no longer use. It, as with all of my Add-ons, collects NO user data.
You may want to create a calendar JUST for certain events. For example, do you want all the home football games to be on your default calendar? By creating a separate Google Calendar you can toggle displaying those events. This way the student birthdays do not get confused with faculty meetings.
Create a Special Google Calendar
This is of course optional. There are many good reasons to keep it simple and put everything onto your default calendar. However, there are also many good reasons to create different calendars.
To create a new calendar, locate “Other calendars” on the left hand side of your Google Calendar. Click the plus icon. This will give you a drop down to select “Create new calendar.”
Use CalAdd to Create a Calendar
Alternatively, create a new calendar using my Add-on CalAdd. A simple menu prompt asks you what you want to name your calendar and it is created for you.
As with all of my Add-ons, CalAdd by Alice Keeler collects NO USER DATA.
Create Multiple Calendar Events at Once
CalAdd allows you to, in bulk, add multiple events to Google Calendar at once. Use the Extensions menu in any Google Sheet to select “CalAdd by Alice Keeler.”
Calendar ID
Unless you are using your default Google Calendar, which has a calendar ID that matches your email address, you will need to locate the calendar ID of the calendar you wish to add events to.
Calendar Settings
One way to get the calendar ID is to go to Google Calendar and hover over the calendar on the left hand side until 3 dots appear. Go to Settings for that calendar. Scroll down and find the Calendar ID. Copy this.
The other way to get the calendar ID is to use the option “List All Calendars” from the menu in “CalAdd by Alice Keeler.” This will insert a new sheet with the list of all of your calendars and the ID. Copy the ID you wish to use.
Want More Help with This? Become a Premium Member
Setup
In any Google Sheets spreadsheet, use the Extensions menu to select “CalAdd by Alice Keeler.” You will be prompted for the calendar ID. This will add a sheet to the spreadsheet
Row 3 is an example. Start your events list in row 4.
Student Birthdays
Create a list of your student names in column A. It is optional to add a description in column B.
Date Format
For each birthday you will want to add it to column C in the format of mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss. For example if a students birthday is February 28th input 02/28/2012 12:00:00.
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss
Select All Day Event
Student birthdays are all day events. You do NOT need to fill out the end date since birthdays are only one day. Check the checkbox for “All Day Event.”
Add to Google Calendar
Use the menu to select “CalAdd by Alice Keeler” and choose “Create event.” This will add all of the student birthdays to the Google Calendar at once.
Add More Birthdays
CalAdd by Alice Keeler will remember your calendar ID. Use the menu to “Make More Events.” This will add a new sheet to the spreadsheet, allowing you to create a new list of student birthdays.
